What I Learned From Starting Over at 45: Debt Free Transformation

This is the story of how I transformed my life from being a stay-at-home mom and preschool teacher to becoming a successful business owner, paying off all of our debt, including our house, and finding a renewed sense of purpose through intentional, simple changes that anyone can make to reinvent themselves and discover who they truly are. Hi there! If you don't know me, my name is Sarah. I'm the owner of FrozenPennies.com. I'm a financial coach and the best-selling author of Fundamentally Frugal. Link below. Six years ago, my life looked very different. I was teaching preschool and taking care of my family. My husband was working super hard and our two boys, one with severe special needs, were in school. Now, while I loved my job and I loved taking care of my family, I felt a pull in another direction. I began exploring the possibility of going back to college to become a registered dietitian. I was fascinated by how the body responds to food and I even took a handful of college classes to explore the career path. But after my first anatomy class, I knew it wasn't the right fit. What I did know was that I had always dreamed of starting my own business. I tried and dabbled in a number of different ways. That desire was always there, but I hadn't yet figured out how to bring it to life. That all changed in January 2018 when my niece told me about her experience completing a year-long spending freeze. I was intrigued. On a whim, I started Frozen Pennies to explore frugal living and everything took off from there. Fast forward to today and everything has changed. I'm a business owner, a best-selling author, a YouTuber. We're completely debt-free including our house and I have found a version of myself I didn't even know existed. But let me tell you, it didn't happen overnight. It happened through simple but powerful changes I made in my life and today I'm sharing them with you. Now stick with me because I'll not only be sharing changes I made within myself, but I'll also give you practical tips that you can use to start making small shifts in your own life today. This directly can correlate to getting out of debt, having a good budget, and being frugal. Let's first start with mindset shifts. Transforming my mindset was the foundation of my journey. These small but powerful changes reshaped how I approach everything from finances to personal growth. I learned to embrace discomfort and changes. I realized that growth only happens outside of our comfort zones. For me, this meant tackling the challenges of budgeting and starting a business. For you, it might mean skipping dining out or saying no to fun purchases in order to prioritize your savings. Try reframing financial sacrifices as steps toward freedom instead of punishments. Write down the worst case scenario for everything intimidating along with how you can handle it. This fear is usually so much bigger than reality. I set clear goals. Having specific goals gives me direction even to this day. Instead of vague aspirations like save more, I set clear objectives such as saving $500 for an emergency fund within three months. Defining your why for saving money, whether it's paying off debt or preparing for retirement, it's a big deal and it certainly helps. Write down one short-term and one long-term goal today. Break them into those small actionable steps and start there. I'm overcoming the fear of failure. Now, fear of failing held me back for years, especially after several business attempts that just didn't pan out. I learned that small consistent steps, even imperfect ones, are better than staying stuck. This also goes towards your budget. It's going to take you time and time again to figure out that budget. Celebrate small wins to build those confidence. Pick one task you've been avoiding and spend 10 minutes a day, just 10 minutes a day working on it. I'm working on developing a positive money mindset. Changing my mindset from money is scarce to I can manage money wisely opened new possibilities when I was struggling to get out of debt. Replace negative thoughts with empowering ones like I am capable of achieving my financial goals. Every morning, repeat a positive money affirmation to yourself like I'm fantastic with money. This works the same way with business or personal. If you're trying to get out of debt or you're trying to save money or just be a little bit frugal, if you become the person that you want to be, every day by practicing, you're going to see great strides in actually becoming the person that you want to be. Let's talk next about time management. Time management was critical as I juggled the demands of a raising a family, starting a business and paying off that debt. These changes helped me make the most of my time. I created a daily routine. Now I am all about structure and routine. So in order for me to balance family and work, I had to create this. When I first started my journey, my days were packed with responsibilities. As I'm sure, you know, school drop offs, managing the house and working as a preschool teacher, adding running a business into the mix felt just about impossible. But once I created a structure in my daily routine, everything became more manageable. I blocked time for work. I blocked time for family and I blocked time for rest, which helped me stay consistent without getting too overwhelmed. Because if I get overwhelmed, I just shut down. Even small time blocks dedicated to frugal tasks like meal planning or reviewing the budget made a huge difference. A structured routine can help you balance priorities without burning out. Try blocking off 30 minutes daily for your top priority, whether that's planning your meals, organizing your bills or working on a side hustle. Treat it like an appointment you just can't miss. I learned how to prioritize tasks to focus on high impact activities. There were many times I felt busy all day long and didn't accomplish anything meaningful. Let me tell you, those days still happen. I realize I need to focus on tasks that truly matter, like planning meals or saving on groceries or setting up an automatic bill payment to avoid those late fees or forgetting about a bill. Distractions, especially from social media, made this harder. So I started scheduling specific times to check my phone and turn off notifications while I worked. This is a great opportunity for anybody who feels overwhelmed by social media. Focus on what really moves the needle to save time and energy. A practical tip, each morning write down the top three things you need to accomplish that day. Make sure at least one of them directly impacts your financial goals. I'm learning to say no to non-essential commitments. Now, saying no used to feel very uncomfortable for me because I didn't want to let anyone down. But I quickly realized that every time I said yes to something unimportant, I was saying no to my goals. Whether it was declining an expensive night out or skipping unnecessary errands, saying no became an essential part of the managing of my time and most importantly, my money. Saying no to smaller distractions allows you to say yes to your bigger goals. Practicing, I can't commit to that right now. And use it to whatever you feel pressured to take on something outside of your priorities. Also consider, let me check with my schedule and I'll get back to you. Speaking of scheduling, I'm scheduling my time for self-reflection and planning. Now, weekly planning sessions became a cornerstone of my success. Each Sunday, I sit down to review my week. What worked? What didn't work? What needed adjusting? These habits gave me clarity and a sense of control, especially when I was tackling big goals like paying off the debt or growing this business. Regular planning ensures you're always moving forward with purpose. Dedicate 15 more minutes every Sunday to reflect on your progress and plan the week ahead. While you're there, focus on areas where you can improve and celebrate those wins. Let's move on to financial changes. The financial changes that I made not only helped us pay off debt, but also set the foundation for long-term stability. I implemented a zero-based budget to track every dollar before budgeting. Now, I often wondered where our money went. It felt like we should always be saving more, but without tracking our spending, it was impossible to know. Once we started using a zero-based budget, we assigned every single dollar to a job, whether it was paying bills, saving, or even spending on small luxuries. Suddenly, we had control over our finances, and it felt empowering. A zero-based budget is one of the simplest ways you can take charge of your money. Use my free budgeting planner or a simple spreadsheet to create a zero-based budget this month. We paid off our debt systematically. Now, I love structure and systems and standard operating procedures. Debt can feel overwhelming, but if you break it down into small steps, make it manageable. We use the debt snowball method, and that's what I teach my students, where we tackle the smallest debt first while making minimum payments on the rest. Once the smallest debt was gone, we took that payment and added it to the next debt. Watching those balances disappear one by one was incredibly motivating. Being able to cross those little things off of our list right off the bat made us feel like we could continue. Small, consistent efforts can lead to big financial wins. Write down all of your debts in order from smallest to largest. Give it a try. Focus on paying off the smallest ones first while making the minimum payments on the others. We are continuing to live below our means and avoid lifestyle inflation. When our income increased through the years, we made a conscious decision not to upgrade our lifestyle. Instead of spending more buying another car, we funneled the extra money into our savings and debt payoff plan. This discipline helped us stay focused on our goals and avoid unnecessary expenses. Even to this day, living below our means creates room for financial freedom. A quick practical tip. Wait 48 hours before making any non-essential purchase to avoid those impulse buys. We built an emergency fund for financial freedom. Having an emergency fund was a game changer for us. It gave us peace of mind and kept us from going back into debt when unexpected expenses popped up, like a car repair or medical bill. Even a small emergency fund can protect you from financial setbacks. Practical tip. Start with a goal of $1,500 if you rent or $2,500 if you own a home. Now, once your debt is all paid off and you feel good in your situation, you can build that up further. Next, let's talk about financial growth. While I'm talking about business here, the principles of growth and learning apply to anyone looking to save money or reach their financial goals. We invested in skills to save or earn money. Now, I didn't know much about debt payoff strategies or business growth when I first started, so I took advantage of free resources like YouTube and library books. Later, I invested in courses and other books to learn from experts. For someone focused on frugality, investing in skills like meal planning, DIY repairs, or budgeting can save thousands over time. Learning new skills can reduce expenses and open up a lot more opportunities. Choose one skill you want to improve on, like cooking more from scratch or financial planning and investing, and find free or low-cost resources to start learning today. We created a vision for our money and sticking to it. Now, having a clear vision of what financial success looked like for our family helped guide us through every decision, so I did the exact same thing when I was building this business. I even created a vision board with pictures of a paid-off house, a family vacation, and some saving goals. There's also a van camper still on there. Now, seeing those images every day kept me truly motivated. A clear vision helps you stay focused on your goals. Write a one-page vision statement for your money and review it daily. Include pictures on a bulletin board or affirmations to keep it exciting. The freedom that being debt-free has given me is the ability to create this business. It also helped that my mom and my entire family gave me the gift of being frugal, and it allows me to serve others by helping them with their financial challenges. Now, I found myself, my true calling, and giving up a lot of the mental baggage of what others think. Now, if you want to know more about the things that I don't care about anymore, watch this video next.