So, Why This Blog?
Well…have you ever wished you had a manual for life?
Someone to tell you what you should do, how you should do it, or most important, why the hell you have to do it in the first place?
But instead, you have to adult your own adult life because there’s no one else to do it for you. Or maybe, you’ve always had to DIY your life because you can’t afford to pay someone else to “DIY” your life for you? Yeah. Me too.
That’s what this blog is about.
I’ll share stories of the trials and triumphs I’ve experienced along the way, what I did about them, what worked, what didn’t, and what I probably should have done instead.
I’ll share life advice, tips, tricks, how-tos, and shortcuts for DIY’ing your life with a little more knowledge, or at the very least, a pathway to finding that knowledge.
I’ll also sprinkle in product reviews whenever I find something that makes my life easier or harder. If I spend my hard-earned money on something, I’m going to tell you whether I think you should spend yours on it too.
And then there’s the fun stuff.
I’ll share tips and tricks for dealing with power companies, banks, shoddy builders, contractors, customer service departments, and any other entity that has tried to screw you over. We’ve all been there.
When you can’t afford to hire someone to fight your battles for you, you have to figure out how to fight them yourself. Sometimes, that means knowing what to say. Sometimes it means knowing who to call. Sometimes it means knowing where to look for the information you need. And sometimes, it means being stubborn enough to keep asking questions until somebody finally gives you an answer.
I’m Not an Expert. I’m Experienced.
Let’s be clear: I am not jumping in to save the day. I’m not an attorney, and I don’t have a bunch of letters after my name that gives me the authority to counsel anyone. What I do have is a lifetime of experience figuring things out.
I didn’t grow up with money, and neither did my husband. We learned to do things ourselves because a lot of the time, paying someone else wasn’t an option. So we learned.
We learned how to install things, fix things, update things, research things, negotiate things, troubleshoot things, and occasionally completely screw things up before figuring out how to do them correctly.
DIY doesn’t always mean building something with your own two hands. Sometimes DIY means figuring out how to accomplish something when you’re on your own. Sometimes it means getting creative. Sometimes it means working through scenario after scenario until you finally find a way to get where you want to go.
And sometimes…you’ve done everything you can. There’s nothing left to try. The battle is lost, and it’s time to move on. And that’s okay, too.
You have to know when to throw in the towel, and sometimes that comes down to having realistic expectations from the beginning.
What You’ll Get From Me
You’ll get honest-to-goodness, straightforward feedback, with a little bit of humor, a little more sarcasm, and a whole bunch of understanding. Sometimes I’m wrong. Sometimes I’m right. And sometimes I’ll take the longest, hardest possible path to discover that there was actually a much easier way to do something. Or I’ll spend way too much time figuring something out only to decide it wasn’t worth doing in the first place.
But no matter what, I’ll tell you the truth. I’ll share the things I would have done differently. The things I should have never done at all. The things I wish I had done. The things I learned the hard way.
And, occasionally, the things that will have you wondering if I’ve completely lost my ever-loving mind. But whatever it is, you’ll hear it here first.
Instruction Manual Not Included
If life came with an instruction manual, a black-and-white, step-by-step guide to EVERYTHING, wouldn’t that make things easier? Or would it make life boring? We’ll never know. Because apparently, when we were born, nobody thought to include the damn manual.
Instruction manual not included. I guess we’ll just have to figure it out ourselves.
