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I’m a little surprised to be writing, happy birthday to Budget Life List (BuLL). Okay, more than a little. I started this journey with the hopes I would give it my best. At least for the first 3 years. At that point, cushioned by the mythical land of blogging success, I would decide to if it was worth the effort to continue or chalk it up to a learning experience aka failure. 

I felt the sugary high after the initial excitement of starting something new but afterwards, I crashed. Then I did a dusting of research and built myself up to having it figuring out, but soon felt another crash and almost gave up….again! 

Twice in less than a year! 

Against the odds, BuLL survived the first year. Like any new infant, there were plenty of spewed posts, gleeful shouts of happiness for random featured in moments, and traffic dribbling in the background. Always but a dribble. 

The Birth of Changes

Starting BuLL was no different from other experiences I started. Painful, awkward, and full of uncertainty. Even though I knew these feelings were normal, it felt like an unusually heavy birth, probably because I normally pick up hobbies that are very close to FREE99. 

Risking $300 on a website and domain felt like a high price to pay when I didn’t enjoy writing. 

I have to praise my inner rebel. My frugal side was loud and whiny, but my rebel was like, “Hold my coffee – it’s about to get real.” 

Learning Happiness

After the initially stuttering, I started to move forward. Things were happening. I was writing on schedule, I was impressed that I had a schedule, and beginning to feeling secure in my blogging prowess.

Then, I started comparing. 

That turned into a mess. Comparing my success with others made me feel awful about the little things that used to bring me joy. A happy comment there. A boost in traffic there. A random mention by another blogger. After comparing BuLL to other better, bigger sites, I no longer found excitement in the little things. 

After suffering a few rounds of growth and all the comparison vomits, I had enough. I sent a survey to my subscribers, learned more about writing and storytelling, and refocused.

By forcing subscribers to read my saving and exploring stories it has been a handy version of free therapy.

Budgeting For Growth

After experiencing the challenges of BuLL’s first year, I feel more confident in my skills. That when the siren song of challenges arise, I will be more level headed and confident when cleaning up all the messes spewed my way. 

Some of my previous failures were because I didn’t craft goals. I let the chaos of life dictate my success. With a new year and reliving the birth of BuLL, I should make goals like doubling my subscribers from 52 to 104, getting mentioned by the Plutus Awards, and getting featured in NPR. 

It is going to get reeeaaallll interesting….

Happy Birthday, Budget Life List!

It’s hard to predict the future of BuLL. So much has changed since I started this journey a year ago. 

As I continue this messy journey with BuLL, I will continue to do my best to mop up messes while rejoicing in the successes.

At least for another two years.