Since leaving my corporate job in February to focus on my blog, I’ve been congratulated many times and told that I am brave. Many more times, people are simply curious about “how I did it”. The short answer is that I prepared, planned, and sacrificed in order to make it happen. I suppose to those who ask “how did you do it” in hope of gaining insight into how they can do it, too, this isn’t the most appealing answer. Because it’s not a shortcut.

Not Everything In Life Is Hackable

We live in a society that’s obsessed with hacks, engineered efficiency, hidden secrets and recipes to success. But life isn’t always hackable. I could’ve given this post a click-baity subject line such as “10 Things to Do In Order to Quit Your Job & Be a Full-Time Blogger” and I bet that would get the post at least 10x more views. But that would be deceiving. I can’t possibly promise you that you can do the same that I did, following the steps I took. Because I don’t know if you’re willing to give up the things I gave up. What I can do, though, is to share the things that I had to sacrifice and give up in order to live the life I do right now. That’s right – not what I did, but what I couldn’t do anymore, in order to live this blogging full-time life.

So, the list below is to strip away the glamorous surface of “full-time blogger” and reveal the struggles one has to come to terms with to live this #lifegoal. Here are 7 things that I had to give up in order to become a full-time blogger.

*Disclaimer*: 1) This list is heavily personal finance-related. If you are not interested in learning about my personal finance habits, you’d probably want to skip this post. 2) I don’t want to downplay the fact that my husband still works and brings in a decent income and how that is the main financial force that sustains our life together right now. But I also don’t want people to assume that I continue to shop, eat, live just the same way as I did before when I had a full time-salaried job. I don’t. These changes are what this post is about. 3)I have a fledgling blogging business. There are way more established bloggers out there that don’t have to live the way I live. But in order for me to get there, this is how my life ought to be now in terms of my personal expenses.

7 Things I Gave Up For The Full-Time Blogging Life

1. My Shopping Budget

Ever since our wedding in March 2017, the purchase of our first home in May the same year, and moving in, furnishing the house… etc., I’ve been operating with a $200 per month shopping budget. When I was preparing for my eventual exit from the corporate world to work on my blog full time, I knew it had to change. I couldn’t justify spending anything at all on clothes, accessories, shoes when I still don’t make enough to cover the basics. So, my current shopping budget is a whopping ZERO dollars a month. Now, one exception I give myself to this rule is that if I make anything from my Poshmark account, then I get to spend that money on whatever I want.

2. A New Car

Not a brand new car, no. Just an additional car to the household. You see, since my car-crash in March 2017 (just 2 short weeks after our wedding), we’ve stashed away the insurance money for a time when we’d have to buy a new car. For now, I’ve been driving my college car: a trusted 2004 Honda Accord with 180K miles on. My husband works from home, so he doesn’t need a car for daily commute. So, when I was driving down to Del Mar every day for work (a 25 miles trip), I drove his car. We use the Honda Accord for local trips to the grocery stores and restaurants. Do I want a more reliable and newer car? Sure, I do. Do I absolutely need one? Not so much. And now with me focusing on growing my blogging business and my income still in its infancy, I definitely don’t need to be buying any car any time soon.

3. Gym/Yoga Studio Membership

I loved doing hot yoga, or just regular yoga. I also love trying out new classes like barre, spin (which I have yet to try) or aerial yoga. But they’re too costly for someone who’s not making enough money. And if asked myself, do I have other alternatives when it comes to working out? Heck yea – there are plenty of options out there like YouTube videos (I used to work out to Cassy Ho’s videos all the time) or doing squats, lunges, planks in my living room. Sure, it’s less motivating and way less exciting. But is that a reason to splurge on expensive yoga or even gym membership now? I’ve made a conscious choice to say no.

4. The Ability to Randomly Drop $50 On A Dinner

Of all the things I’ve outlined in this post, this is by far the most painful. This is the most open, exposed, and public type of change that I’ve had to make. It involves having conversations with friends that I can no longer participate in our outings where we randomly pick a restaurant that happens to be $$$ and shell out $50 on dinner. It’s just out of the question. Now, if we plan ahead and pick a reasonably expensive restaurant ahead of time, then I can try to make it happen by altering other aspects of my living expenses. But it doesn’t always work. It sucks.

5. Daily Work Routines And Structure

Now we are charging into the more intangible area of the things I’ve had to give up. This was one of the most surprising elements that caught me completely off-guard. My days no longer are defined by a clear beginning and a clear end. I can no longer count on meetings to plan my time and they used to govern my working days. I am the only person responsible for making progress, for defining progress and for setting goals… it was overwhelming in the beginning. It also made me miss the corporate world incredibly much.

6. My Prized Identity as a Working Woman

Whether you are a mom, an athlete, a gardening enthusiast, or a cat lover… there are things in life that we do, and love doing, that is part of who we are. It’s one of those things that you list on your Instagram profile that you want everyone to know about you. For me, having a well-paying job in the corporate world and living that 9-5 life was one of these things. It’s who I am. Or who I used to be for a long time. This is how I know this exit isn’t permanent – it’s merely a temporary break. It’s meant to allow myself the opportunity to foray into entrepreneurship and give this little thing I’ve built over 3 years the chance to flourish. But I miss saying that I’m in biotech/marketing and say that with complete confidence. It’s probably just the lack of practice, but when people ask me what I do (especially at 10:30 Am in the grocery store on a Monday) and whether I am a student, I stutter a little bit when I say “I’m a blogger”. I’m still practicing owning this fact. #thestruggleisreal

7. The Peace Of Mind That Even If I Stop Working For A Few Days Or Even A Few Weeks, I’d Still Have Income

The beauty of paid vacations… and as clichés would have it, I never realized it until I lost it. March and April were difficult months for me for more reasons than one. I couldn’t write. Some days I could barely get out of bed. My working productivity dropped to rock bottom. Consequently, my income was affected. Had I been working at a corporate job, I would’ve probably been able to just take days off here and there and still have a full day’s salary while I rested at home. Whoever came up with the paid vacation policy in the modern workforce is a genius and we should all thank that person.

Conclusion

With all of that said, I hope I was able to paint a clearer picture for you about what it’s taken me to begin this blogging life. I didn’t just stumble onto this #lifegoal, and it certainly doesn’t come without a price. While this isn’t the circumstances that I’d naturally prefer to live with, it has afforded me the opportunity to live my dreams. So, above all, I am grateful.

All photography by Natalia Alvarado @ Stylenfuse

The post 7 Things I Gave Up For The Full-Time Blogging Life appeared first on Cubicle Chic.

Top: Equipment Alma Silk Top, size S // Handbag: Palla A-Bag use my 15% off code “Cubicle_chic” (P.S. They’re also available on Amazon!)

To a lot of my newer friends, I probably seem like I have it together when it comes to personal finance. However, what I’m sharing today about the untold realities of living a financially responsible life will introduce you to a different side of me. Oh and in case you’re interested about more personal finance articles I’ve written as a fashion blogger, here’s the 9 ways fashion blogging ruined my finances.

Hello, My Name Is Jessica. I Am A Shopaholic.  (This is where you say “Hi, Jessica.”)

Do you know someone who you’re pretty sure has a shopping addiction? If you knew me before 2016, you’d probably think that I was one of them. Perhaps the word addiction is a bit of a hyperbole, and I certainly never received a clinical diagnosis. But the impulsivity, utter disorganization, and unending appetite that I shopped with indicated something was, at the very least, behaviorally wrong with me on the personal finance front. And yes, something was indeed wrong – I had no idea what I was doing wrong!

An Incarnation Ago

I knew all the common knowledge – you need to save, and you shouldn’t spend more than you make, start investing in retirement early, etc. But I was still shopping the way I did anyway because I worked hard. I was living a privileged life, sure – I lived in my parents’ house and they were kind enough to not charge me rent, I didn’t have a student loan to deal with also thanks to my parents, and didn’t have anyone that I was responsible for financially. But I also worked hard at my budding marketing career, putting in all the hours and oftentimes overtime work too. So, I spent pretty much all my hard-earned money on fun – eating out, traveling, and of course, shopping. And I’m talking about designer shopping – $600 a pair of shoes and $2000 handbags kind of shopping. I think my record year was $30K spent on online shopping. Over a period of 3 years of having a full-time job, I had no savings, retirement or cash, and racked up about $5000 in credit card debt along the way.

The Change

2015 was a transformative year for me. It was the year that I moved in with my then boyfriend (husband now) and we started merging our finances together. I attribute most of my transformative progress in becoming a financially responsible person to my husband. He patintly showed me the way and shouldered our expenses together as I paid off my debt in 2016.  Another positive influence came from personal finance expert Dave Ramsey and his $100, 9-week course Financial Peace University which my husband and I took together. We often tell people it was our version of pre-marital counseling sessions. It was a difficult year to say the least, filled with many trials and tribulations and a lot of growing pains. I had to change my problematic shopping behavior and tendencies and most importantly of all, my money mindset. I can write a book on this process. Leave me a comment if you’re curious!

Top: Equipment Alma Silk Top, size S // Handbag: Palla A-Bag use my 15% off code “Cubicle_chic” (P.S. They’re also available on Amazon!)

Fast Forward To The Present, 2018

A wedding, a new house, and 2 new jobs later, we are living a married life that I couldn’t possibly have imagined before. We have a budget we share and hold each other accountable for. We have a mortgage but are on a 10-year track to pay it off. We are a one-car household (that’s a rarity in California) but we make it work. I sometimes wonder how would the 2014-Jessica view my current life, if she could travel ahead in time and peer into it now? I think she would be puzzled, confused, and overall questioning how it works. So that leads me to what I’m here to write about today…

Top: Equipment Alma Silk Top, size S // Handbag: Palla A-Bag use my 15% off code “Cubicle_chic” (P.S. They’re also available on Amazon!)

The Realities of Living a Financially Responsible Life

There’s the good and, of course, there’s the bad. What I would say is that all the bad is completely worth the good. And in the end, the bad isn’t so bad when you accept it as a way of life.

The less-than-glamorous side of living a financially responsible life:

1. It’s not just about the budget anymore. 

It’s about sticking to the budget, and checking and re-checking, aligning and re-aligning month after month. It does not stop. The only time when the budget feels like it’s not there anymore is when you and your budget are so in-synch, you don’t need to rely on it to know when to spend or when not to spend. But then life throws curve-balls at you. A flat tire. A leaky water heater. A friend who you haven’t seen decided to visit you last minute. Any of these things might put you in front of your budget again. I had to learn to be good friends with my budget and know that it means well so I don’t get sick of seeing it again and again.

2. The impromptu Target cosmetic-aisle shopping-spree is no longer.

This used to be my cure-it-all whenever I was having a bad day or just feeling down. The fluorescent lighting, plethora of new cosmetic and skincare products, and the HOPE of perfect skin almost always lifted my mood when I was down. But it was nevertheless a temporary solution. After the novelty and excitement wore off, the neon-orange shopping bag (when the remedy was the Ulta sort instead of Target) would scream at me and remind me how and irresponsible I was with my money. Then I’d feel worse. Not to mention, I only have a $250 shopping budget now. If I walked out of Target with $150 in purchases…. I’d only have $100 left!!

3. Designer things are a dream-like, remote possibility.

OK, guys, please don’t judge me or hate me for this fact. But I have a confession to make. I have 5 Chanel, 4 Louis Vuitton, 3 Gucci and 1 Proenza Schouler purses/handbags. Some of them came as gifts, but most of them I bought. I no longer owe any debt on any of them, but a few of them I did put on credit card when I bought them at the time. I have a weakness for luxury goods, obvi. But the last designer bag I purchased was in 2016. Ever since I went through the personal finance transformation, it’s become clear that designer goods purchase cannot be a frequent occurrence in my life anymore. It’s questionable whether there would be an occurrence at all. Unless I find another job where I make 6 figure again, I need to eliminate this reality from my life. No more designer bag purchases in the near future.

4. I have learned to either say NO, or wait patiently to save up for what I want which is not within my budget.

Saying no to things I want is hard. But it’s even harder to say no to things that feel like they are a need.  For example, my hair. You see my long & super grown-out roots? They’re so grown out they’re barely roots anymore. But I have been waiting for a time when I have $200-$300 so I can fix it. I am also contemplating going black again. Because that perfectly ashy brown color? VERY expensive to maintain. Another example is our unfurnished master bedroom. We just completed a $25K master bedroom renovation in December. We went over budget. The next thing on the list to do was to furnish our bedroom (the only thing in it now is a queen-sized bed on a box spring and nothing else) but since we went over budget, we decided to wait a few months to replenish our cash reserve before shopping for our master bedroom furniture.

Top: Equipment Alma Silk Top, size S // Handbag: Palla A-Bag use my 15% off code “Cubicle_chic” (P.S. They’re also available on Amazon!)

The unexpected UPSIDE of a living a financially responsible life:

1. I appreciate things now for what they are, and not what they represent.

I still enjoy designer products, but they don’t mean the same thing to me anymore. When it comes to the things that I use in my daily life now, I am much much more about quality than the brand. For example, this pink little handbag I am carrying in the photos in this post – it’s made by a company called Palla. This is the A-bag and it’s made of natural leather and is the most versatile bag I’ve had for as long as I’ve had this blog. It can be worn crossbody, on the shoulder, it’s got a little point pouch attached, and it’s reversible so it can be pink or it can be gray. Palla has generously agreed to give me a unique discount code for Cubicle Chic readers “@cubicle_chic” – use it to get 15% off if you wind up purchasing one of the Palla bags. And if you do, can you do me a favor and tell me about what you think??

2. I am living life fuller than ever now because owning material things is no longer an excuse I can use to feel like I am living well. 

Like I mentioned above, a shopping spree at Target or Ulta is no longer a viable option as a pick-me-up when I feel uninspired or just down. So, I started going to the library. Cleaning the house. Picking a playlist on Spotify and have a one-person dance party. Binging on an oldie-but-goodie favorite audiobook like When Breath Becomes Air. Calling and talking to a friend who I haven’t spoken to in a long time. Reading a book that’s been sitting on my desk for months. I started LIVING more.

3. Financial peace is a real thing and it’s awesome.

One of my cats was diagnosed with cancer in October last year. She is 14-years old and to say she is the love of my life would be an understatement. Sometimes I even question how much I’d love my future kids because it doesn’t feel like it’s possible to love anything else more in this world. And when she was diagnosed with cancer, we actually caught it early and were lucky to have a few treatment options available. We decided to go for the treatments even though it costs about $500 a month. But even before we decided to move forward with the treatment plan, we’d already spent a couple of thousands just in the test we ran to get the right diagnoses. If it wasn’t for the cash reserve we built up in our emergency fund, this sure was going to put us in panic mode, needing to scrounge up this kind of cash. It was enough of an emotional roller coaster to go through the process of finding out the love of my life has cancer. We really appreciated not having to worry about the financial aspect of putting her through the treatment.

4. We are able to be more generous.

My husband and I love having friends and family over. We LOVE hosting parties. We love preparing delicious food and entertaining our guests. We both derive a lot of joy and pleasure out of ensuring our guests have a good time in our home. For example, we threw a Friendsmas party this Christmas and we had the most fun having 12 grown-ups and 5 kids over – it was such a blast! But hosting people comes with some real financial commitment. And having a budget with flexibility within it so we can be generous in providing hospitality when we want to – is a real joy.

Conclusion…

So, now that I’ve shared my life story with you… it’s your turn! Tell me: where are you on your personal finance journey? What’s your biggest obstacle right now, budgeting, saving, making more income, or something else? If you can travel through a time machine and ask your future-have-it-together-self, what would you ask him/her?

All photography by Natalie Alvarado @ Stylenfuse

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hearts of Gold Blog | Simply Classy | Rose Gold Lining | Ruthie Ridley Blog

Coming Up Roses | Well and Worthy Life | Cubicle Chic | SheShe Show | Lizzie in Lace

Kiss Me Darling | by Brittani Lauren | Heart of Chic | The Blue Hydrangeas | Alicia Tenise

To Thine Own Style Be True | Uptown Fashion by Jess | Lauren Mazzei Blog | The Steele Maiden

Lifestyles By Lauren | Life Lutzurious | Kate Loves Makeup | Kelly Towart Blog | Blush and Blooms

Pretty In Pink Megan | Belle by Laurelle | cute & little | Street Style Squad |

L. Avenue | With Love Lily Rose | The-Middle Page

This $500 Nordstrom Gift Card giveaway is brought to you by the amazing bloggers above. Enter by performing the actions below in the Rafflecopter for a chance to win a shopping spree that will kick your 2018 wardrobe into high gear!

Make sure to do the actions in the Rafflecopter before marking they are done! Marking done doesn’t automatically perform the action.

(We do verify entries!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway runs from Jan 16, 2018 to Jan 30, 2018 (concludes at 12:00 AM on the last day). Open to the US, UK and CAN. Winner will be announced within 10 days of the conclusion of the giveaway and entries will be verified by the hosts. Thanks for participating, I can’t wait for you to go check out these bloggers pages!

The post The Untold Realities of Living a Financially Responsible Life appeared first on Cubicle Chic.

I started blogging in 2015. I’d never positioned my blog as a straight up fashion blog because it’s so much more than that. But I knew fresh and consistent fashion-related content was how I could most rapidly get people’s attention. In the beginning, I told myself I would go through my closet and style things that I already had, and only buy things from resale websites like Poshmark, i.e. things heavily discounted and sometimes pre-owned. Over time, I started going overboard with the shopping especially when the holiday seasons came around. You know how it goes… every corner you turn you see a cute “corporate holiday party dress. Slowly but surely, I progressed to buying things whenever there was a topic that could use a brand-new outfit. Over the first year of creating Cubicle Chic, I blazed through what I had in the bank and started piling up credit card debt. And it just kept going.

What was worse was my existing shopping condition. As many metropolitan professional women earning a decent income could relate (and as Cubicle Chic’s top banner may suggest), I have a weakness for luxury goods. There’s always been a tender spot in my heart for name brand stuff in that I can’t explain. Now, I can’t say that tendency is a thing of the past. What I can say though, is that I no longer impulse-buy “nice stuff” – designer bags/shoes/things that I don’t have a planned budget/saved up cash for. Currently, I do live somewhat of a reformed life, financially speaking.

How is this life reformed, you ask? Well, I have no debt (other than our mortgage) and I live with a budget that I share with my husband now, and every month I know exactly how much I’m supposed to spend in each category. I still go over in some categories occasionally but it’s done with control and comfort. This current financial stability is the result of a slow, arduous, and long transformation that took place from early 2015 to the present. During this time, I had moved in with my boyfriend (husband now), got engaged, planned a wedding, got married, and bought a house. This transformation was guided by my husband’s help in shaping my financial foundation and the teachings of a real personal finance guru, Dave Ramsey. As painful as it was, it was the only reason we managed to cash-flow the wedding and secure a good down payment for the purchase of a new house.

So, in my financially uneducated and uninformed days, starting a fashion blog really took a toll. A year into it, I had no savings to show for the hard work at my full-time job or my blog. My credit card debt fluctuated between a monthly balance of $2000-$5000. The worse part was that I didn’t even know I was on the verge of being broke.

All of this isn’t to say that having a fashion blog WILL ruin you financially. But blogging is not for the ignorant and the uninformed, which I totally was 2 years ago.

Here are 9 things about starting and having a fashion blog that pushed me further down the financial drain:

1. Keeping up with new trends

Keeping up with the Jones’ is real when every other person on Instagram is the Jones’. That new pair of Adidas sneakers, the new Celine bag, a new one-piece swimsuit, or a beach straw-bag.  Instagram fuels our shopping addiction, which is why companies paid $31 billion in the on Instagram ads in 2016 and continue to do so.  To avoid buying things I don’t need/won’t use for my blog, I now stick to a master editorial calendar. Because of it, I already know what I’m writing this month, next month, and the following month. If I catch myself wanting to buy something for blog content, I try to see how it’s going to fit into my editorial calendar. If it doesn’t fit, I don’t buy.

2. Paying for expensive photography

This is another topic that I can probably write a book on: how to find the right photographer for your blog. Creating visually pleasing aesthetics for a blog is so, so, so critical. Some people have photographer inclinations/skills/boyfriends/husbands which make this easier. For others, finding someone who understands your vision, is flexible with your schedule, and offers the right price is HARD TO FIND. I started out paying between $200-$400 for one photography session which consisted of about 90-120 minutes and 2-3 different outfits. That was definitely more than the industry standard for fashion blog photography. I was very happy with the result, but the cost was unsustainable and I quickly realized that. Over time, I met and worked with many other photographers and became more educated about pricing. At the same time, I learned to model better and learned what looked good for photos. To date, I’ve worked with almost 10 photographers. I have finally found my one and only photographer who I work with regularly now. She charges me a very reasonable price, is flexible with our shooting schedule and provides me just the right creative input to help me improve my overall aesthetics. I wish someone had taught me this before I started so I would’ve been more judicious about my blogging expense.

3. Creating an archive of outfits

I feel that as a blogger I need to showcase a suite of outfits that tailor to different events and functions. Like right now, I still feel like I need that power suit to round out my working professional wardrobe collection. I probably will get a power suit at some point when it makes sense for a post I’m writing or an event I’m attending, but not right now. The heart of this problem lies in the lack of organization and visibility of the stuff I already have. This Spring, I gave my closet an overhaul, i.e. throwing out stuff I didn’t wear anymore and getting re-acquainted with stuff I had but wasn’t wearing enough. That exercise allowed me to physically see that I already have an archive of good outfits.

4. Getting brands to notice me

Someone once told me the best way to approach a brand to collaborate is to show that you are already their user/fan. What brands are you already a fan of? So, I’ve internalized this philosophy and started telling myself “It’s okay to buy because I am trying out for myself before I can work with the brand.” This is a very dangerous path because I can literally justify anything I want to buy this way. Again, I’ve learned now to default to my editorial calendar to see if there’s even a reason to try the product. If it’s not aligned with my editorial calendar, I don’t buy.

5. Attending events

Almost two years into my blogging career, I’ve signed up for an event 5 times (PoshFest twice, The Collective once, Simply Stylish twice). The tickets on average cost about $90-$300 for each event. Going to events quickly turns into a money suck because I’d have to get my outfit ready, and for the first few events I was also trying to sort out my business card situation which cost money too. This year, I am only attending one event (Simply Stylist in July). I plan on being very responsible in how much I invest in the outfit for the event. The only other event that I will try to attend in the future is Create and Cultivate. It’s even more expensive (think $350+) but I know I will save up and pay cash for it.

6. Paying for online classes

If you’re reading online about how to improve your finances, chances are, you are a regular for online courses. I’ve taken online classes for business writing, blogging techniques, photography tips and tricks, SEO know-how, and the list goes on. It’s easy to fall into the trap of feeling like taking classes will be the answer to everything. Nowadays I try to find classes that are under $20. I also try to finish a class before I sign up for new ones. Psychologically speaking, paying for a class feels like progress. But I know that true progress doesn’t happen until I’ve implemented what I learn and see the impact.

7. The blogger discounts

If I had a dime every time a brand/company, instead of agreeing to collaborate with me, wants to give me a discount… Don’t get me wrong, I still appreciate their generosity. And given point #4 above, I used to give in more often than I should’ve. The truth is, if I have no need for the sponsor’s products and it doesn’t make sense for my editorial calendar, I shouldn’t buy it no matter how steep the discount is.

8. Paying for advertisement or loop giveaways

Aside from being desperate for more traffic as a new blogger, as a digital marketing professional, I told myself I needed to experiment with Google Adwords and Facebook ads, just to be able to say that I know how they work. In Christmas of 2015, I started a small Google Adwords campaign to promote the three outfits I created for Holiday Parties. Because of lack of experience at the time, the campaign cost me $250 before I found out about it. It got me maybe about 1000 clicks in total, but no one became a recurring reader. I quickly learned my lesson and never did it again.

There is also loop giveaways that Instagram influencers like to do. If you haven’t heard of it, this is what an Instagram Loop Giveaway. To date, I’ve joined 2 loop giveaways as an influencer. They were each about $30 for me to participate, and they earned me about 200-300 followers each time. This is really just a more glamorous and legitimate way of “buying followers”. I have not done one since then because the followers you get from loop giveaways drop you like it’s hot. It’s hard not to take the crazy amount of unfollowing that occurs at the end of the giveaway. I’ve learned to stay away.

9. Thinking fresh new purchase = fresh content

This is a real struggle for any content creator. When you are in a creative rut and can’t think of anything to talk about, it’s easy to believe that buying something new will provide inspiration for new content. Again, my counter mechanism is always to default to my editorial calendar. I also plan about 2-3 months ahead for content, so I have time to reach out to brands and pitch my topics to them.

Conclusion

Fashion blogging has increasingly become a legitimate profession. But behind the pretty pictures and written content is a lot of hard work and investment. I’m grateful for the learning experiences running my own blog has given me. But I also want to caution those of you out there that are considering starting a blog… Be prepared and ready for the expenses and don’t make the mistakes I made!

The post 9 Ways Fashion Blogging Ruined My Finances appeared first on Cubicle Chic.