PPP121: Catching Up with Sandy Smith

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This month’s guest is my good friend Sandy Smith. We finally sat down and recorded the next four episodes for you! She last joined us in March 2017. For today’s episode, we catch up on what she’s been up to lately in her business, side hustles, etc.

In the next episodes, we’ll dive deeper into her areas of expertise, with tips that will help both personal finance fans and entrepreneurs alike. We will be talking about creating new products, frugality and savings, and her adventures as a house flipping landlord. Be sure to tune in all month!

What We’re Chatting About This Week

Sandy and I met up at FinCon recently, where I was the official conference DJ! In between doing my DJ gig and the conference, we managed to find time to sit down together and talk.

One big thing that’s happened since March of last year…Sandy had a baby boy! At that time, Sandy had a job, but now she’s jobless…in a good way. She’s got enough on her plate dealing with a house fiasco currently (tune in for her fourth episode to find out more), but thankfully she learned valuable lessons along the way.

Sandy also sells political-themed products on the side, but since the baby’s arrival, she’s scaled back her business. If you want to get on Amazon or eBay to sell products, we are going to get some insight from Sandy about that next week!

Another aspect of Sandy’s business is Yes I Am Cheap and her Facebook community, The Hustle Crew. Sandy’s online community is almost 8000 strong, and grows about 100 people a week! She's currently revamping her site, Yes I Am Cheap. She will be focusing her content on three topics: how to make money, how to save money, and living your best financial life. She also has a separate site for other topics, appropriately named I Am Sandy Smith.

In The Hustle Crew community, Sandy built an amazing audience by keeping her purpose in mind- helping people find their side hustles and make extra money. She makes sure the community stays focused, and gives as much helpful advice as she can.

Some of her favorite side hustles from her community members include those who upcycle. Basically this means taking someone else’s discards, refurbishing them, and re-selling for profit. This is not only a great way to help the environment, but the seller makes a larger profit since their acquisition cost is usually nothing! It’s also a great side hustle if you like to exercise your creativity and artistry.

And that’s it for this week! Next week, we’re talking about how to start an online product business. See you back here then!

This Week's Guest

Hi, I'm Sandy.

Way back when the dinosaurs roamed at the end of 2008, I started paying a little bit more attention to my debt. As the year faded into 2009, the idea to build a website to keep myself accountable to eliminating my debt burst into my mind. I hopped onto Blogger.com and created a blog that I named My Cheapass Blog. I really didn't begin my blog for anyone else to see; it was just a way for me to have the total amount that I owed at my fingertips. Here we are years later and have learned enough to help others with their own debt.

I started this blog with well over $105,665.31 in debt after a failed business and some massive student loans…at least, that's what I said that I owed. In actuality I owed a friend another $5,000 and I would receive a notice in the mail that I owed $10,000 in back taxes and penalties. This blog has been a chronicle of my journey of getting out of it without filing bankruptcy.

My $120,665.31 debt represented everything that I had done wrong. Now, I am here to help YOU get your finances together.