Sincerely Angie

NBA Angie (Never Broke Again Angie)

Sincerely Angie2 Comments

Vow to Never be Broke Again

Do you have a “broke” number? If you’re not familiar with what a broke number is, it’s basically a number that you get down to in your finances, where you start to consider yourself broke. It’s a number that should scare you. I also talk about this in a recent podcast episode here.

I found out in 2014 that my broke number was $10,000. In 2011, I left a job that I had been on for 7 years and started a new one 4 months later in 2012. During the 4 months I wasn’t working, I was living off of my savings. The new job paid me significantly less than my previous job, so I was still using my savings to supplement the deficit. After 2 years of living off of my savings, I was approaching a number in my savings account that scared the ish out of me. Before reaching that number, I knew that’s where I was stopping. Because as I was approaching it, I would get nervous thinking about it. That’s when I started to make changes. I downsized as much as possible and I was able to maintain my broke number without touching the savings account for a few years.

Slowly but surely and in very small steps, I started to add money to increase my savings. You can see the growth in my blog posts in the budget tab. I went from saving $2, $5, $15+ dollars at a time, to saving $200, $500, $1,500+ at a time. I went from praying to be able to save $10,000 to saving $10,000 in almost two years, then to saving that in less than one year.

Vowing to never get that close to only having $10,000 in my savings, to being able to save $10,000 in less than a year, only came from the feeling of not having that security. I learned a few things during a span of 5 years that helped me to grow. Since then, my “broke” number has changed and that change came in 2018. That means it took me about 7 years or more to learn my finances, grow my finances and to get comfortable with a much larger “broke number”.

Here’s what I did:

  • I started paying the full 10% of my tithes.
  • I wrote down everything and really learned who I was financially.
  • I elevated each time I reached a goal.
  • I took a deep dive into my finances and learned them inside out.
  • I set many goals, big and small.
  • I pushed myself and always strived for a bigger goal.
  • I sacrificed and had to practice discipline.
  • I took advantage of any thing free, points and programs that rewarded me with free money. (Rakuten, surveys, loyalty programs, receipt programs, etc.)
  • I counted every penny and knew where every penny was supposed to be.

If you’re reading this, it’s my hope that this post inspires change if you need it or motivation. This post is not to brag or boast. We all have a journey, and it took me nearly 10 years to get to this place. I vowed to never get close to my broke number again, and if life did happen and I got close to it, I know exactly how to recover it all again. NBA Angie!!! Happy budgeting!

Sincerely,

Angie

Nouns of the Week

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In honor of “Love Day”, here are a few nouns that I’m loving. My current favorite person(s), place and thing.

Person(s)

Toya and Yannie

I met them a little over 20 years ago and my life hasn’t been the same since. Last October, I mentioned to them that I hadn’t truly celebrated turning 40 and they said, say less! Yannie and I flew to Georgia and Toya had an amazing weekend planned for us. I truly celebrated turning forty six months after my actual birthday. I love them too much! We’ve traveled together, partied together and shared our hearts with one another. We are family now so they are stuck with me for life!

Place

Me with a Zulu group that performed a proposal reenactment, in South Africa.

South Africa. I visited Jamaica in 2015 and I had always labeled it as my favorite trip. South Africa 2025 has entered the chat. This trip came out of no where for me. I got a message November 14th, 2024 asking if I wanted to go. I said yes but I was in the midst of traveling and as soon as I got back home and settled, I checked-in about 10 days later to see if the spot was still available. It was nothing but God that saw fit for me to be included. A month and a half later, I was on a 17 hour flight to South Africa. There are no words to describe the feeling but Africa honestly felt like home. It wasn’t any one person, place or thing that made me feel this. It was just the aura, spirit or ambiance of Africa.

Thing

I saw Nina Pool on TIkTok do a dooperoonie for this shower oil. I had never seen or heard of it before so I was going to dupe it. I few days later while in Africa, I saw the L’Occitane store in the mall. I remembered the name from the video but I didn’t stop in the store because I was headed somewhere else. I go into another store (a department type of store) and I see this bottle, it was one of three different bottle sizes and there wasn’t a price on it. I found a sales agent and asked for the price and purchased it. I never even smelled it. Once I got back home, I recorded a video to showcase what I purchased in Africa (video here) and I smelled it and was blown away. I showered with it and I’m pretty sure I will never not use this stuff. It will be a part of my shower routine for ever. Even at the price point it’s at (and y’all know I’m cheap.)

Sincerely,

Angie

Scent-cerely

Sincerely Angie2 Comments

Did you catch it? Lol! Yep, you guessed it. This post is dedicated to my current favorite scents! If you are subscribed to my YouTube channel, then you already know what type of time I’m on. Watch the fragrance playlist here.

Over the last 5 years maybe, I have been on a perfume kick. Over the years, I have taken a lot of pride in being a woman and doing all things lady-like or girly. I went through a purse binge, shoes are still a thing, blazers, jeans, lipsticks and eye shadows, false nails and pretty much anything you can think of. I will buy it and buy a lot of it. On clearance of course, but purchases are made nonetheless.

I, like many other ladies have always worn some smell good but it was usually what was on sale at B&BW or a department store. Mainly, body sprays from VS or B&BW and celebrity fragrances like Brittany Spears, Paris Hilton, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Mariah Carey, etc. But over the last 5 years or so, I’ve put a little more funds behind the fragrances I buy or get gifted to me.

My first intro to higher end fragrances was Alexander McQueen. I knew nothing about notes, silage, the olfactory journey and body chemistry when it came to perfume so at first sniff, it caught me off guard. Some time later, it grew on me and I actually like it. The bottle is half full. I’m still learning about the notes that I like and maceration. I love unisex scents but a few notes I enjoy are white florals, oud, amber, woody, aromatic, saffron, jasmine and musky.

Now, let’s get into my favs(#1 being my favorite overall), their price(high and low end), links to get them on Amazon and where/how I like to wear them. Hopefully you can grab them for your special someone for Christmas!

https://youtube.com/shorts/FLcK-Rabtqg?si=Gk0V00ZJjwXNIOet

My top 5 fragrances! 1. La Vie Est Belle(Lancome) 2. YSL Libre 3. Red Zara Temptation 4. Shaghaf Oud Tonka 5. Bade’e Al Oud Sublime(Lattafa)
  1. La Vie Est Belle – Lancome ($150+) Grown and sexy! For date night or girls night out.
  2. YSL Libre – ($100+) Very grown and sexy exclusively for date night.
  3. Red Zara Temptation – Zara ($17 in stores/$30+ online) Perfect for everyday wear or running errands. Perfect dupe of BKR540.
  4. Shaghaf Oud Tonka ($45+) Perfect to wear if you’re going shopping or to brunch.
  5. Lattafa Sublime ($20+) For everyday wear to work or to sleep.

I have many more faves and go-to’s but these are the ones I tend to reach for first.

Sincerely,

Angie