I’ve stared at this blank space for a while, wondering just how or WHAT I want to communicate. The easiest and safest, but lacking depth and truth, would be to just give you a recap of what I did this summer. It would involve some trips, beach volleyball, LA stuff, yadda yadda, but why bother? I want to find a way to be truthful and real without throwing people under the bus…without leaving myself feeling too exposed. It’s hard. This will be a bit of a brain dump. I’ll write it and if I feel OK about posting it I will. Or maybe it will sit in the drafts folder forever. I’m not sure. I do want ..read more

Yesterday I went to CVS to pick up a few items. I had my list of only the essential things I needed, plus one $2.00 off coupon and one $6.00 off coupon if I spent $30. I carefully calculated my items to make sure it hit the $30 mark, then went up to the cashier and handed over my coupons. The cashier tried several times to scan the $6.00 off coupon but it wasn’t working. She looked at the coupon up close and said, “Oh, now I know why it’s not working. It expired in February.” I could feel the heat on my cheeks and I silently swore under my mask. “WTF Tonya!!! You stupid idiot!”  As carefu ..read more

Hey friends! I’m sorry it’s been a long time since I’ve posted. I’ve been working 6-7 days per week and the last thing I felt like doing with any time off is sitting on my butt in a computer chair. This blog has been pretty low on my priority list. Still, I miss writing. July was probably my busiest month work-wise, so I’m not complaining. It’s been such a tough year for so many people and I’m grateful for whatever work comes my way! I also had some big expenses this month though too. But, I’m happy that my net worth is still holding really strong under all of the crazy circumstances of the la ..read more

Hey everyone! This is a short and sweet post. It’s been hard to write about much lately, so I’ll just get right to it! May Rewind Well, of course, the big thing that happened this month is I moved into a new apartment and I don’t have a roommate anymore. This was clearly NOT a frugal move, but one that was, as The Financial Gym calls, a “sacred cow.” I think I had forgotten how much I love my own space until I moved, and now I feel a lot more free and light. I never really felt like the last place was my home. But, it served its purpose at the time and it certainly was one hell of a locat ..read more

There has been something weighing heavily on my mind this past week with everything going on in the world surrounding George Floyd’s murder and the subsequent protesting that has followed. That feeling is guilt. And I feel like I owe anyone who has ever been mistreated or not felt equal because of their skin color, an apology.  While I’m not trying to punish myself for past mistakes, it’s important, I think, to acknowledge that something did occur that I’m not proud of. I’m not letting myself off the hook for being a “dumb kid who didn’t know any better.” I guess the positive in all ..read more

In my last post I mentioned that I’m moving to a new apartment (this week, actually). It’s just across town, thankfully! When I posted that on Instagram, a lot of people DM’d me asking me how much I was going to be paying in the new place. I don’t know if this is relevant everywhere, but I think Angelenos in particular (maybe New Yorker’s?), have a fascination with rent prices, myself included. Whenever I walk into someone’s cute apartment, I immediately want to know how much they are paying! lol! Did they get a good deal? How did they find it? Welcome to the world of Los Angeles rent porn! So ..read more

Well, I’m a little late posting my April rewind, but better late than never. I think it’s taken me so long because, quite frankly, this month was a huge blur. And I’m not sure it’s that exciting. Enjoying a sunset wherever I can. April Recap Basically, I did two things: work and work out. For some reason a fire was lit under my ass at the beginning of the month to get shit done, and I did. I rebooted this blog, revived my youtube channel (please subscribe!) started producing videos again, mapped out a plan to produce more video tutorials and perhaps produce a course teaching people how to p ..read more

What’s up, everyone! I’m back with some more video tips for you. Have you ever watched a video where the audio is edited so tight, that you get really distracted and can’t even focus on the message?  That’s what I’m going to talk about today, and what you can do to fix it so your videos look and sound better! A lot of times when newbie video content creators are editing, they try and take out mistakes they make in their dialog, for instance saying “um” and using other filler words, such as “like” and “you know.”  While jump cuts have become more acceptable in videos you watch nowad ..read more