Hello! Hola!

My name is Amarilys but you can call me Mari for short! Welcome to my blog, I am so happy you are here! To start off, let’s take a trip back into time to year 1989 when I was born … No, we won’t do that! BUT I do want to tell you how my page got started!

In high school, I traveled to Italy with my Culinary team (shoutout to the best Chef and teacher: Chef Rick!). As a school we fundraised to help with the trip but my mom helped with the rest of the funding. This first adventure outside of my home in Tampa was the start of my interest for travel!!

This trip however, did not lead to the trips that I’ve had to this day. Throughout college, I made some not so great decisions with finances and racked up a total of about 75k in both student loans and credit card debt. In 2017, I took Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University course and with the guidance of my incredible fiancé, began my journey to FINANCIAL FREEDOM. To this day (January 2022), I have paid off $29,012 or 37% of my total debt since I began tracking it. This includes a paid off car, 4 credit cards, 2 smaller student loans, fully funded emergency funds and of course cash flowed vacations.

Being in debt unfortunately limited the amount of travel that I did and increased my desire to explore the United States. Throughout my blog, you will learn about some of my trips to date as well as how I have gotten better with my finances and travel hacks to get to see these amazing places our country has to offer.

I thank you again for taking the time to read my blog and get to know me. Here’s some snippets of what you can find on my blog:

• Techniques on debt pay off and my journey to financial freedom

• How to travel on a BUDGET!

• Learning to travel hack

• Favorite tools/gear for domestic travel

Fun Things About Me:

• I am a fur mama to the best dog in the world, Luna

• We had an “at home wedding” and took a 3 month honeymoon road trip

• I am a Behavior Analyst aka the best career in the world

• I have some amazing people in my corner ;)

• I LOVE Cold Stone! Specifically Banana Caramel Crunch with half cheesecake ice cream. TRY IT ;)

Follow the travel journey @losflatlanders