Hey everyone! This week marks two years of blogging for me. I first started blogging two years ago on August 10, 2011. You can find that post here (it's weird for me to read that post!).

When I first started my blog, I'm not going to lie, I was a complete mess. I probably did everything on a “bad blogger” list and then some more.

I quickly became addicted, and have made tons of awesome friends. The list could go on and on about how many bloggers I love.  There are so many bloggers that I would love to list right now, but I tried that and the list had well over 50 blogs and just looked crazy.

Oh, how life has changed.

In the past 2 years, my life has changed drastically. Back in August of 2011, I was working full-time in the same job I have now, I was a full-time Finance MBA student, and we didn't have much money. I had tons of student loan debt also.

Neither W nor I had any side jobs, and our income was much lower than what it is now. Housing in our budget was somewhere around 30% of our take home pay, whereas now it is much, much lower than that. Food was also a budget killer for us…

We spent lots of money on things that we did not need. We were not saving. We ate out every single day, and most of the time multiples times each day. We did not have a budget.

More personal: the passing of my father and the many family issues I was going through were tearing me apart. I had to start raising my sister and I was not ready. Everything, even 3 years later after he passed, was still reminding me of my father and I would break down everywhere I went.

And that's when I started to blog. It was a great outlet for me, and still is. Things are getting better, and are great in the financial area. In my personal life, W and I have been together for over 7 years, and we couldn't be better.

My sister is like my child now (oh hey Lexy!) and it has been awesome watching her grow into an awesome young lady. I have begun talking to my dad's side of the family, even though it is difficult as I am sure that I am a sad reminder.

We never thought that our lives would be like the way they are today. We have also come to realize that we can't let money dictate our lives, and that we need to enjoy the little things. I also plan on pursuing what I love instead of stability, which brings great risks but also much more excitement and happiness.

I never thought that my student loans would be gone, and especially not so soon. << STILL shocks me.

Blogging and personal finance blogging drastically changed my life, and for the better. I definitely recommend that others should start their own blog as well.

I'm no longer anonymous.

For almost my entire blogging journey, I was anonymous. Not entirely anonymous though. But, as of a couple of months ago, the cat is out of the bag. W told a couple of people and then EVERYONE started to have questions, so now I am no longer anonymous.

It has been different, and it is still a little scary since I feel like I have no privacy now.  Oh well though, I am fine with being a more open person.

You are all awesome.

Without all of you awesome bloggers and readers, I don't know where I would be. I receive numerous emails everyday, that range widely in topics. Many of you have emailed me about family issues, such as losing a parent(s) and your life changing dramatically. I really appreciate these emails and it helps make me stronger. Some of you email me with questions, such as about student loans or fixing your budget. I love all the emails that I receive.

I love receiving emails, comments, tweets and so on. Who doesn't? I love getting feedback from you all. I love publishing Reader Question posts. I love talking about whatever I want to on my blog. I love it all!

I want to thank all of you for reading. I hope that you continue to enjoy what I write for years and years to come.

Miscellaneous – Diversified Finances and $50 SwagBucks Giveaway

Also, I published a new post on What Not To Do When Leaving Your Job and I provided some real life examples of how some people are crazy when they quit. Check it out and tell me your craziest story! Diversified Finances has been going great, and I'm really glad that I started a second blog for myself to detail my switch to pursuing my passion.

Lastly, before we get to the big giveaway, SwagBucks during the month of August is offering any referral of mine (old or new) that earns at least 50 Swag Bucks in total from any combination of Shop, Search, Watch, Play Answer or Discover (all the different ways to earn SBs) to be automatically entered into a drawing for a $50 gift card from the SwagBucks' Rewards Store.

Here's a sign-up code for those of you who might be new to SwagBucks, for anyone that hasn't signed up but wants to be part of the giveaway: MAKINGSENSE70 — will give anyone who signs up 70 SB instantly when they redeem this code upon registration.  Make sure when you sign up, you click on the text “I have a sign up code” (it can be small and hard to see, but definitely look for it) to put in the code. It's live now through Aug 31st. This $50 gift card giveaway is ONLY available to Making Sense of Cents readers who click on my referral link as that's how the lovely people at SwagBucks are tracking the entries. Thanks SwagBucks!

It was also My Money Design's 2 year Blogiversary the other day as well, so give MMD some love!

iPad Mini and $250 CASH Giveaway

The prizes for this giveaway will be:

First place – iPad Mini WIFI 16 GB

Second place – $150 cash

Rules

– Open Worldwide.
– If the winner of the iPad Mini prefers cash, then cash value for the iPad will be given instead.
– Paid via PayPal
– All entries in the Rafflecopter are optional

a Rafflecopter giveaway