Hello! My name is Jennifer and I am The Repo Woman! Well… Kinda…
I grew up in a large family of six. I have three younger brothers so I can be a bit of a tom boy at times. I graduated high school in San Antonio, Texas and attended some college courses but long searched for my passion in life. I ended up marrying my best friend and high school sweetheart, John. We have two beautiful daughters!
Here’s how my story begins. I was a member of The Business Professionals of America in High School so I ended up working two jobs while attending High School. I started off working at the movie theater and that was a super fun job. Probably the easiest job I have ever had! I needed something a bit more challenging for sure. The BPofA ended up getting me another job at Austin Bridge Construction company as a timekeeper. The experience I gained from this job was priceless! After I graduated, I worked as a Police Dispatcher. I should mention that my husband is a Law Enforcement officer too. I really enjoyed that job but very quickly learned at a young age that some people are freakin’ crazy! Seriously! Crazy!
I was still on the search for my passion! I worked in Corporate America in the mortgage field as a Project Manager and loved the fast pace environment! I loved being able to fix problems, improve systems and lower budget costs!
My husband ended up getting a job in another city, so we ended up moving to Austin, Texas. This is where life gets really interesting! I was used to living in a city where people knew me and knew how I worked. I was a complete stranger in this big city of Austin and I didn’t like it. I couldn’t find a job. The economy was in turmoil and no one seemed to be hiring. I very quickly became Betty freakin’ Crocker! I cooked, baked and budgeted like no one’s business! I was stuck at home with no job and no money.
I stumbled upon a way to bring a bit of extra cash into the house during these very difficult economical times and it totally happened by accident too. I can remember telling John that I needed to get out of the house and get away from the little ones just to get some time to myself. Remember, new town and no friends. That’s no good combination by any means. I remember having $50 in my pocket for the week and I love to go out on Saturday mornings to garage sales. To make a very long story rather short, I learned you could purchase highly discounted items at garage sales and resell them on Craigslist for a profit! Sometimes this was a pretty big profit too! I did this for a bit on the weekends for two reasons. One, to get some time away from the kids and two, to earn some extra cash without having to pay for daycare!
One day, I was selling some credit card machines on Craigslist and met a guy that ran a second chance car lot. He quickly told me that he liked the way I advertised my items on the internet and asked if I wanted a job helping out in the office at the car lot. I never in my life that I would work at a car lot but hey, it wasn’t like I was selling cars… or so I thought.
I very quickly learned every aspect of how to run a second chance car lot. I learned how to do all the paperwork in the office. I wrote contracts for finance. That was very easy for me. I learned titles and that bored me to death! I ended up going to the Auctions to help purchase cars. Whoa! What an experience! Those auctioneers are amazing! Needless to say, I learned a lot. The next part I learned is something I didn’t bargain for. My boss, the car lot owner, who shall remain nameless, was into some extra curricular activities that I didn’t approve of. He went missing for days at a time and I was left to run this business all by myself. I ended up putting cars on a car lift to change the oil. I installed trackers in the dashboards of vehicles that were just sold. I even repossessed cars when owners were late on their payments! Yes, I repo’ed cars! I would head to the office and look on the list to see what car needed to be repo’d that day! I remember one day I dropped my daughter off a bit early at daycare because I knew I had to drive to Louisiana that day to repo a car! It was me driving a dually truck with a car hauler and took the 17 year old young shop mechanic because I didn’t want to go alone!
I very quickly learned that I didn’t like running a car lot. I went from working a bit in the office to running the whole business and that was NOT what I signed up for! I quit! I didn’t want to be part of the car lot business and I didn’t want any part of my boss’s extra activities either!
This brought me back to budgeting… and being Betty freakin’ Crocker! I quickly learned to coupon like the pros! This quickly became a passion too! In fact, I started a savings website called iSave from A2Z because I literally knew how to save tons of money and all my friends wanted in on that action too!
Fast forward to today, I am a happy mom who works from home writing my blog and tending to my children. I certainly didn’t want to be known as “The Repo Woman!” It got me to thinking… I really enjoyed being home baking and caring for my family and life certainly doesn’t have to be as difficult as people make it. We need money to make the world go round but we shouldn’t do anything that we don’t want to. I will now be known as a different kind of “Repo Woman.” I will be taking back the American Dream of a simple life of raising a beautiful and healthy family in the chaotic world we live in!
Follow my blog and let’s take back the American Dream together! My goal is to get back to a simple life of kids, crafts, baking, making a bit of money and more, but I promise to have fun in the process!