AI has taken plenty of heat for all kinds of reasons, but this woman from Delaware just showed how to use it right, and the results are fascinating.
In an amazing feat achieved by Jennifer Allan, a new mom from Delaware, ChatGPT has helped her get rid of a whopping $18,000 debt without touching her emergency funds. Allan documented her story on TikTok, where she detailed how she asked the AI tool for strategies, followed its guidance, and progressed on her journey to go debt-free.
Her financial struggles began after the birth of her daughter, when she experienced postpartum depression and found herself unable to return to work for nearly a year. Without paid maternity leave, Allan and her husband quickly burned through their savings. To avoid touching their emergency fund, she began putting expenses on credit cards, a short-term solution that soon snowballed into overwhelming debt.
She recalls, “I was like, ‘I really don’t want to touch this emergency fund, so I’ll just start putting it on credit cards. I’ll pay it off. It’s not a big deal. And then, it’s like, you kick the can down the road.” However, it soon got to the point where Allan says she felt the “can” could no longer be kicked down the road. (via PEOPLE)
“When I finally decided that I was going to not stick my head in the sand and ultimately look at my debt, I didn’t really know where to turn. But I got this idea. I was like, ‘Wait a minute. I go to ChatGPT for everything, so why wouldn’t I just ask, ‘How do I get out of debt?’ type of thing.”
Allan’s brilliant 30-day plan to get out of her debt was all laid out by ChatGPT
@_jenn.allan Day 28 of 30 asking ChatGPT every day for one task to make money to pay down credit card debt #creditcards #paydowndebt #debtpayoff #chatgpt #debtfreejourney
♬ original sound – Jenn|Debt Free Journey
Once Allan realized her family could no longer afford to pile on more debt, she sat down with her husband to explain the situation.”The first day, I was like, ‘Listen, in my postpartum depression, I didn’t want to spend our emergency fund. So I put a lot of our expenses on credit cards,'” she recalled.
She then proposed a bold solution: a 30-day challenge where she would ask ChatGPT for one money-saving or money-making idea each day and commit to following through. Her husband, also an avid AI user, joined in, helping generate prompts and carrying out the plan.
Allan also ended up selling the debt repayment tracker, one of ChatGPT’s several suggestions, as a digital product as well. Paired with all daily prompts, like “saving $580 during a ‘grocery challenge,’ picking up side gigs like Rover, the dog walking service app, and selling items on Facebook Marketplace,” Allan had shaved down her debt significantly by the end of the 30th day.
Over the course of the month, Allan followed dozens of AI-suggested strategies. She sold unwanted items on Facebook Marketplace, picked up side gigs through Rover, slashed $580 from her grocery bill with a “grocery challenge,” and even turned one of ChatGPT’s ideas, a debt repayment tracker, into a digital product she could sell. By the end of the 30 days, the couple had saved and earned enough to cut down their $18,000 credit card balance.
You can check out her journey on her TikTok, @_jenn.allan.
