Getaway Recap

Nate and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary on October 5th. We went to Duluth this past weekend as a little getaway, and it was just what we needed. We did a lot of eating, drinking, and just enjoying the little adventure together. The weather was absolutely amazing—couldn’t have asked for anything better. Instead of gushing about how much I love my hubby and how great our time away together was, here are just some pictures. 

 

On a slightly different note, when our anniversary hit, baby fever hit hard again. It’s difficult for me because I know how much we both want children now, but we feel like we should reach some of our other goals beforehand. And it’s just hard to balance the feeling of wanting a child now and wanting to reach other goals first. I know that there is no perfect time to decide to have a child. Other mamas and families out there, what were your discussions like on this topic?! I’d love to hear.

Surprise

Fill your life with experiences, not things. Have stories to tell, not stuff to show.

 

Nate and I have always valued experiences over materials. We think it’s an important outlook on life to have. The truly important things in life are few, and being with each other and creating memories together is one of them. Last Thursday, Nate gave me an early anniversary card. He included this excerpt from an article (http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/can-money-buy-happiness?page=2): 

Many people assume that filling a large house with possessions will make them happiest. So why might a cooking class or vacation getaway trump a new kitchen floor or TV?

In one recent study, Cornell University researchers found that purchasing an experience tended to improve well-being more than buying a possession, in part because people are more prone to comparisons and buyer’s remorse with material goods.

Also, objects tend to deteriorate with time, but experiences can create lasting memories. If you share lessons or dinners and vacations with others, the social connections can make you happier, too, experts say.

“Experiences are just easier to appreciate,” says Lyubomirsky, who didn't work on the Cornell study. “We are made happier by experiences. You’re more likely to recall it. It’s more likely to become part of your identity. You’re the sum of your experiences, not the sum of your possessions.”

Even though we have been budgeting a lot and throwing as much money as we can at our loans, Nate also pointed out that we should reward ourselves and create more memories together. The surprise is that Nate planned us a trip to Sanibel Island, Florida in December! I'm so excited to explore the island together. It will be like a second honeymoon, since the “honeymoon” we went on last year was with all of my family. We will be paying for this by not making any extra payments toward our loans in November. 

I’m a lucky girl to have a husband who is super good at being financially conscious and responsible, but also one who realizes that sometimes you just have to take a vacation, relax, enjoy new experiences, and just be together. 

Brief Marriage Reflections

Nate and I have our first wedding anniversary in a few weeks. When people tell you that it goes by fast, they aren’t lying. For the past couple days I’ve been reminiscing about our last year together and just how grateful and blessed I am to truly have a husband who supports and loves me to no end. Looking back on our first year of marriage, I’m proud of us as a couple. Some people say that the first year is tough, but for us, it wasn’t. I think this first year we have built a great foundation, especially because we have really mastered communicating with each other. Focusing on paying off debt has driven us to communicate openly and clearly with each other, and that has transferred over to all areas of our life. This past year we have also done a lot of “dreaming” for what we want our of life together, and that has us both excited for the future, short- and long-term.

I’ve also been thinking of what kind of wife I am and want to be. With Nate and I both working, Nate studying to be a CPA, me coaching a dance team, and us both taking care of the dog, it can be difficult to focus on what the other needs and wants. But I think I’ve done a pretty good job at supporting Nate with all of his endeavors. And I know that, essentially, him getting his CPA will hopefully enable me to become a stay-at-home mom. So for that I’m sincerely grateful. I cook and clean a lot, because I value it and actually enjoy doing it in our marriage. I love when I’m able to have dinner cooking and hand Nate a drink when he gets home from work. Call me traditional.

We started this blog as a way to work through the "burden" of paying off debt, but it has become a blessing because in doing so, it has taught us more about who we are in our marriage, and has taught us how to work together. 

 This is the very first picture we took together, only a few days after we started dating. Now we will be celebrating our first wedding anniversary in a few short weeks. Exciting times are ahead!

Catching Up

It’s been almost four months since we have blogged last. Super sorry; blogging just got away from us. Aside from being busy with summer activities, the summer was actually demotivating for us. I originally thought that it would be easier to save and put more money toward our debt in the summer. I figured that we would be able to do fun, free activities outside. Buuuuuuut it turned out that the things we wanted to do took money because we wanted to be out and about more—going to the lake, happy hours on patios, etc. We didn’t totally get derailed, but we did loose motivation a little bit.

On the upside, though, we did manage to make extra payments toward our loans. With the payments we made and with a very generous gift of a family member, we were able to pay down roughly 20% of our original outstanding amount. We are planning an anniversary trip to Duluth, MN, in October, and we plan on rededicating the intensity after that.

Here are some other updates in our super exciting lives: 

-I (Shaina) got a new job! I still work in publishing, but it was just time to move onward and upward. Plus, I’m making more moolah.

-Nate passed his second CPA exam! He will start studying for his third exam very soon. If he passes his third and fourth on schedule, he will be done in February.

-My sister-in-law had a baby in August! Her name is Avrie and she is just so adorable.  I’m happy to love on another baby before Nate and I have our own.

More posts to come soon!

Lastly, here are some pictures of the pup. Just because. 

 

Tracking: Manual vs. Automated

In past posts I kind of explained how we budget, from the budget meetings to how we split up our variable and fixed expenses. The one aspect I haven’t touched on much, which I believe is crucial to budgeting, is tracking.

The first step to budgeting is having a plan. Sitting down with Shaina and discussing our plan before each month is our first step. But how do we put that plan into motion? How do we know that our plan is working or that we are staying true to what we had jointly decided? To put it simple, I track everything. There are so many ways to track inflow and outflow of money these days. One simple search on the internet could land you dozens of online or mobile based platforms that claim to be the best money tracking tool available. What are my tools of choice? Good old-fashioned spreadsheets and a simple mobile based check book.

I realize just mentioning the word spreadsheet can cause most people to cringe; however, there is one aspect of spreadsheets that I have found to be the link between budgeting and actually staying within said budget. Most individuals who budget sincerely have great intentions of staying within them. The fact that most budgeting tools today have created a way to automate the tracking process of the user’s spending has created disconnect between the spender and their budgeted goals. Users are quick to think that using an automated app will take care of everything for them and somehow make all their overspending problems go away. Automation, to most, means easier. And there is nothing easy about getting out of debt. I firmly believe in a more hands on approach. I know this isn't the only method and I realize that there are people who have used those automated applications, and have gotten great results. But for us, being on top of our spending means knowing where our money is at every day and staying hands on.

Most automated spending trackers today allow the user to set up notifications of when spending in a particular category has exceeded the original budgeted amount. In my eyes, this is far too late. I don’t want to know when I have over spent. I want to know before that happens. So whether or not you’re checking those automated apps daily, or updating a spreadsheet, you need to be hands on. Using a spreadsheet and a simple mobile checkbook app, I manually enter each and every transaction. When a paycheck comes in I add the transaction to our account, take out all fixed expenses until the next paycheck, and am left with what we have available to spend on the items that we have previously discussed in our budget meetings. As those items occur throughout the month, I simply deduct the transaction. This really helps for certain categories that aren't as easily tracked as those one-time purchases, such as gas for our cars that have multiple purchases throughout the month. Having two cars and two different commutes, causes us to have two different needs as far as the amount of gas we each need. Using the simple checkbook app, I can keep track of our gas spending to ensure we don’t go over. These simple tools help me to always know where we are at, so when Shaina says she needs to fill up, I know how exactly much she can spend on a tank of gas. 

As with any budget or budgeting tool it takes tweaking and adjusting to find something that works for you. I used to be a big user of one of those automated apps. I would link to all of my banking accounts that allowed me to “track” my spending. Too often I would over spend in a particular category, would then be notified, and would roll my eyes at the message. It was too late. I had already spent too much. There may be other products out there now that offer a better notification system today, but, using these simple tools has worked well for us so far.

It is said that budgeting and getting out of debt is 20% about the numbers and 80% about your decision to get out of debt and the lifestyle changes and decisions you will have to make to get there. Tracking the numbers to make sure you know where your money is at is only a fraction of the battle. Being immersed in the process and being so hands on has forced us to change our lifestyle. Manually entering a transaction has more to do with discipline than anything. Discipline is needed to change a lifestyle. Doing things that will force you to stare your challenges straight in the face is the only way you will build up enough passion or motivation to overcome them. If I didn't have to look at our money balances everyday and be reminded of our budgeting goals and the reason behind them, it would be far too easy to ignore them. If you don’t face them daily, you will ignore them. Just as if you automate too much, and you’re not annoyed by the fact that you’re going over budget or you don’t know where you money is going, you simply won’t solve the problem; you will ignore it. This is why I choose to use the tools that I do.

If anyone is curious as to how my spreadsheets look or what mobile app I use, feel free to let me know.

I’m excited to get back to our intense and intentional plan of paying off debt. $25,000 paid off and counting!

Back from the Hiatus

Hey all—we didn't mean to take a break from blogging, life just got in the way. Here is a snapshot of what we have been up to:

-We didn't pay any extra payments towards our loans in April (the extra thousand-some that we usually do). We decided that we are staying another year in our apartment, so we (ahem, I) wanted to get some new décor. We got this really cool antique wood trunk that Nate is refinishing. When we get that done, I’ll be sure to post some pictures. Aside from getting some new décor items, we also got some miscellaneous items that didn't fit into our normal strict budget. 

-We both have been busier than normal. Nate has been studying for his CPA exam, so that takes away a couple hours each night. I’m also taking an online grammar class, watching my nephew once a week after work, and assistant coaching a dance team. Some days I feel like we are both so busy getting things done that we barely have time to spend together. I’m looking forward to summer, that’s for sure.

-I got another paid in full notification a couple weeks ago. That was exciting. It wasn’t for a huge amount, but even these small moments are successes for us. 

I thought that “taking a break” from paying extra on student loans would be helpful and fun, but in the end, I discovered that I actually kind of regretted it. Yes, it was nice to get a new shower curtain and what not, but it’s not like I’m any happier. Toward the end of April I started to think that all this money we were spending on stuff could be going toward the loans, contributing to our goal. It made me more anxious because now that is one more month that we have to pay on loans. I know I’m probably over thinking it, but when you want something so bad, it’s difficult to not get obsessed with it. Now I feel like I’m more motivated than ever to scrimp and save.

We went grocery shopping tonight and ended up being $21.39 under budget. I’m starting to accept the fact that in order to do this, I can’t make the meals that I really want to. Mainly, I want to be a good wifey (is that word annoying?) and make yummy dinners for Nate to come home to. But he has made it clear that anything I make he is happy with. He isn't a picky eater, and for that I am grateful. So there we were, in the frozen food aisle, realizing that we were under budget. We were debating whether or not we should get some gin and tonic. Literally, it was a tough choice. The angel on our shoulders won; we decided to not get it.

While that choice might not seem like a big deal at all to some, it is for us. I get that it’s not life or death, but it’s more of a lifestyle change that I think we are more willing to accept now. I was talking to Nate last night about how I feel defeated by how much we still owe, and he reminded me that we can’t focus on that. Instead, we need to focus on spending as less money as we can each month so that more can go towards the loans. So, in the big picture, I’m willing to sacrifice the little things in order to get what we want. Delayed gratification. It sucks, but it’ll be worth it. No shortcuts, work for it.

Saving Monies

A couple people have asked me what Nate and I do to save money (other than budget like crazy people) so I thought I would do a post about it. None of it is rocket science. Not even close. We don’t do one or two big things to save a lot of money. It’s the combination of many little things that add up. I’m sure we do more than this, but here is a short list:

• Make our own dog treats. Nate and I are pretty picky when it comes to the treats that Mazi gets—we would only buy treats that had a few ingredients that were actual food, so they were more expensive than your average Milk Bone. I looked up some recipes on Pinterest and started making dog treats. Even though I have to spend some time making them, we are saving money and I know exactly what is in the pup’s treats.
• Make my own individual oatmeal packets. I love bringing oatmeal to work for lunch. Call me weird. A couple months ago I started buying big canisters of oatmeal and making my own “packets.” I put a half cup of oatmeal, a couple tablespoons of brown sugar, and then either some pecans, almonds, or cranberries.
• Sunday dinners at my parent’s house. My parents like to have big dinners sometimes on Sundays. It’s such a win! We don’t meal plan for weekends, it’s yummy food (think full Thanksgiving style food, for real), we get to catch up, and we get leftovers for lunch. Score!
• No cable. Nate and I didn’t have cable for over a year, but gave in and got it a couple months ago. But then we cancelled it. It’s expensive and you get caught up watching stupid shows. Sure, sometimes we want to watch shows that are on cable, but we get over it.
• Make do with what we have. For example, our sheets have ripped twice; therefore, I’ve sewed them twice.
• Buy store brands. I used to be one of those people who always bought name brands because I didn’t think the store brands were as good. For some things I still buy name brands because they are indeed better quality, but I’ve found that many store brands are just as good if not better than name brands. Sorry I’m being general, but you know what I mean. 
• Keeping track of what we spend at the grocery store. I do a menu plan for two weeks and put all the food we need on a list on my phone. Nate uses his phone to add up all the items we get at the grocery store to make sure we don't go over our $110.00 budget for food every two weeks. If we go over, we put something back. It's that simple. 

There you have it. What do you guys do to save money? 

Small Victories

Sometimes you have to celebrate the little things to stay motivated. This week we have three little things to be happy and proud about.

1. We have paid off more than $20,000 of our student loan debt. While we still have a long ways to go, that amount feels good and is a milestone. Have you noticed the Payoff Tracker that the hubby added? It's a nifty little tool to clearly see where we are at. 

2. We had enough money in our grocery budget to buy some beer. Now, people, this is big because sometime we have to put groceries back because we don't want to go over budget. So, I tried hard to plan meals that were cost-effective. Beer = happy hubby.

3. We think some people are starting to think we are weird. And that's a good thing.

Now off to do a grown-up thing and get our taxes done...

Does no debt = higher credit score?

I wasn’t planning on writing another blog post until next week, however, Shaina and myself were talking about how policies in the financial world today are set against those who are debt free. The specific topic being discussed was mortgage lenders and how they use the all powerful credit score to pretty much determine your future when it comes to buying a home. Bare with me, I just feel like ranting for a little bit.

After we pay off debt our next main goal is home ownership. In doing a little research on loan types, programs, down payment requirements, and so on, there’s one point that pretty much every lender takes into consideration, and that’s your credit score. In my opinion the credit score is one of the most backwards and flawed systems we have. Essentially your credit score is a numerical depiction of how you interact with debt. If there is a lot of interaction, meaning, that you a) have debt and b) make payments towards the debt, you will most likely have a higher score. Inversely, if there is no interaction, because you a) have no debt or b) you don’t make payments towards the debt, you will mostly likely have a lower credit score.

Now, does any of what I just said throw up a red flag? That’s right. If you have no debt, you will have a low credit score. Have no debt for long enough, and you will have no credit score at all. Obviously if you have debt and you stop making payments you’re probably deserving of the low score. But that’s not the part I have an issue with. Let me explain why I think this is a totally backwards system.

Mortgage lenders often use your credit score to assess risk. In other words they look at your score, see that you have interacted with, or made timely payments towards, some form of debt. They conclude that since history shows you made payments on other debts, the chances of you continuing to make payments are high, while the chance of you defaulting, or not making payments, on your home loan is considered low. Lenders will value that risk and will present you with an interest rate on your loan to compensate them for taking on whatever risk they feel you impose. The higher the risk, the higher the interest rate will be. For those who are declined, this usually this means that the lender has determined your risk to be too high. Now, there are obviously other factors that come into account such as debt to income ratios and so forth. However, credit scores are a major driver.

Let’s look now at someone who has no debt, but who also may have a very low or even now existent credit score. There are some lenders who are all "bad" and will look at this, take into account that the score is due to no debt, and will move on to accepting other forms of validating payment histories such as statements from landlords on rents paid, or letters from utility companies showing timely payments. However, you may have to search a while before finding a lender who will work with you like this.  In fact a lot of the major banks will probably look at you funny if you ask them that. As an example, after Shaina and I got married we went to open a joint checking account at the bank we both had previously banked at. During this process they asked us if buying a home was in our future. I assumed this was a sales pitch and was right. We said yes, but that it was still a few years out. But then the banker stated that at this particular bank, they like to see at least five lines of credit open and active to be considered for a home loan. Five! I really wanted to just laugh at him, but of course my mother didn't raise me that way.

So let’s recap: More debt = higher score, granted that the payments are made on time. No debt = lower score. In the eyes of the lender: higher score = less risk of the borrower defaulting; lower score = more risk of the borrower defaulting. I’ll let you make the decision on this for yourself, but who do you think is at more risk of defaulting on their debt, including the new home loan they just took on, say if they lost their job? Or in other words, who has the better chance of paying back the money the home owner borrowed? The perfect credit score who has a ton of debt with cash tied up in other minimum payments, or the low credit score with no debt, no financial obligations to anyone else, and who also has a history of PAYING OFF DEBT? Tough one, right? Not really, but apparently our society can’t seem to fathom the idea that anyone could survive without a credit score.

Keeping Your Money On a Leash

As year-end reporting slowly comes to a close at work, I have a few weeks of “down time” before quarter end reporting starts up. This time of year is especially draining, so I’m excited for it to soon be over. We have a few smaller filings to wrap up and submit to the SEC before we can officially say year-end is over, but the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter.

To keep with the promise in my previous post I thought I’d do another one this week and try and keep to the every-other-week time frame. Also, I know you all are dying to dig into more numbers (or not).

I thought I’d explain more about how we budget every month, not just that we have a budget meeting every month, but what exactly that entails, and how I record everything each month to ensure we stay on track.

First, when we sit down for our budget meeting we list out what we anticipate we will need to spend money on for that particular month. These items are separate from the expenses that we regularly pay each month, such as rent, utilities, minimum loan payments etc. I record the variable expenses in a spreadsheet and we assign a dollar value to each item based on what we think it will cost. I try and inflate this number slightly just to be safe. The worst thing we could do is estimate an item lower than what it’s actually going to cost, and then mess up the rest of the budget throughout the month. We need to be honest with ourselves when it comes to budgeting. More times than not, those with budgets that fail, are not truly being honest with what their spending habits are, and instead estimate what they hope to spend. Also, a myth about budgeting is that there is no room for fun, especially when you’re trying to pay off debt. The truth of the matter is that while the “fun” items probably need to be scaled back quite a bit, they don’t need to be cut out entirely. We simply need to account for them within the budget. An example expense list is as follows:

Note that I've split up the expenses into two groups. Since Shaina and I each get paid twice a month, once in the first half of the month and again during the second half, this helps me break down which paycheck these expenses will be coming out of. Also, to help me further visualize when these expenses will occur, I assign an estimated date. For example, even though our fuel budget is $130 for the first half of the month, I can easily see that between the two of us, we have $65 a week for gas. After these expenses are documented, I add them up into one of four categories; Fuel, Food, Dates, and Miscellaneous. Dates include any dinners or lunches out, not necessarily between just us, but also with friends, such as Shaina’s occasional coffee dates with her girlfriends. I then insert these totals into our master budget, along with our other regular expenses.

The type of budget that we use is called a zero balance budget. This type of budget, as the name would suggest, allocates our entire paycheck to some category, until the ending balance is zero, giving each dollar a “home” for that month. The benefit to this is that you will then know where your money is going. Too often, before this journey began, I would look at my bank account and wonder where my last pay check went. It was stressful and quite frankly annoying to be working so hard, and to constantly feel like I had no money to show for it. Another benefit of this type of budget is the ability to look back at the previous month’s budget, know where everything went, and have the ability to adjust amounts for the next month. If you had no idea where your money was going adjusting spending habits would be nearly impossible. An example of a zero balance budget for a given month, using example amounts, and also using the example variable expenses above, would be:

Once the amounts of the variable expenses are dropped in, that month’s budget is complete. The easy part is over; the hard part of sticking to it has just begun. Next post I’ll explain some tools that I use in tracking our overall expenses, as well as some tips on staying on top of food and gas spending that so far seem to be working.

Best Dog Ever

I want to take a bit of time to write about our dog, Mazi. She is one of the things in my life that puts a smile on my face every day, shows me unconditional love, and gives me constant companionship. As some of you know, she almost left my life three years ago. So on this “Throwback Thursday” (I usually never do #TBT, but oh what the heck), I want to share Mazi’s (abbreviated!) story.

On the night of January 31, 2011, Mazi ran away. No one will ever know what really happened, but we speculate that she chased a snowmobile on the trail behind the house. I wasn’t home at the time. When I made it back home my friend Megan came over and we started searching for her (along with many other people). We were driving around in my car looking for her and I had to pull over to throw up. I was that hysterical. 

 

For the next week or so, my family and close friends spent all our time searching for her, going door to door, calling all the shelters and vets, putting up signs, researching ways to find lost dogs, you name it. Some of those nights it dipped down to -20 degrees, so I was losing hope.  Being a boxer, she doesn’t have much fur to keep her warm. There were no sightings of her anywhere. You couldn’t even talk to me about it without me tearing up. At a certain point, I just wanted to know if she was alive or not. I couldn’t concentrate on anything during those days. You never know how quiet your house is or how much of a void there is in your life when your dog suddenly isn’t there anymore. 

On the night of February 8, 2011, I got a call from a woman saying that her family heard a dog crying in their woods and they thought it was Mazi (they saw the lost dog posters). The house was a couple miles away. Every time they would try and find where she was, she would stop crying. The family enlisted the help of another family in the neighborhood, along with their dogs. It was the dogs who eventually found Mazi. I was crying on the way to the house, not knowing what to expect. We had to trudge through a lot of deep snow to get to where Mazi was. She was curled up on an icy patch under a tree. She had to be carried out because she was so weak she couldn’t walk. Even though I could tell she was really out of it and in pain, she still licked me.

 After all was said and done, she spent a night at the emergency vet and a couple nights at our home vet. She lost 11 pounds, she had to have some of her teeth pulled because they got cracked (we sometimes call her the toothless wonder), she had to have surgery on her back hocks because they split open, and she had to wear bandages on her front two paws for many months because the pads completely fell off. Our vet doesn’t think she would have made it if she wasn’t found that night. 

I am so thankful that the people who searched for Mazi didn’t give up. If Mazi wasn’t found, then Nate and I wouldn’t be together. Mazi continues to bring so much love and joy into our lives every day. Plus, she is so goofy that she is a great form of cheap entertainment for us :) 

On a box of dog treats that we bought Mazi recently, there were these “Lessons to Learn from Our Dogs.” And yes, I cut it out and put it on the fridge. They are great everyday reminders for how you should live your life.

-Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy.
-When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
-Take naps and stretch before rising.
-Run, romp, and play daily.
-Eat with gusto and enthusiasm.
-Be loyal.
-Never pretend to be something you’re not.
-When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by, and nuzzle them gently.
-If what you want lies buried, dig for it.
-Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joy ride.
-Thrive on attention and let people hug you.
-Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
-On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.
-When you’re happy, dance around and wag your entire body.
-Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.

Who could not love this face?

Need to Be at Peace

Nate and I were talking before going to bed bed last night, like we usually do. Naturally, the topic of money came up. Sometimes I don’t understand the full extent of my emotions until I talk about them. I’m a quiet person so I don’t always say what’s on my mind. When we were talking about money, it made me realize just how angry I am. I was telling Nate how I’m kind of angry at myself for going to an expensive out-of-state school for two years (against my parent’s wishes—I guess they really do know better sometimes) and then transferring back home just to acquire a ton of debt as a result of the schooling. I go to work to pay off all the debt. And then if all goes according to plan, I will be a stay-at-home momma when we start a family. So, what was the freaking point of going to school in the first place? I know there are many good reasons for going to college, but you get my point. I’m angry because it’s like we don’t even have that money that goes towards the loans each month. It’s a lot of money, but it’s as if it was never ours to begin with. I’m angry that our apartment isn’t nicer, that we can’t buy a house, and that we can’t (shouldn’t) start a family. When you really look at it, though, these are anger issues that I’m causing for myself. As Nate pointed out to me, I’m not at peace with the way we have decided to live our life right now. He pointed this out to me because this is exactly the way he is feeling to. Even though we have consciously, deliberately decided to do this thing called paying off debt and that it is the best thing to do and that it will pay off in the long run—we aren’t at peace with it yet. We know what we should be doing and how we should do it, but we haven’t totally accepted it yet. We have to, or at least I do, accept it in our hearts and minds. With time and some personal work, then, hopefully I will be at peace with it.

I was doing some fact-checking at work the other day and came across this gem of a poem called “Don’t Quit” by Edgar Albert Guest. It really resonated with me. Read it. It’s good.

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
when the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
when the funds are low and the debts are high,
and you want to smile but you have to sigh,
when care is pressing you down a bit—rest if you must, but don't you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns.
As everyone of us sometimes learns.
And many a fellow turns about when he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow —you may succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than it seems to a faint and faltering man;
Often the struggler has given up when he might have captured the victor's cup;
and he learned too late when the night came down,
how close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out —the silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
and when you never can tell how close you are,
it may be near when it seems afar;
so stick to the fight when you're hardest hit—it's when things seem worst, you must not quit.

On a different note, tonight I made some super yummy peanut butter cookies. I gave some to the hubby when he was studying for the CPA exam…I think that put a little smile on a face.

Grown-Up Things

Since being married, one thing is for sure. You have to do a bunch of grown-up things. They are things you never think about doing until you have to do them. Things like getting a joint checking/savings account, combining insurances, and changing your name. Oh dear—changing your last name is such a pain in the butt. You need a bunch of documents to change one thing and then that new thing to change another thing, and so forth. It’s weird because I don’t feel old enough to have to do all of these things. But it also feels good to have all that done and for everything to be official official.

Another grown-up thing I’ve started doing is meal planning. I thought I would maybe meal plan when I had kids, just to be organized and all that. But, honestly, I have started doing it simply to stay within the budget for food. I do a two-week meal plan (just dinners), and it obviously makes grocery shopping easy because you know exactly what you need. When we are at the grocery store, I keep track of the grocery list on my phone and Nate uses his phone to keep track of the costs of all the food. Seriously. We only budget $110.00 every two weeks for food, so sometimes we put something back so we can get some ice cream. Priorities people, priorities. Another thing we do to save a little bit of money on food is go to Aldi for some items. I didn’t want to go there for the longest time for whatever reason, but I finally went and discovered that it’s totally worth it for some things. They have a heck of a deal on chips, granola bars, NUTS (so much cheaper than the other grocery stores!), some really good deals on some fruits and veggies, and brie. We are still kind of learning what is worth getting there, but it seems to be helping with the budget. Then we obviously go to the main grocery store to get everything else. It’s not glamorous, but it’s necessary.

Winter Blues

It’s been awhile since I've posted anything. Anyone who knows an accountant is familiar with this time of year being crazy busy, and to be honest, the last thing I really want to do after looking at numbers all day, is come home and look at more numbers. I must confess that sitting down and writing these posts out after a long day at work feels more like a college paper than anything. However, after a few many strong nudges from my lovely wife, here I am. Her encouragement for me to keep up with these posts speaks to the kind of woman I married. It’s a known fact that money issues, or differences in managing styles of money, lead to more divorces than any other reason. The inverse of that truth is then inherently also true; being on the same page, having open communication, and constantly supporting and encouraging each other when it comes to our financial lives should then produce healthy and growing marriages. I think this was a small example of this. The purpose of this blog was never directly linked to our ability or our wanting to pay off debt, but it was linked to our dedication to being a team. Being accountable to each other is the only way we will ever follow through with fully paying this off. And so, even though I may not want to always take the time to document this journey, keeping with what we agreed to do as a couple is far more important than any debt we will pay off.

Here is a brief summary of what we have done so far since first deciding to pay off our debt back in May of 2013. We didn't start making extra payments until after our wedding in October 2013, however, minimum payments still decreased the overall balance during that time so I decided to include that time as well. The rest of this post may get a little more technical, complete with tables and numbers, so I hope I don’t bore you too much, but I think it’s important to go over how we are making the extra payments that we are.

As a disclaimer, and as mentioned in a previous post, we were gifted some money back in November and without hesitation we threw it at the loans, so the overall amount paid includes this amount. However, it’s so encouraging to see the progress we've made in such a short time. It should also be mentioned that by no means has this journey been easy. Nothing good is ever easy. Otherwise there would be a lot more millionaires out there.    

I've always been one to create budgets, but making ones that I would stick to was a different matter. My theory was that I just liked creating spreadsheets more than budgets themselves. Jeez, nerd much? There is only one major difference between the budgets of the past and the budget that we do now and that is that each month we create an entirely new budget. Why? Well, obviously there are many fixed costs every month that don’t change, however, it’s the variable ones that will make or break a budget. Since every month is different, it made sense to create a new budget reflecting those differences. The last week of each month we have decided to sit down and have a “budget meeting”. This isn't as intimidating as it sounds. Simply put, we just talk about what types of things could come up in the next 30 or so days. Examples: birthday dinners, road trips to visit friends, vet visit for the pup, coffee with friends, haircuts, etc. After making a list of these things, we then adjust our budget accordingly.

The one thing to note is that we never go below a set amount of extra payments. For example, below is a table of the minimum payment amounts at the beginning of December. We felt comfortable to be able to pay an extra $1,100 payment each month. When added to the minimum payment amount, we get the total amount going to loans of $2,516.79. As we continue to pay off loans our minimum payment amounts will obviously go down, however, the overall amount going to loans should never go below the $2,516.79. This is outlined by us paying off one of the Fed Loans below, dropping our minimum payment by $21.63. This is then simply added to our extra payment amount keeping our overall payment amount unchanged. Some months we may decide that we are able to pay more than the $1,121.63 in extra payments due to the fact that we don’t anticipate having to spend money on birthday dinners or vet visit or what have you.

Whew, you made it. I know that kind of gets monotonous, but I wanted to briefly share how we approach our monthly budget and extra payment amounts. If anyone wants me to go into more detail exactly how we have our budget set up let us know! Shaina has a hard time keeping up with me when I start to ramble about the numbers, so I have to try and deliver them in short concise bits, so that I don’t lose her to Pintrest halfway through the conversation. But I'd be glad to dive in deeper. 

Before I wrap up, I am excited to say that at the end of March, pending a work bonus and our tax return, we will be able to pay off another loan, which is currently sitting at a balance of $4,661.09! I also hope to try and keep up with this better than I have been and post more about our change in routines when it comes to saving and spending money.   

-Nate

A Little Love Story

I thought I would share our “love story” since it is Valentine’s Day and all. As I’ve said before, Nate and I met online. I joined the site as a complete joke with my friends and was just having fun with it. One night, Nate messaged me saying that he has always wanted a boxer. I think I may have fallen in love with him right then. Just kidding. For the next week we talked constantly, getting to know more about each other. We had our first date a week after we first started talking. Before I left, I told my mom that I was going to meet my future husband. Not kidding.

I met Nate in a parking lot so that he could drive. Sounds kinda sketching doesn’t it, with us never meeting before and all? We went to downtown St. Paul. It was all pretty and glittery with lights everywhere and what not. I thought Nate had a plan of what we were going to do. No. Absolutely not. We start walking around like he can’t find the restaurant when he tells me he doesn’t know where we are going. I was like ummmmm, okay? The organizer and planner inside me was having a minor panic attack. He thought that there would be many restaurants to choose from. But there wasn’t. So he got out his freaking phone and was using GPS to find some restaurant. And we were walking along with the GPS. It’s funny when you think about it. I can’t remember who initiated it, but we held hands and it felt so natural. Eventually, we found a restaurant and had a great time, even though I nearly knocked down a string of lights inside when I was taking off my coat. To this day we can’t remember the name of the restaurant! We’ve tried Googling it, but nothing rings a bell. We keep on meaning to go walk around over there again to see if we can find it. When he dropped me off at my car later that night he kissed me. I was all the more convinced that I was going to marry him.

We hung out the next night too. From there we were always talking, hanging out, and learning more about each other. He would come over after work, not leave until 1:00, 2:00 in the morning, and be up for work again the next day. We also texted an obnoxious amount. I just couldn’t get enough of him. We talked about moving in together within two months of the relationship. We moved in together after about six months. Some may have thought that it was rushing things, but when you know, you know. I know that is an annoying saying, but it’s true. You just don’t realize it until it happens to you.

On our one year dating anniversary (mushy gushy, I know), Nate proposed (at 8:00 AM might I add). And on October 5 we got married! The day was so fun and filled with so much love.

I’m so blessed to have found a guy that is in this life with me together. We have the same dreams and goals and are looking forward to all the things that we will accomplish together. Through successes and failures, I know that I have a partner who will always be there for me, support me, respect me, and love me. 

 This is the first picture we ever took together.

 

This is one of the most recent pictures of us.