2014 Summer Bucket List

The days are longer, the sun is warmer, and the memory of a cold, dark winter is almost a forgotten memory. Summers are shorter than ever before with many schools moving to a balanced calendar, leaving a few months in the summer to cram in all the water-filled, outdoor fun! 

One of my favorite quoted is, " Fail to plan, plan to fail." Instead of letting the summer fly by without enjoying every last second, I created a Summer 2014 Bucket List!
( and I encourage you to make your own!) 
One of my weaknesses is planning ahead of time, so I'm hoping this will help Barry and I enjoy this summer to its fullest! 

2014 Summer Bucket List:

- Take a road trip: Planned for July 10th-13th

- Bike down town to an Indians game

- Enjoy a walk around the canal

- Relax around a pool for an afternoon- Done! 6/21

- Walk/Bike to Yogulatte with Smokey

- Attend a free summer concert at Meadowood Park

- Go to the Indianapolis Zoo 
- Have a picnic in the park 
- Sleep outside ( maybe some backyard camping?) 
- Watch a movie outside 
- Run through the sprinkler on a hot day
- Host several outdoor cookouts

- Gather a group of friends to play sand volleyball at Meadowood park
- Run a 5k race: Done! 6/21 Hession Family 5k
- Makes S'mores over a campfire : 6/28 Mattingly S'more Party
- Take pictures with our nice camera
- Host a block party
- Go hiking and swimming at Eagle Creek
- Watch fireworks on the 4th of July

- Spend a day on Morris Lake with friends: 7/4
- Go to the drive-in 
-Watch the sunrise/sunset



I'm sure there will be more added but it's a start! We have even accomplished some of these since I first started this blog draft in early June :)

What is on your Summer 2014 Bucket List?

Paying CASH for a new driveway and porch!

If you have read any of my blogs or know us personally, you probably realize that we made some serious changes last November 2013. We read the Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey and everything he said in that book clicked with both of us. The stories were inspiring and we knew we wanted to live a life of debt freedom. The only problem was that in June 2013 we purchased a 2011 GMC Terrain for me and in September 2013 a truck for Barry, which quickly increased our debt by $40,000! Whoops!

((We are in the early stages of a plan to cut this debt in half.. check back for a blog post about that next month!))

Anyways, in November 2014, we started our Debt Snowball with over $68,000 in debt that we wanted to tackle by July 2015. This would require sacrifice, commitment, and lots of team work, but we were ready for the challenge! Our plan changed slightly in February/March 2014 when we knew we needed to update our warn and weathered driveway and sidewalk. We were hoping to push this off until we were debt free, but Old Man Winter had a different game plan. As much as we both, I hated it, we had to put our debt snowball on hold for a little more than 2 months to save up the cash to pay for the project.

On Monday, May 12th, our old driveway was hauled away and anew driveway and porch were put in! It took 10+ men and a full  day of work to complete this project... along with several neighbors stopping by to check out what all the noise was about ;)

 

 On Saturday, May 17th, we went to the bank to pull the money we needed out of our savings. It was such a large amount that they took us into a small room in the back to count it privately. It was a great feeling to know that we had worked and saved enough money to pay for this project in cash. 

Since completing this project, we are back on our debt snowball! My student loan is quickly vanishing and should be gone by the end of the summer! :) 

The finished project

How are your spring projects coming along? We are happy to be done and looking forward to enjoying the summer on our new porch and beautiful backyard!

- Sarah 

"The difference in who you are and who you want to be is what you do"- April 2014 in Review :)

It's May in Speedway, IN, the weather is warm, and life is good!
 April was a busy and exciting month for Barry and I. After the depression finally left us from not going to Fort Myers for Spring Break, we enjoyed some warmer weather, birthdays, and time with friends and family! We are looking forward to all the fun that May brings, but first, let's look back on April.

Here's a rundown of April 2014:


Saturday, April 5th:Barry had his first Crossfit competition at Crossfit Castlewood! There were 5+ teams from Crossfit 317 (Barry's gym) competing which made it even more fun. After three tough workouts, we headed downtown to enjoy a night at the Embassy Suites for a "stay cation". We enjoyed a free meal at Weber Grill, thanks to Tony and Nicole, the owners of Anytime Fitness Speedway, as a gift for my one year work anniversary last May 2013 :) We finally put it to good use.. and still have some money leftover to go back! 
                   

April 12th-April 13th: The Spring projects began! Barry worked on our fire pit project while I sanded, deglossed, and painted our kitchen cabinets. With the help of Robbie Linville, we were able to replace our kitchen sink, counter tops, and range hood. In addition, he put up a beautiful back splash and hung our newly painted cabinets. It's about 90% complete and we LOVE it! 

 

April 15th: We celebrated Barry's 36th birthday...

with burritos from Taco 46 (our new obsession)

 & by painting cabinets! :)  He's a lucky guy! LOL

April 19th:  We celebrated the retirement of Coach Pelley, Speedway's football coach of over 30+ years and a good friend, at the Legion with a lot of our close Speedway friends. He coached my younger brother Jonny and Barry coached with him in his early years as a teacher at Speedway. One of my favorite things about living in Speedway is the community/support system. This was a great evening. 

  

April 24th: I was able to "Volunteer like No One Else" at the Dave Ramsey Legacy Live Event at Trader's Point! This event was amazing and I was able to see it all for FREE...plus a FREE dinner! Seeing this event and hearing Dave and his daughter speak just reiterated why we are following the Baby Steps. It was great to meet other like-minded people and hearing their stories. I look forward to volunteering at future events, but hopefully the next time I see Dave is when we are giving our debt free scream at Martha's Place in Nashville, TN next spring!

April 26th: We had a blast downtown Indy celebrating Eric Mattingly's 30th birthday! We biked around downtown for 2+ hours, stopping at different sites around town including Monument Circle, Mass Ave, and Kilroy's. We had a blast :) 



Now a recap of the 2014 goals I set back in January. If you haven't read that yet, click here ---> 2014 Goals<----
January Part 1 & Part 2
February Recap:Part 1 & Part 2
March Recap

1. Debt: Since starting our Debt Snowball in November 2013, we have paid off over $23,500 of debt while paying cash for a new driveway and a kitchen remodel! It's such an amazing feeling to see how much progress we have made over these past 6 months, even though we still have a way to go! To stay motivated, I listen to Dave Ramsey's podcast every day, Dave Ramsey's Radio Show, and daily look at our visual aid I created. It's a visual thermometer that we color in as we pay down our debt. I placed this on the refrigerator to force us to look at this EVERY DAY. This helps to remind us why we are having to say "No" to things now in order to say "Yes" to a whole lot more later :)

2. Advocare: Our Advocare business is at the Silver level that pays us $1,000 a month in residual income, which is absolutely amazing. Every dime that we make with Advocare goes towards our debt. Our goal is still to achieve the next level of leadership, Gold, which pays on average $38,000 a year. We are currently focusing more on starting our family than growing our business, but continue to help others on our team and helping our friends and family enjoy the products.

3. Dogs  No new Weims in our future. We have (for now) decided to work on making a baby and then MAYBE getting another Weim. For now, enjoy these pics of our crazy Smokey boy :)

            

           Helping Mom paint the cabinets

      

                Sleepy after a long walk in the Coke Field

4. Baby Making Plans: We met with our fertility doctor at the end of April and came up with May's game plan! We are going to have our first IUI! Barry and I are both cautiously optimistic about this month and appreciate all the prayers, love, and support from our family and friends :) 

What are your 2014 goals? Do you have them written down? How's your progress?
- Sarah - 

5 Tips for Making it all work... one baby step at a time!

Ever since I was young, I've always been frugal with my money. I'm a natural saver, what Dave Ramsey would refer to as a "Nerd." I always look for a deal and rarely pay full price for anything. Now that we have a plan and are working our Debt Snowball (Baby Step #2) we are intentional about how and what we spend our money on more than ever!

 

We started our journey in November 2013 and have since paid off over $20,000 of debt! We cash flowed a kitchen renovation in April 2014 and a new cement driveway that will be put in this month. We have made plenty of mistakes, but there are 5 tips that help keep us on track..

 

5 Tips to Spend Less/Save More:
 

1.  Follow a written budget: This is probably the most important way to save money. A budget is simply telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went. Our budget changes each month depending on what we have going on (ex. weddings, birthdays, etc) We make sure every dollar is "spent" before the month begins and discuss this BEFORE the month begins. We do this together and make changes until we both agree on it 100%.

To take it a step farther, we have weekly budget meetings to discuss our spending habits that week and make sure we are on track. If we are heading down a spending spree, the weekly meeting helps derail that and gets us back on track :)

2. Use cash whenever possible: We use the envelope system for all categories in our budget that we can easily overspend such as groceries, eating out, miscellaneous, and our spending cash. It's impossible to spend what you don't have!

We have had months were we didn't use cash and it NEVER ends well. How much easier is it to swipe your debit card for $150 vs handing over that amount in cash? Answer: A LOT 
There is an emotional exchange when you use money and see that going away when you are buying something. If you don't believe me, try this for one month. I can bet you will spend less with cash than debit/credit.

3. Cook 19 of 21 meals a week at home. This will not only save you tons of cash, but your health and waistline will thank you. Eating at home means you are going to the grocery store, planning out what you will eat, and preparing these meals yourself. This enables you to control portions, ingredients, etc to your nutritional goals. I like to meal prep everything on Sunday afternoon. I cook everything we will eat for the week for lunch and dinner and then put everything into our cute Tupperware containers. (This isn't our actual frig- but it looks pretty close) Again, I would recommend trying this for at least a week and see how easier your week goes by and how much less you spend eating out.

 

4. Cut your kiddos/husbands hair: Barry was getting his hair cut every couple weeks at Great Clips which cost about $15/haircut, which is over $500 a year! Instead, we purchased Wahl's Haircut Kit for $20 which paid for itself the first month.

As for me, I tried going to Great Clips a couple times and using store bought hair dye, but I finally caved and went back to my awesome hair dresser, Sherri, in January. She has done my hair for over 10 years and is amazing! Now, I apply the money Barry would have used to my hair cuts and we are still saving over $500 a year (Win Win!)

5. Pick one event per weekend to splurge on: If we know we have an event Saturday evening, we will make it a point to grill out and hang around the house on Friday evening. Look ahead at your week and decide (together if you are married) what you want to spend your money on and where you can save, especially on the weekends. Make use of your own house and invite your friends over instead of going out.

We have made plenty of mistakes these past six months, but we learn from them and keep moving forward...one baby step at a time :)

 

 

I'd love to hear from you! How does your family save money every month?

Where do you splurge?

Where do you cut back and save?

"If you have food, friends, and a comfortable place to live, you are all set to live an incredible life."

"If you have food, friends, and a comfortable place to live, you are all set to live an incredible life. Everything you buy, and every experience and commitment you add to the plate beyond this point is a trade off: a guaranteed reduction in cash and free time, in exchange for a possible increase in thrills delivered by fun or novelty."-Mr.Money Mustache

I read this quote last week after reading an article I found on msn.com about a man and his wife who retired at 30 years old. I was immediately intrigued. How does someone retire at this age? Why are most people struggling to pay their bills and working into their late 60's and 70's and this guy managed to work for a taxing 9 whole years?

As I read more about this Mr. Money Mustache, I realized he didn't do anything fancy to retire at this young age. He cut out all extra expenses, biked to work, and saved every dime he could towards retirement. By 30 years old, he was a self-made millionaire. 

His quote (and many of his blogs) spoke to me in many ways. As Barry and I have been working hard on our budget, reading financial books, and discussing money on a nearly daily basis, we have realized many things. 

Three things we have learned:

1. Debt is normal... and we don't want to be normal. 

2. Most people, including us, overspend each month (and then justify it, of course!)

3. Most of us don't realize how truly blessed we are with what we already have. 

The idea of cutting expenses is rarely discussed. Most people are so worried about how much money they make a year, what type of raise they will receive, and/or when the latest iPhone is coming out that they rarely think about how much money they are spending. 

Here's a couple tips that have helped us to cut costs:

1. Grocery shopping: We try and buy most of our bulk items at Costco such as toiletries, chicken, eggs, Greek yogurt, almond milk, etc. Food items that go bad (mostly fresh fruit and vegetables), we purchase at Aldi. (Gotta support my cousin, Erika!) This saves us quite a bit of money and saves us from spending lots of time clipping coupons.

 

2. Negotiate phone/Internet/cable: We contemplated cancelling our cable altogether, but realized we would spend more money in the long run by going to restaurants to watch all the sporting events we enjoy such as the Colts, Pacers, and Dodgers. Instead, Barry called AT&T and discussed different plans and ended up cutting our bill by over $50! 

(and increased our Internet speed...Double win!)

3. Complete home improvements: We started a kitchen remodel this past weekend consisting of refinishing/painting cabinets, replacing the oven range and sink facet, along with a new kitchen counter top. Many of these items aren't anything we are skilled to do on our own, but I knew we could do the painting of the cabinets. We are still working on this daily, but the final project should be finished this weekend. Barry also completed a fire pit project this weekend that looks amazing! (And for less than $100!) 

Here's a sneak peak of the renovation.. and the inside of our cabinets LOL :)

Six months into our Total Money Makeover, I feel like our thoughts, actions, and focus has completely shifted. Before, we rarely thought about how much money we spent eating out with friends on the weekend, during our monthly trip to Costco (filling two carts on one memorable occasion), and on miscellaneous items throughout the month. We rarely said "No" to any event or invitation. 

Our goal of our Total Money Makeover is to pay off all our debt as soon as possible

 (updated goal is mid February 2015) to enable me to be a stay at home Mom when the time comes. I also want to build a simple lifestyle for our family that doesn't focus on the things we have, but the experiences and the time we spend together. Having a solid plan for the future has strengthened our marriage and I'm forever grateful we have taken this step together. 

Do you or your family have a budget? What sacrifices have you made to help reach your financial goals? Where do you see yourself or family in 1, 3, and 5 years from today?