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A new week, two new Baby Steps!

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Just as the photograph suggests, we are DONE with Baby Step 3! Wahoo!

Having 6 months worth of savings means should we both lose our jobs tomorrow, we’ll be able to cover our monthly expenses for 6 months without having to work a single day. Add in any residual income that I earn on a monthly basis, and we’ll be golden. Fingers crossed we’re never put into this situation but it’s worth reminding the world that emergencies happen. Life happens.

Here’s a recap of our progress:

  • Baby Step 1: Save $1,000 – DONE! Finished August 2017
  • Baby Step 2: Pay off all consumer debt – DONE! Finished in December 2018, $89k paid off in 16 months!
  • Baby Step 3: 3-6 month emergency fund – DONE! Finished June 2019, 6 months of expenses saved!
  • Baby Step 4: Invest 15% of income toward retirement – NOW UNTIL RETIREMENT
  • Baby Step 5: Save for college for kids – SKIP! (We don’t have kids.)
  • Baby Step 6: Pay off mortgage – Sorry SEFCU, you aren’t going to earn much interest from us! 
  • Baby Step 7: Live and give like no one else!

That means we’re up to Baby Step 6 on the list!

For the first time ever (yes, it’s true) I’ll be investing toward my retirement. And for the first time in a long time (we’re talking a decade), the beau will be able to start re-contributing to his. I can’t tell you happy this makes me feel – I was dancing this morning as we re-capped our investing plans, which will begin in July. And for those of you who are interested, here’s a quick breakdown of what that’ll look like for us:

  • Me: I’ll be maxing out a Roth IRA and then I’ll be contributing to a 457b plan (deferred compensation which is offered by my employer). Even though my position is not a state position, we are a member of the NYS Retirement System, so it is and has been mandatory that I participate (aka invest) into that. That figure is NOT calculated into the 15% I’ll be investing – so in reality, I’ll be investing 19.5% of my income.
  • The beau: his employer offers a 401k match! He’ll be investing the minimum to receive the maximum amount of match and then fully funding his Roth IRA.

Both of our paychecks will become significantly smaller but that’s okay – in fact, that’s great news for us! That’s money we aren’t going to have to think about from this point forward and is going to grow and grow and grow (the majority of it tax free) for our futures. This step won’t end for us until we hit retirement. We’ll continue to invest 15% of our gross income from now until then, making changes as we earn more.

Baby Step 5 is saving for college for any children that you may have. We’re both happy to be skipping this step, ha!

Baby Step 6 includes paying off your mortgage – can you even imagine?! We took out a 30 year mortgage with SEFCU back in October 2016. If we’re like many other Baby Steppers, we should have our home paid off within the next 5 years. That’s in 2024! That means we would shave off 22 years of interest payments! Ay-oooooo! If we were to keep our gazelle intensity, I know we could do it within 3 years but here’s why that won’t happen (with our financials as is): because we don’t want to live that way for another 3 years. Ha!

Our mortgage payment is only like $400 a month, if that. The remaining amount (like $650) each month is taxes… and those are something we’re going to have to pay forever. I’m not complaining and yes, I’d like an extra $400 in my pocket each month but I guess because it’s not a larger amount, I’m less gazelle about it. But the idea of selling our house and getting ALL THAT CASH is a great motivator!

We’re also going to be saving for other items during these two baby steps, so we won’t consistently have a lot of cash to dump toward the mortgage each month. Examples of such items include:

  • a new couch for our living room (Kitty oh so kindly peed on our current couch on the regular toward the end of his life and we don’t use it and wouldn’t expect anyone else to use it while visiting)
  • a new back deck because it’s starting to sag oh so unsafely
  • a new (used) desktop computer because the beau hasn’t had one for over a year now – as a graphic designer, this is a need ha ha
  • finish our upstairs bathroom because we’ve had exposed drywall since February 2018 (new everything except the tub)
  • travel! I’d love the opportunity to take two big trips a year
  • oh and remember the section of roofing that was leaking during BB2? We’d like to fix that / room as well
  • a new car. Neither one of us needs a new car right now but eventually I will. My car is now 11 years old – I bought it brand new off the lot – and my goal is to have it until 2023 (15 years!). Cars are expensive, so we’re going to start squirreling cash away each month NOW so that LATER we won’t be scrambling.

The list is never ending as an adult, right? And while the list grows, so does our trust that this plan works. There is absolutely nothing wrong with saving up money for something. In fact, I think it makes you appreciate whatever it is you’re saving up for even more. It also gives you a lot of time to think about what you want / research all of your options. We haven’t had the money to buy a couch yet but we’ve been looking for months. It not only motivated us to stick to our budget to finish BB3 as fast as possible, but it’s given us time to shop around until we find one that’s juuuuust right. We haven’t found it btw, the deck has been bumped up to be our first saving priority.

Something else that’s changing this month that’s been weighing heavy on my heart over the last 8 months or so is our budget line to GIVE. Dave Ramsey talks about this extensively throughout his program and honestly it was something we didn’t connect with, not having the same faith background. He suggests tithing 10% of your income throughout your entire debt free journey. I couldn’t wrap my head around that concept until I met a couple doing just that. They make less than the beau and I AND STILL GAVE AWAY 10% of their income. And yes, they are debt free! Each and every time I watch lesson 9 of FPU I cry and get worked up with anticipation of doing more. The time has finally come.

We are officially giving 10% of our gross income! It’s built into our July budget and ready to be implemented. Because neither one of us are of faith, we will not be giving this money to a church but to other causes and organizations. We’re opening a separate savings account to deposit this cash in to and as we see fit, will put the money to good use. Top on my personal list is a lifetime membership to the ADK 46ers, mostly because I’m always behind on my annual $10 payment, ha! I’m also looking forward to sponsoring a child for summer camp via a local organization – I’m telling you, the possibilities are endless! I LOVE thinking about making a difference, no matter the size. Think about it, if you had say, $1,000 a month to gift to someone or some organization, what would you do with the cash? DR has this amazing visual that I love sharing:

Picture yourself holding a handful of $100 bills. You’ve got a tight grip on that cash, not allowing any of it to “get away” from you. Essentially, your hand is making a fist, holding on to that cash so tightly. This is the grip of someone living paycheck to paycheck, unable to save, unable to help their community. That fist is a symbol even a dog can recognize. That fist doesn’t allow money to leave your palm, but it also doesn’t allow any more to enter.

I don’t know how much I’ll be sharing from this point forward on a monthly basis on this platform, as I know progress will be slow in Baby Step 6, but you better believe we’ll be walking the walk. And once we get to the halfway mark on the mortgage, I’ll keep you posted. I’m a true believer in the budget and will continue to make one for the rest of my life, regardless of how much income we earn. It feels pretty surreal to be at this point, saving 15%, giving 10%, paying off our mortgage (who does that in their 30s?!) and living life to the max. But let me tell you, it feels pretty damn good.

It’s day 176 of 2019, which means there are only 189 days left of the year. That happened REAL FAST. If there’s one thing I’ve learned throughout this entire process is that time goes by, regardless of whether or not your working the baby steps. Regardless of whether or not you’re training for a race. Losing the weight. Eating organic, whatever your next goal may be. Make your days count.

February + March Recap

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So here’s the thing about my opinion re: all things debt:

  • it’s my personal opinion (influenced by Dave Ramsey, yes), not yours, and if you ask to hear my opinion or help, there’s no reason to get defensive if you don’t agree with me
  • it’s not a professional opinion, as I am not a professional financial adviser
  • it’s personal but has proven to work for us AND THOUSANDS OF OTHER PEOPLE

Just had to get that off of my chest before diving into the recap. I’ve been putting it all out there for over a year now and I’m well aware that what we’ve done / currently doing is not the norm and doesn’t align with everyone’s views on money, credit cards, debt, etc..

I know we’re weird as Dave puts it. And I know a lot of you want to be weird too because you’ve told me.

Everyone keeps asking me how. Here’s the thing: we became debt free by deciding to become debt free. If you’ve been following along, you know that we made a lot of sacrifices and said no to a lot. Getting out of debt was hard work, every single day sticking to a budget BUT it was a whole lot easier than making excuse after excuse and staying in debt. And I get it, getting to the actual point to take action AND following through with your plan is probably the hardest step. It took me YEARS of following the Dave-ish plan – while racking up more credit card debt – until it just clicked and we ran and never looked back.

Can you tell I’m sick of people reaching out to me, making excuses and wasting my time? I make zero dollars when I teach FPU. I make zero dollars when I respond to your private messages. I make zero dollars when I reply to your texts.

And don’t get me wrong, I LOVE receiving the texts and messages from friends and acquaintances who are rocking the baby steps and want to update me on their progress. Keep ’em coming! But I can’t stand the people who talk the talk but can’t walk the walk… month after month after month. I’m just not welcoming that in my life anymore. Bye, Felicia!

Like many changes in one’s life, there needs to be a mentality shift.

If you want to lose weight, you have to be committed to changing your diet in order to see the weight come off.
If you want to run a marathon, you have to be committed to running a shit-ton of miles / following a training plan to cross the finish line.
If you want to be debt free, then your spending habits must change.

Numbers (weight, miles and savings) change when YOU change.

And you have to be fully committed. You can’t eat healthy for a week and expect lifetime results. You can’t run 4 miles and expect to cross the finish line of a half marathon and feel good. Been there, done that, ha!

This is my motivational, get off your ass or shut up speech.

Back to the recap:

February and March weren’t high savings months for us, but for good reason… we’re paying cash for our summer holiday! Yes, it’s true, DR doesn’t suggest taking a holiday until you’re debt free with a fully funded emergency fund, but we’re flexing the plan for a once in a lifetime opportunity to eat a vegan meal at NOMA. Ahhhh! We’re still in disbelief that we even got a table for two! Total so far we’ve spent just over $2300 for our flights, dinner reservation and our accommodations (a hostile and Airbnb). Traveling on a budget posts to follow once we’re back and prove it can be done, ha!

We also lived a tiny bit.

  • The beau and I each got a haircut
  • We had taken Kitty to the vet.
  • We celebrated my dad’s birthday
  • We had car things pop up: an inspection and registration
  • We each bought new sneakers and the beau got a few new items of clothing for work
  • And we splurged(I’m kidding) and got new sheets for our bed from HomeGoods and mousetraps + lawn bags from Home Depot

Livin’ it up I tell ya!

We’re still using the envelope / cash method (for groceries, eating out/alcohol, gifts, car insurance and personal cash) and I’m still on the meal planning bandwagon. We’ve even thrown in a little twist on the envelopes: if we have any cash leftover at the end of the month, we’re putting it into our change jar. We usually roll the change at the end of each year, but we figured we’d do it right before our holiday and use whatever’s in there as spending money. Boom! It won’t be much but it’ll be nice for those times when we don’t want to spend money – like in the airport on food. It’s so expensive to eat in airports! This time there’ll be zero guilt.

Oh, and food wise, I’m now buying organic as much as I can. Yes, it is slightly more expensive however since the 21 day processed food / sugar cleanse that I completed, I’ve been buying far less processed food items – so I’m essentially transfer buying. Spending less on the easy, processed stuff, and spending more on healthier, real food items. Still 100% plant based and still 100% within budget.

Because I’m finishing this post two month’s after starting it, I can disclose that we’re getting basically nothing back in taxes this year – which we prefer. And by nothing I mean like $300. We’d rather have our hard-earned cash NOW (or on a monthly basis) rather than loaning it to the government, interest free for a year, then getting it as a giant lump sum. We’ve found our sweet spot with deductions to allow us to basically break even. Being debt free and an emergency fund sure does change your outlook on specific things!

Speaking of things, our emergency fund is now 47% funded – wahoo! My goal is to have it fully funded by July 1st because we’d like to start investing in retirement ASAP and we’ve got a couple of home projects we’d like to complete this summer. Our deck needs to be replaced and while we’re at it, we’d like to install french doors / replace the sliding glass door that doesn’t have a screen and leaks cold air into our home like woah. It’ll take us a couple of months to save up that cash while investing, so we’ve got to buckle down and pinch those pennies!

Another two months in the books… and another one more than half-way completed. Baby Step 3 is far more difficult for me than Baby Step 2 mentally, because I am a spender and want to relax and shop, but we’ve got goals and I’m not shopping until we hit them!

ONE YEAR! August in Review

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Holy smokes! This past year has FLOWN by! Flown by. I remember starting this process and thinking 12-16 months seemed so far into the future, but here we are. Twelve months later and a shit ton of debt behind us. We’re doing it! I knew we could but I didn’t expect these kinds of monthly numbers.

$70,531.27 paid off in one year. Just twelve months! That’s an average of $5,878 paid toward debt per month; talk about hustling!

In August alone, we paid off $5,175.16 or 21.82% of our remaining debt. That means we only have $18,544.18 remaining! Another milestone: less than $20k to go! (Isn’t it sad that $20k of debt doesn’t seem like a lot?!) The student loan that we are snowballing right now started off at $16,656.09 last September and is now only $1,520.67. Blows.my.mind! These last two student loans seemed so daunting a year ago, being the largest, but I can now picture them gone and friends, the end is near.

But Murphy did pay a visit to us this month, which reminded us that big expenses can creep up at any moment.

Our 27″ iMac shit the bed. Like, can never be used ever, ever again. As of recently, we’ve been using this computer to stream shows/movies. But more importantly, this is how the beau has been freelancing/side hustling. Ugh. I still have my old mac laptop from college, so we are going to push it to see how long we can hold off from purchasing another desktop computer and in the meantime, back up all of our work and photographs.

Also, my iPhone 5S went crazy. No more texting, receiving texts, photographs, using the alarm/clock app or any app for that matter. I’ve been wanting the iPhone SE for a while now, especially for taking photographs while hiking, but am holding out until Apple releases their newest phone… which will drop the price of the SE. Hopefully this purchase will happen in September, as I also need a phone to navigate my upcoming trail race. You better believe I’ll be paying cash; no leasing cell phones in our household.

And in true transparency I have to admit that we did not stick 100% to our budget in August. Here are the items we purchased with cash that weren’t originally budgeted for:

  • mouse traps (I caught three – remind me again why we have a house cat? Especially when said mice are eating the cat’s food!)
  • a CL50 hiking map
  • epsom salts
  • hair product for the beau
  • renewed my ARE membership
  • fire tower patch / registration
  • towing fee / uber charge

Yeah, the beau’s car got towed. That “oh we’ll go out for just one beer downtown because I deserve it after a long hike” turned into quite the expensive beer. P.s… we had two. ($200+ night FYI)

Here’s a quick recap of the budget lines that didn’t end up as planned, the good and the bad:

  • Our cell phone bill was even cheaper than last month! I have no clue why and even called, but gave up when the representative gave me a nasty tone. I figured I shouldn’t argue over an unexpected discount. Honey my friends! A $12.39 savings (total bill was only $73.23)
  • Gas: even though I’ve upped this line from $120 to $160, I still went over by $36. Once again I blame hiking and know this will decrease once training for my race is over (so, so soon!).
  • Essential oils: I budget $300 each month and in August I only spent $114. I’m being very conscientious of our oil use and basically only ordering supplements from now until the end of the year. More on that via Instagram. $186 savings!
  • Eating out / alcohol: we only ate out together once this month with friends but did consume a lot of alcohol, including the Nine Pin 26er challenge, cider at Indian Ladder Farms after one of my weekly ARE STRS runs, the expensive beer night out mentioned above, a beer and dinner out in Tupper Lake after hiking the Saranac 6, I had a reasonable dinner out with a friend visiting from Delaware, a backyard fire with friends, and a night out at the Schagheticoke Fair. $99.73 over to be exact, and worth every penny. ($195 originally budgeted)

Speaking of the fair, we both love this one! This was our third year going and I love more that it’s becoming an annual tradition. We decided to go on opening night because it was only a $1 to get in, all of the rides were just one ticket ($1), and each food vendor had a $1 menu. Hot diggity dog! I like wandering through the barns to see all the animals, especially the chickens, checking out the exhibits and of course, seeing all the lights once the sun goes down. The rides creep me out and yes, I get more nauseous the older I get, but I love going on the ride that blasts the music and spins so fast you smush the rider you’re with. Oh and the giant slide where you sit on a sack… but they didn’t have that one this year.

Other free/cheap entertainment throughout the month: we got 4 free tickets to see the Philadelphia Orchestra perform the soundtrack to the Red Violin at SPAC from my place of employment (this is how I also saw the Cuban & NYC ballet this summer with my mom), we got 2 free tickets to a Tri-City Valley Cats game – a box, free bevvies and food, fireworks and this is where I found the diamond! from the beau’s place of employment and we also took a couple short hikes together locally to do some mushroom foraging.

Grocery-wise, we did great this month! We even had $6 leftover in our food envelope ($294 to start). With the Denison CSA and our garden, we’ve been overloaded with veggies and just pairing them with rice and pasta… both very budget-friendly carbs. And despite the heavy portions, my waistline doesn’t seem to mind – it’s even happier eating in season – as I’ve managed to lose 3 pounds. Not that that was my goal, I’ve just noticed by the way my pants feel. Riding this veggie high into September!

Feeling powered by plants: I ran only 62.2 miles this month. I also hiked 34.2 miles! Total: 96.4 miles. Admittedly I’m kind of over this training cycle and slogging out long miles. I’ve never looked forward to training for a 10k so much before in my life, ha! Two more weeks until my 50k – and typical taper feelings alllllll the way. Right now I’m just hoping it’s not a 90* day with full humidity – I’m ready for the autumn-like (cooler) temps!

My second FPU class begins tonight (!) with 5 more people looking to change their future. I couldn’t be more excited for them and what I’m about to witness over the next 9 weeks.

Oh! And with the new month, we’ll also be participating in the 30-day minimalism game. I didn’t think we had a lot of stuff but then I took a look into one of our closets, extra bedroom and unused office… all filled with stuff! We either need to find a home for them (put art up on the walls, etc) or toss it! We shall see how far we make it; less is definitely more.

May in Review!

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May was a FABULOUS month for us!

Not because of our numbers, well, those helped too, but because I started teaching my first Financial Peace University class. I was nervous because I had never attended the class let alone led one, and because the response was lower than I expected. Our small group is pretty open with each other, not something that is required to attend the class FYI, but I think has really brought us closer. It’s a judgement-free zone and we make sure each of us leaves confident for the next step / week ahead of us. Nine weeks sounded daunting as I was making the decision to commit but we’re half-way through the course already and trying to figure out how we’re all going to stay connected when it’s over. And if you’re curious, I will most likely be teaching another class this fall! It won’t be free and it won’t be in my home — but I can promise that it’ll be just as good!

Now let’s get to the numbers!

Our income increased this month, which helped us DUMP cash toward debt! If you can’t cut your spending any further than it already is, you’re only other option is to earn more to make a dent in the process. I participated in Market Research one evening, I received a Young Living check, and the beau took on freelance work.

This month we reduced our principle balance by $10,785.23 or 22.53%!!! To date, we’ve paid off $51,992.72 or 58.37%!!! in 9 months! We only have $37,082.73 in debt left to pay off and to meet our goal, we need to keep this momentum up, big time.

To put things into perspective:

  • In September 2017, our monthly minimum payments totaled $718.27
  • As of June 1st, our monthly minimum payments are only $194.20

That means if an emergency were to happen and we needed to stop the snowball, only $194.20 would be needed to cover minimum debt payments. Not too shabby!

A lot of people are curious how we eat and stay on budget. We only plan our dinners, here was our meal plan for the 1st thru the 15th:

  • Mondays: fajitas
  • Tuesdays: veggie stir fry
  • Wednesdays: taco pasta
  • Thursdays: BBQ tempeh with a crockpot green bean casserole and sweet potato fries
  • Fridays: tofu & broccoli + a birthday dinner out
  • Saturdays: dinner out at a Mets game + tofu & broccoli
  • Sundays: king oyster mushroom pulled pork sammies + a Mother’s Day lasagna

My mom had been requesting this lasagna for months, so I offered to make it as an early Sunday dinner. I made the sauce and roasted the veggies ahead of time during the week so that it would be less to do on Mother’s Day (more time spent with my mom).

This was our second time making the pulled “pork” sandwiches via Bosh = so good! And we had enough leftovers for another meal, so we froze the cooked mushrooms…. we shall see how those hold up! I’ve never frozen mushrooms before, I’m hoping they’ll be okay and then we can just cook ’em up in the air fryer.

Oh yeah, we won an air fryer! Whoop whoop! Culinary Square had a giveaway for TNO and I entered after picking up a bridal shower gift. We’ve fried mushrooms, gyoza, sweet potatoes, chicken-less tenders, eggplant, zucchini, tofu and russet potatoes (home fries) – this thing is awesome! The beau tends to use more oil than I do (but he does get things a lot crispier than I do), so I was excited to use this device and cut back on oil. LOVE IT!  

The beau requested I buy canned green beans for the casserole because fresh or frozen were still too crunchy for him. Confession: I had never purchased canned green beans (or any canned vegetable for that matter). I was a skeptic at 40 cents a can but I have to admit, they were delicious! Yes, these canned beans were not organic and yes, they were in a can but I have to remind myself that these are the sacrifices we are making now so that we can invest more later. Don’t judge… at least we’re getting a serving of veggies.

Our meal plan for the 16th thru the 31st:

  • Mondays: tempeh jalapeno wraps with roasted broccoli
  • Tuesdays: veggie stir fry
  • Wednesdays: pasta with TVP sauce and roasted asparagus
  • Thursdays: Chinese takeout + tofu + broccoli
  • Fridays: tofu + broccoli + loaded potatoes
  • Saturdays: eggplant parm + loaded potatoes
  • Sundays: southwest quinoa burgers + tater tots

This month we cash flowed ($585) a CSA with Denison Farm – all USDA certified organic and I have to admit, I’m a little nervous about it. I’ve been rocking the whole meal planning thing and now I’m going to have to shop / cook on the fly with what we receive each Saturday at the Farmer’s Market delivery. I like shopping twice a month. And I also prefer shopping on my lunch break, avoiding the weekend crowds. Once the CSA begins in June, our monthly food allowance will decrease by $27 per week because of the prepayment amount. I’ll surely have an update next month with how I’m juggling this change.

We also cash flowed:

  • a birthday gift and two mother’s day gifts – sinking fund envelope
  • hair gel for the beau and soap for us both
  • a new website layout (business investment)
  • tickets for a show at the Egg (beau)
  • the beau signed up for a watercolor class at the Arts Center of the Capital Region
  • parking at the train station (the day we went to a Met’s game)
  • stuff for our garden (some seedlings, burlap, screws and twine)
  • our 6 month car insurance payment – sinking fund envelope
  • and a small gift certificate for an employee on my work team

This month I also tried to focus on my running more, as last month (April) it took a back seat… and I have a race to run in three months! I ran almost 70 miles in May, which wasn’t what I was aiming for but I’m happy with because I feel like I’m easing back into a routine and not overwhelming myself. I’m remembering what it feels like to be sore and getting use to being out of the house before 5AM.

June will hopefully bring a lot of miles… and a lot of cash because I’ll be working downtown again on Saturdays. I’ve picked up a side hustle at Annick’s during the farmer’s market – hey, I’m going to be down there anyway getting my veggies!

That’s it folks, we made yet another budget, told our money where to go, hustled and made it happen. No magic, just a plan!

[Again, sorry no photographs, I should be purchasing a new phone over the next three months prior to race day.]

February in Review

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February was an interesting month for us.

We paid off the beau’s car! 
When we started this journey back in September, we owed $10,106.53 on the beau’s car. He bought it (a 2014 Prius) on February 18, 2017 which means we’ve paid it off four years ahead of schedule AND within a year of the purchase date! Boom pow!

We started tackling student loan 2 of 6!
From here on out, it’s allllllll student loans. We’re now tackling subsidized Stafford Loan 1-01. The beau originally took out this loan back in August 2007 and its original balance at 5.8% was $8,500. When we started this journey back in September, the balance was $10,218.42 and if we stayed on Navient’s track, our anticipated payoff date would be 12/25/2031. My personal payoff goal for this loan is June 2018… that’s a 13.5 year difference in case you didn’t do the math. After all we’ve dumped on it this month, the remaining balance is $8,232.72!

We took a holiday / honeymoon in Mexico!
This trip was booked back in July prior to the start of all of this and frankly I don’t care if it was booked two weeks prior, we were going! It was paid entirely by cash, thanks to the generosity of friends and family who gifted us cash as a wedding gift. Seriously, THANK YOU friends and family! xoxo While planning this trip our intentions weren’t to be frugal, we just don’t prefer extravagant accommodations. No resort for us, or even a hotel; we hit up Airbnb which allowed us to book an entire house in a pretty remote area of Mexico inaccessible by road. It was lovely to say the least.

Returning home from the trip, we had about a thousand leftover and my first initial thought was to dump this toward debt. After all, Dave Ramsey says no holidays during the first four baby steps. In one ear and out the other, we both agreed to continue to keep this cash in a separate savings account and we’ll use it as needed for little mini getaways i.e. long weekends camping in the Adirondacks, a trip to NYC to see the Mets play, a weekend in NH with friends, and possibly an autumn trip to Montreal. I think our friends and family would agree with this decision too.

While in Mexico, we celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary!
Time really has flown by! It’s so cliché to say, but I can’t believe it has already been one year. On our actual anniversary, we traveled from Yelapa back to Puerto Vallarta, ate lunch at a wonderful brewery we stumbled upon, enjoyed a delicious taco dinner, and then walked the boardwalk along the ocean and caught the sunset… and drank more beer at that delicious brewery! It was relaxing, it was fun and it was an anniversary I won’t forget! I love the idea of spending our anniversary each year on holiday buuuuuuuuut with annual reporting in the library community, that won’t be possible. We’ll see what we come up with next year.

And because we were in Mexico for nine days, we saved money on both our groceries and eating out/alcohol envelopes! $229 to be exact! Hopefully we’ll see a savings on our utilities bill too next month! Our meal plan wasn’t very adventurous, a rotation of regular meals we enjoy, switching after two weeks.

I earned residual income while in Mexico.
More on this to come in a future post regarding MLM companies and how it’s working for me and has been over a period of time (I’m not talking legging fads), I earned an income while on vacation doing nothing. Was it as much as it has been in previous months while working toward earning that income? No. But it was income that I appreciate and value and not only did I deposit a portion of it toward debt, but I also invested some back into my friends and family who support me on this journey of abundance. I don’t share Young Living just because there’s the potential to earn cash, I share because I’ve been a fan of their products for a number of years (10+ years) and I know many people can benefit from them as well. Earning a paycheck is a wonderful thank you bonus for making a referral (because let’s be honest, we share our opinions about everything)!

I paid a hefty parking fine.
Long story short I got a ticket back in October for talking on my phone while driving… even though I wasn’t holding my phone. That’s a five point violation on your record FYI. Luckily, it was reduced to just a parking violation with a $225 fine. FINE BY ME! I’d gladly pay that over receiving that many points. Don’t worry, I’m no longer speaking on loudspeaker, I got a Bluetooth device for Christmas from Santa.

We still had fun.
Despite being on a budget, we both had some fun outside of the house this month. Oftentimes I think people assume because you’re on a budget, you don’t get to engage in other activities: not true! You get to decide how much money you spend on fun! The two of us are very content being homebodies, which is great because you save money however I know not everyone is like us. We might spend more cash on groceries because we like cooking at home, while you may add more to your eating out envelope because that’s what you prefer. Budget = options.

This month we participated in Nine Pin’s 26er challenge, sampling ciders #3 and #4. On Valentine’s Day we joined a friend at Rare Form for a chocolate and beer sampling. I had a date night out with an old colleague and friend, enjoying a sushi dinner and cashing in a gift certificate at the Latham Paint and Sip location. The beau had a bro night out with his old biz partner in Albany, checking out an art show and sippin’ on beers. We even had dinner out twice this month, once after our trip because the fridge was empty. We did all of this on a reduced envelope this month, normally $195, set at $100.

Other random facts about February.
We cash flowed an inspection, oil change, tire rotation and registration for the beau’s car. I re-upped my subscription with AAA, as I do not pay for those services via our car insurance. AAA is an expense you use once, see how convenient it is and keep in fear of needing again. Ha! I’m determined to take advantage of their discounts this year! I also renewed hosting for this blog, but for only a month. Dun dun dun. Oh! A little home improvement: we bought a doorknob. And a hot water bottle because hello, it’s cold in Upstate NY and this is my $17 solution for not turning up the heat. And relieving cramps.

Numbers wise, we paid off 4.25% of debt this month, totaling 25.09%! One fourth of the way done! Our balance is now $66,730.17 having paid off $22,345.28 since September. This system works, no need to try and reinvent the wheel or my other favorite motto: keep it simple stupid. According to these stats, we should be debt free by September 2019; two years after starting this debt free journey. It’s hard not to get consumed by that date and what’s “expected” of us each month to reach that goal, but on the other hand, it is motivating. I want to earn more money. I want to spend less. I want to live a life saving and spending my income in a way that makes me happy… not giving it to Sallie Mae. I’m constantly fiddling with spreadsheets to figure out how to move that date forward… and it is creeping up. Slowly but surely.

How was February for you? Did you hit any financial milestones?