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Hiking Black Mountain

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On Saturday Paula and I hit the road nice and early to avoid the pending snowpocalypse and hiked Black Mountain in Lake George. The last time I hiked this peak, I was working toward my Firetower Challenge and training for a marathon.

Paula picked me up at 6AM and we were dressed and on the trail at 7:46AM… but not before stopping at the new rest stop! I mentioned this stop in my previous hiking post and decided to take a couple of photographs this time around. Did you know NYS spent 16 million dollars on this project?! Holy smokes! The fancy video wasn’t playing this time around and I noticed there’s a fenced in area for dogs which is a perk I missed last time… not like I have a dog to let loose in there. I’m telling you, it’s good, but I don’t know if it’s 16 million dollars of taxpayer money good. Needless to say, I’ll be using this stop before every hike from now on to get my money’s worth.

Back to the hike. For some reason I remembered this hike being a little harder than it turned out to be. Maybe my legs were mega tired from all of the running I was doing back in those days? Or maybe it was the heat? On Saturday it was a lovely little hike, never really kicking my butt / requiring me to stop to catch my breath and question what the heck I was doing on my day off. Paula and I climbed at a steady pace, stopping only once to go to the bathroom and put on our microspikes. There was ice on the trail under the thin layer of snow that made it a little slippery. Admittedly it was a lot colder than I anticipated and my water tube froze. I woke up that morning and saw a balmy 26* on my iPhone and thought I’d be fine, but the further north we drove, the temperature dropped. When we started the hike it was only 7*. Not good planning on my part but I did know it was a short hike so I wasn’t too concerned.

When we arrived at the summit, I noticed the small windmill that wasn’t there the last time I visited and the snow covered tower (that you cannot climb due to the equipment that’s mounted to it). I thought we were completely socked in and scanned the sky to find gorgeous views of Vermont! AND! We were above the clouds looking west and north! It was super neat to see the snow storm clouds moving in quickly. We were lucky in that it wasn’t windy, so we could take a number of photographs without having to seek cover in the tree line.

Because it was an overall chilly morning, we only spent about ten minutes on the summit before heading down the trail. As always, I bundled up in my last layer and added a face mask; I’m typically colder on the way down due to the less amount of work needed to descent, especially in the snow. A sled would have been perfect!

On our way down we ran into a number of people, including Assemblyman Dan Stec. He was on the last hike we took two weeks ago as well – it’s great to see representatives on the trail! We also ran into two gentleman on snowmobiles who were cutting / moving downed trees from the trail. Now that’s dedication in this weather!

5.72 miles // 1,215 elevation gain // 6/12 for our Winter Lake George 12ster Challenge

 

Hiking Erebus + Sleeping Beauty

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Now that I’ve got my Saturdays back – holler – I’m determined to do more of what I love in 2019, and hiking is at the top of the list. Did you know that there’s a new hiking list for Lake George? It’s called the Lake George 12ster challenge! There are 12 peaks with nearly 40 miles of trails and up to 9,000 feet of elevation gain. I love the idea of this challenge for a number of reasons:

  1. It’s a great list to start with for beginner hikers.
  2. It keeps less people out of the High Peaks.
  3. It’s much closer to home.
  4. They also have an ultra feature – ha!

Scratch that last one, I couldn’t even manage the Saranac 6 last season. I will be back for unfinished business this season I promise you that!

Paula and I have hiked all of them between the two of us (maybe she’s hiked them all?) but we did them prior to the start of this challenge. So, we decided this time last year that we’d hike them all again within the winter season, December 21 – March 20th, to help us stay in hiking shape. And avoid the rattlesnakes on the Tongue Mountain Range… more on that later.

Paula picked me up at 7AM, we stopped briefly at the new rest stop at exit 19? I think it was near exit 19 – and it’s GORGEOUS! It use to be this shitty, tiny, cold room with a couple of stalls and now it’s HUGE, serving only NY made food and bevvies, with this giant screen showing off the Adirondack Park… with a fireplace and cozy seating, and a nice water station… and a playground! We only spent a few minutes here but I’ll be back, ha! Worth the stop if you’re heading north… We were geared up and on the trail by 8:30AM.

We decided to hike Erebus first and make a loop out of the day. Despite not having hiked for a month or so, we were moving at a fairly consistent pace. We followed the trails out to Bumps Pond, where we picked up a horse trail to take us up to Erebus. I could see how this would be a wet trail in the springtime, but everything was pretty much frozen over on Sunday. There were a couple of water crossings, but nothing serious. There wasn’t enough snow on the trail for snowshoes (a dusting at most) but I was very thankful for the microspikes; it was fairly slippery up there at times.

This was my first time hiking Erebus and I wasn’t aware of the fact that we weren’t actually summiting a mountain. For this challenge, the official summit is marked by a white disk on the Erebus North Slope Trail. There is no plan for a trail to reach the actual summit of this peak and they ask hikers to respect this area to leave it pristine for generations to come. We reached this spot just before 11AM (after hiking a little further and returning to make sure our intuitions were right – traveling down is a great indicator of this!). After our celebratory photograph, we sat down and enjoyed our lunches. My leftover Chinese takeout was delicious and still hot thanks to my thermos! I love it when I remember to pack myself hot meals for the trail.

Before too long we were back on the trail headed toward Sleeping Beauty. To be completely honest, I don’t remember much about this trip over other than the fact that it wasn’t tricky at all. The sun was finally shining and I was pretty content wandering in the woods that afternoon. It wasn’t my first time up Sleeping Beauty and we were in no rush, it took us 2 hours to summit our second and final peak of the day. With gorgeous views!

It was a little breezy up there so we didn’t stay for long and began the trip out. We ran into a couple of Paula’s friends on the trail and we also passed many hikers heading in toward the summit. It was difficult for me not to speak up but all of them were VERY underprepared (8 people total): all in sneakers having difficulty choosing correct footing on the way up due to the ice, almost all of them in jeans, no one was wearing a backpack with food, water, additional winter gear like hats, gloves, a jacket… and about 3 hours remaining for daylight. Yes, this trail is not difficult but anything can happen, especially in the winter. It was 30* and with the breeze, even colder. I had to remind myself that people must do this every weekend because it’s a popular trail and I never hear about the rescues on the news. I just wish people were more careful, more smart this time of the year. End rant.

10.71 miles in total, as Hogtown Road is closed for the season. // 5/12 done

We’re Debt Free! …now what?

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We’ve officially received documentation from Navient that our last loan is paid in full – whoop whoop!

So many people have reached out to us, sharing kind words and congratulatory wishes – thank you to each and every one of you! The number one question we’ve been receiving is HOW DOES IT FEEL?! 

Similar to marriage when you were already living with your partner before the big day, doesn’t feel much different. Ha!

But really, not much has changed.

We’re still making and following a budget AND we’re still living pretty frugal.

We are now on Baby Step 3: Fully-funded Emergency Fund
Up to this point and over the last 16 months, we’ve only had $1,000 saved in the bank for emergencies. Thankfully we never had to use it (remember, Christmas and snow tires are NOT emergencies), so now we can focus on saving 3-6 months of cash to cover expenses should the worst happen. Because life does happen.

For us, our minimum monthly living expenses including our mortgage is about $2,900. And that’s with $200 worth of personal cash added in, me expecting to spend $300 on oils and $250 in sinking funds. So realistically, rice and beans-wise, we’re at $2,300 a month. That’s all we need to pay the mortgage, keep the lights and heat on, and eat a somewhat healthy vegan diet. That’s basically how we’ve been living the last 16 months and that’s how we paid off our debt so quickly.

I’d prefer to have 6 months worth of savings in the bank, or $13,800. But because I’ve literally never had an emergency fund before in my life, I’d be comfortable with $25,000. Again, this is money just for emergencies. This does not include house renovations or a new wardrobe.

Since we already had $1,000 in an online savings account, we only have $24,000 to go! Once this is saved, we’ll then be able to loosen the reigns even further and start investing for retirement, start saving for vacations and home projects, and paying off our mortgage. And giving! Giving is at the top of our list! The average couple going through this plan has their debt AND mortgage paid off within 5-7 years. I can’t wait to be one of those statistics!

A review of December:
– We paid $3,287.49 toward debt (paying it off in full)
– We deposited $601.66 into savings (!!!) – that felt weird and good at the same time!

Being January 9th as I write this out, we’ve officially doubled our emergency fund since December 13th. As we get paid throughout each month, I’ll continue making transfers to savings just as I did to debt.

Changes to our monthly budget now that we’re consumer debt free:

  • Less sinking fund envelopes: I went back and forth on this topic for the first week or so of the month. Ultimately I decided that we don’t need envelopes/savings for smaller reoccurring expenses in our life i.e: haircuts, the quarterly water bill, the bi-annual trash fee, and car inspections. We have more than enough money to cover these expenses out of pocket when they arise and will not feel guilty paying them and saving less that month because, well, they need to get paid. We will continue to use two envelopes as they are higher amounts (and honestly, it feels good to have the money to cover these!): car insurance and Christmas / gift money. We already have one wedding save the date… I know there’s going to be at least one more! I can’t wait to save up and splurge on my friends!
  • Personal money: Over the past 16 months neither one of us had a monthly allowance or personal cash to spend freely. That means we didn’t buy any clothes, large unsweetened iced teas from Dunkin’ Donuts or any other misc. items that didn’t fit into our budget. Starting this month, we’ll each have $100 cash to spend on anything our little hearts desire. We won’t need to consult our partner before making a purchase! Freedom! Ha! I joke, but really, this has been the weirdest part of all. Let’s just say on January 1st I placed an online order for two new dresses and when they finally arrive, I’ll only have enough cash to keep one. The suspense is killing me! Then I may get my nails or eyelashes did. Oh, the possibilities are endless!
  • A little more wiggle room in the food categories: Our food budget each month has been $400 – a little less when we subscribed to a local CSA this past summer. This has been more than enough for us, however, it didn’t allow us to keep food in the pantry. We added $50 to this category so that we could buy some of our favorite non-perishables to keep on hand for when we want to be spontaneous / not stick to the meal plan without blowing the budget. We also added $50 to our going out budget, which had previously been set at $195 per month. We both love eating out locally, and we love supporting our local brewers. Ha! $50 gives us a little more without being extravagant; we by no means will start eating out on a weekly basis = it’s a money trap! AND it doesn’t make the act of going out special.

Oh, and I dropped a side hustle. My Saturdays are now free to run, wander the Farmer’s Market and hike, as I’ll no longer be working for Annick. I’m super thankful for the opportunity she gave me over the last 7 months. Didn’t always feel like an opportunity when I was committed to something each Saturday of every week, but without that job, we wouldn’t have been able to pay off everything when we did.

I’ve decided to keep sharing our month in review to not only keep ourselves motivated toward saving / staying the course, but also help motivate all of you! Just this morning I received a PM via IG with a debt snowball update from a friend and golly, it really set the tone for my day! I LOVE seeing y’all win with money too!

WE’RE DEBT FREE!!!

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Confession: I started writing this post on June 22, 2018. THAT’S how motivated I was to finish this thing.

This is it. This is our debt free scream! We are officially consumer debt free!!!

Here’s a little recap, written as if we were live with Dave Ramsey:

Our names: Taylor + Jona

And where do you live? Troy, NY

Total amount of debt paid off: $89,075.45!

And how long did it take to pay off? 15 months and 13 days!!!

What was your range of income? We started at $90k and ended up at $127,000ish

Woah! That’s an average of $5,567 a month, did you sell something? We did not – but we did drain our savings down to $1,000 (we had about $15k in savings, so with that amount deducted, that’s still about $4,630 a month paid toward debt) and Jona did get a new job one month into the process.

What do you do for a living? Taylor does graphic and web design for a local property management company and Jona is a manager of administration and finance for a local non-profit. Taylor took on an extra freelance job as a side hustle and Jona worked Saturdays at a local jewelry shop, volunteered for market research, Young Living – IWOW = I WORK ON WEEKENDS!

What kind of debt did this include? $6k was Jona’s old credit card, $10k was Taylor’s car and the remaining amount were Taylor’s student loans. We were pretty normal!

So what happened 16 months ago to get you started on this journey? Jona – Well, prior to getting married in February 2017 I knew Taylor had a massive amount of student loan debt and fully accepted that he’d be paying them off for at least another 15-20 years. But once we were married, we combined bank accounts and while it did take a couple of months to see and get use to each other’s spending habits, I knew we could do more. I had used the Dave-ish program to pay off my student loans prior to my 30th birthday (ish because I was still racking up credit card debt), so I wanted to see how fast we could pay off Taylor’s loans. I checked out and read The Total Money Makeover from the library and was instantly hooked! We were ALL in! I remember in August 2017 putting everything into spreadsheets and guessing we’d be debt free within 5 years; April 2022 was our initial goal. We made our first household budget for September and never looked back.

Taylor, did you think Jona had lost her mind? Nope. I was on board to get rid of those loans.

What do you think is the key to getting out of debt? Jona – sticking to the budget! Creating a budget was the easy part (I’m the nerd with the excel spreadsheets), but sticking to it was the hard part. We said no a lot over the last 16 months but we did sneak some fun into the budget to keep us both sane. We’re looking forward to “loosening the reins” a little as we progress through the remaining baby steps but we’re officially convinced that budgets work, so we’ll continue to make one each month for the rest of our lives.

Taylor – I feel the same way, that’s all it really is, sticking to your plan.

Did you have any naysayers or more cheerleaders? Jona – We definitely had a little bit of both. I was very open on social media each month about how much was paid and how it was done, which seemed to inspire many but I also received plenty of push back about our methods. I had to remind myself that their opposing opinions had zero impact on our success. But the good far outweighed the bad: I gained a couple of amazing supporters throughout this process. I taught FPU twice over the last 16 months and have made new friends who understand how hard this journey can be. And I’ve reconnected with others via social media who have started this journey after seeing our success and I have to tell you, receiving their random text messages with their wins is one of the best feelings ever.

Taylor – Cheerleaders.

Who was your biggest cheerleader? Taylor – my parents. Jona – I mean, I know my family supported us but I don’t think they fully understood the sacrifices we made, why I just wouldn’t spend money on myself. Yes, I knew we were working hard and “deserved” a dinner out, but I think that’s what gets a lot of people into this mess; we oftentimes think we deserve a reward when really, you’re just doing what should be done in the first place. My biggest supporter was someone I reconnected with thanks to social media, shout out to Rhi! She started this journey with her husband about 9 months before us, unbeknownst to me, and fully understands the process. I cannot wait to hear their debt free scream next month – they are so so close!

Next chapter in our story: Jona – to become millionaires and that’ll be easy now that we only have our monthly mortgage payment! We know this will take a couple of years (okay, my goal is to be a millionaire by the time I’m 40!) and will continue to progress through the baby steps as follows:

  • Baby Step 1: save $1,000 cash
  • Baby Step 2: pay off all consumer debt
  • Baby Step 3: save for a fully funded emergency fund, cash (my goal is $25,000 because doesn’t that sound bangin’?!)
  • Baby Step 4: invest 15% of our annual income for retirement – this happens for the remainder of our working careers!
  • Baby Step 5: save for college (no kids, skip!)
  • Baby Step 6: pay off our mortgage!
  • Baby Step 7: live and give like no one else! *We’ll be giving 5-10% of our annual income once we officially reach BS4

Added as if we weren’t on the show: you should have ZERO shame about wanting to become successful with your money. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being prepared for emergencies – because they WILL happen, saving for your future – because you will grow old and need assistance, living how you wish – because you are spending so much of your lifetime working and earning money, might as well learn how to maximize it’s benefits and living the life you’ve always dreamed of living. Yes, money does NOT bring happiness, this I know, but it does bring freedom.

Let’s hear a debt free screaaaaaaaaaammmmmmm! 

WE’RE DEBT FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! (You can actually hear our live #debtfreescream on my IG account – edited to say: we did our debt free scream live on IG but didn’t think to save it, boo. If you’re tech savvy and know how to access this video, please please please let me know.)

November in Review!

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You gals! You guys! Ahhhhhhhhh! Can you believe these numbers?! We are so.damn.close!!! Ahhhhhhh! (Grab your phone and search in the GIFS section “Home Alone” – the first one that pops up with Kevin running around upstairs, waving his arms up over his head… that’s me, in my living room, right now ha ha)

Drum roll please: In November we paid off a total of $6,120.88! In fifteen months we’ve paid off $87,058.57 and $70,867.31 of that was paid off in 2018 alone. Gah! 97.74% done!

Our debt balance as of December 1st: only $2,016.88

Queue the “They see me rollin’, they hatin’…” song, ha! All kidding aside, this is the song we have queued up for December 13th.

Here’s how we did it this month:
We followed our budget! Nothing new! Well, for the most part we followed our budget. We did have some items that we purchased in November that we didn’t budget for:

  • hosting for a website
  • a window plastic kit (drafty windows)
  • a replacement battery for Taylor’s iPhone
  • windshield wipers for both vehicles and two air filters – mega cheap if you order online and install yourself!
  • both of our vehicles had snow tires put on
  • a 2019 planner for me
  • ear buds and hair product for Taylor
  • a Christmas gift for each of our parents
  • and a birthday gift for Taylor’s dad

You’ll notice we bought gifts that weren’t covered by our gift sinking fund/envelope: we learned that we weren’t setting enough aside each month to prepare us for the holidays. Luckily we have some wiggle room – and it’s not like we spend an awful lot, one gift each – but in 2019 we’ll make an adjustment so that this time next year we aren’t guessing on how much to spend on each person. Oh, and we’ll now budget for snow tires each year seeing as it DOES snow every.single.year in the Northeast.

November was a three payday month for Taylor and my side hustle hours picked up now that I’m vending at the indoor Farmer’s Market location. Other than that, there was a whole ‘lotta sacrifice (or living without, or I should say less), as there has been throughout this entire process.

Meal planning-wise, we stuck to a pretty basic meal plan.

  • Every single Monday we made our favorite Indian dish.
  • Every single Tuesday we made fajitas.
  • Every single Wednesday we made BBQ tempeh with GBC.
  • Thursdays were taco pasta (plus pizza on Thanksgiving!).
  • Every Friday was chili fries! and
  • every Saturday was pizza.

Sundays lend for a little variety: I baked two cakes, made homemade sweet potato gnocchi, a curry butternut squash soup, the most delicious mushroom pie (that I’m also going to make for Christmas), Taylor tested out a couple pancake recipes and made homemade seitan breakfast sausage and we attended a family birthday dinner. I love this method of planning and am following something similar in December because it makes grocery shopping so much easier.

Let’s see, we still had some fun this month! We got two more punches for the Nine Pin 26er challenge and I cashed in my registration for the Troy Turkey Trot 10k. It’s a tradition I LOVE! I also got to hike a trail up to the scenic point near Mount Greylock with Paula; it was a gorgeous bluebird kind of day.

In all honesty, November was a blur. We just put our head down and kept to the plan. Sorry no additional photographs, I shared a lot via IG and honestly am just looking forward to my next post when we’ll be DEBT FREE!