This is happening...

I'm starting this post 2 days after we found out....We're Pregnant!

We found out the day before Valentine's Day and this is how we told our parents and family.

Coming October 2017

I should have guessed it by how I was feeling that week, the crazy moodiness and gas/bloating.  Oh my goodness, I never have bad gas unless I'm pregnant but I don't remember it starting this early with Sam😂. 

I feel much more relaxed this time versus with Sam I was incredibly anxious through the 1st trimester.  With our first pregnancy ending in a miscarriage, it made me much more cautious with Sam.  At this point I know there's very little you can do (in most circumstances) that will cause a miscarriage and we trust the Lord with this little one and His plan.  So I'm enjoying my coffee while I can, until the morning sickness kicks in, and still exercising.  

And the morning sickness kicked in around 6 weeks just like with Sam.  This time it's just all day nausea versus throwing up every morning, not sure which one is worse!  I took Unisom and b6 before but it made me so groggy the other day that I ended up asking my doctor for Zofran and it is amazing!  

We went to the Dr around 7 weeks and didn't have a babysitter for Sam so she came with us.  She was really confused, she thought we were getting the baby then😂.  We heard the heartbeat on the ultrasound, the heart rate was around 150.  Unfortunately, because I have a tilted uterus it makes it harder to get measurements and pictures this early on so the doctor wants me to come back in 2 weeks.  The funny part is with Sam I would have loved having another appointment so soon but now I have to fit it in with Howie and I's work schedules and find a babysitter since the only appointment I could get is while he is at work😩.  I'm glad it will only be every 4 weeks after this!

Like I said she wasn't able to get a good picture.

For the most part, Sam has been super sweet, she tells baby good morning and gives hugs and kisses, prays for it, and has been carrying around the ultrasound images so she can "see the baby again".

How to grow your savings

If you are tired of using credit cards for unexpected expenses and vacations you need to make a change with your savings!  I've compiled a few ways that we currently or have previously used to grow our savings.  I touched on some of this is in another post but I wanted to go into deeper detail.  An important thing for this is your mindset; your savings account is not just "extra" money.  Be firm in knowing what you are saving for and your financial goals.

I love Dave Ramsey quotes!

 

One of the best things you can do to increase your savings is to automatically have a certain percentage of your paycheck go into savings.  Ideally you would want to have it set up for 10%.  If that seems too much at first, try 5% and once you're used to that, increase it until you get to 10%.  The key here is to have your direct deposit (everybody uses that now, right?) set up to automatically deposit that percentage into a savings account.  When figuring our income for our budget I only count the 90% that goes into our checking account, it doesn't take long to get used to a  slightly lower amount.

Set up two different savings accounts.  Use one as an emergency fund and keep it at a set amount.  If you have to dip into it for an emergency make sure you build it back up asap.  Use the second one as savings for anything big, such as vacations, birthday parties, special occasions, etc.  I like keeping money separate because it helps in knowing where you stand, and you're less likely to go over your budget.  As far as the amount that you want to keep in an emergency fund, it really varies based on your expenses.  If you own a house, I recommend having enough to at least pay your mortgage for 3-6 months.  If you rent and don't have a lot of debt you could probably get away with less.  One thing I want to do this year is increase our goal for our emergency fund, right now its really not a large amount but we are consistent with it.  I would like to increase it by 50% each year so that when we do eventually buy a house we have enough to cover our mortgage starting out.  

 

What we've done in the past to save money for a vacation was any change or cash we had, we put in a jar and let accumulate.  We ended up with around $100 to use as spending money on top of what we had already budgeted for the trip.  Now of course this only works if you use cash somewhat often, which we don't now.  We are planning a trip to San Diego later this year to see some of Howie's family; and while we have planned out how we're paying for plane tickets and some spending money, I'm trying to find a way to save even more without making a big dent in our checking account.  My plan right now is each pay day or maybe even weekly withdraw $10-$20 and put in our change jar.  I want it to be a small enough amount that it doesn't affect our budget but enough that we accumulate a decent amount before we go.

If you were to look at what we spend big chunks of money on its definitely not material things, we love going places and having experiences.  We also both have family that live far away that we try to visit each year.   To be transparent both of our parents are generous and help us out sometimes when traveling.  We appreciate it so much and hopefully someday we will be able to do that.  That being said we also plan our trips way in advance.  We usually know 6+ months in advance where we want to go and when.  This gives ample time to plan and save.  We do not use credit cards for anything while traveling.  We know how much money we have saved and budget to that amount.  

The most important part of getting your finances together is really such a mental thing, I cannot emphasize that enough!  Setting goals, sticking to them, remembering those goals when you want to make an expensive purchase that you probably can't afford.  That vacation you're planning will be a lot more enjoyable when you're not worried about the credit card bill that's waiting for you when you get home!

 

If you're looking for specific advice on a financial situation feel free to ask, I would love to help!  Or if you have a topic you would like to read about, let me know😄

My Student Loan Story

Like most college students these days, I took out multiple student loans through college.  I hope this story is an encouragement to those struggling to dig out of debt, whether student loans or credit cards. I touched on some of this in my Financial Advice post, but I wanted to go into a little deeper detail.

My first two years of college I went to a community college using my A+ scholarship, and the volleyball program paid for my books.  I also had some scholarships that helped with living expenses my first semester.  After that, I got a job working the graveyard shift at Mcdonalds.  I graduated with my AA with no debt.

 

My third year of school I transferred to UCM to continue towards my Bachelors.  This is where I took out my first student loan, it was only in the amount of $850, but it set the precedent of an easy way to pay for school, and I had no thoughts of when I would pay it off.  I did save money that year living at home, commuting to school 2-3 days a week, and working 2 jobs.  Looking back now I probably could have used some of that money to pay towards my classes.

My fourth and fifth years (I changed my major and it added a year)  I went to MSU, where I graduated.  This is where most of my debt came from.  Both years I took out the max amount of $5,500, and while that covered my classes, I used a credit card for my books.  I lived in an apartment with 2 roommates and worked at Walgreens 30+ hours per week.  By the time I graduated I had accumulated around $18,000 in student loan debt; while this seems pale in comparison to what some people graduate with, what I struggled with was being unable to find a job in my field after graduation.  While I worked the whole time I was in college, it essentially did me no good, because I had no experience in my field and I was so busy working; I wasn't able to do internships to gain that experience.  My parents did help anytime they could, buying me groceries or just giving me some extra spending money.

After graduating, you have 6 months before they start sending you bills to start repayment.  At this time I was living in Mississippi with my sister and just baby-sitting, so I was able to set up for a deferment.  Of course, interest still accumulates during this time.  When we moved to Florida and I started at Walgreens again - when my 6 month deferment was up I started making minimum payments.  Most people probably know that payments are generally set up to be paid over a 10 year period, so on that low of a loan (comparatively speaking) my payments weren't too insane.  However, after Howie and I got married, things got a little tight while he was studying for his real estate license and my hours kept getting cut at work.  I set up another 6 month deferment, with interest still accruing.  When that 6 months was over, we went back to making minimum payments.  Keep in mind between those two deferments I essentially added an extra year to the loan!  

A few months into just making minimum payments we got serious about our money.  We had moved to a less expensive apartment and paid off Howie's motorcycle.  We decided to use the snowball method that Dave Ramsey teaches.  We basically took what money we had been using for the motorcycle payment and added that to the minimum amount on the smallest loan.  Within months that one was paid off!  While paying extra on that one we were still making minimum payments on the other 3.  After the smallest one was paid off we started using that money towards the next smallest loan which was quite a bit more and probably took a year to pay off.  We used this method to slowly chip away at the debt.  There were of course months where money was more tight and we would cut back the payment a little; but we stayed the course.  The last two years whenever we would get our tax return, we put a huge chunk towards whichever loan we were working on getting paid off next.  I know not everyone gets a big tax return but if you get a bonus or inheritance you can do the same thing.

Next month I will happily make that last payment, and we are so excited to be done with those student loans!  Which, by the way, were originally scheduled to be payed off in 2020!  Our next goal will be putting the money that we were using for the loan payment each month towards our car payment and hopefully have it paid off next year (1 year ahead of schedule).

As someone who has dealt with student loans, I still do not think that free college for everyone is a good idea.  One of the reasons being when you are the one taking out the loans, working through college, etc you are a lot more likely to take your classes seriously because you really don't want to have to pay to take a class a second time!  It also taught me a lot about time management, budgeting, and working hard.  While looking back, sometimes, I think it would have been nice to have the quintessential college experience,  I'm glad I didn't.  One thing that would have helped me back then was having mandatory financial aid guidance.  Every year when financial aid was approved I just accepted the full amount they offered when I may have been able to get away with a lesser amount.

Anyone else have student loan success stories?

21 Day Fix- Week 2

Alright let's start off with a little honesty!  I didn't really want to write this post:(. I've been pretty bummed this week because after the initial 3 lbs lost, I lost 1 lb at the beginning of the week.  That means basically all week I have weighed the exact same.  And the thing is, I've been sticking to the meal plan (mostly) and doing the workouts!  I'm hoping it's just the whole gaining muscle thing but it seriously doesn't help my motivation.  I need to be able to see some results.  However, I have 1 week left and I'm determined to finish it strong and see what happens.  This is where taking measurements beforehand would have come in handy.  I'm not sore from the workouts anymore and this is the week that they give an option of 2 workouts a day so I'm going to try that, at least a few days.  Edited to add I have definitely noticed a difference in flexibility, can actually touch my toes with some of the stretches.  And my sweet tooth has not tempted me like I thought it would either.

A few things that might be hendering me is I don't drink near enough water and not eating enough protein.  Those are my goals for the week.

I tried this combination for a protein shake and it tasted ok but was way too thick.  If we had ice that might have helped.

 

I really like the corn tortillas, added some scrambled eggs, little cheese and salsa, made a pretty tasty breakfast.

 

Our daily budgeting tips

As promised here are my best daily money saving tips.  I'm sure some of these you have heard before, but its things that we specifically do to save money.  Also keep in mind, both Howie and I are natural savers, him even more so than me, that makes some of these things pretty easy for us.  

1.  Pack a lunch for work!  This is really a matter of self-discipline, we eat sandwiches A LOT.  We refuse to spend that kind of money eating out every day.  That's not to say we don't ever spend money out on lunch, we just know it's a bad habit to create.  

2.  Don't pay extra just for convenience.  An example for this would be diapers.  I try to only buy diapers when I have a coupon and they are on sale.  This does require planning and stocking up,  obviously there have been times that I've forgotten and unfortunately had to pay full price, but it is worth the effort on certain items.  I like using an app called "coupons" to find coupons for diapers.  I'm not big on couponing for everything, but for diapers and personal care items I do try.  

3.  Buy off brand as much as possible.  This is pretty self explanatory, however; there are exceptions, with some things buying cheap can be expensive.  The vast majority of groceries we buy are off brand products.  With items such as tools, some cleaning supplies, detergents, etc... We do buy slightly higher quality.

4.  Make as few trips to the grocery store as possible.  We generally go once a week and get whatever we need for the whole week.  Sometimes I will make a second trip later in the week to get more fruit or veggies and I always spend more than I had planned.  This involves extra planning to make sure you get everything you're going to need for the week.  Meal planning is key with this one!  I know some people only go once a month or once every two weeks, and are able to get everything then. We frankly don't have the space to store that much food.  Once a week is what works for our family.  Wasting food is where we really struggle, we really need to work on that!

5.  Accept any and all hand me downs.  Especially with kid's clothes!  I don't even know how much money we have saved not having to buy clothes each season/size.  Howie and I also wear our clothes out,  we literally wait for holes to appear before buying new jeans lol.  Thankfully for work I wear scrubs everyday, so I don't feel the need to buy a lot of clothes.  

6.  Utilize your local library.  Sam has thankfully been given quite a few books, because I am all about just checking books and movies out from the library (FREE).  One thing to be careful of is not losing/breaking movies.  Sam broke a DVD awhile  ago and cost us $25.

7.  Find a good budgeting app.  We previously used the Mint app and it was really helpful.  It links to your bank account and shows how much money you spend in different categories.  Unfortunately, our bank updated their app and it's not compatible with Mint anymore.  I need to find another app that will work because its super helpful.  If you're like me, sometimes at the end of the month you sit there thinking "where did all this money go?" and that's where an app becomes helpful.  

8.  Self-control.  This is probably the hardest, but in order to keep a budget it is essential!  I struggle with this more than Howie, which, is probably why he doesn't like going to the store with me😉.  There have been many times I've put something like clothes or shoes for Sam in my cart and MOST of the time I turn back around and put them right back up, recognizing she really doesn't NEED it.

What are some of your money saving tips?

Full disclosure:  We are by no means perfect in this area but are constantly striving for improvement.  Our #1 financial goal is to be good stewards of what God has given us.

Reflections on the last 2 weeks

When I decided to post every day (M-F) for 3 weeks I was really wanting to challenge myself to see if I could come up with that much content and if it would be quality stuff to read and write.  At the end of week 2 I can see that while I may be able to write every day it's not all created equally.  I discovered I really like writing about financial issues (I already have 3 or 4 more ideas) and it appears people like reading that as well.  I also discovered that writing about food and fitness is not something I particularly enjoy and while I will finish my posts about the 21 day fix, some of the other stuff won't be making another appearance.  Of course I'll always enjoy writing about Sam and mom life stuff so that won't be going anywhere:).    

A little on my finance background.  When I initially chose Finance as my major I had wanted to turn it into a career as a financial advisor.  However, the further along in my schooling I got it became apparent, that profession makes their money off of selling life insurance (for the most part) and I'm not a salesperson.  I really wanted to help people with financial decisions, goals, budgeting, etc.  I'm hopeful that maybe I can do a little of that with this blog.  Still praying about what that would entail specifically and if that's where the Lord is guiding me.  

Starting next week my goal will be to post around 2-3 times a week and hopefully it will be better content.  Quality over quantity is my goal.  I really do appreciate everyone who takes the time to read these, thanks for your support!  I hope everyone will enjoy the slightly new direction.

I love adding random pictures😉

 

Oh the Joys of Childbirth

I made this list shortly after I had Sam:)

Things I wanted to pass on to other first time mom's and also to remember for the next one.

A little throwback Thursday!

1.  Take a shower as soon as you can, I for some reason put it off till I got home thinking it would hurt or something but it felt amazing.

2.  The cramps (after-contractions) while breastfeeding are pretty painful in the beginning but lessen in intensity as the days go by (stopped after about 5 days for me)

3.  Don't be afraid to use the lactation consultant.  Ours was awesome and without her help I probably would have given up.

4.  Bring a stool softener with you, I didn't get mine till the 2nd night and you can take it twice a day.  Keep taking it when you get home (3 weeks after I'm still taking it once a day when I remember)

5.  Bring some fruit/veggies to snack on to help things go smoother.  I had way to much fast food while in the hospital cause the hospital food was so bad.

6.  Don't feel bad if your hubby changes most of the diapers the first couple days:). 

7.  Don't let them pressure you into supplementing if you are planning to breastfeed.  Your body makes just the amount they need.  Sam went 9 hours at one point in the hospital without latching well because we were still trying to figure out the breastfeeding but we figured it out and she was fine.

What other advice would you pass on to a first time momma??