Finally kept a New Year's resolution

Friends, I have finally, for once in my life, made a New Year's resolution I actually stuck to!  Flash back to a year ago, I had just finished one of the most challenging years of my life.  So what do you do after you survived one of the worst things you thought could ever happen?

Before I say what my resolution for 2018 was, let me fill you in on a little bit of what I'm talking about.  If you have read my blog from the beginning, you probably noticed some wedding posts so you're clearly thinking, "ok this chick was married once upon a time" and you'd be right.  I was married to my high school sweetheart.  So you read on as I've posted and gradually I don't mention him so much any more and you might wonder, "ok what's going on, no big announcement was made so did something happen?"  I won't bore you with the dirty details but we aren't together anymore.  Long story short, we were destined to go in different directions with our lives.  The split happened suddenly at the beginning of 2017 and I didn't see it coming. 

I learned so much about myself in 2017.  I admittedly went through a mourning period, but the way I see it there are two options when something like this happens to you.  You can either sit around and feel sorry for yourself, or you can pick up the shattered pieces, throw them back together and make the best of what you have left.  I didn't want to be mopey, I wanted to move on and see what was next for my life.  I learned I'm stronger than I thought, I have a great support system who kept me going (thank you all!), and if I thought I was a positive person before this...I'm so much more positive than I ever imagined I could be.

Flash forward to the version of me that began 2018 and you've got someone who came to terms with "everything happens for a reason."  That positive person knew that there's something great waiting out there and was going to do everything possible to be happy and successful in 2018.  What resolution did I make then?

I'm going to make this year my b*tch!

As you know from my last post, I paid off quite a bit of debt, I cruised through each day with a smile on my face, my friends and family commented frequently that I actually looked happy as opposed to similar times in 2017. I got back out there and met some great new people and grew amazing friendships that were already pre-existing, but were enhanced by the experience of what I went through.

In having this outlook of "it was great, and then it was over, I'll look back on it fondly, remember the good, learn from the bad, and look forward to the great things to come" I ended 2018 with a year I'm proud of! I had so much fun along the way and I know 2019 can be even better!  I go into the new year looking forward to all the people I'm going to meet, the debt I'm going to pay off, the home I'm going to build for myself, and the friendships that will just get better and better each year.  Oh and hopefully I lose a bunch of weight, get rock hard abs, and win the lottery......What? A girl can dream right? :) 

What's your New Year's resolution? I'd love to hear it and encourage you along the way! If anyone has Chris Evans' number, please send it my way to help with my resolution this year ;)

Where did the year go?

Woah, my last post was already a year ago.  Where did that time go?  I've been ferociously putting what I can to paying down debts with the goal being paying them off. While I can't say I'm out of debt, I can say I've now paid off over $9,000.00!! still have a little bit to go before I start on my student loans but the payment I was working on was a minimum payment each month of like $300 ish.  Terrible but now it's gone! Forever!

As for the weight loss, I haven't lost much more but I maintained!!! That's awesome because I still haven't changed my diet habits much from my weight loss post, and I've been to the gym just as frequently. I haven't maintained this well in a long time, usually it goes up and down (mostly up).

Other than those things the year since I posted last has been great! I'll write a post at another time explaining why.

On another topic my house projects have been minimal which stays true to my budget paying off debt as fast as I can.  What I have done around the house has been either free or very low cost.

Thanks to help from my great family, I repainted my ceilings in my living room, and kitchen.  In my bathroom there used to be popcorn ceilings.  Every post that I saw on removing popcorn ceilings on Pinterest said it was going to be so easy! Wet it down, scrape it off, clean up the mess no big deal!

FALSE!!!!!!! I took a scraper to it and barely scraped anything off! I did NOT want to sweat for hours wearing out my arms to make very little progress.  So on to plan B.  Thanks to my carpenter dad, we mudded over the whole ceiling.  Now that sounds worse than it is but my bathroom is REALLY small.  We also fixed the crown molding in the bathroom.  Whomever installed it in the first place put it in upside-down....one of the many remodeling shot jobs the previous owners of the house did.

I also did some demo and uncovered a jewel!!! Ok so it's not a real jewel but it's super exciting anyway!

Would you just look at that!!!! Brick chimney! Why on earth would anyone cover that up with drywall? No clue honestly.  But I'm so excited about it! I first came across it by doing laundry.  What?? Laundry?? yep! so my basement is unfinished and down in my laundry room, there's remnants of a coal chimney that I assume was used originally to heat the house when it was built in the 20's.  However, the portion of the chimney in the basement is painted white.  My hope was not just that the chimney went all the way through the house but also that it wasn't painted white the whole way.  There was only one way to find out!  Take a hammer to some plaster! I had those gold bowls hanging on the chimney side originally so I took one off and knocked out a little portion under the bowl, that way if it wasn't brick, I could just hang the bowl back up and no one would know.  Luckily for me I saw brick!!! So I put the bowl back until I had more time.  I did it one side at a time in two different "bash" sessions.  Let me tell you nothing is better to help you get some stress out than some aggression therapy! I was able to get all my stress out in each session.

I think I've exposed as much as I'm going to.  I have that horizontal divide that acts as a chair rail type thing throughout the whole kitchen.  My plan (when it fits in the budget) is to paint the bottom half white and the top half a less "pukey" looking color.  Not sure what yet but I was thinking either greige (grey/beige) or beige on it's own.  I also need to seal the brick somehow so it looks wet all the time and not powdery like it does in the photo.  Oh and I will put some trim pieces around the rough edge of the drywall.

Stay tuned for more projects and a story about how my 2018 was a fantastic year!

Debt snowball. Paying off debts.

My last post was all about how I got into debt and then how I started the process to get out of it by beginning with saving $1000 in an emergency fund as quickly as you can.  Let's move on now to the next step of paying off that credit card debt.

Now they're called baby steps but depending on the amount of your debt this may feel a lot less like a baby step and more like a giant leap for man kind. 

The good news is that you only focus on one debt at a time.  In Dave Ramsey's debt snowball baby step 2, you list out all your debts in order from smallest amount owed to largest amount owed not counting your mortgage if you have one.  For me that list was longer than I'd like but I was motivated to see it gone.  Like I said last week it was really eye opening to see the payments I was making on debt that I could have been spending on other way more fun things. (like more house projects, how about that).  Once all the debts are listed in order you start attacking.  Starting with the smallest debt you put ALL the extra income you can on paying off that debt as quickly as possible while making minimum payments on everything else.  The trick to this is changing your lifestyle as well.  You have to say no to eating out, buying games/shoes/clothes you don't need, for me it meant not buying home decor or doing house projects. 

You have to get creative to make this process go quickly too.  I cut cable, my sister got on my cell phone plan which actually saved me about $20 a month and saved her about half the amount she was spending.  I turned my thermostat up about 4 degrees in the summer and down about 4 degrees in the winter and turned off lights when I didn't need them, opened the curtains and let the sun heat the house during the day, unplugged items I wasn't using, anything I could think of to save money.  I also severely cut down the number of times I ate fast food.  Let's be honest though part of that was for my weight loss I posted about last summer, but who can beat cutting out one thing to help with 2 goals!  I started packing my lunch to take to work.  Finding cheap ways to feel like I was having as much fun as I did spending money the old way.

Everything extra that's saved goes to making a payment on that first debt.  Now you may be asking, why start with the smallest amount owed?  Why shouldn't I start with the debt that has the highest interest rate?  The answer to that is motivation.  It will take longer to pay off the high interest rate debt.  When you start with the smallest debt and pay it off ferociously, once it's gone you can take the payment you were making on that debt plus the minimum of the next smallest debt and pay that one off quickly too, then snowball that to the third smallest and so on until your debt is gone.  Paying it off in that order allows you to see results sooner.  Trust me once you see that first one gone you think, "wow that was quick and it feels so good to have one I can cross off my list!"  You take that motivation into the second and just keep kicking a**.  So far I have paid off 3 of my debts this year using this method!!! 

It feels so good to have the process started.  I still have $1000 in my emergency fund and 3 minimum payments I don't have to worry about any more! It's awesome!  AND I did that in 9 months and paid off just around $3000.  I do have a ways to go, especially on student loans but they're last. 

Is this process easy?  Absolutely not.  You have to be willing to change your lifestyle for this to work.  This mess is here for a reason and that's because spending was out of control.  So to fix it, habits have to change.  No more wasting money.  But hey, if you slip up and buy something you didn't need or eat out when it wasn't in the budget.  It's not the end of the world.  It doesn't mean your whole plan is shot.  Don't use that as an excuse to give up.  Re-adjust and get back on track.  It's the same mindset I have for losing weight.  A lot crosses over actually, it makes it easier. :)

So this is me, staying on track.  Do what you have to do to get creative with it.  I did a balance transfer on one of my biggest credit cards, the interest rate was killing me!  Does anyone else have a credit card statement that tells you how long it would take if you only make minimum payments?  When you look at that statement and see that if you only make minimums it will take you over 100 years to pay off, something has to change.  That is NOT at all a good feeling.  So transferring to a much lower interest rate is really helping my sanity.

All my extra money is now going to debt and I'll keep at it until I'm done.  I planned out how long this would take at a realistic rate and I'm looking at 3 years.  If I put more to it then of course it'll be faster.  Now I'm not too into the idea of getting a second job, but I have a money board on Pinterest that has all kinds of other good ideas for side hustles and ways to make extra money.  And like I mentioned last week I do have some furniture and different odds and ends I can sell.  Honestly I just haven't gotten into all that yet.  Right now it seems like a hassle but it might be a hassle that's worth it if I can pay off this debt faster.  It's all about figuring out which seems harder.  Selling some junk or being in debt.  You have to pick your hard.

Anyone else trying this debt snowball method or just paying down some debts?  What tricks are you trying?

Let's talk about debt.

Hey everyone!

You may have noticed the lack of projects on my part lately.  Well that's because I'm trying to refocus my energies on paying off debt.  I know I'm not alone in this either as so many people are struggling with feeling like we're living paycheck to paycheck and do you know why that is?  DEBT!

How did the debt start for me?
My debt started 10 years ago! When I went to college I took out student loans I probably didn't really need but I was a kid, I didn't know any better I just thought that was the way things were done.  I didn't want to put too much pressure on myself to work and go to school in my first year so I took out the loans.  It was future Laura's problem to pay that back after I finished college right?  Thanks A LOT past Laura! It's not fun! 

Adding to that problem I applied for a credit card in hopes of building my credit and working on my credit score.  Again I thought that was just how the world worked.  That credit card only had a $250 limit, I couldn't get in too much trouble with that right? Wrong! Of course as the years went on I paid minimum payments all on time, they slowly upped my limit and did I take advantage of that? I wish I could say no, but I sure did! I had the best intentions when I started.
"I'll just use it for gas and pay off the balance every month" ---didn't happen
"Ok once I get to a balance of $200 I'll stop using it and just pay minimums until its gone" ---wrongo
"I'll cut up the card if it gets out of hand" ---ya right.

I told myself just about every lie in the book.  But that card wasn't the only problem.  Need a new car? Better get a car loan.  Buying a house? Finance it all.  Want a new couch? The store probably has a financing option.  Sounds like something all of you have thought before right?  I'll just make payments was always the answer, because it's "easier" that way.  Well it may be easier to get what you want and immediate gratification but the long term consequences are not worth it!

How did I realize I needed to do something?
My get out of debt plan started so many times it wasn't even funny.  The feeling of living paycheck to paycheck was never a good one.  Payments were always made on time but then there was no leftover money for anything more than minimums and it feels like you're barely getting by.  Then you do the taxes at the end of the year and report your yearly income and you think, "I made THAT much!? Where the h*** did it all go???"

So the plan was to try to be frugal and not spend more than was needed.  But then things came up that just "needed" to be purchased.  Some legit but others not.  Car repairs - legit.  Dr visits - legit.  Vet bills - legit.  But then there was going to a movie because we deserve it - not legit.  fast food even though there's food at home - not legit.  New TV - not legit.  New couch - not legit.  You get the idea.

I really got serious about it in 2017.  Sometimes things happen that force you to review your finances and re-evaluate if you can keep living the way you're living.  I wrote out all the monthly payments that were being made and really saw how much was going to minimum payments with little to no change on the balance of said debt.  That feeling was like walking up the steps on an escalator that's going down.  You're climbing and climbing and working so hard to do it but not really getting anywhere.  Also totaling up those payments I was making on just debt and seeing the number that I could have to spend on other things if I didn't have the debt.  Something needed to change!  Could I survive doing what I was doing? Yes, but that's all it would be, just surviving.  That's not good enough no matter how you try to justify it.

Where do you start? It seems overwhelming!
That's not a lie, it is overwhelming! But my first step to any project is Pinterest so that's where I started this time.  I saw Dave Ramsey's total money makeover all over the place! I bought his book through my Amazon kindle app and this was a couple years ago (one of the many times I started and then started again).  He puts getting out of debt into "baby steps" which really helps simplify one goal to strive for at a time.


I would highly recommend reading his book.  Although at the time I read it, it all made sense and looked like it could really work but it wasn't the right time to change my lifestyle.  Do I wish now I had started then? Abso-freaking-lutely. But I didn't and you can't change that.  You can only deal with what is right now.  So beginning of last year, my lifestyle was already going to change so why not start this financial makeover too!

Currently in this program I'm at baby step 2 Debt snowball!  Step one saving up a $1000 emergency fund as quickly as possible is where I started.  I used tactics I still use in step 2 to save it up.  If I got birthday money, it went to savings, Christmas money all got stashed there too, bonuses from work - into savings, get a raise at work - the extra on top of what I made last year - into savings.  ANY extra money laying around gets stashed there.  I was lucky enough not to need to sell anything to save that thousand up but I do have things lying around I can sell (more on that in a minute).  I was worried that if I saw that cool Grand sitting in my bank account that I'd be tempted to spend it, but really it hasn't been that way.  I know it's earmarked for emergencies and only true emergencies like car repairs, or fixing the furnace, or roof leaks or whatever could go wrong around the house.  I don't rent so it's up to me to cover those costs.  Emergencies are not new clothes, or furniture, or fast food.  I just put my blinders on when I look at my savings account and actually it makes me really happy to see that money sitting there in case I need it. :)

So if you are just starting this journey or if you have started it so many times it's ridiculous like it was for me, start with an emergency fund.  Having the money around if needed helps so you don't have to use credit cards to pay for emergencies and get trapped or deeper in the trap of credit card interest rates and monthly payments that could be spent on other way more fun things.

I'll talk more in another post about my journey in baby step 2 but until then, is anyone else tired of being in debt and making payments not getting anywhere?  Who else has heard of Dave Ramsey or tried his Total Money Makeover?

Garage face-lift

Happy Labor Day everyone! How did you spend your weekend? Was it shopping, watching the Huskers win...barely, relaxing, or enjoying the last warm days of summer by going to the lake?  Well my family and I took the term Labor and ran with it.

This project was a long time coming.  Remember my awesome Dad, the carpenter who helped me with my beautiful buffet and helped me recover my basement stairs?  He came Friday with my mom and my sister and future brother-in-law joined Saturday to give my little one stall garage some much needed TLC.

Starting with some before pictures you can sure see how sad it really was before.

Nothing too spectacular, but it gets the job done. It has really old siding that probably needs to be re-done and had an old rusty gutter on the front.  The walk in door has seen better days with no only chipped paint but two missing glass panels in the window portion of the door.  The bones and the roof are in good shape though so I knew it had potential.

Here shows one of the problems I had with the garage was the fact that my nice siding on the house is tan, but the garage is just this little white building that adds nothing to curb appeal.

From the back yard it looked ok, but again there was chipping on the paint, some of the siding was a bit rotted and the weather had taken some of the color from my star decoration from the star down onto the white paint.

Not to mention the weeds that you can see there if you look closely that my awesome Mother pulled for me :).

So we went to work scraping, and scraping, and scraping.  We had to tame some wild brush that had grown pretty tall on the back and my neighbor's side of the garage and Dad tore down the old gutters and ripped out old rotten siding and replaced it with some new boards.  The great thing is, he used scrap boards that either he or I already had. That helped cut down on the cost of materials so much! That combined with the fact that I had the paint already from a sale like a year ago that was buy one get one free :).

Then like all good Husker fans, we took a break, went to my aunt and uncle's house for their traditional "Redneck football party" and cheered the team on to a very close (too close) win but hey I'll take it.

Regrouped and with reinforcements from my sister and bro-in-law to be, we started painting. Which, if you ask me, is the most exciting part. :)

Before I get to the after pictures, what is this post missing?  Oh that's right, some inspiration pins!

Probably the biggest one is the pretty carriage hardware you see all over Pinterest and that I've pinned to my Outdoors board:

You would not believe how much of a difference this makes it's ridiculous.  So when I first ordered these I got them from Walmart.com.  I chose the cheapest shipping and was expecting them to arrive tomorrow.  Yes, tomorrow the day AFTER labor day. Surprise though! They came like 5 days ago! I was super excited, that almost never happens that things arrive a week before they're estimated.

Ok now I'm ready to show you the after pictures :)

Here's the new and vastly improved little garage.

It's so much less boring!  Plus now it really matches the house much better.  It's not exact but I don't care.  It needs to be completely resided someday but the budget doesn't have room for it yet, plus it still does the job of keeping my car/extra furniture/tools/garage fridge safe and sound :)

We replaced the missing glass panels too so now when I lock my garage door it actually keeps people out, and also keeps birds and wasps out.  My dad had some gutter pieces already and it matches what's on the house much better than the old blue stuff.

How about that carriage hardware huh? It's my favorite part ever! So cheap and easy to give the garage a completely different look!  And now from the back yard!

 

Doesn't it look so nice? I didn't even notice but the paint color even matches my patio furniture better.

A few other little projects from the weekend:

This little gate was made from some 2X4's that were cut down and some fencing stapled to it.  This is much needed to keep my little furry friend out from behind the garage.  Buster tries to get back there and bark at all the neighbor dogs.  One of them lives just on the other side of that chain link fence behind the garage there.  That particular fence is in really bad shape but it's not mine, so I always worried Buster would get back there and one or the other of the dogs would get to the other so I had a pallet propped there for years and it did the trick.  However after nicely painting the garage, I didn't want to keep the same thing going.  Enter super Dad :) He whipped this up for me like it was nothing :).

Speaking of pallet projects.  Since I had one to spare, and there was a flimsy one that I had laying around Dad and I created another backyard solution.  Buster started this habit of relieving himself on my air conditioner unit which of course is no bueno.

To stop this from getting any worse, we screwed both those pallets together and got them just in front of the AC unit close enough to not be in the way and protect the unit but also far enough away to still allow the proper air flow needed.

I was going for something like this pin:

We didn't have time to do that this weekend.  Maybe next time but for now this works:

So that was our Labor day weekend. Complete with breaking in a new fire pit :)

So one last look at the cub appeal improvement :)

What did you guys do this weekend?  I got lots of blisters from so much painting!

Miracle weight loss tips!!

Ok I know this post isn't about home decor, but that's not the only topic Pinterest has out there and this blog is all about taking Pinterest Pins and making them a reality so let's step into my latest project.....ME!!!

I can't tell you how many pins/web sites/products/diets I've looked at over the years.  I was kind of stuck in this world of saving pins with work outs and diet plans and products but never tried any of them.  

There are so many pins or links that promise to let you in on their secret to success but you have to read a huge long story to get to the stuff you wanted in the first place and sometimes they don't even show the secret unless you buy something first! Frustrating!

So as promised here's my tips for everyone to help lose weight.................................................................................................................................................................................................drum roll .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................are you ready? ..............................................................................................................................................................................................you won't like it, but .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... (cymbal crash!)

1. Get up off your ass and start moving.  Go to the gym, go for a walk, hit 10000 steps every day, get up and clean something, stand at your desk instead of sitting.

2. Put that freaking fast food down and make yourself a damn sandwich. I had to tell myself that all the time! I was a freak for fast food because it was "easier" but I finally called bullshit on myself.  Honestly the thing that helped with the fast food was doing a budget.  When I saw the number that I spent on fast food I had to have an intervention with myself haha.  So now I pack my lunch and if I forget, I pick something from the break room that's a better option than shooting over to McDonald's quick.  Let me admit this, I love fast food guys! It's so tastey and I wish someone could come up with a way to make healthy foods taste as good as the junk we love.  But since that won't happen, I limit myself to 1 or 2 times a week eating out instead of every day or even every meal like I had for a while (yikes). But don't cut it out completely, you'll just be sad and when you're sad, you mope around and when you mope, you're being lazy.  Don't be lazy :).

3. Find a buddy to do this with to keep each other accountable.  I have started the process of eating better and working out so many times since I got out of high school, I can't even count them all.  And each time I failed because I didn't ever stick with it. The difference this time is that I have a couple different work out buddies and a friend from work who's eating healthier with me. (although she's doing way better than I am on that front lol) If I don't have someone meeting me at the gym, I'm probably going to skip.  But knowing that the other person is there saving me a spot in the class helps me drag my ass down there and put in some work.  

If you don't have anyone who wants to work out with you, do classes at your gym.  In the past I've tried online videos or work out dvd's and while it's convenient to do at home, there's no one there to see how hard you're actually working.  It's really easy to stop and rest, or just quit all together and you only have the dog or cat silently judging you.  This is all different in a classroom environment. You see everyone there working and the instructor looking at you and every time you want to stop, you remember that people can see you and you push a little harder.  It's amazing how much competitive nature we all have in us that gives us the desire to not look weak.  

Last but not least:

4. Channel your inner motivator. Want to impress people you haven't seen in years? Want to get all those compliments from friends and family because you might be an inner narcissist like me? Haha.  Want to get that revenge body?  Had a stressful day at work? Want to be able to sleep better at night?  Whatever your motivator is for that day or time in your life, or simply whatever works best, keep that at the front of your mind and use it to push yourself harder, to distract yourself while you're working out from the muscle fatigue, and to get through the workout or even get yourself to the gym or going on that walk.

There you have it folks.  The secrets to success that everyone actually knows already.  It's just not easy to hear or to make the moves toward putting them into action.  But it's how I lost 30 pounds in 7 months, and I'm no where near done yet. :)

Here's the proof, same outfit but progress before and during:

That's how it's done everyone! I'm still hoping for another 40-50 pounds lighter picture by my birthday in April!  Wish me luck!

If you want to see what motivates me, click for my workouts board, or my inspiration board. :)

What motivates you?  If you're starting a weight loss journey or there's one in progress, share with me! I'd love to hear about it!

Basement Door frosting

Do you ever feel like just wearing whatever you feel like in your house, even if it's nothing at all? Want to do that without having to run like the Flash past windows so neighbors or pedestrians don't see you? Want to do all that but still let light in without putting curtains up on door windows?

I hate thinking that people are looking into my house at night.  It's dark outside so I can't see out but you can bet if someone is looking they can see me if my lights are on! And when you live in a city, the neighbors windows look into yours easily. I don't like it, which is a little hypocritical of me because I like glancing into people's windows when I'm driving at night to see how they decorate their houses.  Don't judge me, you know you do it too ;).

Most of my windows do have curtains on them but there's one window I always feel paranoid I'm going to see someone standing there looking in at me.  It's my back door that goes out to the fenced in back yard.  It's right at the top of the stairs to the basement that I just fixed up in a post a few weeks ago. Here's a little reminder of the pretty fake wood peel and stick tiles.
 
See that door on the right? That goes out to the mud room and then my back yard, but you can see right into the back yard. That's the one I was hesitant to walk by at night which wasn't good because the master bedroom is in the basement (I know it's kind of weird, but there's so much more room down there! If you want a spacious master, you put it where there's enough room).

I wanted to get some privacy but I didn't want to add a curtain to the door because I thought that'd look way too 50's kitchen and I have brand new flooring on my stairs! Plus the stairway is dark enough I didn't want to darken it further with fabric.  So naturally I hit Pinterest:


Obviously the first inspiration pin is more attainable for the DIYer so I set out to find a stencil and where did I go? You guessed it, Hobby Lobby.  I found this stencil there and it was pretty decently priced plus I can use it again! I also got the cans of frost there too!

So the process began of taping the stencil and covering the rest of the window with saran wrap to keep the "frosting" off the places I didn't want it to be.

Then spray, let dry, move stencil and saran wrap, and repeat until finished.

 

Now I feel much more at ease going up and down the stairs at night.  If there is someone back there they won't be able to see clearly what's going on inside but I can still peek out through the sides.

Next time you think about curtains on a door, maybe consider frosting :) it's beautiful, lets the light in but also gives the privacy/safety needed.

What do you think? Are you a frosting or curtain person?