Life Lately

Life lately has consisted of a lot of coffee | trips to target and sippin on water | pretty bonfires | trips to the park and exploring and hanging out with daddy.

What does life look like for you lately?

My New Found Frugal Life

It’s been almost two weeks since we’ve adopted our new found frugal life.  A couple observations/thoughts/musings:

- It hasn’t been easy.  I really want to shop and this is forcing me to not mindlessly spend and it’s also making me appreciate delayed gratification.
- I’m still using a lot of my allowance on food.  Which annoys me.  Coffee/lunches/etc. 
- We still haven't seen the fruits of our labor (yet) I know its only been two weeks.  But since we changed up how we pay our bills, we should see some substantial change by the third pay period.
- It makes me realize that I had a shopping/spending problem, because I get the urge too really bad and I have to physically stop myself.  I was in target and didn’t realize it until I snapped out of it – but I had a gorgeous purse in my hands and I was convinced I was going to walk out of the store with it.
- I think once I see how much (hopefully) is in our checking account by the end of the month I’ll be a changed woman… here’s to hoping.

Overall, it’s been good for me to stop buying buying buying (not that I was out of control, but it was obnoxious) and really forcing me to ask myself… “Do you really need this?” “Is this something that is worth spending your allowance on?” and for that, it’s been worth it so far.  Here’s to many successful and slightly less painful weeks ahead!

 

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Very Pinteresting

I am girl crushing hard on Lana Del Rey. Listening to her album on repeat lately.

Doesnt this apple cider sangria look absolutely delish this fall?

It's only Monday and I am thinking....

Yes please.  Looks amazing.

Looks soooo comfortable!!! 

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My Personal Style

My style in clothing has changed throughout the years.  I’ve been a girly girl with the dresses and fancy shoes, I’ve been a tom-boy with graphic tee’s and a ball chain necklace, I’ve been into labels… I’ve been through many.  But as I’ve gotten a little older, I’m realizing that I prefer simple tastes. 

A couple good pair of jeans that have a nice relax fit, I prefer a straight leg over flare or boot cut.  A dark denim, black and a colored is ideal.

A couple tissue tees, they are so soft and light and fit amazing no matter what size you are.  I’ve had the same one, which I am afraid I’ll have to retired soon that I've had for over 2 years.  I’ve worn it pre pregnancy, during pregnancy and post.  Now that’s a versatile tee if you ask me.

A cardigan, I loooove layering.  A long cardigan over a tissue to to cover up if it gets cold or to run up to the store.  Works for me.

A handful of scarves.  Once the cooler weather hits, you wont see me without a scarf on.  It’s my go-to accessory in the cooler months.

Shoes: A wonderfully fitting flat, ankle boot and knee boot for all seasons. 

A over the shoulder, messenger-esqe bag is my thing.  Ever since having a kid, my arms are always full so I prefer a bag that I can swing over my chest. 

I never have been BIG into jewelry.  I always have a couple pieces I wear all the time including a pair of earrings my husband gave me before we were married, my watch my parents got for Christmas, my wedding bands and a ring with my sons initials and a red thread bracelet to keep away the evil eye and that’s it.  Simple. 

I’m going to be purging A LOT of my clothes this month and purchasing my key go-to pieces over the course of September and October.  I’ve been all over Pinterest pining my favorite styles.  Here are a few of my favorites.

How has your style changed over the years? What is your go-to style?

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When My Life Changed

Today’s prompt is “Describe a distinct moment when your life took a turn.”

That’s an easy one – it’s the day that this little man came into our lives.

Everyone tells you how much your life is going to change.  How your world is going to be turned upside down and before that moment, you’re like… OK… well duh… it’s a baby.  Babies have a way of doing that.  But in no way was I prepared for the amount of love and frustration that came with a new baby.
Love because he was in me.  Survived and sustained by me.  It took all my strength to bring him into this world.  The 20+ hours of labor and the 3 1/2 hours of pushing.  He was literally perfection, the biggest lips I have ever seen on a baby and the sweetest little nose. 

Love because he is so pure and innocent.  Love because he is half of me.  Love because he is my everything.  Love because how could you not possible love this little kid and his sweetness?

But frustration because it’s just not easy.  The late night feedings, the gas, the poop, the pee, the spit up… oh the spit up

The schedule and the routine.  The crankiness and whining.

 

But this little man, has been growing up before my very eyes and to be honest it’s breaking my heart.  He has such a sweet disposition and his vocabulary is blossoming, his favorite word is “No No” while he shakes his finger at me.  Wonder where he gets it. 

I love him so much and while yes there are frustrations the love supersedes those over and over again.  My life is so much better because of Vincent and I am so grateful to God he has brought him to us.  Thank you Vincent for changing my life.

ISFJ

Introverted Sensing Feeling Judging

Today's prompt we were asked to take this short personality test and report back our findings.  

 One of the things that I first read was this:

ISFJs are often unappreciated, at work, home, and play. Ironically, because they prove over and over that they can be relied on for their loyalty and unstinting, high-quality work, those around them often take them for granted--even take advantage of them.

I couldnt agree more with this.  I have high expectations of myself and others that people just expect certain things from me.  Most of the time, I usually brush it off - but others I am just like "Hello? I still work here?"

While their work ethic is high on the ISFJ priority list, their families are the centers of their lives. ISFJs are extremely warm and demonstrative within the family circle--and often possessive of their loved ones, as well. 

I would agree with that as well.  I dont know if I would say I am possessive... but more fircely loyal.  That sounds a bit better eh?

All in all I thought this test described me pretty accurately.  What were you?

Spend Less

Being an adult has it's awesome days... like days I want to have ice cream for breakfast or stay up late watching movies.  No parent  hovering over me telling me ice cream isn't a suitable breakfast choice (I beg to differ) or I have work in the morning and I should get to bed instead of watching movies all night.  

But a lot of the times, being an adult really sucks.  It comes with an insane amount of responsibility, bills, places to be, home to keep up with, relationships to nurture, metabolism slowing down... it's all very tragic.  One of the things that Mike and I have not put our adult pants on with was the whole budget thing.  We've been getting by for the last 3 years of our joint finances with not much to show for.  

After having a couple rough months this year where it felt like we were barely going to get by, we sat down and shit got real.  We realized that we are frivolously spending our money on food (lunches, dinners, coffee (me) in the morning) and a lot of little things here and there that added up like books, movies, hobby stuff, makeup etc.  We were getting to the point where we were beginning to step out of living within our means.  

We went over our net income + monthly expenses and we (happily) realized that we had quite a bit of money left over but didnt realize because we were pissing it away and didnt understand where it was going.  Sigh.  

What did we do? 

We created a 2 week menu plan that had a shopping list.  We just dont make it to the grocery store every week - we've tried.  We just dont.  The two week plan has worked.  

We also got a lot of fruit, veggies and snacks and pre-packaged them in easy accessible baggies so we dont waste.

Going alongside with that is we are brown bagging it - boring, yes... but sooo sooo SO cheap! 

We switched up when we pay certain bills.  A lot of them were at the end of the month leaving us sweating.  We moved up a lot of the bills to the beginning of the month and so far it's working.

We set up 3 month, 6 month and 1 year goals for our savings account to make it grow.

And the single most important thing we did to help our finances? We gave ourselves an allowance.  This allowance is for 2 weeks.  We have to make $100 (each) last for two weeks.  This means I can use my $100 on anything I want, coffee, make up, clothes, movies, lunch etc.  But if I blow my $100 before the 2 weeks are up - that's my prob.  I've never put myself on a budget... That sounds kind of crazy to say but I havent.  We are going to have weekly budget meetings to keep each other straight.

I am super excited to see how we are going to be able to improve our financial lives together.  I want to be debt free in 3 years (excluding mortgage and student loans) but I feel like if we stick to our plan, it can happen easy! 

I feel like I have to make it into a game or else I am going to loose my mind since I love to shop and spend.  So I am putting together a list of things to do instead of spend.

- Go for a walk

- Sit down and read one of the 40 books you've gotten recently

- Make some homemade bread

- Go to the zoo with Vincent

- Go to the Library

- Go to the DIA

- Clean out your closet 

- Write in your journal

- Go for a drive and blast some music

- Meditate

I am excited for this journey.  Here's to being debt free! 

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