A Busted Budget

Years and years ago, I did  Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University classes, and I was introduced to him and his financial lifestyle. A lot of his stuff made so much sense to me. You don't need a brand-new car, buy one a few years older! You need to be saving for retirement! Pay down your debts smallest to largest! He has so many excellent points that make up a solid financial base for a successful life.

One of his items never really worked for me, though; his zero based budget. He has the mentality that every penny needs a job, otherwise too much of your income will be spent frivolously. He has a budget form available here that was nice, but it never worked for me. I am paid hourly, so it was impossible to predict how much I would make. I would fill out the form, find myself frustrated that I had to give every dollar a job before I even knew how much I would make each month, and I'd give up on it.

This last week on Pinterest, however, I found a blogger who made a budget template that just... spoke to me. Of course, she wanted $40 for her 'budget package' and I, being the stubborn Scrooge I am said no way, and I made my husband recreate the template on Excel for free-ninety-free. She really does have a 'budget package' that included templates for savings plans, the cash-envelope system and a spending tracker. You can find her post here.

I just jumped right in to her budgeting mentality. I got myself a monthly calendar for fifty cents and planned out all my bills. I looked at our spending since my last paycheck on the 7th and wrote them all out. I set up my bi-monthly budget sheet in preparation for my upcoming paycheck this Thursday. Then I crunched the numbers and... yikes. We spent $762 more than I earned in that paycheck.

Crap.

As you may know, we aren't living paycheck to paycheck. We are doing this 'Year of Less' to avoid taking out a student loan. The overall goal is to budget so we can pay tuition monthly, and avoid touching the nest egg we have in our savings account. We are lucky to be able to make the tuition payment on our credit card, so while we make the 'promise to pay' on the last day of the month, the money will actually leave our account once the second paycheck of the next month posts. This means one paycheck a month covers the tuition payment and the other check has to cover our rent and all other expenses, and last us the entire month.

So we know where we are now, we can't spend any money until payday in four days, and we've been sorta slapped in the face with the reality of our spending situation.

I'm glad i've found this budget that makes sense to me, and I'll have to see how everything goes once I've filled out the form on Thursday.

Wish us luck.

An Addition to Our Year of Less

I got my first iPhone back in 2013, half way through nursing school. I remember getting it, setting things up, and finding myself wishing I had my 'dumb phone' back. I didn't feel like I needed it; I was doing just fine with my iPod Touch and flip phone!

Cut to now: 2019, where my phone is the first thing I look at in the morning and the last thing I devote time to at night. 2013 me would be shaking her head in shame at the screen-addicted 2019 me. I am so disappointed with myself! The fear of missing out hits me so hard that it's almost a crutch now. I pull my phone out when I'm on my break at work, when I'm waiting in line, and especially when in the car. I'm constantly checking on my Facebook page, seeing what everyone else is up to, and I hop on Instagram to see the newest beautiful photo and witty caption.

But why? I very rarely gain anything that improves my own life, yet I spend, according to my weekly screen time report, upwards of 3, nearly 4 hours on my phone each day! The algorithm Facebook uses now puts just a handful of my friends on my news feed, and I'm genuinely getting sick of some of the stuff those selected people are posting! I can't tell you how often I open my app and find something that irritates me. Either it's something the app itself has done to be obnoxious, like receiving too many repetitive notifications, or having to wade through ads that want me to 'buy, buy, buy!' when we are trying so hard to save every single available penny.

I'm on my phone all the time, yet I don't like the content it presents me. I'm addicted to my screen, and I'm sick of it. I'm sick of telling the people I'm with that my phone is more important than they are. I'm especially tired of picking my phone over my husband. Earlier this week, I had just finished a long, tiring day at work, and was waiting for Jake to pick me up. He got a quick kiss as he opened the passenger door for me, but I quickly returned to my phone. Then we get home, and I parked myself on the couch. Jake prepared dinner while I simultaneously watched Netflix and looked at my phone. We ate dinner on the  couch, while our TV show continued to play. After dinner we stayed on the couch with another episode playing in the background while we scrolled on our phones. This continued once we were in bed, and the screens only went black a few seconds before the lights went out.

I'm sorry if that dragged on a little, but I needed to prove my point. My husband is the best, kindest, most attentive man I've ever known, and yet I looked him in the face maybe 20 minutes that evening. That is pathetic. I am married to a man I love so much and I barely looked at him all night. 

Netflix is NOT more important than my marriage.
My cell phone is NOT more interesting than my husband.
My electronics are NOT a priority over the people in my life.

I have had enough!

This brings me to the addition to the Miller Year of Less. Along with less spending and more saving, there will also be less screen time this year. My phone does not need to be in my back pocket at all times, nor does it need to be sitting at my side on the couch. My phone has been demoted from 'Most Important Thing' to 'Tool that I Have Control Of".

This means you may have to call me twice if you want to talk to me, and you may need to give me a while before I return your text message. Know that I still love you, and want to keep in contact with you, I'm just making an effort to rely on my phone less.

{I Love To See The Temple}

We moved from a city with TWO Latter-Day Saint Temples to a city with the nearest temple being two hours away.

Oh, and that temple is currently closed for renovations!

So that leaves us with the Fresno temple, which isn't even open all day (it literally closes for lunch. All the temple workers go home!) and the Sacramento temple which is 3.5 hours away.

A few months ago we made the drive to Sacramento, did a session, then had to head home so we would be in bed early enough for us to go to work the next morning! A 3.5 hour drive for one session!

So today, we wanted it to be a much different experience.

Yesterday, after work, Jake and I drove out to a hotel a few miles from the temple and stayed the night. We got up early this morning, got all ready, checked out of our room and got on our way.

We spent 5 hours inside the temple. It was a wonderful way to spend our day. We accomplished so much and got so many family names done.

We finished up our day with dinner at a Cafe Rio in town, stopped at Deseret Book, then headed home.


Real talk for a minute, guys: I really miss Utah. I miss being near family. I miss my job in Provo. I miss the restaurants we frequented and the friends we spent time with. I miss having a bunch of temples scattered around me for the picking. I miss being able to do temple service weekly. I miss being able to drive 10 minutes, do temple work, then head home with no financial cost to me.

I'm sure I'll adjust to being a California resident, eventually. But not today. Today I wish I had the beautiful new Provo City Center temple just a mile away from my front door.

Groceries Blew Our Budget

Guys.

Groceries were our biggest expense this week,

and I did not expect that. 

I guess I thought that meal planning would be an easy way to spend very little money,

but it turned out quite the opposite.

Maybe it's because we planned meals that required more expensive items?

It's probably because the grocery stores near us are notably more expensive than the stores we  always shopped at in Utah.  

Our pantry is stocked and our fridge is full of goodies,

now we just need some more budget-friendly meal ideas!

Any suggestions?

A Week In, And Feelin' Good

Guys,

It's been a week of Less, and while we have not been perfect, I do find myself feeling great about how this week went!

We spent more money than I expected to on eating out, but it was unavoidable. We went down to San Diego for the weekend as a late holiday get-together with my in-laws, and we had to get fast-food for dinner on the way down, and lunch and dinner on the way home. We also had to take advantage of the Chick-Fil-A and Rubio's in town, because Monterey is depressingly lacking of most of the places we enjoy eating out at.

Aside from fast-food and gas for our weekend away, we successfully avoided any unnecessary purchases!  Jake is doing our grocery shopping tomorrow, and he's going in with a list and that's what he's sticking to! We sat down to meal plan today for the next week, and we realized we've run out of a lot of the food we typically have at home. Our grocery list is quite large, but it's got plenty of items that will last us a while, like frozen chicken breasts, rice and spices.

This week I decided to close my Capital One credit card account, because I can't justify their yearly fee compared to the 'benefits' I get from having the card. I am also wrapping up a book I've been reading on my Kindle that's been borrowed from the Amazon Prime Lending Library, and once that book is done, I will be closing my Prime account to share Jake's Prime Student account that is $100 cheaper annually.

Have you done anything recently to shave your spending that I haven't thought of quite yet? Please let me know if you have any awesome penny-pinching ideas!

Embarking on Our Year of Less

    Every year I tend to make a short list of resolutions that sometimes I accomplish, and often times I forget about. It's hard to completely change a lifestyle in one regard or another, overnight! Habits die hard, and sometimes I've picked habits to alter or discontinue that turned out to be 'too hard' to change. 

    Last year I began finding myself attracted to the idea of minimalism. I think I've always been interested in a life that was more simple and clutter-free, but I never thought to actually pursue it. Then we abruptly changed our plans, I accepted a job in California, and we found ourself with a two bedroom apartment that needed to be boxed up and loaded into a Penske in just under 30 days. I found myself with the opportunity to really give minimalism a try. I didn't want to pack up and haul items to a new home that weren't going to be of any use to me, or that wouldn't have a place in our new, smaller apartment.

    I estimate a good 20% of our things were sold or donated before our move, and I felt awesome. So much LESS! Look! I only own three glass measuring cups now! I got rid of all the old clothes I hate wearing! All the socks with holes are gone! (threw those suckers in the trash) We arrived at our new apartment, unloaded our belongings, hung the art on the walls, and made it our home.

    And a week later, I drove to HomeGoods and bought some decor for the bare spaces around the house. And then to Target, just to browse, And the many tourist shops in the area that sell such cute beach-themed stuff. It all just accumulated and filled the gaps left by the donated items back in Utah.  Consumerism is real, friends, and I was a continual consumer. 

    So there's part one of the story, here's part two.

    I am debt-free. No car loans, no student loans, no outstanding debt. Same with my husband. He's been blessed with very generous parents who paid for his undergraduate degree, even after we married. But now we are solely responsible for his upcoming graduate program tuition, and it is not an inexpensive program at that. I, being a planner, have been considering our options for paying his tuition since the day he was accepted... two Decembers ago. Every way I looked at it, it seemed a student loan was our only way to afford his schooling. But in late November I had a thought: would the Institute allow for a payment plan?!

    Turns out, they will! 

    The Institute has divided up his semester's tuition into 4 equal payments, and each payment turns out to be roughly the same amount that I make in one paycheck. This means we have a way to stay out of debt in 2019! Of course, this does mean we've decided to dedicate HALF of our monthly income to tuition. We will also be allocating just under half of our remaining monthly income to rent... which brings us to our resolution to embark on a Year of Less in 2019. 

    So what that means for us... really what it means for me, because Jake isn't much of a shopper, is a self-imposed shopping ban! And, oddly enough, I'm really excited about it!And I hope to get back into blogging so I can stay accountable to myself, Jake, and the occasional person who may stumble past this blog. My shopping ban is hard to list out item by item, but there is a chance a more structured list may arise over the next few months. Jake and I have determined a few changes we will implement to the way we shop. 

  

    Firstly, I will be avoiding Target altogether. Yep. No Target. This also applies to HomeGoods and T.J.Maxx, my two favorite home decor stores. If I don't walk in, I can't buy anything. 

    From now on, Jake will be doing most of the Costco shopping for us, because, as he puts it, he "shops like a man" going in the the store for "only whats on the list and getting the heck outta there".  I fall prey to all the 'sweet deals' that can be found in that cavernous warehouse, like Camelbacks we don't need, or clothes that I'll buy and forget about. If Jake's doing the shopping, chances are better he will walk out of there with only the items he went in for.

    We will be meal planning every Sunday, which I hope will help us avoid eating out too regularly. I am interested in using the 'order online pick up in the parking lot' service a lot of grocery stores are using, because, similar to my Target ban, if we don't enter the store, we can't buy unplanned add-ons. We also hope to utilize the plentiful farmer's markets in the area to get produce much cheaper than we'd find in stores. 

    I have unsubscribed from most of the marketing emails I get from stores I've shopped at online. If I'm not seeing the sale ads, I'm not going to go check out their website in the first place. I hope to avoid any and all clothing purchases this year. If anything, I hope to make a few bucks from selling any clothes in my closet I no longer wear. 

     Things we can shop for include cleaning and shower products (as long as it's to replace an empty bottle), school items like textbooks and computer programs, gifts for family and friends, car maintenance, and any unexpected items that are an absolute must-buy. 

     I will not be buying any makeup or beauty products, candles and home decor, books, movies, gardening supplies, linens, craft items, and fun, random things I find online. I just don't need this stuff!

    Because we are lucky to live in such a beautiful area, we aren't limiting ourselves on what we can do around town. There are so many cool places to see and fun activities to do around Monterey. We also really enjoy going to the movies, typically on $5 Tuesday, and there's a lot of delicious restaurants around town that we will continue to eat at. We aren't going to be spending hundreds a month on movies and restaurants, but we also aren't putting a specific cap on that one category.

    We will be keeping close track of our spending week to week so we can always be evaluating how we are doing. The success of this Year of Less is so important to me, and I hope everything goes well! Dave Ramsey says "If you live like no one else now, you can live like no one else later." That will be the thing that runs through my head when I inevitably see something cute I want but don't need. 

 Here's to 2019, our Year of Less! 

    

{One Year Older}

I remember turning twenty and feeling like it was a tremendous moment. I wasn't a teen anymore. I had my entire life waiting ahead of me. My best friend and I had decided to apply for the Disney College Program later that year. Life was about to get so exciting!

Turning twenty-five was another momentous birthday. But the thrill of that 'quarter of a century' milestone quickly wore off, and I feared I would be stuck in a life I wasn't super excited about. Mostly, I was incredibly lonely and afraid for the future as I got progressively older than the available men around me. Thankfully, Jake entered my life the very next month, and, well, you know how that went!

Today's twenty-seventh birthday wasn't anything thrilling. No big milestone, no significant change in daily life. I worked most of the day, and I've got a giant volcanic zit hanging out on my forehead. Which I 100% edited out in the below photo.

But my sweet husband had a gorgeous bouquet of white ranunculus and roses delivered to the front desk of the operating room, and I walked past it as many times as possible to remind myself how dang lucky I am.

I always treat my birthday as an opportunity to reflect on the past year, and work on goals for the coming year. But as I sat in a surgical case today browsing articles on Pinterest (which is currently articles on simplicity, minimalism, and happiness, considering Pinterest mostly shows you pins similar to the ones you've been pinning lately) when I came across a woman who doesn't set goals for herself every birthday, but makes a Bucket List! I thought, what a great way to look at it. Setting goals means potential failure, but a Bucket List?! If I don't accomplish a few items, they can go on next year's list, no problem! As an additional motivator to get them done this year, I'm sharing the list with you! All two of you!

Courtney's 27th Year Bucket List

• Travel light
• Take on more responsibility at work
• Work harder on maintaining friendships
• Eat healthy
• Live more mindfully
• Forget my phone more often
• Curate a wardrobe that is more 'Me'
• Declutter at least 20% of our stuff
• Let go of FOMO
• Read 27 books
• Cut off excess spending aka make a budget
• Camp/ explore/ hike frequently

The woman who inspired me had 28 items for her 28th birthday, but I couldn't even begin to think of 27 things I could be consistently working on and improving, so this list will be just fine for me.  

How about you? Is your birthday a time to reflect, or do you just save that for New Year's Eve?

Happy Unbirthday to you!

~Courtney