Discipline is Great? Being Debt Free.

Biceps and I have been on the path to becoming completely debt free. We aren’t credit card users and we have always bought our cars cash, but we do still owe on my student loans, our rentals and our personal home.

Using Dave Ramsey’s mortgage calculator, we trimmed our budget in order to accelerate our payoff schedules on each debt that we have (student loans, rent houses and our personal home).

Trimming our budget means opting for picnics instead of fancy dinners, watching limited basic cable on our 27″ ginormous old-school t.v. …

…sharing one car instead of buying a second dream car,

…me biking almost everywhere on this cheapo deapo bike…

…and finding cheaper ways to live (making my own face wash, facial moisturizer, lip balm etc).

This also means any improvement that I do on our home (i.e. redoing our living and dining rooms with these awesome colors), must be paid for by extra income or selling something in the house we no longer need.

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Lord willing, we will have my student loans paid off in two years…

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our rental houses paid off in four years…

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and our home paid off in six years.

This means that by the time we have one of these hooligans-our only bills will be electricity, water and cell phones. Which I am trying to figure out a way to get around paying for these, too.

I think I could live off of candle power, roof water and a tin can for a phone. Not sure about Biceps, though. He’s pretty pampered.

The reason that I’m telling you our financial goals is to help me maintain my motivation when I want to splurge on something. I will feel accountable to you and remind myself that it’s not part of The Plan.

I don’t really ever need another new shirt, a fancy bottle of wine or more camera equipment. What I need-truly need–is:
to “owe no man anything” and
to have ability to serve others with my time by becoming free from the enslavement of working to own something.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, we will be completely debt free in 2018.

Discipline is tough when I want to spend but am the only one that can close the wallet. It’s sometimes embarrassing when everyone else wants to order drinks and we ask for water. However, the sacrifice and the discipline will be more than worth it when I write that last check to our bank.

And on the memo line of that last check, I will write-“It’s been interesting.”

Guilty Pleasures

Dear Readers:
I have a confession to make. I am a simple girl in a materialistic world. I have found a few simple pleasures that I enjoy, and I enjoy them fully.

Peppermints. Simple. Cheap. One bite is all I need to feel decadent. Crush them up and add to ice cream, melted almond bark, or in a brownie and you have heaven.

And this leads me to brownies.

I’m not getting paid, compensated or fed brownies for saying this.
These are $2 a box, guilt free, amazing brownies.
“What? How can that be?,” you say. It just is. Try them. Trust me.

I keep finding, buying and apparently collecting these vintage Swiss metal serving dishes. I haven’t paid more than $10 for a set. The bright colors make me smile. I think that’s worth $10.

I’m not getting paid, compensated or given free products for saying this-I wish they would, though.
When I can’t wash the mop top, I use this product. With a few spritzes, the greasiness goes away and this stuff allows me one more day before I have to shampoo.

I have found too many awesome ceramic cats. Nuff said.

I’m not getting paid, compensated or given free products for saying this-AGAIN, I wish they would.
This was a gift from Biceps on a day he deemed, “Pamper Day“. I love this cuticle cream and it resides on my night stand. Each night as we recap our days, I smooth the lotion into my cuticles. And it’s awesome.

These are a few of my guilty pleasures. I hope you share in them, too. It might make your day, your week, or your new current obsession.

Love-Rebekah

The Frontier House-(PBS)-My Current Obsession

During the first year of our marriage, Biceps and I were strapped for cash. We lived in a small duplex (that eventually blew up), had a musician’s lifestyle of touring, pinching pennies and being creative on dates.

And of course, this lifestyle meant no cable t.v.. We only watched what we could get with our rabbit ears.
I remember coming upon this PBS series almost 10 years ago. We were fascinated by it, and stayed up almost the entire evening watching episode after episode.

Just recently, I rented it from the library while my family was in town over Christmas. We couldn’t watch it fast enough. My mother dreamt about it, my father dissected the personalities, I coveted the lack of bra-wearing….

PBS was way ahead of its time with The Frontier House Series. The show was long before reality shows were commonplace, scripted or full of hot tub scenes.
The show stars three no-name families from various walks of life–let loose on the frontier of Montana at the peak of Spring. It sounds romantic and beautiful.

But, there’s a hitch. They had to live as if it was 1886. This meant no cell phones, dishwashers, housing (for some) or modern medicine.
The girls had to milk the cows, wash the clothes, cook the food, heat the stove..well, you get the idea.
The men were in charge of chopping the wood, building the cabins, cutting the hay….again, you get the idea.

What is so captivating about the series is watching the progression of each family and the community as a whole as each of them immerse into an 1886 lifestyle.

What the women had hoped for in the experience was thrown to the way side in order to survive. No quilts were sewn, no running through the meadows.

The men became empowered and invigorated seeing a definite end result to their hard work.

Before I tell you anymore-you should just ask your local library if it has a copy. You won’t be disappointed.

Pamper Day

For me, “Pamper Day” is today.
No, not Pamper’s day, mothers… I knew that’s what you were thinking, wasn’t it?
For Christmas, my sweet Biceps has decided to spoil my mother-in-law and I.

See this lady? She’s my mother-in-law and she’s awesome. She also has a slight addiction, but we’ve already covered that, haven’t we.

 

Biceps chose to bless the two of us with a movie at home garnished by all of these treats you see before you. He knows me so well. The treats include: Burt’s Bees cuticle cream and foot balm, champagne, Godiva chocolate, trail mix, and Snyder’s pretzels.
Then to top it off, our day will end with us both getting a relaxing massage at Aveda.
My man. My Biceps.
He is the best. (said in a Nacho Libre voice)