Simple Sunday Love

Dear Readers:
We receive glossy ads on Tuesday’s, which usually go straight from the mailbox and into the recycling bin. However, every once in awhile, I browse through the ads-“just to see what’s on sale”-or so I tell myself.
I see that the latest stainless steel grill is 25% off making my seven year old grill look pretty gross and old. The blooming hydrangea’s are only $6 a gallon and I immediately picture them already planted out front, with plenty of cuttings for inside my home. And the fancy lawn furniture now comes in bright yellow-which would compliment my retro metal lawn furniture perfectly.

And that’s when I wonder if I need these things and a new patio. And maybe I also need some new solar lanterns (complete with remote control) for all of our get togethers in our backyard.

It’s marketing at its best.

I’ve lived with very little while growing up-parents as ministers don’t make very much. And, as an adult, Biceps and I adopted a frugal lifestyle in order to achieve long-term goals. And, I’ve talked about our plans to pay off our rental houses and our home in less than six years.

But, I’m still human and enjoy buying new things. New things are fun. New things are…new.

I remind myself that there was a time when a fountain soda from Quik Trip was a splurge for us-and when that was considered a “date night”. We have had to, and are still learning to, find simple ways to enjoy our life.

I’ve learned that flowers from my backyard are more beautiful to me than store bought ones. And, it means infinitely more to me to see Biceps cutting off a few blooms and try to arrange them himself, rather than see him spending a bundle on a bouquet from the local florist.

Dinners out have been replaced with picnics at the park, usually after a long run. And movies out have been replaced with online streaming-which also offers the availability for wine drinkage and frequent potty breaks. Our quality of life isn’t less, but it is different and definitely not the status quo.

So, the ads go to the recycling bin, my wallet stays shut and our plan to be debt free is still in action. I am tempted to spend when I see sparkly things-after all, it is the American way.

I am telling you all of this to not only keep it real, but to keep myself accountable. You have my permission that if you ever see me in a store buying something that is definitely not a necessity, you have every right to karate chop it out of my hand and scream, “Do you really need that?”.

And then remind me of what I’ve said here today about the simple ways to enjoy life. So, what are the simple ways you enjoy life-besides karate chopping your blogger friends?

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.”