Today is the day. I am headed down to NOLA for my bachelorette party! I will be down on Bourbon Street for the weekend celebrating with my sister, future sister-in-law, and close friends. Cannot wait to party down and make memories that will last forever.
J and I are getting closer to our wedding, and this last fling before the ring is a reminder just how close we are getting.
Cheers to a good time!
A new way to look at your wardrobe – how much do you pay for cost per wear on your clothes? It may cost $40 to purchase the items, but how many times are you going to actually leave the house in it? That’s the way to perceive the value of your wardrobe. That’s how my Dad made me look at my clothes. Especially when we were out shopping.
There are two ways to determine your cost per wear for your wardrobe:
1) The price to purchase the item divided by the number of times you see yourself wearing it. For example, $40 blouse divided by the 5 times you see yourself leaving the house in it equals $8 per wear.
2) Take the price to purchase the item divided by the value you imagine each wear will bring. Let’s say that you buy a dress for $80 and you imagine each wear worth about $20. That means you at least have to wear the dress 4 times to get an equal cost/value.
See? Simple.
Next time you are out shopping the racks ask yourself, “is the price per wear worth it?”
If it’s yes and you have the extra spending money then buy. If the answer is no or you do not have the extra cash then walk away.
Cheers!
J and I have been talking money lately, working on saving money, and paying off debt. Luckily we have been able to listen to Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University before we get married (if you haven’t heard of FPU, you have to check it out!). The first baby step is $1,000 in the bank. Seemed easy enough, right? It took budgeting and being diligent, but we reached our goal at the end of September. Awesome!
Then comes the first Monday of October… dun dun dun and my tooth starts to ache. I try to “live” with the pain, but it just got worse. I caved by Friday and had an appointment with the dentist. The outlook of my teeth was not so great and the final cost for the repairs – $1,050.
Without our emergency fund, we would not have been able to take care of this bill without sacrifice. We do not have to give up food for the month or better yet, I do not have to live in pain! It’s hard to see that $1,000 we worked so hard to achieve walk away so quickly, but at the end of the day that is why we have it.
We did not plan for my teeth to have a meltdown, but things happen. Life happens. We must adapt, take care of ourselves, and move on. That is exactly what we are doing. Starting with our first paycheck of October we will commence the rebuild. In a short time we will have our emergency fund back to full again and start working towards paying down our debt.
I have to admit that it feels pretty good to be able to take care of this medical bill without help from family and without having to put it on a credit card to pay interest on. It feels real good.
Want to know something that I find humorous? The week after we get married is when J can apply for insurance through his work and since we will be married, so can I. His work has basic dental coverage and if only my teeth could have lasted a bit longer that $1,050 may have only been $700. But that’s the way life goes and we keep moving.
If you do face a dental emergency like me then do not be afraid to ask questions:
1) does this office do payment plans? Most would like payment up front since the work is done at that time; however, there might be a Care Credit option that you can apply for. That way you get the work done and pay a minimal amount of interest.
2) does this office offer a discount plan? My dentist does! It was great to learn about it. For a small annual fee they discount all of the procedures. I asked for an example – my cleaning and exam that day would normally be $300, but with the plan it was only $175. The plan more than paid for itself in that moment. I looked through my costs of what I need done and without the plan it would have been $1,700 or more! That’s crazy!
3) does your work have to be done right away? A lot of dentists will be honest with you and tell you what are emergencies and what aren’t. Those are nice dentists.
It pays to talk to the office staff to learn more. Each place is different and at the end of the day they need your business.
Cheers!
The other day I was having a conversation with my parents about life, childhood, and the fact that I am getting married, which blows my mind. We were talking about life in college and how I could always hear my parents advice in the back of my mind, which guided me. Or as I like to think kept me from having too much fun, until that one day at a local bar where a friend of mine got drugged because she took a drink from a cute guy. The cute guy’s friend offered me a drink that looked eerily similar to my friend’s and I turned it down because I heard my Dad’s voice telling me not to take a drink that I didn’t see get made. At that moment, I couldn’t understand why the guy instantly lost interest in me… I was cute, I was funny, but why did he stop talking to me? The next day as my friend was really sick and couldn’t remember the night… it hit me, I know he lost interest because I turned down his drugged drink.
I really think that with their guidance I have made it pretty far in life with not many bad moments or memories. My parents always helped and were there for me, sometimes they would let me figure things out on my own; and those moments were harder for me. Once I graduated with my Masters and started really thinking of my career is when I realized I still had quite a bit of learning to do.
I always hear advice from family, friends, and sometimes even strangers about life. Sometimes their advice is solicited and sometimes it is not. So I listen to learn. There are times that their advice misses the intended target or I have to learn on my own.
Here are 5 things I wish I would have known about before graduating college:
1) Trust your gut when it comes to your career.
it’s important to know that it’s okay to walk away. Do not waste time in a career that is not right for you. Now I am not suggesting quitting a job without any source of income or another job. So, bide your time, look for a new job and when the time is right for you, make your exit.
For example, I thought retail was the answer. My major in undergrad was Marketing – Retail/Merchandising. That must mean I wanted to work in retail, right? No. H-E-double hockey sticks No. I tried it after college, full-time. The hours were not great, I missed J in the evenings and on the weekends, and the part that determined my exit was being tossed around and had smoke blown in places that it should not be blown.
2) Don’t lose your best friends.
My mom always said that there will be friends that go with that phase of your life, but then there are special friends that you will carry through every phase of your life. It’s important that you keep those people you love, and to keep them, you have to be willing to work at those relationships.
3) Getting an A or a B really doesn’t matter.
I wrote about this in a letter to the incoming freshman class awhile back. I wish I would have taken it a bit more seriously in college and would have had a bit more fun. I am not saying that I never had fun, but there are moments that I missed out because I was worried about getting that A. It didn’t matter. I’ve never been asked for my GPA or class rank. I think the degree I earned speaks for itself.
4) Don’t replace the busyness of college with an overwhelming workload.
In college I was actively involved on campus with several clubs and my sorority, and I always had something to do or people to talk to about something. After college I felt the need to keep myself busy and threw myself into my job. I wasn’t getting paid that great and there was really no room for me to grow, and I had just set the precedent that I would be available at 10pm Monday-Friday and anytime on the weekends. When the time came for me to get a life outside of work and I met J, it was hard for my coworkers to swallow that I would only be working 45 hours a week and not 60.
5) How much work it is to be an actual adult without the label of being a student.
I never realized during college how much work and planning it takes to be an adult. There are responsibilities that come the moment without any hesitation once you walk across that stage and receive that empty leather diploma holder. I am not talking about bills being due or needing food and shelter; I am talking about the social responsibilities.
Don’t get me wrong being an adult is 1000x better than being a student, but sometimes I wish I could go back to that irresponsible student if only for a moment.
Cheers!
So, here i sit trying to think of something to write about. I have ideas, but no pictures to go with the ideas or I have pictures and have no idea what to write about. It’s a vicious circle I live in. As I get older (and closer to my wedding) I have been thinking a lot about who I am and how I got to be this awesome lady. I thought there would be nothing more fun to read or talk about then a post about myself… okay, I’m really stretching it here and just need to finish a few other topics.
Here we go interesting tid-bits about yours truly:
– my first word was cookie, which is what I am blaming my food problems on
– I love black licorice so much that I named my first do Licorice. She was a black lab, so it seemed fitting.
– I am absolutely terrified of clowns, people in face paint, masks, or fully body costumes and hate wigs. Pretty much anything that can completely disguise how a person looks freaks me out.
– I love sweets and probably have the biggest sweet tooth known to man
– I do not like to go into our basement at night. Something about it creeps me out, perhaps it’s the glow in the dark stick-on stars that are all over our unfinished basement that screams this was a child’s playroom or bedroom; and it’s an unfinished basement
– I enjoy working around the house on projects. When I was little I used to help my dad wire lights around our patio fence, install speakers on our back patio, etc. I am actually pretty handy
– My favorite dog breed is a Rottweiler. I had one growing up that would walk with me every morning to the bus stop and meet me when I was dropped off. That dog saved me from a pretty horrible person one morning and at that moment I decided my children would have a Rottweiler to protect them just as I did
– My guilty reality tv show is Dog and Beth On the Hunt, which replaced Dog The Bounty Hunter. A little strange, but I do love them and may have waited hours in line for their autograph at a Borders once
– My favorite color is blue and my last 2 cars have been blue
– My favorite season is fall, which had something to do with why we decided to get married in November
– My dream is to be able to provide a refuge for stray or neglected dogs that need a forever home
Cheers!
September was a great month for me and my family.
I shared the story of how J and I met.
Tips about developing a budget as a couple that we have been using and being successful at the past few months.
A delicious super-easy recipe for cinnamon-sugar pull apart bread.
A simple DIY desktop organizer that I am loving.
Ways to get the perfect gallery wall.
15 easy, no brainer ways to save money.
And one of my favorite pieces of the month, 10 bad work habits to kick to the curb.
Overall, September was a great month. J and I closer to our wedding, we have got to spend a lot of time with our family and friends, and have finished unpacking every box from our move. Life is good!
Cheers!
People go through different phases of their life and interests from time to time. Right now my phase is all about this wedding and getting everything perfect. So, I am sorry that I do not have a post ready for today. I have all these ideas swirling in my head and when I sit down to type them out – POOF! They go away. I need to take some time this week to make a major long to-do list for the wedding, for work, and for around the house then I can come back with a clear mind.
I am going to take today and tomorrow off from this little blog of mine to work on formalizing these ideas.
Thank you for being so understanding! 31 days until J and I get married and then life can resume, except I will be a Mrs. and no longer a Ms.
Cheers!