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Home > Archive: January, 2016

Archive for January, 2016

Tough Decisions, Wedding Productivity, and More Spending

January 19th, 2016 at 02:36 pm

This weekend, we booked the videographer. I also bought two veils and two jewelry sets totaling $52 off Amazon. I will be keeping one of each, and returning the one I don't choose. I also test printed the invites. They look pretty nice. Clearly done at home, but I couldn't justify $300 on something that will eventually go in the trash. The kits were $12, the printer ink was $40ish, the orange envelopes (so I can at least pretend they match my color scheme) were $12, and then whatever postage cost. I also plan to deliver as many as I can myself (about 10 locally and 4 to my family in Denver when I visit this weekend).

All of the spending has lead to some hard discussions with DF. I'm a few years older than he is and have been wanting children for a long time. We had originally planned to start trying right after the wedding, but DF brought up his concerns the other day that we have very little saved. It kind of caught me off guard, but once I processed, I realized he's right. As much as I want children, if I want to raise them in a situation that is different than how my mom raised us, then I need to wait until we're more stable. We agreed to split tackling my debts and savings with what we're currently putting towards the wedding (about $1500-2k/month) and reassess where we are at the end of the year (around my 30th birthday). I was so upset that I cried, but ultimately I think it will make our lives (and our future kids' lives) easier.

Looking forward to the 3-day weekend

January 15th, 2016 at 03:54 pm

I am really excited to have these 3 days off, but hope they can be productive. I have some wedding DIY stuff to take care of - test printing invites and fiddling with escort card designs. I also want to try to get in some work for the other project I'm helping with to get a few extra hours.

I got two snowflakes in the mail, so I want to cash those and put them to the credit card. DF and I have decided to curb my extra debt payments in favor of saving for the wedding, but I do still like to pay a little extra here and there.

We've had a lot of money flow out to wedding stuff. Flights and lodging are officially booked. We ended up using airbnb for lodging, so I managed to save a good amount as we got a discounted rate for staying the whole week. We also have a kitchen, so I will do some groceries when we get there which will cut our eating out. I can't believe we're almost to 4 months. Crazy!!

Trying not to disappear

January 12th, 2016 at 03:57 pm

I haven't been checking in as much. Things are a little chaotic right now with work, side work (the second tester position I'm temporarily filling part-time), babysitting, cheerleading, and wedding planning. On top of that, DD1 was sick for about 2 weeks with digestive issues resulting in about $400 in vet bills. I am still budgeting with YNAB. I find the new one easier since it links directly to the banks. It's less secure, but since I monitor my credit report closely, I'm hoping that mitigates the risk of identity theft a bit. One of these days, I hope to update my sidebar and set some new goals for this year, but I have no clue when that will actually happen.

It's my wedding year!

January 4th, 2016 at 03:29 pm

I know, I know...that's probably obnoxious, but I'm really excited about it.

New Year's was pretty calm. We went to a friend's house and had a nice, relaxing evening. We also celebrated DF's birthday this past weekend. Since we went out with his parents on Saturday, I decided to do what I had planned on Sunday - I cleaned the entire apartment and made his favorite meal (pizza bake).

This week, we begin a clean eating regimen. It's mostly crockpot dinners. DF and I have both already discovered that foods we were previously afraid of (greek yogurt and cottage cheese) aren't actually that bad. I plan to do the slow cooker meals in the evenings because I'm scared to run it during the day with the animals. The chicken tacos for tonight were really yummy when I tried it this morning.