Another month in the books, and based on how busy I've been the last few weeks, I'm not sorry to see it go. Work has picked up, and grad school has REALLY picked up. I'm in an accelerated part-time MBA program at GMU, with two night classes a week after work. Each class meets for 3.5 hours per week (6:30 to 10:05!), and I've probably got to put in at least twice that amount of time to get the work done outside of class. I'm so exhausted by Thursday. To top off the work and school one-two punch, I'm also still trying to keep up with the blog and meet all my New Year's resolutions. Anyway, enough complaining, here's how I did:
FINANCES: Put $2000/month away in savings (target of $24,000 for the year and max out a Roth IRA ($5500/year).
We put another $4,380 in savings this month, bringing our yearly total to $8,398. That amount is kind of misleading because we got our tax return this month. We really should have been up in the $5,200-$5,400 range this month. I ended up spending $450 total for two tickets to Montreal over labor day weekend (which was actually an insanely good deal, and I'll get paid back for one of those tickets), another $150 for a race entry fee, $300 for a photography class for my wife, $120 to get a passport renewed, and a bunch of small but unexpected expenses. February was an expensive damn month.
I'm revising the goal from January. With a crazy wedding season looming, no more saving for a $4,500 trip. We have three weddings to go to this summer, two of which have bachelor parties in Canada (one in Montreal and one in Vancouver), and one of them is in Maine which promises to be about a $1,500 trip for the wife and I. All in all, I estimate we will spend between $3,500-$4,500 on wedding-related expenses this year. UGH.
I just opened a Roth IRA, and the yearly contribution limit is $5,500 which I fully intend to meet. More on this to come in a future post.
FITNESS: Do 15 pull-ups in a row before Christmas and complete a Tough Mudder by August.
I went to the gym yesterday to see where I'm at with the pull-ups. I did 10 in a row, probably could have squeezed out one or two more as well, but it would have been ugly. I feel pretty good about where I am right now. I still hate pull-ups, but I'm seeing some improvement.
I made some progress on the second half of the goal by signing up for a Tough Mudder (hence the $150 entry fee I mentioned). I'm doing it with my Dad who, at 63, physically puts most people my age to shame. Speaking of shame, NONE OF MY FRIENDS WOULD AGREE TO SIGN UP FOR IT. #sad #supersad #theywillbedeadby40. Anyway, June 14th. Get pummmmmped.
CREATIVITY: Average 4 blog posts a month by end of the year and complete at least 3 "projects" before next year.
I did more reading of blogs than I did writing of blogs this month. I've been consuming all the information I can find on building wealth responsibly, personal finance, and investing in general, and there's a lot of information out there. Despite that time dump, I still managed to pump out 5 blog posts. I'm changing the goal from 2 posts per month to 4 posts per month, which is pretty much a layup. I NEED AN EASY WIN OK!?
I also posted one project! Check out these shelves I made for the wife, I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.
CAREER: Become a GS-13 by September.
Not much movement on this front. I did speak with my boss to see how to get this process started but I haven't had the chance to follow-up on his advice. This is definitely a huge priority for me, The position comes with a nice pay raise and added responsibility that I wouldn't mind at all.
SPIRITUAL: Find a Church by April and volunteer for Habitat for Humanity by the end of the year.
I FAILED! Still no church for me. I totally missed on this goal, and I'll be honest, I didn't even know I set the 1st of March as the deadline!! I'm going to push it back one month and get off my ass Sunday mornings.
At a school meeting a couple weeks ago, we were discussing different volunteering opportunities that students could take part in. One of them was Habitat for Humanity. I'm kind of holding out hope that I can volunteer with my classmates.
Whole 30: Complete the Whole 30 Challenge (again!).
We already completed the Whole 30 challenge in January and it was awesome, but since I haven't been as strict with my diet, I'm starting to fall back into some of my old bad habits. No, I haven't been eating fast food, but I'd estimate that only 50% of what I eat is Paleo and I can definitely feel a difference. Ideally, I'd like to do Whole 30 around the same time I do the Tough Mudder in June, but I'll set a loose goal and say that I'd like to do it once more this year.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Monday, February 17, 2014
Changing Gears: Is it OK to not buy a house by the time I'm 30?
Oh Andrew-from-one-week-ago, you beautiful naive bastard. Did you actually think FHA loans were affordable? hahahahahaha lololololol no. You dummy. For starters, you lose half of your 3.5% down payment to an FHA funding fee so you're basically setting a loan for 98.25% of the home value, instead of 96.5% (which, If we're being honest, is ridiculous either way). Second, you get your monthly payment blown up by mortgage insurance. That's a lot of fun. Third, you can't deduct said mortgage insurance payments come tax time. Three hugeeeee reasons to avoid FHA loans if you can. I might even be missing some more reasons but I'm pretty sure I blacked out when the loan officer was talking and If my head hadn't been stuck in a loop of perpetual nodding, we'd still be in his office.
He did introduce us to a more affordable type of loan if we could scrounge up a 5% down payment. I'll give you a brief, possibly inaccurate, description: the bank sets us up with a loan from Fannie Mae up to $417k, and gives us a second loan for the difference between the first loan and the total amount you need to borrow. Overall, the interest rate would be much higher than what FHA offered once the two loans combined, but since you're not paying the mortgage insurance, you're saving quite a bit AND you start off with 5% of the home value paid for.
In an ideal world, we would buy a place we loved, live in it until we both finished up school (Summer 2015), and then move abroad for a year or two while renting the place out. Sadly, even though both of those loans would have technically put us in a house in the neighborhood we love, our monthly payments would have been about half of our take home pay. (Why do banks even let people borrow like that? Isn't that how we got into this whole recession in the first place?) Also, unless we can come up with a 20% down payment right now (impossible), we'd never be able to rent the house out for anywhere near our monthly payment to the bank.
NEW PLAN: Avoid the wanton destruction of our bank account.
Step 1: Don't buy a house right now. We can't afford to buy a place in the area we want to live in and we would have a hard time renting a place in the areas that are cheaper. If we're serious about going abroad, and we are, then buying just doesn't make sense right now. It did get me to thinking about the fact I will be on the other side of 30 (we're both 27 right now) before I'll buy my first place. I'm not sure why this freaks me out but I always thought I'd have a place by 30 and I don't want to feel like I'm falling behind.
Step 2: Continue renting our current apartment until we move abroad. Debtblag.com has a good post about the value of renting. and it makes me feel a little bit better about our situation.
Step 3: Continue saving as much as we can for the eventual 20% down payment. This is pretty much never a bad idea.
Step 4: Find a job overseas that doesn't set us back financially or stall either of our careers (which we believe is possible). I will definitely be posting more on the search for these jobs later!
Step 5: Come back and buy a home. We'd be 31 or 32, and ready to start a family. We'd also have enough in the bank for a down payment of 20% (hopefully).
Well there it is, our 5-step plan in all it's glory. I feel like I should stamp this post with a big fat "subject to change" stamp. Any comments? Suggestions? OVERSEAS JOB OFFERS?!?
He did introduce us to a more affordable type of loan if we could scrounge up a 5% down payment. I'll give you a brief, possibly inaccurate, description: the bank sets us up with a loan from Fannie Mae up to $417k, and gives us a second loan for the difference between the first loan and the total amount you need to borrow. Overall, the interest rate would be much higher than what FHA offered once the two loans combined, but since you're not paying the mortgage insurance, you're saving quite a bit AND you start off with 5% of the home value paid for.
In an ideal world, we would buy a place we loved, live in it until we both finished up school (Summer 2015), and then move abroad for a year or two while renting the place out. Sadly, even though both of those loans would have technically put us in a house in the neighborhood we love, our monthly payments would have been about half of our take home pay. (Why do banks even let people borrow like that? Isn't that how we got into this whole recession in the first place?) Also, unless we can come up with a 20% down payment right now (impossible), we'd never be able to rent the house out for anywhere near our monthly payment to the bank.
NEW PLAN: Avoid the wanton destruction of our bank account.
Step 1: Don't buy a house right now. We can't afford to buy a place in the area we want to live in and we would have a hard time renting a place in the areas that are cheaper. If we're serious about going abroad, and we are, then buying just doesn't make sense right now. It did get me to thinking about the fact I will be on the other side of 30 (we're both 27 right now) before I'll buy my first place. I'm not sure why this freaks me out but I always thought I'd have a place by 30 and I don't want to feel like I'm falling behind.
Step 2: Continue renting our current apartment until we move abroad. Debtblag.com has a good post about the value of renting. and it makes me feel a little bit better about our situation.
Step 3: Continue saving as much as we can for the eventual 20% down payment. This is pretty much never a bad idea.
Step 4: Find a job overseas that doesn't set us back financially or stall either of our careers (which we believe is possible). I will definitely be posting more on the search for these jobs later!
Step 5: Come back and buy a home. We'd be 31 or 32, and ready to start a family. We'd also have enough in the bank for a down payment of 20% (hopefully).
Well there it is, our 5-step plan in all it's glory. I feel like I should stamp this post with a big fat "subject to change" stamp. Any comments? Suggestions? OVERSEAS JOB OFFERS?!?
Thursday, February 13, 2014
How To: Reclaimed Wood Wall Shelf
A while back, I posted about some projects I was planning on completing, as completion of three projects was one of my resolutions for the year. The shelf project was up first. This was my Christmas present to my wife, who wanted a place to put all her cameras. She's nice enough to take pictures for my blog, I was happy to oblige.
Step 1: Find a heavy waterlogged board in the woods behind your parents' house, think it's perfect for a project, drag it up a steep hill, and wipe out in front of the wife (not shown). Simple. Except for the whole find-a-random-board-in-the-woods thing. Instead, you could just buy some wood from the store (2x4s) and make things a lot easier on yourself because, shocker, wood you find in the woods will not be ideally suited to becoming a shelf.
Step 2: Find some wall brackets. I was really feeling the Ledge & Shelf Bracket from Restoration Hardware, but they were $45 bucks each. REALLY? How about I just pick up some of these Ikea Ekby Lerbergs for $2 each instead? My math's adequate at best but I estimate they are one million percent cheaper and they have the added bonus of being named something RIDICULOUS.
Step 3: Cut your wood down to size. First measure the wall you'll be hanging the shelves on. Also keep in mind that the brackets are not one-size-fits-all. Check the product dimensions. Then using a table saw, cut the board (at this point I found that mine was an engineered plywood counter top) in two, and then make another cut on both boards to make them 11" deep. This was challenging, I'm not gonna lie. The wood was warped and cutting a straight-line required an embarrassing amount of takes. Measure twice, then cut three or four times for good measure. That's what I've always heard.
Step 4: Sand and stain.These are the easiest steps by far, especially if you have a power sander. Sand down the wood, taking care to smooth the edges you've just cut with the saw. This will remove the layers of dirt and grime. Clean off the wood with a cloth to remove the saw dust, and stain the boards using an old paint brush or rag. Just coat the boards with the stain like it's paint, wait a few (5) minutes, and then wipe off the excess stain with a rag. If you want the stain to be darker, put another coat on using the same methods. For the record, I was using some leftover Minwax Jacobean Stain, which is a great color. Once this is done, let the stain dry overnight.
Step 5: Protect. Once the wood is dry to the touch, apply polyurethane to the wood. Polyurethane will protect the wood from damage that may occur while moving the board or placing heavy items on it later. I find it's easiest to use the spray can variety, as it dries faster. Pro tip: Be very conservative. You do not want to over apply polyurethane as it will bubble or pool and give whatever it is you are working on a yellow hue. Also, let the polyurethane dry thoroughly before moving the boards. It'll be tempting to move them at this point, since you're now finished with them.
Step 6: Paint the brackets. Spray painting is an art form, don't let anyone tell you differently. If you haven't had experience with spray paint, take a look at some tutorials you find online. They are worth your time to read. I bought and used spray primer (shown above) since I was painting metal and I was worried the paint would fleck off if I didn't. After that, I used spray paint. I chose metallic gold spray paint for the brackets because I liked the way this looked, and I painted the brackets from every angle I could.
Step 7: Fasten the brackets to the shelves. Pre-drill the holes in the shelves using a small drill bit and then use a power screw driver to drive a screw into the board, fastening the brackets to the shelves.
Step 8: Fasten the brackets, and the shelves, to the wall. I really don't have the energy to type the explicit details of this part out, but suffice to say, HANGING HEAVY STUFF IS THE WORST. It's really a two person job: one to hold the shelf against the wall, the other to mark the screw holes on the wall. One bit of advice: measure, measure, measure so you don't mess up by drilling an extra hole in the wall and end up hating yourself.
THE END. Once you have the shelves up there, sit back and admire your handiwork. The cost of this project was $30 for the brackets, about $3 for the primer, $5 for the spray paint. The wood was free, and the stain and polyurethane were leftover from some other projects of mine. Total, I estimate the project only set me back about $45. Not bad considering I was trying to knock off a set of $250 RH shelves.
Step 2: Find some wall brackets. I was really feeling the Ledge & Shelf Bracket from Restoration Hardware, but they were $45 bucks each. REALLY? How about I just pick up some of these Ikea Ekby Lerbergs for $2 each instead? My math's adequate at best but I estimate they are one million percent cheaper and they have the added bonus of being named something RIDICULOUS.
Step 3: Cut your wood down to size. First measure the wall you'll be hanging the shelves on. Also keep in mind that the brackets are not one-size-fits-all. Check the product dimensions. Then using a table saw, cut the board (at this point I found that mine was an engineered plywood counter top) in two, and then make another cut on both boards to make them 11" deep. This was challenging, I'm not gonna lie. The wood was warped and cutting a straight-line required an embarrassing amount of takes. Measure twice, then cut three or four times for good measure. That's what I've always heard.
Step 4: Sand and stain.These are the easiest steps by far, especially if you have a power sander. Sand down the wood, taking care to smooth the edges you've just cut with the saw. This will remove the layers of dirt and grime. Clean off the wood with a cloth to remove the saw dust, and stain the boards using an old paint brush or rag. Just coat the boards with the stain like it's paint, wait a few (5) minutes, and then wipe off the excess stain with a rag. If you want the stain to be darker, put another coat on using the same methods. For the record, I was using some leftover Minwax Jacobean Stain, which is a great color. Once this is done, let the stain dry overnight.
Step 5: Protect. Once the wood is dry to the touch, apply polyurethane to the wood. Polyurethane will protect the wood from damage that may occur while moving the board or placing heavy items on it later. I find it's easiest to use the spray can variety, as it dries faster. Pro tip: Be very conservative. You do not want to over apply polyurethane as it will bubble or pool and give whatever it is you are working on a yellow hue. Also, let the polyurethane dry thoroughly before moving the boards. It'll be tempting to move them at this point, since you're now finished with them.
Step 6: Paint the brackets. Spray painting is an art form, don't let anyone tell you differently. If you haven't had experience with spray paint, take a look at some tutorials you find online. They are worth your time to read. I bought and used spray primer (shown above) since I was painting metal and I was worried the paint would fleck off if I didn't. After that, I used spray paint. I chose metallic gold spray paint for the brackets because I liked the way this looked, and I painted the brackets from every angle I could.
Step 7: Fasten the brackets to the shelves. Pre-drill the holes in the shelves using a small drill bit and then use a power screw driver to drive a screw into the board, fastening the brackets to the shelves.
Step 8: Fasten the brackets, and the shelves, to the wall. I really don't have the energy to type the explicit details of this part out, but suffice to say, HANGING HEAVY STUFF IS THE WORST. It's really a two person job: one to hold the shelf against the wall, the other to mark the screw holes on the wall. One bit of advice: measure, measure, measure so you don't mess up by drilling an extra hole in the wall and end up hating yourself.
THE END. Once you have the shelves up there, sit back and admire your handiwork. The cost of this project was $30 for the brackets, about $3 for the primer, $5 for the spray paint. The wood was free, and the stain and polyurethane were leftover from some other projects of mine. Total, I estimate the project only set me back about $45. Not bad considering I was trying to knock off a set of $250 RH shelves.
Saturday, February 8, 2014
Whole 30: In Review
Source: http://digboston.com/boston-food-drinks/2012/02/the-paleo-diet-caveman-grubbin/
Without a doubt, Whole 30 has been a success. It's been absolutely life changing and this is coming from one of the most skeptical people on the planet (according to my wife). I was a skeptic going in, and I stayed a skeptic until about the last week of the program.
I might be a total convert now.
For those of you that aren't familiar with Whole 30, it's a strict version of the Paleo diet. The Paleo diet consists mainly of meats, vegetables, fruits, fungi, and nuts. It excludes grains, legumes, dairy, refined sugars, and vegetables oils. It's already strict enough, right? Whole 30 is even more exclusive. It's impossible to explain everything about the program in a short post but I hope by the end of it, I can convince a few of you to look into it on your own
A week into the program, I wrote a post with some pros and cons. Can I go back now and delete the cons? Am I allowed to delete something I wrote if I don't agree with it now? I'll grant you that some of the cons still apply, but they're so far outweighed by the pros, it's not even funny.
Allow me to resubmit what I feel is a more accurate...
Pros
I feel accomplished. Like really accomplished. It's not often that we inflict self-discipline on ourselves, and this took a helluva lot of it. Now that it's finished and we were successful, I'm in a better place mentally to start the year.
Perfect Digestion. I've had my share of digestion issues. I tried the Activia yogurt route, I tried probiotics, but nothing's worked as well as this diet. It's nice to know that if I ever have a flare up of digestion problems, I can jump back into the Whole 30 program to take care of them. To be honest, I'm ticked the gastroenterologist didn't suggest a diet change when I went to see him.
Flat Stomach. I'm a skinny guy to start with, but that didn't mean I didn't have a gut (I'm convinced there's nothing less attractive than a skinny guy with a gut).I ran, I thought I was eating pretty well, I lifted, I tried supplements. I couldn't get my stomach flat. It took ONE WEEK to see abs on this diet. You cut down on the bloat, you'll be surprised what you find underneath.
Better Body Image. I swear my skin looks better. The dark circles under my eyes have lessened. My stomach is flat. I've lost weight. I'm not tired after I eat. I sleep better, I'm more alert during the day. Even if this is all in my head, which I seriously doubt, it would mean the diet's one badass placebo.
The Food. Our meals taste delicious because the food we're buying is so much tastier to begin with. You're eating more natural food and it's not loaded with chemicals and other crap. I've also become a better cook and my nutrition knowledge has practically doubled. The best part about the diet? You can eat as much as you want. This is not intended to be just a weight loss diet (although you will lose weight depending on your current diet) so you don't have to feel guilty about how much or how often you eat.
Better Marriage. I would never have tried to do this diet on my own, and I would certainly never have succeeded without the help of my wife. What could have been a miserable failure was instead an exciting challenge that I got to share with a remarkable woman. I feel blessed that we spent so much time together over the last month.
Cons:
Time Hog. With the exception on one meal, we prepared all of our own food. We're busy people too. Between work and grad school, we seemed to dedicate all of our spare time to the kitchen. Fortunately, there was certainly a learning curve as we didn't seem to be so strapped for time towards the end of the month, but there wasn't much time for anything else. Socially, we missed a lot of gatherings with our friends. Next time we do Whole 30, I'll be convincing some of those friends to try it out too.
Food takes Center Stage: I feel like I was either daydreaming about food I couldn't have, mentally preparing a list for the store, cooking, eating, or talking about the diet. Funny thing is, before and during the program, I would think "I can't give up cheese, or beer, or bread, or Oreos forever!". Then, when I could finally eat those things again, I didn't. I expected that I'd want to run to the store and buy some things that I "deserved". But now I feel so much better and I don't miss that type of food. If I deserve anything, it's to feel good about what I eat.
Expensive. Just read this.
If you haven't gotten the hint yet, I highly encourage people to try this diet!
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
January 2014 Goal Recap
One month is in the books, and I'm happy to report that I did pretty well in regards to my New Years Resolutions...
... but I'm not even sure if I like my goals anymore.
My wife and I have done some soul searching, looked at where we are in our lives, and what we want to do, and decided that we want to work abroad after we're through with grad school at the end of the summer 2015. We're juggling a bunch of ideas in the air like do we try to buy a house now then rent it out while we're abroad? Do we buy the house after we go abroad? What kind of work will we do? Are we willing to put some of our goals on hold indefinitely in order to do this? How long will we be gone? Where do we even want to go?! DOES SANTA EVEN GO TO OTHER COUNTRIES OR IS IT JUST AMERICA!? YOU HAVE TO TELL ME.
Anyway, my brain is going crazy. We're meeting with a loan officer today to see if we can even afford the houses were interested which will (hopefully) give us some much needed clarity. I'm also planning on meeting with some career advisors at George Mason University (my school) to see if they have any insight. We'll make a decision sometime in the next 10 years, so you have my permission to hold your breath.
Without further ado, here's how I did on the goals.
FINANCES: Save $3,000 cash for a vacation before September 2014. Save $24,000 cash for a house by January 2015.
I think I said that we needed to save about $2,350/month to hit this goal and we saved $4,018! BOOYAH! I get paid bi-weekly which normally means I only get paid twice a month. Every so often I get a third paycheck and we have a fun month. This was one of those months WHICH was very timely (and I didn't actually know it was gonna happen) as Whole 30 cost more than expected and we weren't going to hit the $2,350 target. Next month, we may get our tax refund back which would give us an even bigger cushion going forward into the summer months which are typically more expensive for us. (wedding season y'all)
FITNESS: Do 15 pull-ups in a row before next Christmas and complete a Tough Mudder by August.
Ummm. Can we skip going over this goal? I did 6 pull-ups last time I tried that out. I freaking hate them. FAIL. I haven't been to the gym very much in January as I was spending a lot of time cooking, being sick, and wrapping up some finals. Excuses, excuses. I'm going to aim for 9 pull-ups by the end of February.
Also, I haven't even registered for the Tough Mudder, but I haven't NOT done a Tough Mudder either. Let's call it a draw.
CREATIVITY: Average 2 blog posts a month by end of the year and complete at least 3 "projects" before next year.
I had 8 posts. At this rate, in two more months I can quit this whole blog thing. I also knocked out 2 projects, which I'll blog about later if my darling wife deems me worthy and takes some photos. Once I reach these goals, I'll set some new ones.
CAREER: Become a GS-13 by September.
Little bit of background, I am a federal government employee and I am on the General Schedule (GS) pay scale. I am currently a GS-12 (it's a little bit like a rank in the military) and I will be up for a promotion to a GS-13 in September. In order to get there, I have to pass a written test, write some essays, and get interviewed by a board of people I'm gonna have to charm the pants off. I can always become a GS-13 after September, but I can't be one before then because you have to have "time-in-grade". This means I have to be a GS-12 for at least a year before I am eligible for promotion. September is my anniversary date. Anyway, as I get closer to the date, I have to start scheduling the training to prepare for the tests and the interview. I'll probably sweat through my suit and tie when the day comes which, unfortunately, is not very flattering.
SPIRITUAL: Find a church by March and volunteer at Habitat for Humanity by the end of the year.
When I started this post, I was feeling pretty good about myself based on the fact I saved so much more money than expected. Now I feel awful. I didn't even GO to church once this past month. So no, I didn't find a church. I think I may have driven past a few on Sundays.
I did do some research into volunteering in DC with Habitat for Humanity. Definitely seems doable for me and something that would be rewarding.
WHOLE 30: Complete the Whole 30 Challenge
UMMMMMMM YEAH. I FRIGGIN' DID THAT. I plan on doing a wrap up post talking about it, but it was seriously life changing. I recommend it to everyone.
... but I'm not even sure if I like my goals anymore.
My wife and I have done some soul searching, looked at where we are in our lives, and what we want to do, and decided that we want to work abroad after we're through with grad school at the end of the summer 2015. We're juggling a bunch of ideas in the air like do we try to buy a house now then rent it out while we're abroad? Do we buy the house after we go abroad? What kind of work will we do? Are we willing to put some of our goals on hold indefinitely in order to do this? How long will we be gone? Where do we even want to go?! DOES SANTA EVEN GO TO OTHER COUNTRIES OR IS IT JUST AMERICA!? YOU HAVE TO TELL ME.
Anyway, my brain is going crazy. We're meeting with a loan officer today to see if we can even afford the houses were interested which will (hopefully) give us some much needed clarity. I'm also planning on meeting with some career advisors at George Mason University (my school) to see if they have any insight. We'll make a decision sometime in the next 10 years, so you have my permission to hold your breath.
Without further ado, here's how I did on the goals.
FINANCES: Save $3,000 cash for a vacation before September 2014. Save $24,000 cash for a house by January 2015.
I think I said that we needed to save about $2,350/month to hit this goal and we saved $4,018! BOOYAH! I get paid bi-weekly which normally means I only get paid twice a month. Every so often I get a third paycheck and we have a fun month. This was one of those months WHICH was very timely (and I didn't actually know it was gonna happen) as Whole 30 cost more than expected and we weren't going to hit the $2,350 target. Next month, we may get our tax refund back which would give us an even bigger cushion going forward into the summer months which are typically more expensive for us. (wedding season y'all)
FITNESS: Do 15 pull-ups in a row before next Christmas and complete a Tough Mudder by August.
Ummm. Can we skip going over this goal? I did 6 pull-ups last time I tried that out. I freaking hate them. FAIL. I haven't been to the gym very much in January as I was spending a lot of time cooking, being sick, and wrapping up some finals. Excuses, excuses. I'm going to aim for 9 pull-ups by the end of February.
Also, I haven't even registered for the Tough Mudder, but I haven't NOT done a Tough Mudder either. Let's call it a draw.
CREATIVITY: Average 2 blog posts a month by end of the year and complete at least 3 "projects" before next year.
I had 8 posts. At this rate, in two more months I can quit this whole blog thing. I also knocked out 2 projects, which I'll blog about later if my darling wife deems me worthy and takes some photos. Once I reach these goals, I'll set some new ones.
CAREER: Become a GS-13 by September.
Little bit of background, I am a federal government employee and I am on the General Schedule (GS) pay scale. I am currently a GS-12 (it's a little bit like a rank in the military) and I will be up for a promotion to a GS-13 in September. In order to get there, I have to pass a written test, write some essays, and get interviewed by a board of people I'm gonna have to charm the pants off. I can always become a GS-13 after September, but I can't be one before then because you have to have "time-in-grade". This means I have to be a GS-12 for at least a year before I am eligible for promotion. September is my anniversary date. Anyway, as I get closer to the date, I have to start scheduling the training to prepare for the tests and the interview. I'll probably sweat through my suit and tie when the day comes which, unfortunately, is not very flattering.
SPIRITUAL: Find a church by March and volunteer at Habitat for Humanity by the end of the year.
When I started this post, I was feeling pretty good about myself based on the fact I saved so much more money than expected. Now I feel awful. I didn't even GO to church once this past month. So no, I didn't find a church. I think I may have driven past a few on Sundays.
I did do some research into volunteering in DC with Habitat for Humanity. Definitely seems doable for me and something that would be rewarding.
WHOLE 30: Complete the Whole 30 Challenge
UMMMMMMM YEAH. I FRIGGIN' DID THAT. I plan on doing a wrap up post talking about it, but it was seriously life changing. I recommend it to everyone.
Monday, February 3, 2014
Whole 30: The Cost of Healthy Eating
Since I've been tracking what we've been spending the last three years, both in grocery stores and restaurants, I have a good grasp on our historical spending habits. I'll show you what we've been spending, but before you condemn us for how much we spend on food, the cost of living in northern Virginia (less than 10 miles out of Washington DC) is ridiculous. Prices on average are about 20% higher than Richmond (a nearby city about two hours south), and maybe 30-40% higher than non-metropolitan areas. Bottom Line: GET US OUT OF HERE.
Anyway, I created the following tables from my old Excel spreadsheets, they show the monthly cost of food for my wife and I:
Anyway, I created the following tables from my old Excel spreadsheets, they show the monthly cost of food for my wife and I:
WE'RE TERRIBLE. WHAT THE #&@$ HAPPENED!?
Well, I have a variety of excuses lined up for you:
- We got a little lazy, there's no denying that. We clearly went out to eat more.
- We both started grad school which meant our free nights to make dinner dwindled away.
- We started buying healthier food at the grocery store, ditching places like Giant or Harris Teeter in favor of Whole Foods and Mom's. We also went to restaurants that served healthier food.
- Lifestyle Inflation. We made more money so we thought we'd spend more money. Makes sense right?
$1,027.30 or approx $500/person.
$69.09 at a restaurant (which I got food poisoning from) and $958.19 at the store. It ended up being about $500/person which, admittedly, is pretty terrible considering we cooked all but one of our meals. However, there's a lot we could do to bring that cost down.
- For starters, before we even went to the store once, we said that money wasn't going to be the reason we failed Whole 30. We wanted to make it as easy as we could to get through the challenge so we didn't really meal plan for then one or two meals in advance. This means we weren't really shopping for deals.
- We also never cooked in bulk. We usually made just enough for dinner that night and lunch the next day. This sort of ties back in to shopping for deals.
- We shopped Whole Foods versus Trader Joes which was our biggest mistake. Whole Foods prices are so much higher based on their ridiculous overhead. I'm tired of paying their prices just so they can make everything look pretty on the inside of their store.
- We didn't participate in a crop share. There are many services in our area where local farmers will directly ship produce to your front door. You end up getting great deals. We'd actually done this in the past, and loved it, but at the time we were throwing a lot of produce away. We wouldn't be doing that on this diet.
If you haven't yet done Whole 30, I hope you can use this information to your advantage. Just make sure you adjust my cost of Whole 30 based on your Cost of Living to get a better ballpark figure.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Whole 30: Days Fifteen through Twenty Three
It's been a while since I've posted so you're getting a whole bunch of these at once.
Day 15
Whole 30 Beef Jerky
Leftover Spaghetti Squash with Lucini and Steak
LIke... 5 grapefruits
Days 16-17
Imagine Chicken Broth
Kombucha!
Bananas
Apple Sauce
Day 18
Whole 30 Approved Sausage
These Baller Wings
Day 15
Whole 30 Beef Jerky
Leftover Spaghetti Squash with Lucini and Steak
LIke... 5 grapefruits
Days 16-17
Imagine Chicken Broth
Kombucha!
Bananas
Apple Sauce
Day 18
Whole 30 Approved Sausage
These Baller Wings
Days 19
Blue Ribbon Country Captain Chicken from Well Fed
Days 20-21
I had a final in Managerial Accounting and I pretty much stopped recording what I was eating. MY BAD! I think I made some ground beef, mixed some taco seasoning in, and ate it on lettuce with some avocados at one point. I know, it sounds awesome.
Day 22
Mashed Sweet Potato
Taj Mahal Chicken from Well Fed 2
Day 23
Leftover Chicken
Shrimp with Old Bay Seasoning
Sweet Potato Fries
Ok, so I dropped the ball on this. I hadn't been writing down what I'd been eating (it was all Whole 30 though!) and I just wanted to put it out there before I got too far behind. 7 more days! It's practically in the bag.
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