june tuition update

well, bryan quit his summer job. haha. so much for him working as much as possible to boost our savings.

normally, i'd be stressing about how we're actually going to pay cash for the rest of his college tuition. but God is good and He is with us. fareway wasn't giving bryan more than 20 or so hours, so it was a little worthless anyway. for the record, he is looking for a new one. : )

bryan was also able to be very involved in the adoleo (formally anthem) recordings that have been taking place in des moines over the last three weeks. he absolutely loved being there everyday and to fully enjoy the recording experience. he was working fulltime during the last two albums he's recorded so he literally just recorded his bass parts and left. on this album he laid down all of the bass tracks obviously, but also used his skills on the tenor sax and banjo. he even recording some gang vocals, which i personally think is hilarious. i love my husband and he has tons of musical talent, but he can't sing to save his life.

so there was a little adoleo update for you. i'm so excited for you all to hear this upcoming album, it's really really good!

meanwhile, i worked a lot of hours in june. between the coffee shop and my work at home job, i traveled to ames once a week to train my replacement. a lot of hours means a lot of money. but it mostly went to the cost of convenience. you couldn't force me to eat any more pizza if you tried.

in the end we still banked some money towards that ever-present tuition fund. here's our update!

tuition for 2011-2012 school year: $9,654.00
savings at the end of june: $3,161.66
difference: $6,492.34
percentage saved: 32.75%
percentage left to save: 67.25%

the engaged budget

when we got engaged, i knew we had to start actually planning out how we spent our money. we both made enough as single people to not really think about it that much. neither one of us were crazy spenders, so we just lived paycheck to paycheck and that worked fine for us.

but we were engaged. we were supposed to be grown-ups. sure i was only 19, but i was going to act like an adult and no one could stop me.

the first major financial decision we made as a couple? buying a car from bryan's parents without any money to do so. [did i mention i was 19 and bryan was 20?] bryan's parents have the gift of generosity and they were happy to give us the car with the agreement that we would pay them back as we could.

the first 8 months or so we started to communicate about finances. we talked about goals, did some tentative budgeting and began to check with each other before spending our money. i specifically remember that we both spoiled each other with tons of nice and expensive christmas gifts because we knew that it was the last year we'd be able to do so without thinking the better of it.

at the beginning of 2009, we had close to $13,000 in debt. most of it was for my car loan which we were paying interest on and the rest was what we owed to bryan's parents.

having many good ideas about money management, and being self-controlled and decently wise with our money, we also enrolled in financial peace university which is a dave ramsey program.

i'll be writing more about what we learned from f.p.u. next week, but until then, i'll leave with this hilarious comparison showing how similar my father-in-law and dave ramsey look.

the month of june

it's rather normal to desire that the month of june last as long as possible. but this year, i wanted it to go as fast as possible. i've been waiting all month to start my new job! i've been waiting to not have a crazy schedule and to not be so busy with work that i don't even have time to grocery shop. i've been waiting!

and just as a watched pot never boils, time moved slowly this month.

here's what i've been thinking about:

i've been complaining a lot this month. and when i say a lot, i mean pretty much everything i've said to bryan has been some form of a complaint. it's been ugly. i've been pretty convicted about it lately, and i've found it's one of those things that is like a can of pringles. once you pop, you just can't stop. it's been so difficult to stop the flow nasty comments coming out of my mouth! i guess i gave myself a lot of excuses because it has been a rather stressful month. so that's the sin issue i'm working on right now, "do everything without arguing and complaining."

i have been so encouraged about my replacement at my job in ames, she's doing such a great job! she's picking up on everything so quickly and smartly, especially considering the somewhat choppy training she's getting from me as i'm in iowa city. i feel so great about leaving everything in her hands after this friday!

i love our connection group. we had a few new people join our group and it was as if they weren't new at all. it was awesome! i'm also insanely thankful for holly, who is always willing to talk pride and prejudice or good deals with me.

i'm eager to be fulltime with veritas. i have so much to learn, so many ideas, and haven't been able to really do much for the past month! yay for starting next tuesday!

i think that's all, so there you go!