$8,418.68

That's a lot of money, right?  The great news is that it's the dollar amount of debt we have paid off in the last four months.  And that's in addition to all our regular expenses.  Andy and I took a Dave Ramsey class earlier in the year, and I thought I should blog about and review it since it's doing us quite a lot of good in our financial lives.  Prepare yourself for a lengthy blog entry.  Now I don't claim to be an expert and we have modified some of what he teaches to fit our lifestyle, so I am not discussing his exact teachings.  I'm writing what works for us.  I also don't work for him or specifically promote his products, so take whatever I say with your own grain of salt.

So Dave Ramsey's teachings are based on 7 baby steps: http://www.daveramsey.com/new/baby-steps/.  The idea is to do them in order and be diligent.  We are on baby step 2, which is pay off the non-house debt.  So I'm only going to talk about the first two steps since I don't have direct experience with the others....but those will hopefully be future blogs as we accomplish them!

First, just a little general background of our finances.  Before we took the class, we considered ourselves "good" with money.  And I think that's still decently true - we were better than many with how we managed our money.  We put everything on credit cards for the cash back perks and then paid them off every month.  We did set some aside for savings, I was contributing to retirement through my work, we financed what we could at super low interest rates, tried to live within our means, only had one car payment, paid a little extra on our mortgage every month, etc.  We also shared everything jointly - every credit card and bank account was in both our names.  So all in all, we did pretty decent.  But we did feel like it was hard to make a dent in any debt, then we sold our house for a loss and had to bring money to closing and that was PAINFUL.   It was all for the best because it helped facilitate moving to Tennessee without having to hurry and sell a house, but it still stunk because it ate our savings.  Gobbled it up like a fiend.

So you may wonder why we took the class if we were doing pretty well!  My sister, Denise, told me about the class because they were doing it and I was intrigued.  I read Dave Ramsey's book and liked it.  I thought there were some things we still needed to do: actually budget, control some spending, pay off our debt (and feel like we're getting somewhere), figure out if we should invest and where, how to save for retirement, etc.  So I thought $89 for the nine-week class, which includes both of us and all the materials (worksheets, content, etc.) wasn't too bad.  We also have a lifetime membership to classes so if we ever want to go back and do it again for refereshers, we can do that for free.  We had to pay by check or debit card - no credit cards for Dave Ramsey!  I think it was well worth the money, because without spending that $89 dollars, I'm sure we wouldn't have paid off almost $8500 in debt in just four months. 

So besides the baby steps, you learn about budgeting, communicating with your loved ones about money, details about credit cards and credit scores, which insurance you should have, investing, and other details that all factor into the bigger plan.  Andy and I never really had issues communicating about money (or anything really for that matter) so that was easy.  We're both pretty even on the spend vs. save spectrum and want to enjoy similar lifestyles and aren't really materialistic.  We also were already doing all our spending together so we would get 'approval' from each other for all money spent. 

The budgeting was really intriguing and good for us since we'd never done that.  Actually making the budget was easy, but sticking to it was when we realized we had really just been spending a lot willy-nilly on house things and random things.  The purpose of budgeting is to plan where every dollar goes, whether to food, clothing, utilities, savings account, paying down your debt, etc.  Dave Ramsey teaches that when you make a budget, you plan every dollar so your budget spends every dollar that comes in.  That was an interesting concept we had never thought about - I just roughly budgeted in my head and knew there was money leftover.  But I can't say where that "leftover" money went.  So we took the leftover in our budget we made and could purposely plan to put some toward debt and not end up wasting it.  Those people who don't have any/enough money leftover to put toward debt either need to generate more income (get second job) or reduce their expenses (give up frivolous things that you don't NEED).  Now we don't personally want to spend every dollar in our checking account, so we keep a $500 buffer in there in addition to our budgeted money.  This isn't something Dave teaches but it was something we wanted for our sanity in case we go over in one category at the end of the month.  We don't want to get slammed with bank fees.  It's like an extra savings account/emergency fund in a sense.  This is just one of the examples where we took Dave's principles and then added in some things that we needed to make them work for us and keep us comfortable.

Now some notes about our budget: we did not make it so stringent that we drastically altered our lifestyle and made ourselves miserable.  That is a luxury we had because we HAD been good with money before the class.  People with creditors calling them don't have that luxury and would have to live with a much stricter budget.  But we planned things we wanted into our budget including saving for vacations, eating out, golfing, etc.  We also didn't cancel our cable or cell phone plans to save money, we just budgeted for them.  So I know a lot of people (me included) think that if you budget you have to live poor and never do anything fun.  We made ours so we could do fun stuff, like eat out, but we couldn't do it four times a week or go to $80 meals every week.  So we planned our budget to spend responsibly and still have money to pay toward our debt.  Now we have gone over some categories some months, and under in others, but that's bound to happen when life happens.  Like we finally found doctors/dentists here in Tennessee and saw them all for both of us within two months.  That put us over budget in that category for those months, but that was money well spent and not frivolous spending.  We'll be under budget in that area in the coming months, so it will even out.

Another big point of Dave's teachings is to stop using all credit cards.  This was hard for us to wrap our brain around because we used ours but paid them off every month.  So I didn't want to give up the cash back!  But then we got on board with the underlying premise: to actually buy things with MONEY.  Using credit cards (and any loan for that matter) is buying things with money you don't have, and that does sound wrong somehow.  That concept really spoke to me, and so we have stopped using credit cards.  Dave teaches to use cash, but we use our debit card to make it easier for us to manage, and then we track it all with our bank budgeting tool online.  That works for us instead of the cash, especially when Andy stops at the store but I have the grocery cash.  We tried cash for a month but went to debit card after that.  Ideally you go through the baby steps and get to the point where you save up money to buy things instead of buying them on credit and with loans.  That way if you don't have the money, you don't buy it!  And the steps include building emergency money and savings so that you can cover the freak car breakdown and whatnot. 

The funny thing about credit scores (which was always true but I never realized) is that they basically indicate how much debt and how many credit cards you've accumulated.  If you do not have debt or credit cards, you do not have a credit score.  Dave Ramsey has millions of dollars, but he has no credit score.  Laughable, but true because your credit score in no way considers the amount of money you have, just how much debt you could accumulate and if you can pay the minimum balance on it.  You could win the lottery tomorrow and your credit score won't change.  Fascinating.

So here are the two baby steps we have experience with so far:

Step 1: Build an emergency fund of $1000
Since we had been pretty good with our money and had some money in savings, we completed this pretty quick.  Dave has lots of suggestions about how to help get up to this amount quickly if you don't already have.  He believes that unless you have this cushion for when you need new tires or other freak accidents like the stove broke....it's too hard to accomplish the rest of the steps.

Step 2: Debt Snowball
This is where we are right now, and how we paid down so much of our debt.  The premise is that you list all the non-mortgage debt you have with their minimum payments.  List the one with the smallest total balance first, then in increasing balances.  He doesn't take interest rates into account, just total balance.  Then you make minimum payments on everything and throw all extra money towards the one at the top of the list with the lowest total balance.  Once that is paid off, you make the minimum payments on the remaining then throw all extra money toward the next one, and so on and so forth.  And as you move down the line, the money you have to contribute increases because you get to use the payments from what you have already paid off!  For example, we just paid off my car this month, and my car payment was $284.  So now our next debt that gets all our extra money ALSO gets the $284 because I don't need to pay for my car anymore.  We slightly altered the debt list because we have a 0% same as cash purchase on our Lowe's card from when we moved and bought our fridge and dryer.  Although the total balance isn't super high, we didn't put it at the top of the list as Dave suggested.  We just calculated what we need to pay on it each month to pay it off while still in the interest-free period.  We wanted more of our money to go toward the things with interest.  Again that's not what Dave teaches but what Andy and I decided to do together, and it's working for us.

FYI a lot of people question him not considering interest rates in that formula.  His theory is that if you do the smallest balance first, you'll pay off something sooner and see the fruits of your labor faster.  That is what helps keep you going on the program (just like when you diet you want to see the scale go down, or you give up)!

The biggest thing that the class helped us learn is when to do what.  Before the class we were contributing to supplemental retirement funds and paying a little extra on the house every month, and the lack of concentration in one area felt like we weren't doing much in any area.  Having a plan of attack (and seeing it work well) went a long way toward helping us focus our attention and our money on things that make a difference.  We still have non-mortgage debt to pay off - because we were the typical American people who think debt is fine, it doesn't matter, everyone has it so it's okay.  But we MIGHT be able to pay it off by the end of this calendar year.  It's going to be close.  If not, it will definitely be right after the new year.  Which still sounds amazing to us because without taking the class we calculated that it would have taken us approximately six years to pay off the debt, not one year.  And if we keep going, we will pay off our house in about nine years, which is amazing considering we financed 97% of it!

So do I recommend Dave Ramsey?  I sure would because it works for us.  That being said, it might not work for everyone.  So definitely look at his baby steps and realistically think if they are feasible for you.  If not, try something else.  I wholeheartedly recommend looking at your finances and doing what you can to minimize your debt and give you more actual money in your possession.  That's a good plan for everyone just because you never know what could happen that requires actual money (not credit) and you want to be prepared!  Not to mention with every debt we get rid of, we feel that much happier :)

the deck is stained, once

So I had posted earlier about taking the railing down on our deck.  We stained it now and we debated heavily about the color because our house is light gray with black and white trim, so selecting a brown-based color was just too hard to get on board with.  So we went with a black stain, but one that was semi-transparent so it wouldn't be like painting it black.  So here is the before as a reminder:

Here is the after:

Again the before with the railing:

And you can see here how the color does go with the house.  It is dark, we both really like it and its matching tone.

Here is a closeup of the before (with green painter's tape up already against the white trim on the house)

This is the closest I took of the after.  It technically needs another coat.  There are lighter parts and darker parts that end up showing roller marks.  So the picture below is not weird lighting, it does look like that with visible differences.  We used one full gallon to stain it, so we have none left to touch up.  We haven't bought the second gallon yet for the second coat.

Here is Mr. Adorable painting the bottom of the sides closest to the dirt:

And here is the supervisor:

So what we would like to do is put another coat on, then give it a white railing - and a real looking one with spindles.  We also want to get wider white trim around our windows and then black shutters on all the windows.  Those are the realistic things we'll do this and next summer.  The dream of a screened in porch will be further in the future!

delicious lemon muffins

I was to bring a dessert to our student worker party, and as always I picked out a new recipe to try.  Andy's old boss Tuffy had given him a lemon muffin recipe for us to try.  It was a printed email so it was from 2009!  Four years later, I'm finally trying it.  But I've held onto it because he never gave us a recipe before or after that one, so it must be good....and IT SURE WAS!

I made them in a mini muffin tin because that is very party friendly:

Believe it or not, the recipe originally said it made 48 muffins, but I cut it in half.  Then making them mini made 72 muffins!  They have a streusel and a glaze on them, so how can you go wrong?

After making the original recipe, I made some alterations only in amounts because I cut it in half, then I had extra streusel and not enough glaze. But I didn't change the ingredients, just evened out the quantities of each part.

Lemon Streusel Muffins
Makes 72 mini muffins

Muffins:
1 Cup butter, melted
1 Cup Sour Cream
4 eggs
1 Tbsp lemon juice
Rinds grated from 3 fresh lemons
2 Cups sugar
3 cups flour
3/8 tsp baking soda
3/8 tsp salt

Streusel:
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/8-cup butter, softened

Glaze:
1/2-cup sugar
6 Tbsp lemon juice

Directions
1. Mix muffin dry ingredients, set aside.
2. In mixer, beat eggs, sour cream, butter, lemon juice.
3. Grate rinds of 3 lemons and mix into egg mixture.
4. Add dry ingredients and blend well (will be thick).
5. Spray muffin tin or line with papers. Spoon into lined muffin tins filling 3/4 full.
6. Combine streusel ingredients until crumbly and sprinkle over muffin batter liberally.
7. Bake muffins at 350 for 18 minutes until done
8. Mix up glaze until sugar is dissolved.
9. Poke many holes in top of baked muffins when out of oven
10. Spoon glaze into holes.

garage cleaning

Since my parents are just under an hour away, we get to see them often.  A few weekends ago they needed help cleaning out their garage, especially moving the furniture around to clean behind it.  And of course I can't let an opportunity go by to help organize!

Here is Andy being silly while we work.  It was a rainy day, perfect for cleaning.

We had a large trash pile going in the middle as we went around the perimeter:

The workbench was probably the hardest to move because we didn't unload it, but it wasn't too bad with multiple people:

It went really well and now it looks so clean!  I don't have any after pictures really because it just looks like an organized garage :)  Mom and Dad then treated us to a lovely dinner as thanks.  We also managed to play some card games and eat some lunch - it was a fun and productive day!

korean beef

I have not had good luck with making Asian recipes at home.  I don't know why, it's been a various collection of problems.  I've had too salty from the soy sauce and weird textures.  But I am always up for trying new things, so when I came across Six Sisters' recipe for Korean Beef, I wanted to try it....and it was GREAT! 

I was a bit concerned about it being too salty because of the soy sauce, but it wasn't.   also wasn't sure about just using ground beef, but that just made it so super easy!  I will say, it was spicy.  I used 1/2 teaspoon of the red pepper flakes, and that was spicy.  But served with rice, that helped cool the spice.  We love spicy, so I'm going to add that much again in the future.  This got tastier as we ate it, and there were no leftovers.

Andy's only complaint was that it wasn't very saucy - not like a typical Chinese beef dish...so no sauce to drizzle over rice.  But I didn't mind.  I forgot to take a picture, so here is the original picture from the Six Sisters' site that has the recipe.

I would recommend and am already looking forward to making it again.  It is super fast and easy to make!

the deck, baby step 1

The deck might have been the most disappointing part of our house, but it's not bad.  It is just sort of small, hadn't been stained or protected, and the railing seemed very thrown together mostly because it wasn't spindles.  So we've talked and talked about what to do, and we have small and big plans!

The immediate plan for this summer is to stain the deck.  We want to redo the railing, but that is next year due to budget (i.e. we want to save up and pay off some things this year before we do anything to the outside of our house since nothing NEEDS to be done other than the deck.  So here is what the deck looked like when we bought the house:

So we thought instead of staining the railing we were just going to tear down in a year....

We should just take the railing off now:

So I know it's a little high, but we don't even have patio furniture or immediate plans to use it, so we'll just be careful.  An advantage of not having kids!  Here's another before/after:

So next up: staining the deck.  We struggled with the color because our house is gray-based, not brown.  So we bought a black stain that is semi-transparent, so we can't wait to see how that looks!

So the long term plan as part of the exterior is to widen the white trim around the window and put black shutters all around the house (currently we only have shutters on the front window).  That will help add some contrast, then we'd like a white railing on our black-stained deck.  Then ultimately the big dream, and I'll admit this is my dream, we'd put a three-season room on the back of the house instead of a deck.  I looooooooooved growing up with a screened in porch that was then turned into a three-season room, and so I want one.  Kitty would like it too :)  But that is certainly a ways down the road for sure!

peanut butter chocolate chip cookie bars

It was time to make something sweet for my dear husband, so I elected to try a new recipe I had found on a blog I follow.  They are peanut butter chocolate chip bars in an 8x8 pan, which makes for thick and super gooey bars, and so pretty!

The verdict...Andy thought they were okay but he prefers regular chocolate chip bars without the peanut butter.  Now in his defense, chocolate chips are his favorite cookies and he loves those pretty much all the same.  Then I tasted it to see what I thought...and honestly I think they are too gooey.  Weird, right?  But to eat them by themselves, I'd rather they be more airy/fluffy like a cookie.  Now if I was putting ice cream on them - or even putting these into homemade ice cream as I make it, maybe.  But this didn't make the keeper pile.

any box for kitty, no matter how small

Our Chuckles LOVES boxes, and manages to try to get in every one.  I had half a yogurt box (the other half I had opened to get out my yogurt), and that will work just fine for him....he'll lay in it as much as possible:

 Even if he can only get his front paws into the actual box part:

So silly, but cute all the same!

my introduction to quinoa

I've heard about quinoa but had no idea what it was.  Then I came across it again recently when reading about nutrition, and thought I'd give it a try.  I bought a small bag from Kroger (FYI the organic was much cheaper than the quinoa by the rice and the bulk quinoa) and wanted to try a cheese ham and broccoli quinoa recipe I found online since I was going to have leftover Easter ham!


And I got to use my cute mini muffin tin:

They popped out pretty easy and held together better than I feared:

All in all, these were really delicious!  That being said, I would only make them into 'bites' if I was having a party.  Otherwise it could just be in a bowl almost like a casserole type thing because that is easier and quicker :)  But I'm keeping this and can't wait to try more quinoa!!

picmonkey.com is a simple photoshop

I don't have photoshop and I never used to edit my photos in any way.  However, my new kitchen has sad sad lighting for food photos...so I saw a blog about picmonkey.com and decided to check it out.  IT'S AWESOME and so easy!  Not only does it have an easy crop function and an "auto adjust" button that cures most evils of photos, it is also super easy to resize photos.  I highly recommend it!!