Exploring Dave Ramsey’s’ Baby Steps and Getting Started on Being Debt Free

Dave Ramseys’ plan is called the Baby Steps and below is the outline:

1. Put away $1000 for emergencies and only use it in emergencies. 
2. List out all your debts from smallest to largest (regardless of interest rate). You pay all the minimums except for the smallest where you throw the most money you can. It’s called a Debt Snowball. 
3. After getting debt free, save 3-6 months of expenses (you never know, life happens as we saw living through a pandemic)
4. You can save for a down payment at this point for a house if you don’t already have one!
5. Save for retirement- 15% of your salary
6. Save for College (if applicable)
7. Pay off your house
8. Invest and build wealth

Here’s why the snowball works. You list out all your debt and stare it in the face. It’s overwhelming. You panic. It’s natural. Deep breaths. Because before, you were just paying the minimum on everything so you only saw $125 or $50 or $200 that you owed, you weren’t looking at the whole total. You just knew that you would forever be making payments to SOMEONE. 

Once you resuscitate yourself from the shock of what you owe, you start realizing that if your smallest balance is only $2,000 and you put $500 a month towards that, you can pay it off in the next 4 months. Then it’s gone. WHAT?! 

Yeah, it’s THAT exciting. It’s also motivating when you see it become smaller and smaller and after 4 months when it’s gone, you feel a sense of relief, and then you go into tackling the next one. 

(If you just paid $100/month on it, it would take 20 months. Not so exciting or motivating, huh?)

If debt #2 is $8,000 with a minimum of $100 and you add the $500 from the first payment to that, you will be done paying it in about 13 months at $600/month. But what if you get a $1,000 bonus during that year? That extra money goes to debt #2 and you pay it off even faster! Any extra money gets added to the debt you are focused on.

It works for someone like me–a tracker. I like to track and compare and it gets me excited when I can put a slash through a debt or beat the number I had previously. I learned that when I was trying to workout more. I said my goal was to work out at least 15 days out of the month. And then when I didn’t do that, I would feel bad but I had no motivation to do the 15. Until I started to compare it to the month before. If I did 9 in May I had to do at least 11 in June. Then I started tracking the previous year—last June I only did 11? Well, this year I’m doing 13! I guess I like competition, even if it’s trying to beat myself.

It also works because it makes you focus on ONE thing instead of doing 10 things. Your focus is that smallest debt and getting rid of it and let me tell you, when you’re honed in on one thing, you work so hard and so fast to get rid of it. Because you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. When you are trying to pay off 10 things at once, there is no end. You are only taking little bites out of things and its really not motivating.

Because of these steps, we are completely debt-free after 4 years and 1 month, and now we’re just focused on saving up a 3-6 month emergency fund and then saving for a house. I hear stories all the time of people getting there and it’s so exciting—what if you had no payments other than your house payment? It feels like such a foreign concept. But it sure is exciting to think about. 

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Back From Europe In (Kinda) One Piece

22 days in Europe and we made it back in one piece! Well, almost…

How the hell did we fit everything in these bags!?! Still a miracle.

Everything went smoothly and we had no big mishaps except for the last week I decided to step on a sea urchin and carry back to NY about 13 spines in my right heel. Shit, should I have claimed them at customs?!

Sea urchin spines. Looks like they hurt but they don’t

No but seriously they’re still in my foot and we’re going on 2 weeks. Supposedly your body rejects them naturally and will push them out but my body seems to like them. I’m avoiding the hospital where they’re gonna wanna cut my foot open. That would be a nice holiday souvenir.

I still can’t believe we saw all the things we saw in only 22 days! It went by so quickly and I want to go back and see it all again! The next few blogs will be about our travels and broken down by city because I think it’s unfair to lump them all together in one long post. They each have their own pros/cons and memories that I want to share with you.

Below is a quick reference fact sheet of our travels. I can’t wait to see where we go next.

Two travelers. The miracle is we didn’t kill each other. I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.

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View from the sky

If you haven’t been previously following my blogs let me catch you up to date: I spent about 6 months planning a 22 day trip around Europe with a max budget of $10,000. And I nailed it.

Cities Visited:
Paris, France
Brussels, Belgium
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Berlin, Germany
Athens, Greece
Aigio, Greece (visit family)
Poros, Greece

When we returned from our travels I wrote up a quick fact sheet. I still can’t believe this trip actually happened. After 6 long months of planning it happened in a blink but each travel makes me a better planner so I have this shit down to a science.

DAYS ON THE ROAD: 22

NUMBER OF STEPS: 265,713 (approx. 132 miles)

Least in a day– 1,376 / Most in a day– 23,279

MONEY SPENT ON THE ROAD (FOOD, SOUVENIRS, ATTRACTIONS, ETC): $2,597 (included foreign fees. Our budget was $2700 so once again under budget!!)

TOTAL SPENT ON THE TRIP: $9,673

TRAVELED MILES: 11,481 miles

SEA URCHIN SPINES ACQUIRED: 14

NUMBER OF MUSEUMS/ATTRACTIONS: 35

TIMES WE WENT SWIMMING: 5

NUMBER OF DIFFERENT MODES OF TRANSPORT: 8

NUMBER OF PLANES: 4

NUMBER OF BAGS: 5

LEAST FAVORITE CITY: Me: Amsterdam / A.J: Amsterdam

FAVORITE CITY: Me: Aigio / A.J: Brussels

Next up….Paris…..

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Travel Planning: Tips and Tools

How I currently feel planning this trip. Photo by Startup Stock Photos on Pexels.com

I feel like all the research I’ve ever done has been preparing me for this Europe trip. Actually, I love research. I love taking notes and I love solving puzzles. Travel is just a puzzle that you need to solve. And the prep work ahead of time leads to a more streamlined, easy going experience when you’re actually there instead of trying to figure out what time that museum closes or go to a restaurant to find out it doesn’t exist anymore. I’m trying to map out everything up front so all we have to do is follow the plan and have fun. Although I have to admit that after 7 months of planning this, I’m pretty much over it. I have all the city maps seared into my brain, I’m over redoing the itinerary (for the 5th time!) to fit in reservations we had to make ahead of time, and doing daily Euro to US dollar conversions is making my head hurt. I just want it to happen already so I can relax. 18 more days!

Below are some useful things that helped when doing my research:

EXPEDIA

 I will always use Expedia. Although going through Orbitz for a couple things made me realize they’re the same company so it’s really annoying that Orbitz would give me a 15% off coupon for hotels but Expedia doesn’t honor it. I always price compare buying flights and hotel separately vs. a package. Sometimes I find that it’s cheaper to do it separately. Or I would buy the flight with Expedia and use the 15% off with Orbitz to get the hotel.

And do yourself a favor and ALWAYS use Ebates or Coupon Cabin for some cashback. It doesn’t come in until after the travels are done but even if it adds up to $10, that’s $10 more than you had before you went on vacation and spent it all on German beer.(Here is my referral code for ebates  if you want to sign up and the site for Coupon Cabin)Like I mentioned in the previous post, you can save hotels you like in a list on Expedia for future reference which helped a lot because I first saved the hotels then researched the area they were in. If they were too far from where we needed to be, I took it off the list which led me to narrow down my options pretty quickly instead of scrolling through hundreds of hotels each time I went on and not remembering if I liked it or not.I tried to find hotels that had overall good reviews but also offered things like free breakfast and/or WiFi. Breakfast included would save us on some food costs and also time in the morning so we can go straight to sightseeing.

CREDIT CARDS WITH POINTS

It helps that I have a Citibank Expedia Credit Card that gains me Expedia points which I’ve used on this years’ travels and it’s no fee which is even better. I used the points from our Texas and Nashville trips back a few months when I was booking hotels for Europe and definitely saved some money. The only downside is that you don’t get the points until after your travel so I’ll have a bunch when we return from Europe to use on our next adventure. 

GOOGLE

How did people plan vacations before you could Google things?! You only had a tour book to tell you what to do when you got there which means you went to touristy places because everyone was reading the same damn book! I always use the city’s tourism site and then use TripAdvisor and Lonely Planet to find the big attractions and sights. I start making my list and write what time they are open and the admission price. I write down every attractions I would be interested in doing that way, again, I have a smaller list of my highlights and “must sees” to work with instead of being overwhelmed by everything a city has offers. Then I narrow it down by the order of importance and how many we can fit into the time we have in that city. I also start checking out places to eat/drink and write them down as well (after checking the ratings of course).Some things I use when doing a general Google search:

• TripAdvisor
• Yelp
• Lonely Planet
• searching:  ‘things to do in (city)’ or ‘best places to eat in (city)’–this usually pulls up some blogs with info you can use
• TimeOut–For major cities this site usually can tell you what events are happening around the city for the following weeks and gives you places to eat and drink

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As I’m doing research, I put all my findings on a spreadsheet (which would probably look crazy to someone else if they looked at it but it makes sense to me) to keeps me organized and act as my quick reference guide. Once I have all the puzzle pieces written down, then I start plugging them into our itinerary working around flighta and train departures/arrivals. It’s really exciting when you start seeing how your day is going to go in another city:4pm: Arc de Triomphe5:30pm: Walk to Eiffel Tower6:30pm: Grab some Macaroons at Laduree7:30 pm: Dinner in MontmatreDoesn’t that sound amazing??

Photo by Eugene Dorosh on Pexels.com

Meal Prep: Tips And Tricks Part 2

I know, I know, that last post was a bit overwhelming. It seems like a lot but once you get into the swing of things, it’s not so bad. You get into your groove and sashay around the kitchen shoveling food into containers and labeling like a BOSS. Or, you drop stuff on the floor, can’t find your containers, and lose your shit at all the dishes you have to do now. We have our days. It’s ok. 

After all my meals are planned, I begin my actual prep for the week. I try to get the bulk of stuff ready to go on Saturday, so I just have to mix and match my foods into the containers they go on Sunday.

Some of my go-tos

 

So if I went to BJs and came home and already broke down the chicken all I have to do is go to that container and measure out the ounces I need for each meal. Yes, I have a food scale which gets used A LOT on the Transform App. Bought it from Amazon for cheap and it’s great–here’s the link: Food Scale

Like I mentioned before, if I have time on the weekend and we do our shopping on Saturday, I prep some of the stuff so they are ready to go on Sunday when I cook and that way I have a bit less work to do. I always start with the following:

1. Break down rotisserie chicken
2. Cut bell peppers and put them in container
3. Cut onion and put in container
4. Roast cauliflower rice and broccoli (if I have fresh)
5. Make pot of brown rice

At this point, I have my go-to meals so I tend to use the same ingredients for multiple days. It makes shopping and prepping a lot easier. On Sunday, I start by browning my ground turkey and while that’s cooking, I open the cans (black beans and corn) which are used in multiple meals, and bring out stuff from the fridge so it’s on the counter ready to go. If I didn’t have fresh broccoli and cauliflower now is the time I start microwaving the frozen steam packs–each ones takes about 5 minutes and they cover at least 3-5 meals.

1. Brown ground turkey
2. Open cans
3. Take out extras from fridge (salsa, lime juice, marinara, shredded cheese, etc)
4. Microwave steam packs (broccoli, cauliflower rice)
5. Take out measuring cups/ spoons and containers
6. Take out spices I need for my meals
7. Start assembling containers

 

Extra canned corn or peppers you won’t use? Freeze them!

Some of my meals consists of onions and peppers and I like to cook them instead of eating it raw–I also cook it with the chicken that way all the flavors meld together–but I’ve also seen people just throw each thing into a container. Since I’m cooking it, it does take longer and because I have specific measurements I have to do each meal separately. If I wasn’t following the Transform App I would definitely throw it all in the same pan then divide it between the containers which would probably cut my meal prepping time in half. The meals I do choose from Transform App are usually ones you can throw into the container without much cooking (as long as all the ingredients are prepped beforehand).

 

Once the containers are filled I label each one with some tape and a sharpie–it’s all very official–and I check it off my list. When all the meals are done and I’ve cleaned up, I make my oatmeal containers for breakfast. At least one of my snacks for the day is grab and go so it’s usually protein powder and Rice Krispies treats, almonds, cheese stick or granola bars on the side. It’s something I don’t have to put a lot of effort into and is quick to grab the morning of as well.

I’ll say that most Sundays I can churn out Sunday-Tuesday without a problem. If a meal that I’m making for one of those days repeats on Wednesday or Thursday and I have enough of the ingredients out, I make that container as well and label it. Any leftovers on Sunday go into separate containers so I can use when I cook for the rest of the week. I usually schedule what I’m eating later in the week based on what I have leftover and in the fridge. I try not to have to go food shopping during the week since the closest store is a bit overpriced and it’s too much to go food shopping after work, work out, do other errands AND cook. That’s a long day. 

Hopefully this all helps some people who are feeling overwhelmed about meal prepping. It is a bit daunting, especially when you have to measure everything, but once you find your own stride, it should be a lot better. Feel free to leave any questions or comments below—thoughts, ideas, I’d love to hear from people!

If you follow these steps, you should be OK:

1. Have a plan
2. Stay organized
3. Use meals for multiple days so you don’t have to do extra work
4. If you’re feeling overwhelmed and off your groove, take a break and prep the rest of it tomorrow
5. Have designated prep days–mine are Sunday, Monday, Thursday

R.S.V.P…Yes Or No???

RSVP’s. I hear it’s everyone’s favorite thing. The wedding invites went out the end of summer and every day I ran home to see who had responded. It’s pretty exciting. Mostly because getting all the responses meant I could do the seating chart, seating cards and figure out how many people are staying at the hotel and how many centerpieces I needed to churn out and get my to-do list done. But I dreaded that crunch time when you have a bunch that didn’t return so you have to stalk people. But that’s why you have mothers right?

I must be the outlier though by wanting to know what I am doing weeks (if not months) ahead of time. Those people who respond at the last minute are real fly by the seat of your pants kinda people. I can’t live that recklessly. And what I don’t understand is that we’ve all had to deal with RSVPs in our lives for our own events and everyone complains that they aren’t returned in a timely fashion sooooo WHY ARE WE PERPETUATING THE CYCLE OF THIS MADNESS! Just return the card. Are you waiting to see if a better event comes along? Maybe what the weather will be like? It’s already stamped. Just put it in the mailbox. I don’t understand it! End rant.

On another note, someone said recently something  like, ‘you realize who your real friends are when you’re getting married and sometimes you don’t stay friends with people after the wedding’. I started thinking about that and realized that it was true. Plus I heard a girl talking about exactly that at a diner one time so it must be true. I don’t know if it’s the act of getting married that changes relationships or that it occurs because we’re growing older.

At some point you grow up and going to happy hour twice a week just isn’t important anymore so if your friends aren’t moving on with you during that shift, you end up leaving them behind. Which is sad but I guess it is about getting older—you may have bigger responsibilities at work, need to go to bed earlier, save more money for an upcoming big purchase, have kids–and you can’t do the things you used to anymore. I’ve definitely felt that shift recently and I realized that other people’s drama or issues aren’t my own and I really don’t have time for that. Because, as you saw in a previous post where I do the math of our day, I’m only left with about 3 hours to myself. And I don’t have a real interest in eating/drinking my calories away and spending $40 on happy hour anymore. 

On the other hand you can have a friend move halfway across the world and only see them once a year but that friendship is still in tack. So, it really is about growing up and moving in the same direction at the same time, just like in romantic relationships—-if you’re not on the same page, you’re not gonna last very long.