T Minus 5 Months

Alright, I am just about five months out from the wedding, and I feel like I have nothing done. When in reality, I actually have a lot done, but whatever.

So far we have: 

1. Chosen our venue and set a date.

We weren't finding anything in our city that we really liked. They were all a little too urban, or super traditional, so we started looking a little further out. We found a lovely venue south of Salem, and the best part was the price and the fact that we are not restricted on what we can do and what vendors we can use. The only downside was choosing the date. Every weekend and Friday was booked for the foreseeable future, so we talked it over and chose a Thursday evening wedding. Yeah, it might scare some guests off, but it saves us over $1,000 on rental fees, and gives us piece of mind that we won't have to fight for vendors.  

2. Bought my dress!

I was pretty scared after watching several episodes of "Say Yes to the Dress," that I would be the nightmare bride that wouldn't be able to find anything. I went in with a list of things I don't like; "No mermaids, no lace, no excessive beading, no sleeves" that I felt like I was just being annoying. Not even five minutes after our talk, my consultant came back with THE dress. I tried on several other to be sure, and I am 100000000000% sure about that dress. So happy that it happened so quickly , because I was dreading that search.

3. Booked a few vendors.

Photographer and caterer. Done and done. Plus discounts for a weekday wedding. Score!

A huge thing we are trying to do, is we are trying to show that we can have an "extravagant" looking "pinterest" wedding, without the cost that is usually associate with that. So far we are doing pretty well. Our initial budget goal was $7,000, and we haven't gone over that yet. We are already entering this marriage with some pretty hefty debt (thank you, student loans) so adding on to that is something that we only want to do minimally. 

I think I'm going to try to do a month by month budget recap, because I wish there were more resources for others rather than those pins that promise you can have your wedding for $5,000 but only if your parents own beautiful land and your friend is a florist. Not realistic. 

xo Kilee

Engaged!

Now I feel like I have stuff working trying to blog about!


Late last June, I became engaged to my very best friend. I am very excited now to be working on wedding plans, crafty things, dealing with finding a home and merging our lives together fully, that I feel like I should be keeping track of it all to deal with the madness.

I have backslid so far I am contemplating whether or not I am ever going to be able to help myself.

The Numbers

It's a little disappointing and depressing when I look at how much debt I have compared to what I make. It's even more discouraging when I read success stories and see that there is little in common with my current situation. Is there anyone out there paying off huge amounts of debt (most of which is student loan debt) making little money each year? If so, point me in that direction so I won't feel so alone.

Here's my current situation:

Total amount of debt: $89,612.40 ($67,000 of that is student loan debt. Yikes!)

Total amount of income BEFORE taxes: $16,754 

Most of that money I will never see, and I also have to take into account that is from working 3 jobs at 60 hours a week. Seriously. All the "get a second job" advice is something I no longer want to hear.

In an effort to save money, and to start eating a bit healthier, I've been trying to make a lot more things from scratch rather than just buying it. Today I made these strawberry banana chocolate oat muffins from Ambitious Kitchen (link here) and they are absolutely amazing. I want to try every single recipe she has on her blog.

No one ever said this would be easy.

It's been about a month since I declared I was going to be not spending money. So far, that hasn't really been working out for me. I knew it was going to be hard. I knew I wasn't going to be able to quit cold turkey. So today, I handed over all of my cards to my mother to lock in her room so that it would be more of a challenge. I deleted all of my card information from the websites I shop from and am now declaring to only spend cash. Which will be easy to be frugal with because now I get it more often, and I can easily separate it into my different payments where I can actually see it. Virtual money (bank accounts, ect.) is a little bit harder for me to visualize where it is going. 

And although is doesn't sound ideal if my point is to be making money, I ended up quitting one of my four jobs. But honestly, it was the best decision I have ever made. I only worked one day a week, and I was scared to go to work. My boss was not a very nice person, and I would end up going home in tears after each shift. Some serving hours opened up at the other restaurant I work at, and I jumped on them and threw my former boss my notice. I'm so glad I don't have to play manager anymore, and i actually am making some tips that boost my take home pay to help pay off those credit cards.

I just gotta remember: two steps forward, one step back.

Goals.

I have a feeling if I don't "write" these down somewhere I will never accomplish them.

1. Take control of my finances. 
During college, I acquired $40,000 in student loans, $2,000 in credit cards, and bought a car. I have just been mindlessly  paying for these things without paying attention to interest rates, or actually seeing what amount of my payments where actually making a difference. I have to adjust based on the fact that employment in my field here in Oregon is low, and both my jobs have cut my hours down to nothing, but I am determined to at least eliminate one of my bills by the end of the year.

2. Organize.
I have to admit I'm a bit of a hoarder. I feel like there are certain things that make me this way though. I still live with my parents (free rent, yay!), but, being an adult, I feel the need to want to be independent and have my own things. The problem is, I have things from pre-college/college/post-college stuffed into my teeny tiny room, which is the only place I'm allowed to have my own things. To make things more challenging, my family will place items they no longer want and think I might when I finally move out, into my room and think I won't notice. What has happened is this stuff builds up, along with furniture that will not fit in my room as it is, which makes my room look like a hoarder house. I want to eliminate everything that hasn't been relevant to my life for at least two years, and finally get things that I need to be keeping track of organized.

Project One: Organize important documents. May I never lose another bill again.