Attachment

We may only be on baby step #2 as Dave calls it, but we aren't really taking baby steps towards this debt, we are downgrading phones, and now my car. I hate how I feel about giving this stuff up and I wont say that we HAVE to give this stuff up because we can make all of our payments just fine, but it's exactly that, if you have to make payments you can't really afford it. I have been listening to Dave's podcasts (they are free) and he explains how American's have become a country of how much per month instead of how much total will it cost. I will admitt when I bought my car I had two well paying jobs. My second job would have paid it off in about two years, half of a normal new car term, but then I decided I wanted to spend more time with family and friends than I did working. I should have sold it right then. Payments have been fine on my car, but I would really like to put that money towards school, and savings. We are ready to give up our iPhones (sadness) and I am ready to give up my cute little SUV. It is really sad to think that we can be so attached to just "things."



On the bright side, I am looking at cars from the guy I bought my very first car from, which now looking back I loved that car, even if at that time I came up with every reason why I needed a new car when I went to college. Man I wish I still had that car!! Tomorrow morning after Yoga in the Park with my mom we are headed on a little road trip. I'm actually really excited about this part haha! Who knew you could be so excited about a old car. Another great note, I have gotten a lot of emails from friends and even people I went to school with at Urbandale (more than once) about how they read the first blog and are now trying it out themselves! I love it, and I love that we can inspire people just with our words and actions. I know this isn't going to be easy, but when I see that just doing the little things is paying off in a big way for more than just Dan and I, I can't help but see that this is a great new journey for us, and we're not alone. My mom asks me everyday what's the newest thing I have learned in my book. (Guess what our Christmas gifts to our families is going to be this year?) I want to provide a song for all our readers for just a little song for thought if you will, I love it and I try to listen to it once a day, just to remind me:




Dan and I are so blessed to have an amazing family and friends that are going to support us through this as well as a church that we know we can turn to. I pray a lot about all of this and and old classmate reminded me yesterday, "If God brings us to it, He will bring us through it."(Thanks Nathan!) God is great and he is doing great things in our lives we just need to slow down and realize it!

If anyone has any questions about The Total Money Makeover, or the Financial Peace University class we are going to start on Monday, please contact me, facebook or email, Dan_Hollie09@yahoo.com. I am more than happy to give you all the information I have, or better yet check out http://www.daveramsey.com it's a wonderful tool!

On another note, some of you may be wondering how the rest of our lives are going besides the Total Money Makeover. Well, we are busy bees. Dan still works Saturdays, which still makes the weekends fly by even faster than normal. I just started part time job #2, and I start class on Monday, well if I don't have to report for Jury Duty that is. See, we are very busy people. Lucky for everyone though, Labor day is next weekend, and we can all look forward to an extra day of relaxation, or working in the home right?!? Oh, and my running, sadly has come to a once a week thing... if that, I'm hoping once fall is here to get back into it since I will be able to breath while running again :) Sadly, I don't think I will be running my first marathon at Disney, being that just to get there is $300 and well with the TMM that isn't in baby step #2. Someday, I will get that done :)

I hope everyone had a great week, enjoy the weekend!!

Love,
Dan, Hollie, Tyson, and Hershie

The American Dream isn't for Us :)

Okay, if you follow me on facebook you have seen my post about the "Big Changes coming to this Buchholz family." In those changes Dan and I have found that the so called "American Dream," isn't so much a dream, it's a nightmare. We are happy and healthy and couldn't be more blessed, that's not to say that we don't have our issues, or stresses. The fact of the matter is we both have student loans, I have a car payment, and we have a house payment, all of which we are paying for every month when I would rather be putting that money into our nice savings account :) That's just it, the American Dream is about living and paying your bankers month after month, does that sound like a dream to you? We are going to let you in on our lives as things get scary, and big changes are made, cars will be sold to downgrade (no monthly payments), we will have to give up things that we think we "need." No more keeping up with the Joneses for us! For those of you who want to follow along or even do it with us, beware this isn't going to be easy. I sit here typing this and look out the window at my cute little SUV and really wonder how I am going to feel about selling my car and driving something that is for the point of getting me from point A to point B, without looking cute?!? Maybe all of us need to take a look around and wonder does all the stuff we have really make us happy or is it to impress others? I have read article after article about families that are now living on less and are happier than ever, I'm not saying this is going to be fun, as a matter of fact I think it's going to be very hard and we are going to be looking life right in the face, and we will probably fail from time to time, but in the end I think we are going to be happy, and the goal is to be able to pay cash for our dream home, vacation whenever we want (with cash), and have a strong financial backing without asking the bank for money, college loans paid off, and maybe even pay off the house in half the time then we thought. Big goals yes! Is it possible? Anything you set your mind to is possible! Will it be easy, heck no! Will people probably think we are crazy when we pass up a night out? Of, course they will, but the end picture is what matters.






You all are probably wondering how the heck we are going to do this. To be honest we have student loan debt, that is actually pretty much all of our debt. We don't want to look up 20 years from now sitting at the kitchen table and say, "our student loan payment is due next week," or on the other hand look up in 20 years with a few kids in the other room wondering how we are going to make that student loan payment. We're taking the bull by the horns if you will. We are attending our first Financial Peace University course next Monday and will continue through December. I have started reading Dave Ramsey's, Total Money Makeover, which he is the one who came up with the course. We will be taking it at our church. Anyone can sign up, if I haven't scared you away already :) It's going to be a leap of faith but we are really looking forward to it. Here is just a quick fact from the class, which amazed me, "On average, of families who have taken the course pay off $5,300 in debt and save $2,700 in just 90 days." This just boggled my mind I have to admit. Here is a story that just clicked with us being we are the same age and about in the same spots in life:




We were a young couple who were just starting out married about 6 months had $15,000 in car debt, $20,000 in student loans, and purchased our first home. Man did we wish we had read this book before buying the house (especially since I found out I was pregnant soon after that) Since we have started the plan we have paid off both cars, almost have my student loans paid off, and will have my husbands done in the next 12 months. Living debt free has allowed me to work only 1 day a week so I can be home with our son. My co workers always comment that my husband must make SO MUCH MONEY since I only work 1 day a week. That's when I have the opportunity to tell them about you Dave! We gave our family the book for Christmas, and it has changed all of their lives. Thank you Dave, we will be leading FPU this year at our church. We will still be in our 20's when we are debt free.





We may not have a kid on the way but we sure do have plans to have kids and being that I am on my way back to school next week, it sure would be nice to take a big bite out of our student loans before we take on the life of kids.





With all this being said, sorry it hasn't been more exciting about what we have been doing, but this is a much needed break to the "life" we live now. Please pray for us as this is going to be a great adventure but non with out an obstacle!





I will update as progress is made, this might turn in to a tell all blog! :)





Love,


Dan, Hollie, Tyson, and Hershie

Final Member....For Now....

Well I caught you up..sorta, and now we have another member for you to meet. This is Hershie! For those who are going, "this isn't a Beagle," yes, I know. I spoke with the owner of Buddie's mom, and here is the deal. Rosie (Buddie's Mom) was given two different studs (different times) and took to neither of them, meaning she didn't get prego so they are no longer going to use her to bread. I searched and searched for Beagles and only two places in Iowa could I even find them and non of them were "Buddie." When I saw Buddie's photo for the first time I knew he was the one, so for me to try and find that new, "Buddie" if you will in a Beagle was extra hard. After talking to friends and family they said it would probably be harder on me to get another Beagle than to get a different breed. I for once actually listened! We were lucky that my best friend, Emily (see her below,) her parents just bread their Lab. There were two girls which I knew I wanted a girl with whatever breed I ended up with. Ross and Emily took the first girl, and we now have her sister. Boston is Ross and Emily's little girl, and Hershie is our little girl. We are excited at the same time exhausted. We got her late Sunday night, and I feel like sleep has been few and far between. Lucky for me Dan has been there for me. If this doesn't get us ready for kids, I don't know what will.

On another note, for those of you out of state, the Iowa State Fair is just a little bit of a BIG deal around here. We made our appearance again this year! I really enjoy the fair, I was telling Dan, I could seriously stay at the fair and watch the free stages, and people all day. The food is just an extra bonus ;) However, we didn't go all day. We got there about 2:30 and left about 6:30 or so. It was a fun day though. We got some candy, a big plate of nachos (fair size of course), Dan got a 1/2 pound tenderloin. Sorry, there aren't any photos of these. I wasn't in the mood to carry my camera around. Either way, we got to spend the day with friends, and just enjoy each other!

Saturday was a crazy day for me, went to a bridal shower for my cousin, at the winery downtown. It was so beautiful, my cousin is very stylish with everything she does, her house is decorated to the nines, and not with super expensive modern looking things, more of a vintage boutique (super cute). Her fashion sense is the same way. She loves her wine so the winery was a perfect fit. Check out some of the images below....

Next, after the shower I did some candid work for a wedding, it was BLAZING hot out, and super humid. I really did try to look cute with my hair curled, however, I walked around this beautiful outside wedding for 3 hours, and my hair ended up in a ponytail with no curl left :( The wedding, setting, flowers, detail, all was fun and beautiful. Here are some of the shots! Congrats to the Bride and Groom.

That was just all in one weekend, needless to say the closet hasn't come to far...hopefully this weekend, after I do a senior session, Dan working, and a birthday party....the summer is coming to an end faster than I thought, but that just means I'm one step closer to becoming a teacher :)

Hope everyone is doing great! Love you all!

Dan, Hollie, Tyson, and Hershie :)

Long Time...No Write...

Sorry for the long delay of posting...Our lives have been very busy between a family reunion, to building a closet, to raising a new puppy...all changes that we are pleased with I might add.

The weekend after we got Tyson we headed back to Sumner, IA for a family reunion. I should mention I didn't take any photos at the family reunion (sorry), but I did take some when I spent Friday afternoon

with my nieces! Two of which (twins) are here in town so I get to see them a lot, the other three is fe

w and far between. For those of you who know me and know how much I love spending time with family, this is very hard for me. I get so excited to go and see them, then when the weekend comes to an end I just want to cry because I don't know when the next time will come. Either way though Dan and I are

going to work on getting back there mor

e this fall, and it was a GREAT weekend with them, they are all amazing in their own ways :) Check out some of the photos of them playing together at home and then at a parade we went to.

This past weekend I decided before school starts up on the 30Th, and I start working two jobs that I wanted to get the closet I wanted built. In the 3rd bedroom the closet was like 3 feet wide (see photo) no joking here....

Well that was not near big enough for all my stuff. I will admit I have a lot of clothing (not near what I used to however), and the two closets I use in the house total about 6 feet, have 1 bar, and 1 shelf which for storage is terrible considering I can't reach them. The change is this, they (Dan and my Dad) tore down one wall and just expanded the length of the room, then built two small encasing walls, next we need to kilz and paint the inside before we hang the shelves so that's where the project ended late Sunday afternoon.

While the men were working on the closet my mom and I had our own little project....changing my hair color per request of Dan. He was looking through some of my old photos and thought I should try it out, since he had never actually seen me with brown hair before. Which I find this funny because when Dan and I met for the first time my hair was black on top with hot pink under, it was in my crazy college days....if you are wondering what prompted me to do that. Either way, Dan said, "the first time I met you, I thought you were crazy and way to hardcore for me." Mind you it was post season of soccer, and I was getting ready to go for a long run, and probably had just finished doing Tae Bo...so yeah I would say I was pretty hardcore...or not..either way he thought I was crazy. Part of me thinks he thought I was actually pretty cool but just didn't have the guts to really talk to me so he used my hair as an excuse. Take a look...this is how my hair was, and now is....

That should get you all caught up now, we have another busy weekend ahead of us. Dan has to work on Saturday, I have a bridal shower on Saturday Morning, and I'm also shooting candids at a wedding :) Sunday we have some friends coming into town and I think we are all planning on going to the fair. That all being said, tonight my goal is to get the closet walls ready to hang the shelves, then tomorrow go buy the shelving so that maybe we can get them hung Friday night "Date Night." Only a few weeks until school so I am trying to get all our home improvements done for this summer before then!

Check y'all later!

Love from the Buchholz House