Dream a little Dream....

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Dan and I went out for dinner, a whole $17- for our favorite local Chinese :) It was actually a wonderful night, we had dinner, had quality conversations, celebrated our accomplishments on conquering our debts, and enjoyed being with one another. Then we went home and I did a midterm project and passed out at about midnight :)

We got a wonderful edible arrangement from my grandparents! The fruit is always so fresh, I recommend them to everyone-

This week has been insanely busy that we have cooked little to no actual meals, basically whatever you can make from what we have in the cupboard and fridge...go for it...haha

Monday I had my first midterm, which there is two sections of the class, I spoke we two people from the section I am not in and they didn't do so hot, as it's graded on a curve and it ranged anywhere from 98% to 33%....so after knowing that I'm a little nervous to get my grade on Monday...but I studied really hard and knew what I was saying on the test...or so I'm pretty confident anyway...Tuesday, I had a midterm project due...which turned into one of those.."of course this would happen last minute," deals. The printer ink was acting up, we had to go to three different stores before we found one that was still open at 9:30 (9:30..who closes that early?..oh Office Depot, and Staples apparently!!) that carried the right ink, then I printed off 4 or 5 different renditions of my poster, and had to go with the 5Th like it or not because I was our of printer paper...ahahaha, yes all I could do was laugh. I mean really I totally wasted Saturday cleaning, getting our taxes done, and hanging out with Dan instead of homework....lesson learned..for this week anyway... then two other midterms yesterday, the first I'm pretty sure I blew out of the water...the math on the other hand, I had two pretty big problems that I struggled with...ahh whatcha gunna do about it? I'm so happy it's Friday!! :)

Tonight we are taking some needed time from finances, school and work to hangout with some wonderful friends! I'll post some photos next week...both of my girlfriends are prego :) Babies, Babies everywhere :)

As far as the week ahead...another big project due next week, and the big PRAXIS exam for me on Tuesday...I could use all the prayers in the world. This will determine my fate for the next semester as far as classes...I'm just a tad nervous, so major studying will be done with weekend! Then hopefully I can get some relaxing by next weekend....

last tid-bit before I sign off...

We have officially started an account for our down payment.. eek! I'm so ecstatic I don't even know what to say! I'm hoping to get some projects started this weekend in the house between work and studying, and going to see my mom that is :) I like to cram if you can't already tell! After our tax refund arrives next week, that will make for two more debts paid off and half paid down on another..keeping it rollin'!

check out our link to follow our progress for our dream home...

Something I saw on Dave Ramey's facebook page really hit home, it's a great article for those of you who think, "if I had more money of course I would be financially fit..." take a look...maybe it's time to adjust your habits and the income you have will work for you instead of against you. That's one thing Dan and I realized over the last 5 months. When he started working for Wells Fargo he didn't make what he is making now, but we always said "when you get a raise we will be just fine" Well he got that raise the same week we got married in 2009, however, or spending behaviors never changed so we were still spending more than we were making, and still saying, "when you make $_____ amount then we will be fine." Well, guess what, once we took the class, got down to business, we realized we make plenty of money, it's us that needs to change not the amount of money we make. "If you want to be a millionaire you have to do what millionaires do, if you want to be broke do what broke people do." 98% if Millionaires don't have car payments. "80% of America's Millionaires are first generation rich, that means they started with nothing, did smart stuff, and became millionaires."-Dave Ramsey. I'm not saying that we are going to be millionaires anytime soon, however, when we retire at a respectable age, we will have our million dollar nest egg because we stopped living like we were established forty-somethings and started living like broke college students. so check out this article on Dave Ramsey's website.

Hope everyone is enjoying the weather while it's nice out :)

Happy Valentines Day

Celebrating another Valentines day with the hubby by making dinner tonight, and doing a project the rest of the night :) Sometimes you have to give things up for the bigger picture! This is a photo from our first "official" date...the same night I met Doug, Holly and the Twins :)




Dan and I have been looking...more me than Dan but we did find a layout of a wonderful house, no comments on the location (Yet), as we still have a year to think about it but we know they are just starting to build this floor plan, right now there is only one and it is in Polk City, however, this is just a minor detail in our life right now. We are going to get the house ready to sell starting this Spring. We are redoing the whole bathroom, and the kitchen, putting a deck over the back patio, and a small porch on the front with a new RED door (I've been wanting that for a while lol).



We have so many plans that it's hard to stay focused on school, but I am doing it because I know we have big dreams for the next couple months as well as the next 5 years. I will put photos up as we get started...were in the saving process for the bathroom right now, buying a little at a time but here is an image of what it might look like give or take....









We have all of this to be thankful for just to be able to dream again, all because of Financial Peace University! Five months ago today we started out on a journey that we were a little frightened about, however, we have stuck to it with side comments from family but also support from friends. I am so excited to tell you all this news...no it's not a baby haha...but it's leading us to be ready for that baby...we have paid off Since September 14, 2010 a total of $14,446! We could not be more excited about this. We have had to change our lifestyle a lot and become way more organized but it's a small price to pay to be out of debt except for the house (which is okay to have) in a few short years! We are hoping by the time our first child arrives we will have the house up for sale, and everything but Dan's student loans completely paid off.



If we stick to our plan we should have no problem, considering I'm not working full time right now, working only a few hours at three different jobs throughout the week, I wont have any more student loans on top of what I have already when I am done at Grand View, we didn't factor in if Dan changes jobs and gets a higher pay, and we didn't factor in that in a year I will make almost three times what I make right now. Our plan for the first year of my job is only to use what we are both making now, and all the extra will go onto Dan's student loans. For example, if he makes $5,000 more than he makes now that $5,000 will go straight to student loans, and since we can live off of Dan's paycheck minus about $3,000 of mine right now that's what we will live off, and the rest will go towards Student loans!





I really hope this is exciting for you all to read, I really think everyone should take the class regardless of your financial standings. There is so much information for savings, investing, insurance, retirement, that everyone should hear. I would love to tell each of you about everything but even I sometimes forget and have to go back to our book to see what Dave Ramsey says about certain things. I have his app on my phone that I am constantly checking, I follow both Dave Ramsey and Financial Peace University on Facebook and Twitter. Get him in your life and follow it! We are so blessed to be where we are and see where we are going!





If any of you have questions please feel free to message me, email, or text....I am more than happy and would be so excited to get you started on your way!



I haven't gotten much better yet this year about blogging more...which I always have a lot to say, and I always think wow I need to put that on the blog...however, this semester has so far been a lot more challenging than I thought so by the time I get homework done at 10, Dan and I are both ready for bed. I promise I will start trying harder, after midterms this week that is :)



Love from the Buchholz House :)