Listed..and Ready...

The house is officially listed with Iowa Realty!!!

I am ready for it to be sold...ready to be on to our next adventure, and be able to celebrate.

The photos were taken today and that was the last thing to get it all listed....now we wait...some more...

While we've been waiting on the house to sell, we've done some looking, cost comparisons, debating, updating of the budget, and some more selling.  We're technically not really waiting.  We are believing our home is going to sell fast and we are planning for the future. As much as possible, that is.

We've sold our living room furniture. 1. We thought we wanted recliners. Now, we hardly use them because the kids are either trying to play under them, or are running around them and we don't want one of them to fall on the metal piece. 2. They are HEAVY and BULKY, also something we thought we wanted. 3. EVERYTHING goes under them because they recline and we have wood floors there is a larger gap on the bottom.  Which means, every toy car or every small toy has at some point claimed it as their hiding spot.  When you have more reasons to get rid of something than you do to keep it in our house...it goes...sell, donate or trash. Depending on the size of our next place we have two options/styles of furniture picked out and the color.  Basically, we have made a profit selling our furniture and buying new furniture to go towards our next financial goal. Can I get a whoop, whoop...SCORE!

Meanwhile,  Kenzlie decided she no longer wants to wear diapers.  We've been working on potty training for about two weeks and she has it down. We haven't tried night time yet, we're still working on naps.  However, I haven't bought diapers in two weeks and she has done awesome, especially this week, going in to the bathroom on her own. Ahh, the joys of no longer having to buy diapers.  Another SCORE for the budget! She picked out her own undies and of course of all the different ones Target has she got Doc McStuffins. She loves her show and doesn't like when Kypton choses to watch something other than, "Doc."

Last night, being the house is cleaned and ready to go we didn't really want a mess, it worked perfect that my Brother and Sister-In-Law invited us to the ICubs game.  It was a 1st time for the kids, they did great.  It was puppy night so of course Kenzlie was in puppy heaven.

My Sister-in-Law is going to have her baby boy any time now, so I just keep hoping and praying! Kenzlie loves to say his name and Kypton told me last night, "Jenna already had the baby, remember? Paxton." I think he is going to be in for a rude awakening when he doesn't have his Yenna and Uncle G to himself anymore. Another waiting game to throw in the mix.

Do you ever feel like life is all hurry and wait? You can't do one thing until you know what yada, yada, is going to do/happen.  It literally makes me crazy some days.  I know, I have to let go and trust God.  But, seriously, just seriously.  Everything always works out the way it is suppose to. I honestly believe that. We may not like that we have to go thru the Valleys to get to the Mountain tops, but man it feels so good when we get there, right?

Hope everyone had a great Summer, and is ready for Football season to start soon..Yahhh Fallll!!!

Love,
The Buchholz's

Downgrade to Simplicity

Here is what is left of a blog I had typed up then decided to delete half of it..

Ahhh, a sigh of refreshment and simplicity. The past couple weeks I've been looking for ways to simplify our lives. I can't even explain how great I feel.. I started with my phone going from an iPhone which I have had for the last 5 years to this little beauty....

The phone was the second downgrade..the first was axing the DirecTV. We called about 6 months ago and they said they would give us five months free. Well, when we found out Dan was taking a new job so we talked about getting a second receiver for the bedroom. Well, I woke up one morning and said to myself, "just because we are making more doesn't mean we need to spend more." So, we do Follow Dave Ramsey, and more strictly at times than others, well this would be a time I'm being strict. We are cutting back and doing it "Rice and Beans style"...again and more intense than before..

in other updates.....

P.I.N.K.- 8 pounds to go and I'll be down to goal weight! Come on warm weather, I NEED to run/walk!! As mentioned above we're on rice and beans some day literally some figuratively, but getting the nutrition from beans seems to be working :) However, we did have P.F. Chang's for V-day (we had a gift card)..and well tonight I have a delicious dessert made for the hubby. I have some photos I took while making it...

Finished product

Some of the ingredients

PB Cups

PB Cup wrappers

Fudge brownies..they account for two layers :)

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines just as we did!

Kypton's 1st Valentines Day!

Love,

The Buchholz's

Get the Math right...

So I'm sitting here waiting for my last class of the day to start and all I can think about is how we are working with integers in math class. She specifically talks about debt for some people to better understand. She asked people to raise their hand as we were going over percents and interest and calculating it for different situations and it's amazing how many people raised their hands the age of 18-20 probably that have 1 or more credit cards. I didn't get my first credit card until I was 22 and even then had a max of $250. Neither Dan or I have credit cards now which is an amazing feeling that we don't need to calculate how much interest we are earning and how long it's going to take us to pay them off if we pay a certain amount a month. Which is only possible because of Dave Ramsey. Give every dollar a name before the month starts. Go to Financial Peace University to find forms on how to set up a budget and allocate your pay checks. If you find you are spending more than you make then you need to sell, sell, sell, drop those extra channels, pick up another job or two and get those bills caught up to date. Then get $1,000.00 in your emergency fund. Don't fund this anymore until ALL of your debt is paid. Getting the emergency fund is easy, not touching it will be your hard part. This is for EMERGENCIES ONLY! I think back to when we first started our class, I miss the Mondays we had there, but I love that we know where we are going. So, tonight when all of you go home and get your comfy clothes on to sit down and watch your Tuesday night shows...I'll be working because well... I owe, I owe, so off to work I go :)

Hope everyone is having a great day, and don't push stuff off that can be done today, because tomorrow may never come :)

Love,
Hollie :)

Waiting for a slow down...

Awe, the holidays are finally over and school is back in session. There wasn't much of a winter break this year from school as the week and a half I had off I worked everyday, including most weekends. Grand View is done at the end of April so we don't have the month break like most colleges. However, the no homework thing was just getting comfortable when classes started back up last week. The positive for going back to school last week...the Dean's List came out and with a lovely 3.75 GPA for my first semester back I made it!! That never happened in the 4.5 years I was at Central. However, this semester will be the one that tells all. Last semester I was going for a 4.0 and fell a little short, but I am still happy. This semester I am taking on extra classes still working 3 jobs, taking one of my hardest subjects...Math...and I am shooting for a 3.75. Wish me luck with that.

I have been working like crazy as always, Old Navy at least 3 times a week, my dad's 3 afternoons a week and the schools 2 mornings and 3 afternoons a week and if I'm not working at night I usually get some babysitting in. Thank the lord for my iPhone otherwise I wouldn't be able to remember all my schedules. Life is super crazy and Dan and I don't really have a lot of down time in between homework and jobs, but when we do spend time together it's cherished. I think that is something we have started to realize now that we are so busy. It's great practice for when we have kids I think.

With the new year comes a new haircut- or so I decided on Saturday morning when I woke up. I now miss my long hair but it will be all grown back by summer so it will be fine :) Me with about 5 less inches of hair (CraZy!)

I had a gift card so I didn't have to pay for this, so in about three months someone remind me to put a trim in the budget :)

We have followed our budget so well this month and with extra money coming in from babysitting and extra side jobs we are actually going to have almost $1,000 left at the end of the month. We were looking at our bills last night and realized we have so much left over that something had to be off.. but we calculated and calculated and it's right. Between finding my school books for super cheap...those of you reading this that are in school and buying books, http://www.abebooks.com/ I got a brand new math textbook and another one that happen to be rather thick...one for $13 and the other for like $20. It was like $100 savings a piece..you can't beat that. We actually thought it was going to cost about $500 for books considering one of my classes had eight books, however, I found those for about .99 a piece. I paid total for five classes and 12 books $136. You honestly can't beat that! A little piece of advice...search the Internet before buying at the local bookstores! Okay, so you know we saved a ton there. I also have been doing an amazing job (don't mean to brag) budgeting the groceries and making rather tasty meals. My sister got me this great cookbook for budget friendly shoppers, and the meals are delicious and super cheap! Last week I got 8 complete dinners, and 15 days worth of breakfast for $77. We use our leftovers for lunches and more meals depending on how much the meal makes. This weekend I went to the store again we still have meals from last week we haven't made, but I went super cheap for the next meals because well...Dan says we don't have any snacks which is true, but that is because I wanted healthier meals so this week I went his way :0

Day 1- Pizza (4)- ($5)

Day 2- Mexican Lasagna (already have this stuff)

Day 3- 3 cheese Pasta (already have this stuff)

Day 4- Chili Mac (3 boxes of mac&cheese @ .34 a box, and 2 cans of chili at $1.18 a can-this will make two nights in different weeks of dinner and a box of mac. for Dan to make for lunch)

Day 5- Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup- (pack of cheese $2.22, soup $1.38, bread1.97)

Day 6- Tuna Helper-($1.12)

Day 7- Breakfast Burritos (already had this stuff)

Day 8- Spaghetti (already have this stuff)

Day 9- Pizza (included in price above)

Most of our budgeted money for food went towards snacks but the list above is this coming weeks and probably most of next weeks food. Which gives me a great idea...I will start posting the ingredients an the prices for each item when I buy them to give you all a better idea of how we are working our money for food and post a photo of the final meal. On stuff to make meals for the next week and a half if not two weeks I spent about $30.00 and that includes dinner, lunch, and breakfast. You just can't beat that when you are doing a budget for food. We budget probably around $150 a month for food. I can't stress enough getting off brand food. IT TASTE THE SAME!!! Another thing I do which ladies means probably leaving the significant other at home, I use my calculator and as I pick up things I add it all together so I stay within the budget, I only take the amount of cash I budget with me so once I start adding things up I know where I stand and don't panic at the register. Plus, this helps when shopping at places like Walmart that extra things that aren't on the list don't get picked up.

We found places (BIG places) to save money this month...writing out meals and a grocery list, finding all school books online, and cutting the DirecTV. We haven't really gotten rid of DirecTV yet as they are giving us 3 months free which is a big mistake on their part, because basically they are letting us "try" out the stations we will get after the three months. The stations they took away we typically don't watch besides the 2 or 3 I watched. Other than that it's been super nice not having to pay that bill yet we still watch almost all of our shows on regular stations. Come March it's goodbye DirecTV hello Hulu :)

Another thing we have learned we have to work with--things come up that we want to do. For me I have given up on tanning :( I don't shop like I used to, and never pay full price for ANYTHING when I do shop. We do weekly money for Dan, I don't typically spend much during the week so if something comes up and usually every other month there is something, we just give something else up. For instance, this past week Dan wanted to play in pocker tournament, so he had to give up two weeks of weekly money. He was okay with that, it helps that he has a brother that helps him out as well as winning some money in the poker tournament :)

I can't say how excited, happy, ecstatic I am to know we are making a lot of ground in our debt snowball, there is actually a small light we can now see in the tunnel if you will. Come April we will have three more debts paid off while keeping our emergency fund in place! I will probably ask Dan about going back and taking the course again in the Fall just to keep things rolling, keeping everything fresh in our minds.

2011 is off to a wonderful start- this year has so much to offer :) Hopefully you have all started your year off on the right foot and have some goals written out :)

Love,

Dan, Hollie, Tyson, and Hershie :)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!

So I know the end of the year blogging hasn't been to great from me. However, I do have a some what good excuse...I had finals, I'm working three jobs, and trying to keep my house in some what decent shape :) Hopefully you all understand. I will try harder for 2011. OMG, it's official tomorrow is the last day of 2010! Where has this year gone?!?

Our budgeting and paying things off sort of went off in December, we did pay for all Christmas items with CASH, and we stuck to that budget to a T! The eating out did get a little crazy however, neither of us are big on breakfast (unless I'm going through a health kick) so the amount we spent on dinner usually equaled what I would spend at the store for a whole days worth of food.

We have our January budget done as of this morning here's just an idea of what our expenses consist of with schools loans, mortgage, food, cars, utilities, saving and so on....

You will notice we hardly put any into savings because this is what we learned in class. We do have an emergency fund, however until most of our debt is paid off all out extra income will go towards that. We also cut back on our giving, as well since he have debt we really don't have money to give, also something we learned in class. The class was amazing, we miss it but we know we have goals in place in order to keep up on track. We have consumer debt that we are trying to pay off before we start trying for kids. Most of our debt comes from student loans so we know that it will take us a little longer, but we know it can be done, we have heard stories, we have talked with people we know it works and we are ready! Like I said hopefully 2011 will be better for blogging, and keeping you up to date on our life changes!


As a quick update for now: Hershie and Tyson are doing great! They grow more and more everyday! They are both about 50 pounds right now at six months! Tyson hates having is photo taken hence why Hershie has two photos up! Hershie on the other hand is just like her Mom and loves to have the attention! Shhh don't tell :) They are both lovers, they enjoy running around the shed in the back yard, treats, new toys, and best of all cuddling :) They hate car rides, but love seeing people, they will lick you to death if you don't tell them enough. We love them and they really are blessings :)


























As for Dan-Still working hard for Wells Fargo, it's pool league season so he gets out every now and then :) Other than that he spend free time playing PS3 or watching football.
As for me school starts on Jan. 10Th with a busy load of classes this semester, should be one of the hardest I would suspect. I'm working for my Dad, Adventuretime, and Old Navy. I have found that even when I take a day off from work that I still find things to do that keep me busy rather than actually relaxing, must be a new phase I am going through...either way we are all healthy, happy, and counting our blessings.

Here's to a great 2011!

Happy New Year!!

Love,
Dan, Hollie, Tyson, and Hershie

Rain, Rain go away...

It was a very gloomy weekend here in good ole' Urbandale. It Rained all weekend! Non the less we did get a lot accomplished, however if put a damper on the car trading situation.



I know a lot of you are wondering how our budget came out. I will tell you we put it off until late last night, so I will get to that in a minute. To start off the weekend, the first in a while Dan hasn't had to work. We got bills paid and mailed, after sleeping half the day away (literally). Laundry, and cleaned the kitchen, then headed out in the rain to run some errands. We went to the good ole' dollar store to pick up some car cleaning products. Headed to the store to get our groceries which enter side notes here:

I have a friend that is doing the Total Money Makeover as well, she actually got me to do this, I thought about it but I just couldn't bring myself to it. However I finally did, and if any of you have taken my advice and listened to Dave on the radio or read his book he talks bout the E- meal Plan. $5 a month and they send you the meals, and a grocery list. You can do family or just for two. It's cheap meals with out having to live off rice and beans and he puts it. check out the example of our week of dinners below:



Even if you aren't doing the Dave Ramsey plan I find this would be great for anyone as it's hard to plan meals for every day especially when our lives get super busy, it's always easier to just call in pizza or run through the drive thru. You can cancel at any time so why not give it a chance?!? Here's the link for you to check out... http://e-mealz.com/



We had to get some dog food for the puppies, pick up some bones, and well Hershie needed a new collar. Some of you asked if that was in the budget, and yes, we do budget for the dogs, however, here is the story on her last color. It was originally Tyson's, however it was too big for him so we bought him a smaller one (pre-Dave), then Hershie adopted the collar, and it was working fine, until I came home Friday from work and she had made a swimming pool in her kennel and swam in it, literally she was drenched in her urine (gross I know, but that's the story). Had I not washed it 2 times before and it wasn't unraveling she would have kept it. Needless to say I was ready for some wine and the couch after the end to last week. Her new collar is super cute though, check it out--- I might add it was also on sale, $4!





After getting to the store and home and unpacking everything it was about 7:45. I was tired, and I'm sure the weather didn't help that at all. We put a pizza in the over, and I broke out some wine, and we watched the Iowa game. I feel a sleep in the middle and still woke up in time for the end, although I didn't miss much, bad loss for us :(



Sunday, I must admit we slept in again, skipped out on church. I did some laundry, made some breakfast, Dan made me some delicious coffee, while I did homework all afternoon. I feel school is officially in session when it takes a whole day to do homework for only 2 classes. We were bums all day, watched football, and did homework, I thought I would get a walk with Hershie in but the rain would not let up. I know, I know...sooo when did you do the budget....Okay here it is.

We did the budget, now, this week is just a quickie budget. It doesn't have to be exact, just numbers, you can see the sheet below. You can imagine that our take home pay isn't the most right now being that I only work a few hours a week and go to school full time, so basically we live off of Dan's income, which is great for only being out of school for 2 years, and being at this job for one. We probably wont put any numbers up for people to see though. Either way, the goal of this budget is to put every dollar somewhere. There should be no leftover money at the end of the month, you should be at zero, being that you give, save, and pay bills. I must admit though, having zero at the end of the month comes rather easy for us.

Feelings on how the budget went: Putting everything on paper makes you stop and look and realize that we are spending a ton, when we could be giving or saving a lot more. It makes me stress looking at the numbers, it scares me that we have let ourselves come to this and thinking it's okay. But, that's why we are here, taking the class, getting things straight and on our way to debt free. I know some of you are thinking we are crazy for giving "stuff" (aka cars, nights out, super nice clothes, and vacations) up, however, we are thinking the "whole you guys are crazy," is coming from broke friends. We have to start with the people in the mirror. Another side note, a great song for this is "Man in the Mirror," by Michael Jackson. We used to sing this before every game in college, I guess now it's really making an impact.

Love,

Dan,Hollie,Tyson, and Hershie :)

Waiting on Monday...

Oh where to start on this crazy, crazy, week? MONDAY!!

Monday:

I am now officially abnormal, I CAN'T wait for Monday to get here. We LOVE the FPU class! We got all signed in and turned to find a table and what do you know, one of my good friends from high school/college and her husband were right there! A great start to a night we were excited but yet nervous for. Dan actually really enjoyed the class and it helps we have people we know, our age, going through the same steps to hold each other accountable. We are making strides, but we still have our downfalls don't get me wrong. There are days I say, "ohh I think I will go get ____ (fill in the blank)" then I remember we are working on our impulse purchases. We will get there! Still working on the whole car thing but hoping by the end of this weekend we will have that worked out and taken care of one way or another :) If any of you reading this ever think you need help with finances whether you have a lot of debt or just need help getting money put into the right savings account (hopefully one day we will have that part of the problem). This is a great class...no matter your age, income, debt, job, everyone can take it, and we recommend it! There are already so many good things to say that I can't even begin to get it all out.

Wednesday:

KICKBALL!!! Okay, so we didn't win...and I didn't remember my camera, but we were so MUCH better this week than last. I have a feeling we are going to get better each game, and each week we are going to have a little more fun. We had a few people this week get out because they fell over bases, yah it's pretty entertaining I must say. If you are trying to save money but want something to do, and get a laugh come watch us! We play next week at 6:15!

Friday:

Okay, so we haven't got thru the day, which may or may not require me to post again tomorrow :) Tonight we are working on our budget and the car issue! The car really isn't an issue in the sense we can't make the payments, more the sense we don't want to make the payments, that's the issue. We want two cars that are ours free and clear, and were hoping to trade down this weekend :) Please pray this will get done! Then for the budget, we were told that it might be un-nerving for us to do this for the first time, starting with giving and working our way down to least important aspects that we spend money on. This is going to be hard on us I think. To put it all down on paper and see where we are really wasting money will probably make me feel like a mad lady. Oh, well it must be done, and we must learn from the past to make a better future. Like I said I may need to post again tomorrow, and I just might and load our budget so you can all follow along and see how were doing and help us even.

I will end this short (sort of) post with some great news!

1. My best friend (Emily) she was the matron in my wedding, is HAVING A BABY!! Congrats to her and Rossy, and I can't wait to meet the little one! You guys will be AMAZING parents!! :)

2. My sister is officially moving home today!!! YEAH for being back in Iowa! I'm excited to spend more time with her finally without one of us having to make 5 hour trips!! :)

God is doing amazing things in our lives and we are just so excited for all the changes that are starting this fall. Please pray for us and follow us on this new adventure, the Real American Dream!

Love,

Dan, Hollie, Tyson, and Hershie :)