The Top Things I Did to Get My Spending Under Control

In preparation of an interview I did with Taylor over at The Freedom From Money, I decided to share some of my top things that helped me with paying off my debt. I’m rather long winded and figured that our interview was kind of lengthy so here are a few things that didn’t make it in.

ACTIONS:

#1.) Stop drinking:

• What? Me? Stop drinking? Ok, fine. I didn’t “completely” stop drinking, but I have tried not to while going out. Think back to your broke college days. Remember when you used to pre-game before you went out to the bars? Do that as an adult. Just make sure you aren’t the one driving, and with Uber and Lyft and just other people who are fine with paying at the bar, you have options. But seriously, minimizing drinking saved me a lot of money. Especially for those times when you had no intention of getting drunk, but still ordered a few drinks anyways. Not only are you barely getting buzzed, but you just paid $20+ for two or three drinks. In the end, just stick with water, or if you need flavor, fine, have some soda. At least the refills are free!

2.) Pack lunches:

• I’m a baller ass cook, not to toot my own horn. Back when I was younger, I told my parents I wanted to be a chef and so they made me make dinner every night for “practice” (I put this in quotes because I know they just realized they had a good thing going). I still have those skills that I learned, though for the longest time, I was not using them. Some meals, I’ll admit, do not save well. But others, I’m looking at you chili and spaghetti, taste even better the next day after the flavors blend. Find dishes like that or ones that are easy to make and that you enjoy, and make them! Make enough for lunch the next day, and then bring them to work! I mentioned in the interview how I started getting stressed at work, and that’s why I started going out to eat. Thing is, you can still eat at your desk AND THEN take your hour lunch break. Go for a walk. Or, my favorite thing to do, visit the library. Speaking of library…

3.) Know your free resources:

• Go to the library for books. Print whatever you need to print at work (just not other job applications, that might be abusing it). Does your job provide snacks? EAT THOSE SNACKS. Don’t like the snacks? Then make a suggestion to whomever orders them and worst case you tried. Take advantage of free. Look at your local community centers or parks, you might find a FREE RECURRING ZUMBA CLASS  that you never knew about before.

KNOWLEDGE:

#1.) Read nonfiction:

• No, I’m not saying you need to read all the stock details (unless you want to, obviously), but educate yourself. Try reading some finance books (but heads up, some can be SUPER dry) or, even better, some self-improvement books. “But Sam,” you say. “I don’t need to improve, I’m already awesome.” Right you are, reader, for making it to my blog! But, as Louise Penny said, “Life is change. If you aren’t growing and evolving, you’re standing still, and the rest of the world is surging ahead.” I promise you, there is always something you can learn from someone else. Looking for a good book to start? Try You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero. I freaking loved this book because it reads more like a conversation between you and an older, more wise but still totally cool, sibling. And you can look super adult reading a nonfiction book with a swear word on the cover in public.

2.) Be aware of what you owe:

• One of the reasons why my credit card debt got so high was because after a certain amount, I stopped looking at it. Then when it came time to pay my bill, I’d be horrified that I managed to spend so much in one month. Debt is scary, but avoiding it doesn’t make it go away. Adding it up and then making a plan on how to tackle it was one of the best ways I was able to help myself. And know the interest. At one point I was hit with a $1000 interest charge. $1000! That’s like, a fifth of what I want my emergency fund to be. That’s ridiculous!

3.) Know your weaknesses:

• One of my big weaknesses was online shopping. Yes I would get drunk and buy stuff from Amazon, but that wasn’t the only place. I was constantly flooded by advertisement emails from Victoria Secret or American Eagle or other apparel places because I had signed up for email sales alerts. SALES ALERTS. So misleading. You sign up for these emails because you want the occasional coupon but at the same time, you are allowing them to email you even when they DON’T have coupons. So here I was, just enjoying my day, at work doing whatever and bam! Kate Hudson has a new line of active wear and the first outfit is only $25 and free shipping! Without this email, I would have A.) never known about this and therefore not been tempted and B.) wouldn’t be trying to convince myself that I need yet another pair of leggings. This is what kills me about sales, especially those stores that put your “amount saved” at the bottom of the receipts – you aren’t saving money. You are still spending it. If you really needed that blender you bought at Kohl’s for $99 then fine, good for you. But if you try to say, “It was original $200, so I saved $101” …no. Stores, (Kohl’s especially – sorry, used to work there) are always putting things on sale so that you think you are getting a good deal. You’d save money if you didn’t buy anything. Spending $99 is still spending $99. If you still live in fear about missing out on coupons, then perhaps make a junk email that you can use for all those promo emails. Out of sight, out of mind. TL, DR: Unsubscribe from those email sales alerts.

 

TOOLS FOR MY SUCCESS:

#1.) Subscription Boxes:

• For someone with a self-diagnosed online shopping problem, subscription boxes became my best friend. Now, let me just say, most Personal Finance bloggers would not agree with this, but that’s why it’s called PERSONAL finance – it’s different for everyone. Also, use this in moderation. At one point I had upwards of 9 subscription boxes coming to me during the month, I’ve narrowed it down to 3, which I’m sure still sounds like a lot to people. I realized one of the thrills of me constantly buying from Amazon was me A.) getting a package (who doesn’t like non-junk mail?) and B.) not remembering what I had bought (it was like Christmas!). Since I was almost always drunk while shopping on Amazon, when I got a package, it was like a gift from Drunk Sam to Sober Sam and I loved it! Subscription boxes fulfill that same thrill for me each month, and are surprisingly cheaper in the long run. Plus one of the subscriptions I have is for Mike the Gardener’s Seeds of the Month Club which is less than $4/month and allows me to grow a ton of vegetables. Do I actually plant most of these seeds? Not always, but I like the idea that I can. The other two are make up subscription boxes which are about $10/month. I found that I like the products in one more than the other, so when my year is up, I’m going to cancel the one so that I’ll be down to only 2 subscriptions. And for the make up that I don’t like? I regift them around the holidays to some of my more adventurous make up friends. (See? Not a total waste)

2.) Video Games:

• This too, can turn into an expensive hobby so take this bullet point with a grain of salt. But I’m a huge Role Playing Game fan when it comes to video game genres, and I found that RPGs give you the most bang for your buck. The Elder Scroll series, Fallout out series, Witcher series, etc all give you AT LEAST 25+ hours of game experience. If you are anything like me, you can stretch that out to 100+, or in one game of Oblivion, the game clocked me at over 400 hours played. Now that’s obviously not all at once, and sure, maybe to some I sound like a huge loser, but when you pay $60 for a game (even less if you buy pre-owned!) the money : hours played ratio is pretty good. And when I really enjoy a game, I get really absorbed into it, so it was a great way to pass time on the weekends when I didn’t want to go out. Surprisingly, a few of my friends were totally content to come over and play video games with me too or sometimes just watch me play. For the record, Until Dawn is a great game to play with someone who is content to just watch over your shoulder. The game is essentially a horror movie where you can make split second decisions for your character and there’s a ton of cut scenes. The replay value isn’t too bad either, since you can only do certain actions on one playthrough and have to restart to find out what other actions do…Or you can be like me and just go on Youtube and watch all the decisions you didn’t make. Because lazy.

Yes, that is Hayden Panettiere a voicing a character named Sam in the game. GUESS WHO WAS MY FAVORITE CHARACTER?

#3.) Personal Finance Blogs

• The more you know, people! Seriously, reading Taylor’s site The Freedom From Money or The Frugalwoods or Desirae’s Half Banked or Melanie’s Dear Debt (see my personal letter here) helped inspire me when I was feeling bad about my progress or getting burnt out. Not only are they all super supportive to anyone looking to take hold of their finances, they can also be some of the best cheerleaders on your journey. They are partly the reason why I started being more vocal about my own debt – they so openly spoke of their finances and their successes and failures that I really started believing I could conquer my debt in a decent amount of time, even without making a six figure salary. Find a blogger with a writing style that you enjoy and follow them. I promise you that even when you get out of debt or save up all your emergency fund money or buy a house that you will still find useful advice in these posts. 100% the most helpful thing for me in paying off my debt.

In the end, these are what really helped for me, along with the few things I mentioned in Taylor’s interview. I know I’m missing a ton of PF blogs that I read regularly, so I’ll try to maybe make a page featuring my favorites soon for anyone who doesn’t know where to start -though if you made it here, there are worst blogs you could be reading … then again, I’m biased :]

My “Dear Debt” Letter

I’ve been a reader of Melanie’s over at Dear Debt for a long time and I’ve always been inspired by her journey out of debt. I love that she also has a Dear Debt project where people go and write honest letters to their debt. I figured I’d take a stab at it. Here we go!

Dear Debt,

I like to think I’ve handled you better than most, but I know that our relationship is more one-sided than I’d like it to be. Though now I can’t wait to get rid of you, I still remember the times when I was so grateful for you and your help. I know that without you I wouldn’t be who I am today.

Because of you, Debt, I was able to continue my education when my parents had to give me some tough love my freshman year of college. You allowed me to realize that I hadn’t ruined my life, just learned a lesson the hard way, and because of that, I was able to forgive myself. After my first year back at school, though, I forgot a bit about the price I had to pay to be in your favor, and so I kept our abusive friendship.

Debt, even though I had three jobs in college, I used YOU to fund my drinking, my wants AND my needs, thinking that it was enough to use my income from my jobs for schooling. I was being mostly good, that counted, right? I knew that there was a (literal) price to pay to being friendly with you, Debt, but at the same time, that was FUTURE Sam’s problem, not present Sam’s and so I ignored the negatives and only enjoyed your positives.

I know I am luckier than most people who graduated with me. I only had about $25,000 of debt, which compared to others, is not much. The first year out of college, I had a job where I earned commission and I did very well. Couple that with living with my parents, and I was ready to start attacking you.

My parents always taught me to save a chunk of my paycheck, spend a small amount, and use the rest to pay off my loan. Sure I could pay if off in 20 years, but why accrue the interest? They told me that the sooner I paid you off, the better my life would be. So I did. I was putting over $1000 towards you every month. I had the idea that I would pay you off in less than two years.

But I didn’t, obviously. I was commuting over an hour and a half one way to work, and you knew the drive was killing me AND my car. So you helped me come up with a plan to move closer to work. My best friend had a similar idea, and we ended up moving in together in a nicer neighborhood, closer to both of our works.

Splitting the costs of housing and cutting down on transportation should make it cheaper, wouldn’t it? Technically yes, but it was around this time that I started developing bad habits. Bad habits like drinking more out of college than I did in college. Bad habits like getting drunk and buying lots of things off of Amazon (I both love and hate you, Prime). Bad habits like eating out for lunch EVERY DAY. (Gasp! Such a no-no) You funded all of this, Debt. You allowed me to live above my means and yet hide the truth from everyone.

So even tho I had reduced you originally, Debt, before moving out of my parents by almost half, I managed to get seduced by you in a worse way – high interest credit card debt. Originally, I was racking up my credit card balance, but still paying it off in full every month. Eventually, it caught up to me and went to the point where I was carrying a balance. Instead of trying to pay off the balance, I started ignoring it. Long story short, I ended up with over $8000 of credit card debt. Couple this with my 2003 Dodge Neon dying randomly (RIP Thundercat) I had to find a way to get a new car.

Having stupidly assumed that my old car would die after I had saved enough for a new car (and without actually saving anything for a new car), I was in a bad position. I made sure to always have at least $1000 in both my checking and savings account, but I wasn’t trying to drain all of my accounts. So I had to awkwardly ask my parents to help me. Which, since they are amazing, they did. But that left me with $5000 that I owed them on top of the $14500 on my car.

This was my wake up call, Debt. I realized that you were controlling me, not the other way around. You had grown too much for me to handle on my own. I was so embarrassed, Debt. I was living like a fraud, making more than I thought I would two years out of college and yet it wasn’t enough.

I started taking action to paying you down, never once telling my roommate, boyfriend, or even my parents how bad you have gotten. I think if I did, they might have helped, but at the same time, I didn’t want their judgement. I got myself into this mess, and I knew I could get myself out. And it’s that belief in myself that has gotten me this far.

At the beginning of 2016, I owed $23500ish between my student loan, credit card debt, car loan, and the loan from my parents. As of today, both the student loan and credit card debt are gone, and I have about $9000 left on my car and about $3000 to my parents.

I’m not as far as I wanted to be at this point in the year, but I’m determined to end our relationship, Debt. You keep trying to draw me back, but I’m smarter this time. I have a plan. I know how much I need to dedicate to you per paycheck to be rid of you. I don’t need you anymore, and I don’t intend on seeing you again once 2o17 starts.

Bye forever,

Sam

 

Let’s Talk About Why We Need Failure

So I’m just going to throw this out there – I’m a failure. Then again, so are you. And that’s a GOOD thing! You are probably thinking, “Sam, you are only saying this because you already totally forgot about some goals that you set for yourself this year.” To that I say – partially. But at the same time, I’ve already mentioned how failing my freshman year of college taught me how to forgive myself. I’m one of those people who only seems to learn lessons the hard way. We need failure. It helps us better ourselves.  Let me explain.

Growing up, I had it pretty good. My parents gave me everything that I needed, and though I am an only child, I was not spoiled nearly as much as my friends with siblings would think. I did in fact hear the word “no” much too often, was denied toys that I probably would’ve gotten bored with quickly, and had high standards put on me from my parents. Luckily, I was of average intelligence and decent at sports, so that set me up pretty well in my school years. In fact, I made varsity basketball my freshman year and was captain by my sophomore year. Here’s where I had my first major lesson in failure.

My town’s “rival” team in basketball is from the next town over, who just happened to be the state champs in high school basketball. And us? Well, of my four years of being on Varsity, we won FIVE games. Yeah, the math is pretty bad on that one. Anyways, one of the first tournaments we were in had us facing off against the state champs. To say they beat us would be an understatement. They SLAUGHTERED us. The starters were pulled at the end of the first quarter and we were playing against their third string by the end of the half. The final score was 100+ to 10. We were excited we made it (just barely) to double digits. And the biggest kicker? Even though I was on the varsity team and we were getting our butts kicked, my coach never put me in. I spent the entire game on the bench. When I later asked my coach why, he replied that I never proved to him that I could handle pressure. Also, he didn’t want me crying on the court.

One of those rare moments when I wasn’t crying.

I’ll admit, I’m a crier. I cry happy tears, frustrated tears – this gum commercial made me cry. It’s not something that I can really control, but I never really had to. This was a punch to the gut to me. In my head, I was this big, bad freshman (the ONLY freshman) on varsity. Therefore, I was a million times better than the rest. But instead, I was only a big fish in a small pond. Yes, I had impressed the coach enough for him to move me up varsity, but that was mostly because I went to the training camps all summer and showed that I worked hard. That doesn’t necessarily mean that I could handle the pressure, and my coach didn’t want me embarrassing the team anymore than the score already did. It was very humbling, and in the end, it made me step up my game, improve my attitude, and was rewarded by being made captain the following year.

I already told you guys about failing in college, but how about failing in the job search? Yep, did that too. I’ve always been working since I was able to, mostly in retail, some in customer service, and finally now in logistics. At one point in college I held down four jobs, and in the summers I was working upwards of 60 hrs per week. Because of my good work ethic (that I briefly touched on above in basketball), I stupidly assumed I wouldn’t struggle to find a job after college. Thing is, I wasn’t really applying. Maybe it was from the privileged life I led or more so because I can be an idiot, but I just magically assumed that a job would fall into my lap.

Having transferred majors from a highly competitive engineering major to one I practically made up (Cinema and Media Studies FTW!), I was seeing my engineering friends get internships and job offers our junior year. Let me tell you, I’m AMAZING at making up excuses. “They just got it because of their internships – this is the natural next step” or “I don’t need to look for a job yet because I don’t even have a degree” or even “I’ll figure it out later, worst case I’ll just work a bunch of part time jobs!” In fact, I somehow convinced myself that I should feel sorry for these friends, because they were entering the adult world so quickly.

This is what I did for my degree – lots and lots of video games

This thinking almost screwed me over hardcore. It wasn’t until March of 2013, the year I was going to graduate, that I started panicking. I lived with 3 engineers, all of which had full time jobs waiting for them after graduating, with one even starting their new job while finishing the last of his classes. I realized I was wrong, it wasn’t ME feeling sorry for them, but THEM feeling sorry for me. Luckily, the shame I had for myself motivated me to go into a job hunting frenzy and land myself a job before I graduated. And it even manage to turn into my dream job!

Most recently, I failed at the Whole 30 diet. From my first post, completing a Whole 30 was on my bucket list for the year. Wanting to start out strong, me and my boyfriend decided to do it the Monday after my birthday. Miserable isn’t a strong enough world for what I felt.

For those who don’t know what Whole 30 is, here – do your research. Essentially it’s adios to everything delicious and hola to a more pure and clean diet. In theory, it sounds really good for you. In practice, for me, it was awful. Obviously, the food is very restrictive on this diet, but I didn’t realize how much of my core diet it would ban. I couldn’t have rice, or gluten, or dairy. Perhaps if this wasn’t my very first diet, I could’ve done better, but since it was, I was not in the right place mentally. I started hating eating and would feel guilty when I did. I had a weird mental block where I couldn’t finish portions and honestly, the food wasn’t bad, but I just couldn’t eat it. Pinterest has a ton of recipes you can find, and apparently potatoes are allowed now and weren’t before so I can’t even imagine what would have happened if I did this back in the beginning. It took 10 days of me complaining and feeling crappy and crying (yes, again, I am a crier) that I finally realized I had to quit it. Yes, I failed at Whole 30 (another blog post on that soon), but had I continued, I seriously think I would’ve developed some sort of eating disorder. I didn’t eat for 4 of those 10 days and mentally I wasn’t in a good place. My boyfriend is still doing it and is halfway done! So I’m still helping him with meal prep and cheering him on, but I realized I needed to practice self care.

And no, that does not mean I dove head first into a cheese pizza or at a gallon of ice cream. In fact, I’ve continued to lose weight (down 4.5lbs in 15 days, not terrible but nothing compared to my boyfriend’s 12lbs) and I’ve learned how to better portion my meals. Plus, I feel like Whole 30 helped me appreciate food. Trust me, I will not take sushi for granted again.

Long story short, we need failure. Or at least, I need failure. Perhaps my parents raised me too well, with a self esteem that is too high and an attitude that I can and will be good at anything. Failure keeps me humble, it keeps me on my toes, it gives me motivation, helps me learn new things about myself. As long as you can take a lesson out of any failure, it was worth failing at. So go forth and fail at something today! Your future self might thank you for it.

 

Learning to Forgive Ourselves

I started off so well, with me posting my first post on day one. But since then? Radio silence. Well, Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will this blog.

Volunteering today on the Crisis Text Line, I had a texter who was beating herself up because she got a misdemeanor and was convinced that her life was ruined. Understandably, it’s not something that you want on your record, but by no means does that one event define her. Once we got the ball rolling on how she is not the worst person in the history of the world ever (I can think of at least one other person who could fit that title better – YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE, EX BOYFRIEND) (Just kidding. Sorta) we got down to the real root of the problem – learning how to forgive yourself.

It’s hard enough forgiving others, but forgiving yourself? NEAR IMPOSSIBLE.

The hardest part might be because you know your self worth. Let me share a bit of my freshman year of college with you. I was young and on my own, for the first time away from my parents while also being in a challenging engineering program. Uh oh. Yep, you know where this is going. I’ll speed things along. By the time it was about halfway through my second semester freshman year, I knew I was in trouble. Classes were hard and boring, I was dating this guy who was cheating on me with a girl who was back in his hometown (I only found out AFTER the semester, but I had my suspicions – seriously, who goes home 3 hours away every other weekend?), and I was spending too much time avoiding my problems, rather than acknowledging them. Unfortunately, I couldn’t catch myself before I fell and I ended up failing enough classes that semester, forcing my parents’ hand to demonstrate that they weren’t going to put up with my crap – or at least not fund it. The next semester I spent back home, going to community college and trying to figure out a way to finance my college career and proving to both myself and my parents that I learned from my mistakes.

That summer in between was brutal for me. I had already known that I wasn’t coming back to school that following semester around Easter my freshman year. The depression kicked in and I spent a good majority of my time sleeping and being unproductive. It wasn’t much better when I moved back home. I was on a much shorter leash and in an awkward position with my parents. I knew that they were just trying to teach me some tough love, but at the same time, I had such potential (urgh, there’s that word again) coming into college from high school, that I thought I would’ve been able to save myself. Turns out, we all need help sometimes. And there’s no harm in asking for help. People don’t think you are weak or judge you. You are not weak for asking for help, if anything, that shows the strength that you possess for knowing when you are taking on more than you can bear.

But I still was beating myself up. I knew I should’ve done better the following year, that I should have paid more attention to my school work and gone out less and BROKEN UP WITH THAT STUPID GUY. You can’t change the past, no matter how hard you wish you could. What’s done is done. You can only learn from your failure. This is where the forgiveness steps in.

Forgiving yourself is really grieving about the future you lost, if you could just undo that one mistake; take one less shot, study one more hour, not driven that car, etc. And just like grief, you have to go through all five stages.

#1.) Denial 

• First, I was in denial about my grades which was dumb, because I saw them only get lower every day. Then, I was in denial about my parents’ threats. I was convinced that they would let me go back to college on their dime, because they loved me and because I told them I was sorry and stupid and every other thing in the book.

2.) Anger

• Boy was I pissed when I realized that they were sticking to their guns and not paying for me to go back. And, being the whiny brat I was back then, made sure to let them know I was mad. My logic was flawed, obviously.

3.) Bargaining

• I was desperate. I tried applying to different colleges. I tried praying to God that this was all a very bad dream. I tried figuring out who was the bad cop and who was the good cop with my parents to try to work something out (spoiler alert: they were both the bad cops in this situation…or maybe both good cops? Definitely bad cops before I learned my lesson, good cops now that I have). During this stage, I wasted a lot of time and money avoiding the problem some more, instead of accepting fault and trying to make some lemonade out of these lemons.

4.) Depression

• Oh darkness, my old friend. Once I realized that I was really staying home from my friends, with the stigma that I kinda sorta failed college, and that I was stuck in my hometown going to community college (not that there is anything wrong with that, looking back I wish I went that route longer, save some money!), the depression hit. I was sad and cried all the time. I listened to depressing music and cried some more. I slept a lot. I cried a lot. If this was a movie montage it would be really boring and filled with ugly crying faces.

.Yep, Kim-K-ugly crying faces.

#5) Acceptance 

• Finally, I accepted what I was going to have to do the following semester, and made a plan to succeed. I made myself “re-live” the past year, thinking of specific situations and having a plan for how I would’ve have done it better, just in case they come up again in the future. And by doing this little project, I proved to myself that the past year wasn’t in vain, and I had learned from my (very expensive) mistakes.

It took me that whole summer to forgive myself for putting me in that situation, and then some. Luckily, I hit my stride and managed to graduate on time and with two different minors. But I had to make peace with myself, before I could make peace with the situation. Something to keep in mind is that one chapter in your life story doesn’t mean that’s all you talk about for the whole book. You are more than just a few moments in your history.

And on the note of school, I just thought I’d share, I’ve paid off all of my student loans! Wooo, officially student loan free :] Just got the car and a small personal loan from my parents (love you guys) and then I’ll be 100% debt free!

This was me after I paid off the loan, but slightly off beat.

HELLO WORLD

Yes, I know that I am cheesy and unoriginal by naming my first blog post that, but “HELLO WORLD” is probably the only thing I retained from my Computer Science Engineering classes at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign back in the day. I’m sure my freshman year professors would be so proud…that I at least learned SOMETHING before transferring majors.

But you didn’t come here to learn about my past – in fact, you probably arrived here by accident, perhaps having horribly butchered some other website’s url – you came to learn how I am using my quarter life crisis to fully live up to my potential!

Urgh. Potential. Don’t you just hate that word? It’s practically the most backhanded compliment out there. “Sam, your looks have a lot of potential, you just need to learn how to put on make up and dress better and be skinny.” Or when teachers would leave comments on your report cards, “Sam is a bright student who is easily distracted and talks too much in class, wasting her potential and possibly her classmates’ potential as well.” Pretty much “potential” is a polite way of saying “We expect better from you” but more passive aggressively.

To all those haters out there who mentioned me wasting my potential, I say, “HA, look who is finally doing something about it!” Not only did I make a new blog that is totally cleverly named (this one, in case you were wondering), but I did it on day one. Guess who is finally learning to be an adult? Correct answer: ME!

Well, I’ll be honest. I did spend entirely too long trying to figure out a design for this website. I even considered paying real life money on better designs. ALL BEFORE EVEN HAVING WRITTEN A FIRST POST. Oh well. Nobody’s perfect.

But anyways, back to me being totally adult and things, I’ve thought of 10 things I’d like to accomplish this year (One of them can already be semi crossed off!) and 15 habits I’d like to form. Some of these might horrify you (please don’t judge me), while others might be a stretch, but I have a lot of heart and that’s all you need to accomplish your dreams. Or at least that’s what I tell myself to help me sleep at night.

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!

10 Things I’d Like to Accomplish before turning 26:

#1.) Open a Roth IRA and max it out for 2017

• I know, I know. Saving for my retirement should be something I thought about before I even made it to high school, especially since everyone is saying Social Security will run out by the time I’m old enough to cash in on it. But I was young and stupid then! Now I’m a bit older and slightly less stupid. There’s still hope for me! I can try to make up for those lost years!

2.) Pay off ALL debt

• This was actually one of my New Year’s Resolutions from 2016. I entered with roughly $23,800 in debt due to credit cards, student loans, a car loan and a loan from me borrowing from my parents. As of right this very second, I’m down to $13,700 and some change. Which is good, but not quite as far as I want to be. I’m totally crushed that at the pace I’m at, I’m probably not going to be able to knock out all my debt by the end of December 2016, but worst case, I’ll definitely be in a position to be debt free by the time I turn 26.

3.) Save up $5000 in savings and then open a new separate account for more savings

• Saving is HARD, especially when paying off debt like I am. Though I auto deduct a decent amount from every pay check to go directly into my savings, there are some months when I pull from it to pay off more of my debt. Especially now that I’m a mere $1000 from paying off my last student loan, it’s so hard not to touch my savings. But just like my savings SAVED me when I stupidly and unexpectedly got in a parking lot car accident (yes, I know, IN A PARKING LOT), I know that I shouldn’t touch this money unless it is an emergency.

 

4.) Travel to at least 3 different states

• I’m a homebody and incredibly lazy so this is just me trying to not be and perhaps go on an adventure or something. It’s also a bit of a cop out, since I live in MN, my parents live in IL and driving to and from technically brings me through WI. So there’s two states right there. And Labor Day weekend I’ll be visiting my best friend in GA which means unless I’m a terrible daughter and never visit my parents, there’s my three states right there.

#5.) Hike/camp in 2 different state parks

• I love hiking, and yet I never do it. It’s a fun form of exercise, and as long as I remember my Anti-Chaffing Stick (I am NOT blessed with a thigh gap), fairly painless. Camping is something me and my parents used to do when I was younger and something that me and my boyfriend tried to do a year or so ago. I don’t know if it was because I had to do zero work when I was a kid camping with my parents, but it was not as enjoyable as an adult. But I’m willing to give it another chance.

6.) Start a blog and update weekly

• Bam! Cross off the first half, to be determined on the the latter. But this is a good start!

7.) Build a raised garden bed

• Honestly this was another thing I should’ve done this year. I even bought all the wood and what not to make the raised bed, but I’m terrible and lazy and have been procrastinating. Unfortunately I was more gung ho about buying the vegetable plants to put in said garden bed and now they are all dead. If I can set this up and make it by fall so that next year I just have to plant my plants, I’ll count it as a win. I wouldn’t hold my breathe if I were you though.

8.) Have at least 1 month of saving 50% of my income

• I’m at a whopping (note sarcasm) 18% right now, so I have a long way to go, but I know that if I can save 50% of my income, I can retire that much faster…

9.) Paint the upstairs

• This has been something on my to do list since forever. Maybe it’s just the green clashing with our purple bedding, but I’ve always hated the color on our bedroom walls and yet, have not made an effort to do anything about it. THIS IS THE YEAR OF CHANGE.

#10.) Complete Whole 30

• Ever since a girl in my book club told me how she lost a bunch of weight on doing Whole 30 and reset her metabolism, I’ve kept it on my radar. Now that me and the boyfriend are doing a weight loss challenge with a vacation on the line, we figured that we were going to start Whole 30 the Monday after my birthday. So in 4 days. That same week? I have two book clubs and a work dinner. Everyday is a struggle.

 

15 Habits to Form:

#1.) Increase savings by 1% monthly

• I wish I could remember where I heard about this challenge, but I don’t, I’m sorry. The run down is this: Every month you save 1% of your take home pay and then the following month, you save an additional 1%. Since I started in January, I saved 1%, then in February I saved 2%, March was 3%, etc. Now that it is July, I’m saving 7%, on top of the auto deductions I take from my paycheck. Next year, January would start at 13%. Worst case, if I continue to do this for years to come, I will eventually hit that 50% savings ratio!

2.) Hit 10k steps 4x/week

• My boyfriend and I got each other Fitbits for Valentine’s Day. Romantic, I know. I’m sure they would be way more helpful to my weight-loss goal IF I REMEMBERED TO CHARGE MINE. So as a goal to be healthier, I’m going to try to hit 10k steps at least 4 times a week. Which to some people, might be fairly easy. For me, who struggles to get to 1000 steps a day due to my desk job, it’s a challenge. Pokemon Go is a game changer though, so this goal is becoming more and more realistic.

2.) Watch 1 youtube workout video/day

• Technically I have a gym membership. Do I use it? Perhaps my previous point will clue you in – no. I can’t just cancel it though, because it’s tied to my boyfriend’s account, who DOES use the gym so that would make things funky. Also our gym is only staffed for like 30 minutes and at like, the dead of night, so trying to get a staff member to adjust the membership is also very obnoxious. I was warned by friends who liked to workout outside about this, but did I listen? Nope. And now I’m stuck with a $70 bill every month. So this goal is about being more active, but with less commitment since I can just lay on the floor of my bedroom with a video on in the background and pretend that it counts. No, I’m not sleeping, I’m in shavasana.

3.) Church at least 2x/month

• Growing up, I always went to church every Sunday. I believe that God is always there for me when I need him, and with the amount of time that I spend asking him for things (“Please God, let my jeans fit.” “God, if you make every light green on the way to work, I promise I’ll stop wishing the people that cut me off get explosive diarrhea.”) Unfortunately, since moving to MN, I haven’t been the best about going to church every week, or even month. I found a church I try to go to regularly, but, especially in the summer, I find myself traveling and being away. Plus, since I volunteer with Crisis Text Line every Saturday night, sometimes I’m just…wiped. These are all just excuses though, and in the end I know I should go, so I’m trying to be better.

4.) Donate $100/month

• I was tithing regularly for a few months, but I wanted to donate to a new charity every month. One month I got lazy and didn’t research a new charity, and then I never got back into it. I’m hoping to change that.

#5.) Brush teeth nightly

• Ok, don’t judge me. But I’m terrible at brushing my teeth before bed. Do I do it? Yes, only sometimes, but always begrudgingly. And if I’m tired/drunk/crabby, it’s the first thing I skip. This is probably why I have had a ton of cavities in my life. Again, trying to make myself better this year. No one is perfect!

6.) Floss and mouthwash regularly

• I HATE mouthwash. Something about it just makes me cringe. I don’t know if I accidentally swallowed some when I was younger or what, but it’s my least favorite thing to do. I’m trying to make sure that if I have dessert or drink soda, that I floss and use mouthwash, because those are the habits that will stop my teeth from falling out.  #Illjustliveofficecreamandmashedpotatoes

7.) Brush with activated charcoal 1x/week

• I have naturally yellow teeth. It’s frustrating. I don’t smoke or drink coffee and yet, yellow teeth. I heard that brushing with activated charcoal can help whiten your teeth, so fingers crossed it works for me. Worst case, it’s kinda fun to brush your teeth black. Makes me feel like I’m a zombie from the Walking Dead series.

8.) Oil pull daily for 5 minutes

• Another “proven” whitening technique. Plus the oil is supposed to pull all the cavity bacteria out as well. Honestly I think coconut oil is so freaky – you scoop it into your mouth as a solid and then it melts from the heat of your mouth into a liquid. This is not my favorite habit, but I want those white teeth so I’ll have to sacrifice!

9.) Call Dad and email Mom 1x/week

• Being an only child, I need to show my parents a bit more love than some people do, just because I don’t have siblings to help with their empty nest feelings. And now being a 7 hour drive away, I know they can’t just pop in whenever they miss me. Besides, one of the most underrated feelings is talking to your parents as an adult. Every time I call, I’m surprised by how much I miss them. Had you told me this ten years ago, I would’ve told you you were crazy!

Now you know where I get my good looks from :]

#10.) Get rid of 25 items weekly

• I have so much stuff. I got rid of a bunch of stuff when I moved to MN, but there’s still too much. Honestly, I got sucked into the, “more is better” mindset and tried to fill my life with THINGS and not meaningful moments. Plus my habit of getting drunk and buying things off Amazon (I both love and hate you, Prime membership) didn’t help. So I’m trying to get rid of things weekly, and trying to take note of what doesn’t make the cut so I don’t buy any more of them in the future.

11.) Take 1 photo/week

• Now that I’m no longer in college, there are a lot less opportunities to jump in front of a camera. Plus, I was never the biggest selfie fan either. My mother is a big photo taker, so I’m used to posing, but it’s never until after something happens that I think to photograph it. Then it’s too late. So this is me trying to be better.

12.) 30 minutes cleaning/day

• I live with 3 guys. They are by no means super messy, but at the same time, they aren’t neat freaks either. Normally I wait until the weekend to clean, but at that point, doing chores takes the majority of a day. Hopefully by cleaning at least 30 minutes a day, I can enjoy more of my weekend while maintaining a neater household.

13.) Meal prep for the week

• I spend a disgusting amount of money on groceries, just for a lot of the produce to go bad because I was too ambitious with my shopping impulse buys. By meal prepping (or at least planning) I should be able to save money on both grocery shopping AND eating out (my only vice).

14.) Say three things I’m grateful for every day

• Sometimes we focus too much on the negatives in our lives, that we completely miss the positives. I’m trying to be more aware of what I DO have, versus focusing on what I don’t.

#15.) Listen more

• As you can tell by this novel I decided to write for my first blog post, I have a lot to say. But what I’ve learned from the Crisis Text Line and just life in general, is that sometimes people don’t come to you for advice, they just want to be heard. And other times, people want to tell you something, but don’t know how to express it. If you are truly listening to them, you will know when those times happen, and you can choose to try get them to open up, or to leave it alone. Sometimes the best way to be a friend, is to just listen.

 

Well that was one heck of a first post, clocking in at a whopping 2600+ words. If you made it this far, congrats! You are probably my boyfriend or mother. Hi! Love you! If you aren’t my boyfriend or mother, that’s ok, I still love you for taking the time to stop bye. Appreciate you joining me on this journey to better myself!

-Sam