Monday, May 21, 2012

Life. Money Monday {Elements of a Budget pt.2}

Last time for money monday i wrote a little bit on examining what you are already spending. This time we will be looking at goal setting.


Setting goals needs to accurately reflect what you are capable and willing to do in your spending. There have been a few times when i was a little zealous on cutting back and just couldn't keep up. This can be discouraging. The following are categories that Dave Ramsey (my financial hero) uses to describe how much you should be spending and where. Remember that their isn't one fix all. Depending on your income level and location your figures will probably look different, but this should give you a ballpark of what is reasonable in every area.


Expenses
    Range


Charitable gifts
    10-15%



Saving
     5-10%



Housing
    25-35%



Utilities
     5-10%



Food
     5-15%



Transportation
    10-15%

Clothing
     2-7%



Medical/Health
     5-10%



Personal
     5-10%



Recreation
     5-10%



Debts
5-10%



Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Oh How Pinteresting {Wedding Cake Edition}

This weekend I will be a bridesmaid for my wonderful friend Carissa. I am super excited so this week I am gearing up for the big day with Oh How Pinteresting (sponsored by the Vintage Apple) {Wedding Cake Edition}......because the cake is my favorite part :). 













Tuesday, May 8, 2012

People. Personality

I have a huge weakness....
I LOVE personality tests!!!
As in more than a normal amount. I know which friends characters I am (Chandler/Rachael) whether or not I would survive a zombie apocalypse (I would survive the whole thing) and of course my meyers brigs (ISTP). Anyone else share this addiction?

OK. So my new test is the four temperaments test. You can be: phlegmatic, melancholic, sanguine, or choleric. OK. I know those words don't make any sense, but for the record Im Phlegmatic which means cool, calm and collected.
What are you guys? You can take the quiz here!

Happy Quizzing!!!



Monday, May 7, 2012

Money Monday: Elements of a Budget Pt 1.

I will be doing a series for the next few weeks on how to budget. I'm kind of a nerd about budgeting (I may have gotten my degree in finance and I'm the financial manager of a non-profit....sooo I guess it comes with the territory)



Here is what it will look like:
Week 1) What are you spending right now?
Week 2) Goal Setting
Week 3) Tracking your progress
Week 4) Compare and Adjust


Ready?
Lets do this!


What are you spending right now?


Before you can really make a budget, you really need to understand how you have already been spending your money. I like to divide up my expenditures in the following categories (and sub-categories).


Necessary Expenditures: car payment, insurance, rent, tithe, school loan payments


Semi-Necessary Expenditures: utilities, groceries, gas, paying off credit cards (if you have any), phone bill, cable, internet, repairs


Extra Stuff: gym membership, personal maintenance (mani/pedi, shampoo etc.), eating out, presents for others, shopping trips, extra giving and anything else you can think of.


Note: I assigned the expenditures to the categories in a way that reflects me own life, feel free to adjust as you like.


Your assignment: Add up your totals for your expenditures AND categories for the past month- if your feeling particularly nerdy go for the past three months. Then reflect on your spending, how do you feel about it? Does it seem high in some areas and low in others?



Friday, May 4, 2012

Love. Friday

Today I am linking up once again with the lovely Lauren at From My Grey Desk for High Five for Friday. Can I just say that this is pretty much my favorite link up there is! It reminds me every week to be grateful for the amazing life that God has given me. LOVE IT! 


So here are my top 5:





1) Spring came!!! ( a miracle for the Pacific Northwest) 



2) Yesterday at the gym my trainer challenged me to do a one arm snatch(35lbs) for the first time. I thought he was crazy, but check out what happened :) 




4) We got an espresso machine at work!!!!! 




5) I picked up my shoes for Carissa's Wedding - yes, I am wearing Toms under my floor length bridesmaid dress :) 




Photobucket

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Love. Chocolate {too much?}

Yesterday, I up'ed my foodie status {foodie- an adjective used to describe a person who snobbishly loves gourmet food}  


I had a chocolate tasting party. 
It's like wine tasting, but for the chocolate junkie :)


We love chocolate!!!!!


Here is what we did: 1) Find several selections of high quality chocolate (look at the ingredients- the less the better and the best is when you actually know what it is!) 2) Separate (and eat) going from the lightest to the darkest. 3) Cleanse your palette between tastes with sparkling mineral water and bread. 4) Let each piece of chocolate melt in your mouth- paying attention to the texture and flavor. 5) Choose your favorite piece. Mine was the darkest-82%. YUM!


Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

life. dreams

Today, I have been thinking about dreams. We all have them big or small and they usually take up a lot of our thoughts. I am a Christian so I am also always wondering what does God think about this too. I was listening to a sermon this week and the pastor was talking about how we are motivated by three things: 1) Selfishness 2) Fear and 3) Love. Fear and selfishness suck the life out of anyone but love energizes. I think that God loves our dreams that are motivated by love. In fact, I think that most of those even came from Him. 


My love dream: Community- I am a lover of the body of Christ and seeing people share life together. I believe that there is no event too small to attend to support the ones you love and attending these events (like choir concerts, wedding showers and birthday parties) shows that you care and honor this person. My dream is greater sence of love and unity.  


What's your love dream? 



Monday, April 30, 2012

People. Brit {The Magnolia Pair}

Well April is wrapping up today, but I do have one last sponsor. Its Brit from Magnolia Pair! I personally love her blog. She has adorable style (her blog is so flippin cute!!!), she's warm and fun. Show her some love and check her blog out. You will not be disappointed!


Wednesday, April 25, 2012

life. Oh How Pinteresting {Outfit Edition}

This Wednesday I'm linking up with The Vintage Apple for Oh How Pinteresting. This week my top ten pins are focused on outfits. I'm planning on going thrift store shopping this saturday for some summer dresses so I'm hoping to use this for inspiration. PS Portland has some AWESOME thrift stores- its kinda how we roll :).






















Source for everything here


Friday, April 20, 2012

life. High Five for Friday

ITS FRIDAY!!!
                        .......enough said :)

I will again be linking up with the lovely Lauren for High Five for Friday!!!

Here are my top five exciting things from this week. 

1. I got my April Birchbox! It had Taylor Swift Wonderlust Perfume (a really nice sweet scent), some nourishing hair cream, tea, natural cleanser and moisturizer and some really cute nail polish!

2) Last night I went with some friends to our favorite Thai place here and Portland. So good. I had the Massaman Curry. 

3) I got a new record for my back squat: 175lbs!!!!


4) We surprised the heck out of my mom for her birthday!!! You can read about that here


5) Bath and Body works had a sale.... do you think I went over board??? lol! 

How was your week??


Photobucket

Thursday, April 19, 2012

people. Surprise!!!

So yesterday was my mom's birthday and let me tell you, I pretty much have the best mom in the world!! So this year my dad and I got to thinking we need to do a surprise party for her. The problem is how to truly make it a surprise because if we were to take her anywhere around her birthday she would probably catch on. So we came up with the Home Invasion Birthday Party. Wendy (a family friend) arranged it and had everyone meet close by then they all arrived early with food, presents and decorations and surpised my mom (big time surprise!) singing happy birthday and then we had a instant party!!! It was great, especially since my mom is such a behind the scenes type of person. I loved seeing her in the spotlight and hopefully she will someday forgive us. 


Here she is with Penny. 

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

life. Oh How Pinteresting {Fitness Edition}

Linking up again with The Vintage Apple for Oh How Pinteresting!!! 


I have discovered that I LOVE themes!! So this weeks theme for Oh How Pinteresting is fitness. The beginning of last December I made a huge lifestyle change when I joined a local (crossfit style) gym and started eating Paleo (no grains, no refined sugar and a few other things). While this journey has been tough at some points it has been well worth the effort. I feel great, I'm losing fat and gaining muscle. I have challenged myself and have pushed myself past my preconceived limits. 


So, inspired by my fitness journey (oh, it is a journey-still learning like crazy!) here are my top ten pinterests for this week. I hope you enjoy!!!


Eating Right is like a prerequisite to being healthy. I love lean meat for 3 reasons. 1) It tastes great! 2) Its good for you. 3) It keeps you full. 

Weight is NOT an accurate measurement of fitness. I wrote more on this topic here

Motivation.

Stretching. Currently the thing I have the most trouble with, but I'm working on it :)

Truth. 


This is the story of my life right now! Last November I didn't know what a dead lift was. Now I can dead lift 225, squat 175 and bench press 110! I have surpassed all of my preconceived ideas of my own strength. 

 My kind of workout- Strength training with heavy resistance.



LOL!

Love This! Family and Fitness! New Role Model Alert!

Breakdown of running. Fascinating!!!