Podcasts!

Hey! I've decided to try to resurface to the bogging world again!

I wish I could say the last few months were full of All these amazing projects that I'll now share with you....but that would be a lie! I just let life be my priority!!
Any of you read young house love? I miss that blog seriously every single day! I looked forward every morning to their new posts..... That is sadly a thing of the past.

However they now have a podcast!!!

You should listen it it! I'm in love!!!!!!

This week has got me motivated to blog and share about myself again. 

On episode 3 they talk about the scrubber vs the the tidier. I am totally the latter. 

I love it when everything has its own place. Greatful my handsome hubby is the cleaner!! He will dust and vacuum and get every thing looking amazing! Honestly I swear we would never have a clean mirror if it wasn't for him!! This however can cause for some less then perfect conflicts.   I would love it if he would "clean the house" and when I get home, he has dusted and cleaned the mirrors, however the kids toys are still all over the place! :D One of thous amazing things about marriage.  Learning about each others differences. 

So you can join in on their poll here on their webpage!

Show them your love and if you haven't read their blog OR books check them out!!!

And now up and on to my finance portion of the blog! :D Check out the HerMoney podcast.  Not my 100% fav one on choosing how to spend money and getting funds taken care of however a great addition to my Dave Ramsey ones.  (conversation for another day)

I went to a woman's meeting at my work and was able to hear from 4 amazing successful women.  I work for a pretty amazing company where the CEO, President, Site manager, and director are all female.  Even though I work in the business of "men" we are a little unique on that front.  That being said many women in today's world are either in charge of the "budget" or make sure that things are there for the family but forget about themselves.  Welcome to being a MOM!!!
This podcast is more about investing and less about the idea of money and spending and saving. I love that it discusses what it is like to be a working woman and how to save for retirement .  Currently I work in retirements and woman are often pushed to the side and defer to their husbands.  I am TOTALLY one of these people and I see that there is not a problem for this to be an open conversation.  However that is not the case.  Women live much longer then men, 7 yr average, and when the husband dies, often the wife will defer to their children, who are from a different generation.  I much prefer planning together.

Well here are my recommendations on what I've been listening too!

Have a safe and Happy 4th of July!

Fire and Life

Sitting by a fire is one of my favorite places to be.  In the winter it is snuggled up inside with a big blanket and a cup of hot tea.  
In the summer it is under a sky full of stars with a cracking fire and a drink in my hand.  Nothing else is needed.

As I write this I am sitting by the latter with boys in a tent about 10 feet away in my back yard, with a fire blazing!
It's been so long since I last posted it feels as thought its almost as if starting a new chapter.  Our house is home.  And with all of its MANY FLAWS!!! Yes there are many and I will get back to sharing them, and how we deal with that soon but for now I think its time to change gears a bit.
I love finance.  It is a sicking disgusting part of our world, but it is also such a 100% necessary evil!  I life in it, thrive in it and love it.  With a PASSION!! that being said I have made all of the financial mistakes we have all be warned of, but It is time to share what I love and also never forget to live the Dream in my DREAM HOUSE!!! Even if i'm house poor!!
One element I did want more than anything in this home was a fire! I wanted one indoors that I could sit by on cold days, and since we have enjoyed this home for just about two years have used it well all winter long.
We had a fire pit from our old house that we didn't use once last year, however this year due to new jobs and busy schedules it is July and we won't have our first, and might possibly ONLY, camping trip until a few weeks from now.  We gotta live it up and have with a fire pit outdoors under the beautiful night sky!

Tax time of year!

WARNING!! :) I'm STRANGE! 

I loved doing my taxes this year! :D

By this time most of us should have all our W-2 and maybe still awaiting the other forms such as 1099 and other deduction paperwork.   

In 2014 I started working in the financial industry, before that I was working for the government and going to school.  I was gonna be an accountant but after my first class in learning about auditing I knew that wasn't for me.  I NEVER did my own taxes, taxes are BIG SCARY THINGS!! They didn't make sense and I remember as a kid that when dad was doing taxes the girls when shopping. My dad talks about when he finally hired an accountant how good that was for him.  

When Chris and I got hitched, we went to his parents accountant.  That continued for awhile, then after some time we started going to a CPA at H&R block. (NOT just one of the employees.  TRUST ME THERE IS A DIFFERENCE) 

However tax season of 2014 (Jan 2015-April 2015) I got a SUPER crash course on tax forms.  Because of my role at my job I went over taxes, options, etc.  I talked to at least 1-5 tax "professionals" per day that honestly I knew tax stuff better then them.  HOW ON EARTH.  You are a CPA and you aren't sure where to put stuff on a 1040! :) 

By mid Jan, I had learned so much about taxes, I decided to try my hand at doing my own taxes.  I did decide to use Turbo Tax.  Makes filing super quick and easy, and even better they can deposit our refund.  YES I am one of those people I would much rather lend money to the IRS and get it back then having to come up with a balance of how much I will need to pay, so we try to hover around getting back a small return, so we don't have to worry. 

This year, I entered in all of our info into Turbo Tax and it all looked good, however my itemized deductions and the ones turbo tax had did not equal.  So when money stuff doesn't look right to me, I do ANYTHING POSSIBLE to figure out why! 

I spent the next week or so playing (yes it was playing for me) on the IRS website and got my taxes all figured out with pencil and paper! I really enjoyed it and had many of my finance co workers teasing me! 

I still ended up using Turbo Tax to file, once again, it is quick easy and direct deposit the return. 

If you are looking to do your own taxes here are some AWESOME IRS web links.

Also if you have simple taxes and don't want to pay someone use Turbo Tax.  

CAUTION!! We have used H&R Block in the past, however they charge a TON!!! like first born child's college education! Save your money and go to a CPA (most charge at least in Utah between $90-$150) or do them on your own! 

IRS 1040 Form

IRS 1040 Instructions 

Itemized Deductions Schedule A Form 

Itemized Deductions Schedule A Instructions 

The IRS website is a great tool!! 

GOOD LUCK WITH TAXES THIS YEAR!! 

A bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils

Yes I am that stereotype!

I love my summers and could bask in the sun all year round. I'm not a big fan of fall, don't get me wrong it is beautiful, but I love my summers!!!! (I think that's why God gave me fall babies! Something to look forward to.)

That being said. I LOVE back to school shopping. Might be the little kid in me getting super excited to get my letter from the school letting me know who my new teacher would be accompanied by the list of supplies I'd need!  I love it.

When my Liam started Kindergarten "WOW" Chris was worried I was gonna buy anything school related I could get my hands on. And worse then that, I was starting my last semester of college that same time! So yes I went CRAZY!!!! 

One major plus I have is that Liam is at a private catholic school. That means clothes are limited to uniforms. (Which can totally add up, but I love the used sale before school starts. So far I've bought 2 pair of pants new. Everything else is used). So as much as I might want to buy school clothes, I don't. 

Regardless my love is in the notebooks, crayons, markers and planners! 

Once again my budget loves our catholic school. At their school they try to keep things very focused and avoid distractions as much as possible.

Which means

-yellow #2 pencils

-simple blunt tip scissors 

-24 pack crayola crayons

-12 pack crayola colored pencils 

-2 plain folders

-4 wide ruled notebooks (blue, green, red, yellow)

-plastic 5x7 pencil box

For this school supplied crazy mom!! I can't take it I must have MORE!!!!

However I know that the school is doing the right thing. 

I love that the kids get to pick their own backpack, and lunch box! 

This year Liam has a mindcraft backpack coming in the mail (back ordered put it back 2 weeks, so he gets his last 2 year one for the first day) and I got 2 lunch boxes! Paw patrol and r2d2!!!

As I look over our summer I feel blessed beyond belief for the fun and life we have!!!

Here goes another year!!! Yeah!!! 2015-2016

Healthy Week! UHC: Ultimate Health Challenge

I have decided for the "WAIT NO MORE" challenge this week, I'm going to adjust it to fit what I really need.  For me right now that is food and heath! So this week i'm gonna dedicate it to that!

I AM NOT A HEALTH NUT!!! Not at all!! I love sugar cereal, mac and cheese, and a good ol' fashioned full fat Hamburger with french fries.   However, that doesn't mean I don't try to be healthy. Every year I think as a new year resolution.  I want to be healthier!  I have never been overweight, but that doesn't mean that I eat well or exercise enough!

My amazing sister had this challenge that one of her colleges started.  It;s called The Ultimate Health Challenge!  It is 10 weeks of focusing on a few highlights of health.  My sis has always been a great inspiration about how to eat and how to live a healthy life.  She now has shared her knowledge and this week I want to share all about it and other healthy living things I like to look into.

This is prob no big SHOCK to anyone there are certain things we all can do to be healthier.  We all know them, I love studying money for the same reason.

Health: Eat well and exercise. Money: spend less then you make!  

THE ULTIMATE HEALTH CHALLENGE

Challenge has a total of 100 eligible points each week for following categories

Exercise: 35 points 

• 1 pt for 15 min of exercise up to 20 pts. 
• 1 pt for 30 min of exercise up to 5 more.  
• 5 pts for mix of 30 min cardio, 30 min Strength and 30 min flexibility.  
• 5 pts for exercising at least 3x this week

Water: 7 points 

• 1 pt each day for drinking 40% of body weight.

Sleep: 14 points

• 1 pt for min of 7 hr of sleep each night
• 1 pt for going to bed before 11 on weeknights and 12 on weekends

Healthy Eating:  40 points

• 5 pts per day for servings of fruits and veggies
• 2 bonus points for having 2 fruits and 2 veggies mix. 
• 3 bonus points for having different types of fruits and veggies. 

Personal Goal: 4 points 

• any goal you pick 
• week 1: take pills every day 
• week 2: Eat Breakfast
• week 3: work motivation  
• week 4: Green smoothie (I'll post about that this week too))

Negative Points: max -25 per day

• -1 Small Sweet
• -1 Small Fat
• -3 Empty calorie soft drink/caffeine
• -4 Large Sweet
• -5 Large Fat

My sis got a bunch of us together to make this happen and we are now starting week 5.  So far my scores have been the following. 

Week 1: 43 

Week 2: 66 

Week 3: 67 

Week 4: 51

My goal for this challenge is just to get better each week! It didn't happen this last week, but this week I will recover! 

I don't own a scale, so I have been weighing myself each week when I take my Liam to swimming lessons.  I know at the start of April I was at 149 lbs.  Now starting week 5 I'm down to 144lbs.  Not a huge transformation.  But I'm good with a lb a week for not doing much different other then being aware of what I should be doing. 

Full: Landscaping part 4: Drip Sprinklers

Our landscaper did an amazing job with our sprinklers,  he installed a drip system around our house as well, in our flower beds.  The back flower bed against the fence was a dripper hose with a hole every 12 in.  However the rest were just a dropper pipe coming up out of the ground and I wanted to make it the way I wanted to! :D

Greatfully we did this in our last house and had alittle experience, so I kinda knew what I was doing.

Back track just a bit.  Chris installed our sprinkler system

Which made the process quite easy, since I could stand in the flower bed and turn on the sprinkler to make sure it was working well. 

I got one of these and it was a perfect starting point.  I started in the front flower bed.  I really wanted to use these cute little sprayers 

However they  put off between 0-15 gph and were way too powerful :( So I changed to drip lines and tips. 

I installed between .5-2 gph dripper for each plant or area directly from 1/2 in pipe using my handy dandy punch. 

I added soker hose to the garden and a few other places where I felt it was needed.

NOW EVERYONE'S FAVORITE PART! 

Money Breakdown

Sprinkler Main lines and 1/2 pipe and barbs: Included in landscaping cost

Rainbird starter bucket: $25

Punch: $10

Mis drippers, sprayers : $25 (some were unused but still kept)

Soaker hose : x2 $15 

extra stakes for hose: $10

All things done: Out of pocket $100

Running Total:  $9,068.00

---Landscaping:  $8,040.00

---Plants and Flowers: $550.00

---Garden : $378.00

---Drip Sprinkler: $100