New Cars, Roadtrips and Laughter.... OH MY!

So something pretty major happened around here last week.... I BOUGHT A NEW CAR!!!

Everybody,  I'd like to formally introduce you to Toby...

My old car, a beautiful 2003 Ford Taurus (lovingly named Derrik by a toddler I used to babysit) has been going downhill the past year.  He hit 140 thousand miles when I moved to Portland and was close to 150 thousand when he just stopped.  He lived a good long life, and I would love to have given him a new engine and a little extra loving, but I just couldn't justify putting more money into him that he was worth. 

So Ryan and I (he loves me enough to spend a day with me freaking out over finances and new shiny objects - lots of highs and lows in a short span of time) spent a day talking with our friend Austin who works for the Enterprise lot in Portland. 
* side note - Austin is the husband of the awesome Kayla over at Fit Life Forward!  I wasn't necessarily planning on buying anything that day, but once I drove this 2012 Nissan Versa, it was over.

I LOVE THIS CAR!!!

Toby and I went on our first road trip together this past weekend.  I packed him up and we drove to Idaho Friday to visit friends and family.

It was a pretty great weekend with my favorite munchkin (my niece Joie).  Much laughter and good times were shared.  I'll be blogging more about my photoshoots and adventures later this week!

Any major and/or exciting news happening in your world this week?  

I'd love to hear about it!  Share in the excitement in the comments below!

Acting Like An Adult

Now that I've started my new job and will have regular paychecks again (fist pump!) starting June 1, I figured it's high time I create a budget and stick to it.

This process is also known as, "WHOA!  When did I become an adult?!"

I've spent about 5 hours in Starbucks this morning creating list after list of what I will be making,  what I realistically spend my money on (compared with how I should be spending my money), and what categories everything falls into.  It's been an interesting and eye-opening experience.  In the past my "budget" was logging into my bank account from my phone, seeing how much money was there, mentally deducting what bills I knew I had coming up and deciding whether or not I could afford to put $15 or $20 into my gas tank.  You laugh, but I'm serious.  I'm 29 years old (ALMOST 30!) and have spent each and every paycheck this way.  I never know where my finances are, if I can afford something or not, and my savings has been a joke.

BUT NO MORE!  I'm totally geeking out on this budget thing!  I've researched templates, ways to scrimp and save, how to plan... you name it.  And I'm finally putting it into practice.  Well, I have the template built for it at least... now comes the part where I put action to plan.

Here are my favorite pieces of the plan:

• Emergency Savings | $150.00 per month
• Health Savings | $150.00 per month
• Camera Savings | $200.00 per month 

You see, after all my bills are paid, and all my groceries, fuel costs, fun money, etc are allocated for, I still have money left over to budget for savings!  This makes me quite happy, and actually makes that camera I've had my eye on for quite some time attainable! 

The other piece that is exciting is that I've allocated an extra $175 per month toward my lowest outstanding debt (a medical credit card) that only has $400 left on it.  This way I will have that card paid off in two months and then can roll the entire monthly payment toward the next lowest bill and so on (thank you Dave Ramsey for this brilliant plan!) until I am DEBT FREE!!!

Who knew I could take an honest look at my finances and not break out in an anxiety attack, call my mom and cry?! 

Huzzah for adult hood.  It's about damn time...