freedom

Financial freedom, that is. The other day, I followed this advice:

Instead of spending the money on something frivolous, I happily and proudly made a large payment on a credit card to officially pay it off in full. By doing so, it meant Cory and I are debt free!! Well, technically, we still have some debt... our car payments and our mortgage. But that. is. it. It is such an incredible feeling! To have no debt from our wedding and honeymoon less than a year ago (that ended up costing much more than anticipated), no debt after having to pay a large amount back for taxes this year (oh the joys of being a business owner!), no student loans, and no credit cards with a balance, makes me one proud young lady. This is something I've/we've been striving for for the last few years so to finally be at this point in our lives is a huge relief, especially since we are new homeowners.

Being new homeowners also means there are a lot of expenses involved. And they aren't necessarily "fun" things that are needed. Boo. And, they aren't cheap. Double-boo. We are prepared and hoping to do most of the projects with the money we have available, without going into debt...

1. Gutters. Seriously, these should come with the house when you buy it!


2. Underground fence for Lucy. 
Although this doesn't keep out the scary coyotes from the back yard at night, which means I'll continue to worry for my dog's life. I have so much as googled how to keep coyotes from eating dogs and one thing is wolf urine. Sign me up! I'm totally going to do it. Cory things I'm nuts, but I don't care. :) Did you know that coyotes will/can jump an eight foot fence or dig under it if it wants what's on the other side bad enough? They are not nice.

3. Landscaping.
Plants, trees, edging, mulch, rock, retaining wall.... yikes. We want to do it right the first time so aren't going to skimp on this project. Cory plans to do it all himself. I know he'll do a great job (as the perfectionist that he is) but I hope he knows what he's getting himself into!

4. Spinklers. 
We've been told this is a must and we'll be glad we did it.

5. Deck. 
Sadly, we probably won't be able to build one this year. It's going to kill me to look out to our backyard and not be able to go out onto a deck all summer!

6. Central vacuum.
We had this in our old place and I'm struggling to get used to a regular vacuum at the new place. (call me spoiled) Having to unplug it 45 times while vacuuming is not my idea of tolerable. Central vac will make life easy and vacuuming fun again!

7. Crown molding. 
Something I definitely want to do asap and it actually will be fairly inexpensive. We'll start by doing our main level and then eventually do upstairs etc.

Other projects (some considered fun!) for the future:
1. Change almost all light fixtures (one is done so far—more on this later).
2. Ceiling fan in living room instead of ceiling light.
3. Paint. Paint. Paint.
4. New mirror in 1/2 bath. (and in other bathrooms, actually)
5. Window treatments (have living room and guest bedroom done).
6. Shutters for windows by front door. Need asap!
7. New hardware on cupboards.
8. Firepit/patio.
9. Paint front door. (some type of reddish-magenta)
10. Hang pictures and all that good stuff. (it's so hard to decide where to hang things.)

There is always something to pay for, it seems, and it's really hard to get ahead. But I know that being debt free is a step in the right direction and I will thank myself for making that payment.

What am I going to do today that my future self will thank me for?

Bring Lucy for a walk.

What are you going to do?