IT MAKES "CENTS" TO ME FRIDAY FOR OCTOBER 11th, 2013

Hi everyone,

How was your week? Mine was interesting. It was a mix for me, but for the most part it was very, very good.

The photo above was taken in the Carmel Valley. I just love how the mist/fog sits atop the mountains in the morning. It always reminds me of when God spoke to Moses on the mountain top. That and it's just magical and beautiful, like something out of a story with knights and princesses :)

Okay, so this week, I "officially" start blogging about my journey to becoming completely debt-free.   I'll also be blogging about what I do to save money on every day things. 

So first off, I stink at keeping certain papers organized. Oh, I keep them all in one spot, but I don't file them. I'm talking about my bills from the orthodontist, my small student loan bills etc. I always pay them on time every month but I'l explain a little bit more towards the end of this post.

The only really BIG, UGLY LIKE AN ALBATROSS AROUND MY NECK debt that I have left to pay are my student loans from college.  Once those are paid off, I'll be completely debt free.  I"m working on increasing my income to make that happen.

However, I'm also looking at what I can do RIGHT NOW as well.  I am NOT an expert by any means, but getting this out in the open is helpful to me personally and hopefully it'll encourage you that you can do something as well, no matter how small to manage your money a little more responsibly.

Now for me, my overall bills each month aren't that many. I only have four in total.  But there are three that I have each month that once they're paid in full will free up a LOT of money each month that I can actually start paying on my student loans. Phew...are you confused yet? I am feeling totally overwhelmed, but a girl has to start somewhere right?

So these are the bills I'm going to pay off from smallest to biggest. Once the smallest bill is paid off, then I'll roll that payment over to the next bill and pay all that off. It's like a debt snowball :) :)

Here they are:

1) ECSI - a small student loan from college

2) Verizon Wireless - the plan is to pay off the rest of the contract period EARLY, so I can put that money towards paying off my student loans

3) Orthodontist - Once that is paid, there are no more monthly payments, regardless of how long I have to wear these braces on my teeth.

Once I get my organizational act together, I'll come back and update what the actual dollar amounts are here :)

One of the items that I buy often are USB flash drives.  When I take photographs, I leave them on the original SD memory card and then buy a new one when it's full. I also transfer copies to a USB flash drive. That way, if something  happens to the SD card, for example, I'll have copies on the USB flash drive.

My previous USB flash drive was completely full and I had to wait till I had enough money to buy another one. This is one of those things that I will definitely have to budget for on a regular basis.

This USB flash drive my dad purchased for me at Radio Shack. It has the best price of any place local to me. It is 16 GB for only $14.99 plus tax. So it ended up costing me a total of $16.11 (including tax)

I also received a register coupon for $10 off my next purchase of $50 or more. Normally I ignore coupons like that, but in this case, since I KNOW that I'll be needing this particular item on a regular basis, I can budget and stock up on more.  It will equal almost 20% with tax when it's all said and done.

On a comletely DIFFERENT note, I do budget for slightly more expensive things.  In this case, I also bought a gluten free conditioner.  I have a very strong intolerance to all foods that contain gluten in them.  As it happens, it seems that my skin and hair also respond to hair care and body care products that are also gluten free. So  I sacrifice other things so that I can afford this conditioner. It works great. It does the job well:

This is an 8 fl oz tube of "Red Raspberry" conditioner from Desert Essence. The whole line of products is wonderful, but I like this scent the best.  It costs $8.99 at my local Whole Foods store. However, I get a 10% discount because I work at the mall. So it only costs me $8.70 (including my 10% mall discount and tax) That equals $1.09 per ounce.  I don't use very much at all, so this product actually lasts me a very long time.

I'm sure there's a website where I can order more in bulk and save even more, but until then I'll continue to buy it at Whole Foods.

Desert Essence DID NOT pay me to talk about their conditioner. I'm just blogging about it because I LOVE this product. It works wonderfully well.  It also is fantastic because there is hard water in the area where I live, so it still leaves my hair feeling soft and shiny instead of dry and crispy.

That's the news from the ocean shores of California today. Love and hugs to you all, Heather

p.s. Update on Friday - October 11th at 9:30 a.m.  One of my BIGGEST inspirations in my desire to become completely and totally debt free is Dave Ramsey. Click here to go to his Facebook page. Click here if you want to visit his website. You can listen in live to his radio show every day Monday through Friday. The shows are also archived to listen to later on.


In any case, I saw a really nice, simple article on five easy ways to lower your heating bill. Click here to read the article.

I've got sone more posts all lined up for later this weekend and next week. I'm so excited to be blogging again. It's a real creative release. You all out in the blogosphere are awesome :)

I would LOVE to hear what you all do to save money on anything.  Stop on by for a visit and leave a friendly comment.  That's the news from the ocean shores California...again :) Love and hugs to your weekend, Heather :)

IT'S BEEN AWHILE & SOME NEWS

Hi everyone,

It's been a LONG, LONG, LONG time since I've blogged. I took a look. It's been since about mid-August...and did I mention it's been a LONG time?

Okay, so lots of things have been happening and I'm finally back into the blogging routine. Let's pray that I can keep it up. 

Starting next Friday, I'm going to start blogging about my journey of getting out of debt and what I do to save money on the things I buy every week and how I track my spending etc.  The only really BIG debt I have left to pay off are my student loans from college. Yes, they're hanging around my neck like a big fat albatross and I want it GONE.

So I'll be blogging more about that on Friday. In the meantime, I bought this to get me started on my journey.  It's really hysterical how I even decided on this particular monthly/weekly planner.

I was surfing on YouTube looking for videos on the cash envelope system and how to make my own.  There'll be more info on that on next Friday's post.  I stumbled across a really cool video where this young lady had a binder similar to this one, where she wrote down all her bills and when she/her hubby got paid every month. It's an excellent visual to help keep one on track financially.

In any case, I saw this notebook at my local RiteAid but it was $9.99 and I thought it was too much money. Oh, little did I know what I was in for this day. Oh, and as a side note this all happened last Wednesday. It was my day off from work. 

My father came along for the ride because well, my dad is just plain cool. So it was a chance to spend some time with him, too.  So we decided to go to my local Walgreens on Alvarado Street in downtown Monterey. BIG MISTAKE.  Parking is free on that street BUT trying to find a parking space during lunch house was a BIG MISTAKE.  It's like asking the sun to stop shining. I was in no mood to circle the block a gazillion times waiting for a space to open up.

So we went to Staples in Seaside. Well, I was in planner heaven there, because they not only had EXACTLY what I wanted and needed, but they had at least 7 different styles. However, the prices were a total deal breaker. The least expensive one was about $22 and the most expensive one was around $40.  Heck NO!!!!  I wasn't going to pay that much money for something so basic.

So we went back to RiteAid and I ended up buying this planner for $10.74 including tax. I also got a little cash back to put gas in the car.  Here are the two things that I really love about this planner so far:

I love that this planner has a view of the entire month on two pages. It's the size of an 8 1/2 x 11 in sheet of paper. That makes it easy to read. There's plenty of room to write stuff down. My plan right now is to right down my paychecks each week and also to record when my bills are due. I do this on the calendar on my smartie pants phone, BUT I also wanted a literal physical paper visual that I could refer to as well.

There's also a weekly planner to go with the monthly calendar pages. It looks like this:



This is a look at the month on a week-at-a-glance basis. This is where I'll be tracking my daily spending. I'm saving ALL of my receipts for a couple of reasons:

1) It will help me to keep track of my spending and help me to divide it up into categories

2) It'll justify me not having to clean out my purse every day since this is helping me on my way to fiduciary independence. Well, that last bit is a stretch, yes...but it's a good excuse, right?


Seriously, though, I am tracking my spending for the entire month of October, just to simply see where my money is going.  Once I've done that, I'll put it into categories and see what can be adjusted so that I can put more money towards paying off student loans and my orthodontist.


Okay, now on to some more fun stuff. These are some "random" photos from the last few days. I go to a women's Bible study at my church on Tuesday mornings.  My friend Sarah gives me a ride there. Last Tuesday we stopped in at a local coffee shop in the Carmel Valley.  They have the CUTEST vintage coffee tins. Of course, I was in vintage heaven and this tin was my favorite by far :) :) Plus, when I saw where this used to be made...well.. Oh, I can't even imagine buying a giant tin of coffee like this now:



I also spotted the coolest vintage VW bus the other day in the Whole Foods parking lot. This was definitely the real deal.  I've seen this one around town a few times. I think the only thing missing was some hippies and a surf board attached to the roof of the vehicle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, did I mention that I've got braces on my teeth? Well, it seems like this one particular bracket kept breaking off and I had one week where I visited the orthodontist twice.  This was a pick I took of some of the utensils they have set up. Oh, it looks much scarier than it actually is. They just set up the standard tools in case something is needed, it'll be ready.  Thankfully I haven't had any issues for over a week now. So I'm just praying that my teeth will cooperate and be less stubborn and just move into alignment. It'll all be worth it in the end because when these braces come off, guess what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna party down with a nice big fat candy apple :) :)



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are studying women of the Old Testament in our Tuesday morning Bible study. I've been making these Scripture photos every week for myself and for the other ladies in my Bible study. It's fun and I hope it's an encouragement to everyone. Feel free to borrow this. If you do, please credit it back to me here at Heather's Blog-orama.  OR please credit me back to my public photography page here at Heather Danielle Photography on Facebook.  While you're there, feel free to "like" my page. I welcome all friendly and nice visitors to my site.

 

My goal is to have a website or an Etsy shop where I'll start selling my photographs. Two goals:

1) To earn enough money each month that I don't have to pick up extra hours at work

 

2) eventually reach my goal of working from home and becoming completely and totally debt-free (except for the hoouse 'cause you gotta have a place to live )

 

Oh, here's the Scripture photo before I forget it. It's from Romans 12:21 and we were studying about Abigail last Tuesday morning:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, that's good enough for now. My laundry has just finished drying and I should probably be thinking about getting ready for work this afternoon. Afterall my bills won't pay themselves (insert big smile here)  Thanks for hanging in there with me. Pray for me. Pray that God would give me wisdom. Plus I hope that what I'm about to start on with this journey to financial independence will be an encouragement to some of you out there in some way :)

 

 

That is the news from the ocean shores of California today. Love and hugs, Heather :)

 



EXCITING THINGS COMING UP SOON

Hi everyone

Ooo...I have some seriously exciting things coming up soon. I just started a Facebook fan page for my photography with all of two photos on the fan page...but I've got a bajillion on my personal page ;)  I'll be sharing that link with you soon.

I plan on starting to blog more regularly, too...and updating my blog and possibly the blog title to also include my photography fan page as well :)

I do have a question for those of you who accept advertising on your blogs. I would dearly love your input on that and some of the best ways to do that. Thanks in advance for your help.

Thanks for hanging in there with me. I love and appreciate each and every one of you. That's the news from the ocean shores of California today. Extra love and hugs, Heather :)

PRAYER AND LOTS OF STUFF

Hi everyone,

Oh boy...I could really use some prayers for wisdom. I've just got some personal things going on in my life right now. It's nothing serious...but I've really neglected my blog and writing...

and I miss you all so very much!!!!  So please, please, please, hang in there with me. Pray that God will help me to reprioritize my time...and that I'll get back to writing and posting again, because I have a LOT of stories and photos to share ;) :)

That's the news from the ocean shores of California this moring. Extra love and hugs to you all, Heather :) :) :)

COMFY CUSHY CHAIRS

Hi everyone,

How are you doing? I've been doing well. I'm so sorry that I've been neglecting my blog. 

Well, I'm definitely still alive and breathing. I was just talking with a friend the other day about this giant, cushy chair that I have in my house. It's leather and soft and cushy and comfortable.

I like to sit here and read, check my email and Facebook via my smartie pants phone etc. Well, this chair is so comfortable, that I always end up falling asleep in it, too. It's like a baby basinett for adults.

It's really funny, because everyone that comes over to our house and sits in that chair automatically wants to take a nap. Maybe that chair has magical properties? Here's a photo:

The Fourth of July holiday weekend is almost here. I hope that you all have some fun activities planned. Stay safe while you're celebrating :)

It's been really hot here on the ocean shores of California. It's also been really humid, which makes it even worse. However, I still love where I live :) :)  That's the news from the ocean shores of California today. Love and hugs, Heather :) :) :)

THE PURPLE ICE PLANT IS COMING TO A SHORE NEAR YOU.

Hi everyone,

My dad just came home from his men's Bible study, so I'll have to make this particular post a shore one.

If you ever have a chance to visit California, you should come to Pacific Grove during the month of May and June. Why?  The purple ice plant is in bloom all along the shore. It's starting to bloom now, but it'll be a veritable blanket of beautiful purple in just a few short weeks.

Here are some photos for you.  I just can't get enough of the ocean. I've been home sick, but I'll make any excuse to spend some time near the water.

  


























Okay, this first photo is NOT the purple ice plant. However, when I go to Pacific Grove, I usually drive through Cannery Row. That's always fun to see the people and the buildings etc. This is Stohans Gallery. It's sat empty like this for YEARS. I'm sure somebody owns the property, but I'm not sure if anything will ever be done with it. In truth, I kind of like it just the way it is.

This is the beautiful purple ice plant that is starting to bloom. In March it's just a few little blooms, but look at what we've got already in April...and wait till May comes around.  It's going to be beautiful :) :)

It was also a beautiful, sunny day as you can see.  It's really quite a thing to see and it only last for a couple of months. So I always make sure to take loads of photos.  

I might have mentioned earlier that I'm recovering from a cold, so spending time out by the water yesterday really helped. There's something about the sunshine that helps to clear up my sinuses.

 














 You may have to click on the above photo to enlarge it a bit, since I took this photo in panorama view.  This is part of the coastline in Pacific Grove and that purple ice plant is just amazing. I learned that this particular plant is actually native to South Africa.  

I'll leave you all with this photo. This is one of many rest stops along the coast.  People will often just come park their cars here and sit for awhile staring out at the water.  This day was relatively calm, although the waves were crashing quite high, too.  I usually stand right on that ledge and take photos, but it was making my father a bit nervous. So I obliged and stayed a safer distance away :) :) :)

What's been happening where you're at?  That's the news from the ocean shores of California today. Love and hugs, Heather :)


p.s. EEEK...squeals of delight. I was the featured blogger today at MaryJane's Farm websight.  I am also a Mary Jane's Farmgirl Sisterhood member #2176. In any case, click here to check out the GirlGab site for some other awesome blogs. Click here to visit the MaryJane's Farm site and consider subscribing to the magazine. It's got everything farmgirl, frilly, glamping, country, organic and everything else good. THANK YOU to Mary Jane's Farm for featuring this blog post today. You really made my entire week :) :)

I AM STILL HERE

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to let you all know that I am still here.  I've just been taking an unexpected blogging break.  Ever since I started working, I've found it hard to juggle blogging and working and everything else. However, I've come to the place where I'm feeling the need to blog again so that I can keep the creative juices flowing.

With that, let me leave you with a few photos for today.

I saw this beautiful piece of American machinery while at the grocery store the other day. It's a 1955 (or 1956) Ford Thunderbird. I really do love vintage classic cars.  When I saw this in the parking lot, I KNEW I had to snap a quick photograph with my camera.

Cannery Row is a lot of fun. It can also get really busy with traffic.  Today was the craziest I have ever seen it...literally. This is what it looked like when my dad and I went out for a drive this morning.  As long as one exercises some patience, it's possible to navigate these tight spots. This is the first time I've ever seen it like this. Usually it's just a matter of driving around a semi or a delivery truck.

The purple ice plant in Pacific Grove is starting to come into bloom again. It'll be in full bloom around May and this entire shore will be covered in this purple pink color. It'll be absolutely fantastic ;) :) :)

Otherwise, I'm doing really well, even if I'm still having some issues with time management :) :) :)  God has been really good to provide me with my current job and it's making it possible for me to pay all of my bills. 

I am working on saving up for a Canon 7D camera, so I can take professional quality photos. That'll take awhile, but I'm up for the challenge :) :) :)

I would love to hear how all of you are doing.  What have you been up to these last few days?  Stop by and leave a friendly hello.  That's the news from the ocean shores of California today.  Love and hugs, Heather :) :) :)