Tag: debt

debt, Family, money, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women

Minimalism And Getting Rid Of Debt Relieved Our Stress

Hannah Lucio

Minimalism is something I have loved pretty much my entire life. I grew up living in a cluttered house and it wasn’t enjoyable for me. It may not bother most people and I completely understand, I also understand that most people think minimalism is boring. It means less stress and a cleaner environment to me. I wanted to share a bit about what we have done recently and throughout our marriage. 

When we got married we had a lot of stuff! He had more stuff than me but it was a “we” team so that’s why I say “we” had a lot of stuff. Make sense? Ok, so…..we got pregnant two months after we got married. Fast, I know! Basically a year after we met, it was pretty stressful. We were still getting to know each other, you know? So anyway, we decided to buy a house. When we moved we rented a 29′ truck and had a few more trips with “stuff” and people put “stuff” in their cars and helped us. It was a lot! So we moved on in and it was a bit overwhelming trying to put things in places when you feel like it’s all just clutter. Well, we decided that getting out of debt was best for us. So we started following Dave Ramsey and we start our journey. First thing we did was put our budget and debt together and it was a shock to us! We were well over our heads with debt! And stuff! 

First thing we did to get out of debt was getting rid of our car payment, we do not and still do not ever need a brand vehicle. Nice looking but not worth it! Second, we went through our stuff and literally sold 90% of it. We were able to pay off half our debt with just cutting our car payment out and getting money for all of our stuff. When we were done selling our stuff our house looked bare and it was amazing!! We decided to move to Virginia and we were able move in a 12′ truck and that was with a toddler too! Our truck was literally half full when we moved and we picked up stuff from his mom in Texas. Well, that stuff was stuff we didn’t need. So, when we got to Virginia we sold that stuff too. We bought a huge and bulky couch when we got to Virginia and just yesterday sold it. Thankfully we are not people that hold onto our stuff and like to be minimalists. It feels great, it’s stress free and it looks nice! I want to encourae anyone that would like to be a minimalist to step back and look at their stuff. Is it stuff you really need? Do you use it? If you haven’t used it in 6 months max, get rid of it. I completely understand that it is overwhelming (for the most part) at the beginning but I swear….it gets easier. I am posting a few pictures of what it looks like for us. The kids have a huge area to play and it’s completely easy to clean. I love to decorate and I’m working on it. But since we are in a rental and I’m staying on a minimalist budget, it might take me a while. Plus, I am extremely picky when it comes to decorating so that’s typically the hardest part. If you have any questions on where to start, how to start or anything just ask. I’m very open and honest. 

Get out of debt

Oh and by the way. I’ve actually been attacked on my way of living recently. I was told that I feel my way of living is the best. Well, for me it is but it’s not for everyone. If you feel it isn’t for you then that’s fine. We all have our ways of thinking and I can’t convince anyone to do what they don’t want to do. I’ve seen people come and complain to me because they don’t have money and scraping by, needing to get a job but yet they go out and buy a brand new vehicle. To each their own, right? Like our pastor just said yesterday; Quit lookin’ for an easy life, look for a better life-New Life Church Chantilly. Also, don’t complain about something without wanting to fix it. If you don’t want to fix it, don’t complain about it. I’m just sharing what we have gone through and hope it helps someone out there. I literally do not a lot of stress in my life and typically have a clean house all the time. So if it helps you, awesome! If not, now worries! We are just changing our family tree 😍

Live Minimal

Live Happy

Live Simple 

debt, Family, money, post partum, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women, workout

One foot in front of the other

Hannah Lucio

Yesterday I opened up Facebook and saw a post about an Estate sale. On that post it had a Proform treadmill for $60. I have been dreaming of getting a treadmill again. I know….weird. Treadmills are my thing! I love cardio, I know….weird! I really do though. It helps me lose weight and it honestly makes me happy. On my way home from riding my bike for cardio fun, I stopped by this estate sale. It had just opened and I asked the lady if it really was $60. Long story short, they wanted $65. I checked it out and it looked, sounded and an great! I put a hold on it and came back with my hubby and a vehicle to take it home. I cleaned it super good and just had a chance today to run on it. 


Wow wow wee! I love it. This treadmill first cost $800 brand new and I get it for $60. It only had 443 miles on it and that’s nothing for a treadmill. In my opinion. Like I said in my last blog post, do what you love when it comes to exercise. Some people hate cardio, some people hate weights, some people just hate working out LOL Do something you love! I love cardio and taebo. Absolutely love. When I do those two workouts I feel my best! 

Get up and go! Start somewhere! And find something you will love to do. One foot in front of the other my friend! 

Happy Sunday everyone! 
Live positive

Live healthy

Live simple! 

debt, Family, Food, money, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women, workout

Let’s talk Mayo

Hannah Lucio

I went through a period of time where I was grossed out my mayo (mayonnaise). I literally wanted to throw a sandwich at a lady who nicely bought me a sandwich with mayo on it. Just because I hated mayo so much. I know….what I jerk I was for thinking it. I do not think that way these days and would kindly accept it now. She didn’t know. Time changes people right? Yes. Well mayo has a bad reputation, the old styles of mayo that is. I was grossed out by my weight gain (in my early 20’s) that I went to the extreme on dieting. No gluten(That was the worst), no meat (terrible), no junk foods and drinking diet tea that is very unhealthy. So you could imagine what it would have been like to add mayo to anything. Yuck.

Fast forward to better eating habits. I started eating vegenaise which tastes good but it is hard to find. I had been eating that brand for many years. When we moved to Virginia I wanted to find it, so I looked everywhere over here. I couldn’t find it so I was on the hunt to find a better for you mayo. Well I found it and wanted to share. The brand I found is Just mayo. Truly delicious and better for you.  It even tastes better than the vegenaise brand I used to get. Yes I could go with the trend of using avocado as my mayo, but sometimes I just don’t want to use avocado for everything. After all, avocado is HELLA EXPENSIVE now. I would have to spend $20 a week to add avocado to everything. Moderation is key when it comes to avocados. Especially the price. We are on a beans and rice, rice and beans budget now. Ok, so anyway. This just mayo brand is truly the best price, taste amazing and healthier. My main thing that I look for with eating healthier is Non-GMO and no high fructose syrup. This is a Non-GMO mayo. So if you are looking for a better mayo to use, look no further. Just mayo Is perfect!


I also found an affordable, delicious and healthier bread made by a big brand. It is called Whole Grains with Omega 3 ALA made with Flax, Sunflower and sesame seed. It has no High Fructose Corn Syrup or Artificial colors or flavors.  I haven’t looked at the local store for it yet but have been able to buy it at Costco. It tastes amazing with Just Mayo and healthy shredded chicken. Chicken sandwiched are super yummy, higher protein and you get your great grains included! My husband and toddlers love it also. Its a win for all. Hope you get to try out these two brands and let me know how you like it or if you have tried these two brand yet.

 

Have a Wonderful day!

Live Happy

Live Healthy

Live Simple

debt, Family, Food, Hair, money, Stay at Home Mom, Uncategorized, Women, workout

Baby step 2….get really mad it works wonders! 

Hannah Lucio

Let’s talk about getting out of debt for a few. If you have read, listened or taken the class for financial freedom with Dave Ramsey’s program you should know what I’m talking about today. When my husband and I got married we had a lot of debt going into our marriage. We had the simplist wedding in Vegas with literally a few people. So that was a super smart move on our part to start with. So we didn’t start with wedding deb like the normal couple. I got pregnant 2 months into our marriage. Not a super shocker but it took us by surprise. Fast forward to 7 months pregnant. We wanted to buy a house so bad we went through 22 offers on homes in California just to get one. We moved in at 8 months pregnant and finally when I took leave I looked at our finances. I haven’t really been good with finances my whole life but it was time to grow up and look. We were trying to figure it all out before I stopped working for good. We had a huge decision to make but in the end it wasn’t a question, I had to quit working and stay at home to raise our boy. So I wrote down our finances with my husbands pay only. Well I almost had a heart attack but really I had a mega panic attack. We needed $1000 extra a month just to break even, without groceries. Uh, I freaked. When my husband drove home after a 3 hour commute I told him I had no idea what to do. He mentioned that he had heard about this guy Dave Ramsey and that I (we) should listen to his podcast. That night I downloaded it and started listening to it the next morning. From the first moment I started listening I was hooked. I started googling about getting debt free and came up with a plan. The first thing we started with was listing our debt from largest to smallest. Since I was going to get my paid leave for a few months I told him we HAVE to use every penny to pay off debt. Little by little and almost every week we paid off more and more little debts starting with the lowest debt. I cancelled, closed and shredded every credit card we had. Store credit cards are rip Offs by the way! You think you are saving by their rewards? Nope. Guess what? You have to spend to save…..think about it for a moment. So everything was gone! The next step….get rid of the horrendous new Honda Pilot I fleased, yes it’s a lease and the worst kind of car payment you can have. You are renting a vehicle and really burning a hole in your pocket. That’s why it is called a flease in Dave Ramsey’s terms. My husband looked shocked! He thought I was a little crazy to want to return this brand new vehicle I loved. It wasn’t important to me, what was important was changing our family tree. Taking stress off my husbands shoulders. He was the main and only money maker in the house now and I had to cut things out. Getting my hair done, not anymore. I go maybe once a year now instead of every 4-6 weeks. Going out to dinner, nope. Mindlessly spending, nope. That year we paid off thousands of dollars and so much that we actually had $1000 extra cushion in our budget! Love, love, love! 

Let’s fast forward a bit. We got an offer to move to Virginia that I didn’t want to pass up. People were thinking we were crazy to move from “beautiful, sunny San Diego” to Virginia…..but we didn’t. We wanted out of our mortgage anyway. The area was closing in on us with pot growers also and I really wanted a safer environment for all of us. We put our the little house on over an acre on the market and sold it within 1 week! We were shocked and just ready! We packed up, moved to Virginia. We put our debt free on hold so we were comfy to move and wanted to start back when we got here. Well……we went backwards. We “needed stuff” when we got here. New bed (needed a king not queen size) , couch (all we had was a small leather couch),  tv (ours broke within a month of moving), went out to eat and those sort of things. One thing we did well was biking everywhere which saved us mega! We only filled up once a month on gas and that was amazing. Instead of every week in California. So, 3 months after we moved I got pregnant again. So guess what? We kept the debt free on hold longer until he was born. It’s what you are supposed to do anyway in case something happens. Right when we were going to start back on our debt free journey we decided to move to a bidder house and better area. Prolonging our journey but honestly it was the best move ever for us. Oh and we also bought a Jeep. Ha! We don’t have share a vehicle anymore, which actually helps a lot. It’s older also, not brand new and it was not expensive, thank goodness. 

So here we are two years after we move to Virginia. One kid was born(paid in cash), moved(paid in cash) , lots vet bills( paid in cash), dr bills (paid in cash) and acquired more debt(not paid in cash 😦   ). 

Last week I got what Dave says, “I got mad at debt, like really pissed off”. Last week I told my hubby, “that’s it! Beans and rice, rice and beans. I’m done!”. He completely agreed and so here we are….. Mad at debt! Not prolonging it anymore and getting after debt once again. 

A question people ask or what I’ve heard people complain about is that they don’t want to eat beans and rice. I had some say they don’t want to eat crap. Um, did you know that brown rice, black beans, ground turkey, bell peppers, zucccini and broccoli is not crap. It’s yummy and health. We eat more than just that though, just smarter eating. And Um, he doesn’t mean you have to literally eat beans and rice. What he means is cut your grocery bill down. I eat super healthy and defenitetly healthier when we are getting out of debt. I lose weight and feel amazing. It truly is such an amazing lifestyle to eat healthy. And no, health food isn’t more expensive, it’s something you shouldn’t over think about. Stop drinking you fattening, super sugary Starbucks drinks. I bet you’ll cut your waistline down by just stopping that. And your wallet will thank you. 

Here is our action plan:

1. My goal is to cut our grocery bills in half and use cash. Using cash scares me because I typically pick up items I believe we need but really we don’t. I don’t want to look stupid at the register and go over our allotted cash amount. Well, sometime you need to do things that are scary to succeed in life. So that’s what I am going to do. Also, I love Costco. Like absolutely love costco, but I seriously spend like $200 a week easily there. Then go to a grocery store and buy more. That is not necessary. So, I’m going to try to do away with Costco for the time being. Also, until winter hits and it’s is to cold, I will ride my bike to the grocery store to save money also. You can’t buy a bunch riding s bike, HA! 

2. No more eating out. We don’t do this a lot anyway, but it’s gone completely for now. 

3. I unsubcribed to all the clothing stores I get emails on and any other emails from regular stores as well. It will keep my mind in check on things we “need” but really don’t need. 

4. I’m getting back to doing my surveys to get extra money. Recently I did surveys and bought my husbands PS4. He absolutely loves it! I typically buy our extra things with survey money. So I’m getting back to that. 

5. Listen to Dave Ramsey podcasts. This is one way to getting my brain retired back to saving, it really has helped us a lot. 

6. Encourage others to get debt free and feel less stressed. I see and hear a lot of stressed out people working for money just to buy things. It’s not a fun way to live. So if I can even help one person get on track to getting out of debt, I’ve done something life saving. 

7. Get back to working out and look into personal training option. I have a passion for working out and really think it may be time for me to put it into action. 

7. Practice making cakes and cupcakes, especially in the design area. I also have a passion for cakes, cupcakes and decorating. I really think it’s time to put my skills to work. Who knows, maybe it’ll help me reach out to others more and make a few bucks. As long as I can bring a smile to others that is a job well done. 
If you have any questions one getting out of debt, just ask. I’m here for anyone who may need some help learning about it all. Join me on this journey, you (we) can do it!! 
Live happy

Live debt free

Live simple

debt, Family, Food, money, pregnancy, prenatal, Uncategorized, Women

Getting Back On Track

Hannah Lucio

Since we found out we were pregnant last year we took a pause on getting out of debt. Dave Ramsey recommends pausing paying off debt. Instead you save up the money you would put towards debt just in case there is an emergency/complication with the pregnancy. Now that our baby is born and things are going good we are getting back on track.

One of the main things we did to cut back on costs was not renewing our Costco membership. Costco is a dangerous place. I could go there and easily spend $200….a week!! And that would not cover everything we would need for putting meals together. Spending got a little out of control. So I told my husband I need him to help with our budget and keep me more on track until I get used to it again. I am typically the one who does it all but I wanted to get some help and encouragement from him. So far in the last two weeks we have managed to keep way under budget on groceries. We are also going to eat only healthy foods. We went to Harris Teeter today (my favorite store on the east coast) and got everything we needed for every meal next week and spent $59.00! I know we can cut down more on costs but I really want to get healthy foods still and not just cheap junk foods. We could eat top ramen instead and keep our food bill to $30 or less a week but our medical bills would increase because our health wouldn’t be that good. So we are trying to just balance it all out.

At the end of the month we will calculate what we have saved each week on groceries and apply that to debt. For example: we budget $100 a week for groceries, if we only spend $60 then the left over $40 goes to debt. I feel excited to get back on track with budget and health food.

We also are cutting out extra stuff like going out to eat. That typically can get out of control when you let it. We have been spontaneous in this area and not really controlling it. Not anymore. When I was pregnant the only thing I could stomach most of the time was the Chick-Fil-A Grilled market salad with honey mustard dressing. So it got a little pricey. I really love to cook and eat healthy so its going to be fun to get back to it. I will also be taking a before and after picture of myself and also weigh myself to see if there is a huge difference. I am curious how big of a difference it makes. I will try to update more to hold myself accountable and hope to help others out that want to get rid of debt. 

 

Live happy

Live healthy

Live debt free

And

Live Simple

 

 

debt, Family, money, Uncategorized, Women

We paid off how much?!

Hannah Lucio

 

When we set out on this “getting out of debt” stuff I was not very happy.

The first year of marriage and my whole life I/we never really paid attention to saving or managing my money. We spent money on things that we wanted and not necessarily needed. Ate out a lot, had a flease (a Dave Ramsey term for lease) and or car payments, didn’t budget and just wasn’t really caring about our debt. Car payments, credit cards, hair appointments, etc….we were apart of the “normal”. Well, one day my husband mentioned Dave Ramsey to me. I do not like the whole get rich quick stuff. So I did not buy into it right away. BTW Dave Ramsey is not a get rich quick guy. I was sitting down and writing the entire list of bills for us. I was trying to figure out how to stay at home with our new little one and still afford life. I almost had a panic attack when I found out that in order for me to stay at home I would need to have $1000 more a month. And that is when it hit me. We had debt and bills that were just outrageous. Then he brought back up Dave Ramsey and I said ok. I started to listen to his podcasts and it was such a relief to hear such amazing stories about people like us.

I was, at that moment, on board.

I did everything I could to cut the budget down. We traded in our flease for a vehicle that cost $20,000 less. That right there saved us $200 a month. I stopped going to get my hair done every 4-6 weeks. Being a platinum blonde is expensive ya’ll. We stopped going out to eat after church. We buckled down. We got our first baby step done and we started on baby step two. We ate on a beans and rice rice and beans budget. And no, we did not just eat beans and rice ha! I’ve actually been super healthy and was in really good shape not long after we started our budget. Sold so much stuff our dogs thought they were next. Ha! It’s amazing how much stuff we had. Well, soon enough we were all of a sudden thousand of dollar paid off. My husband worked so many hours just to get us above water and pay off this stinking debt. My husband is truly my hero, really, my hero. I really admire him. I did some surveys and mystery shopping to try to get a little more money for us. We were gazelle intense.

Thankfully, we got a job offer to transfer across the country to a beautiful state. We were able to sell our home in one month and move. Thank the Lord! It was a lifesaver. We sold one vehicle before we moved and are down to one vehicle that we barely use. My husband rides his bike to work, no more commuting!! And a great workout. We are just loving it over here. When it isn’t way to cold we ride bikes and walk everywhere. I was looking at our debt payoff so far and I was absolutely floored at how much we have managed to pay off and I get to stay at home with our little one.

$276,164.37

All because we opened our eyes and are living like no one else so we can live and give like no one else.That’s amazing ya’ll and it takes a lot of dedication. I haven’t had too much support outside our little family. I have heard that I need to enjoy and live life…..Well, we do and love our life. And, soon we will be loving it even more. People were making fun of the way we live on a beans and rice, rice and beans budget. Like Dave Ramsey says; If broke people are making fun of your financial plan, you’re on track. Let me tell you….we are a million times less stressed. I only have to pay a few things a month instead of a list HA! We do not charge anything on a credit card, so if we don’t have the cash right then, it’s a no. People say, “don’t you need a good credit score to live in this world?” HAHA NO! Cash is King, baby! We are not “normal” because of that. It’s amazing how credit cards and living beyond your means are “normal”.  Car payments, “normal”. I like what Dave says “I’m not against people having new cars. I’m against them having you. We spend a tremendous amount impressing somebody at the stoplight who we’ll never meet. It makes you broke and keeps you broke”. So true. You know the average car payment is $400 something a month. yikes! I am so thankful we haven’t had a car payment in forever. A paid for car drives a lot better….if you know what I mean 🙂

We are so fired up about getting out of debt that we are almost done. It sounds like a super long time but we should be out of debt in 1 year and some change. We cannot wait to call Dave on the day we make our last debt payment and do our debt free scream. We are on a pause since we have a baby due in June but after that its game on.

If you are where we were or you have to work two incomes to afford life…..just give it a chance. Listen to Dave Ramsey and be “weird”! I did not think this would be possible and actually thought it was just normal to have a credit card, car payment, living paycheck to paycheck and not being on a budget. I now know, I was wrong. I thank God for bringing my husband into my life and opening my eyes to Dave Ramsey.

And, like Dave always says at the beginning of his amazing show-Debt is dumb, cash is king and a paid off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW AS the status symbol of choice. 

 

Live simple and debt free!