Goals

I have never been a planner. Ever. The few times I have even thought about trying to put together a plan for the next couple years it seems as though a curse gets thrown on me that makes the exact opposite happen. Take the horror stories of 2009-2010 for instance. Recently, with all of the exciting changes I have started to really try and think out the next 2 years. Financially it is important at this stage of my life. I have plans…big plans. Big plans involve a lot of money and if it were up to Zach we would concur the 3 most costly decisions you can make 1.get married 2.buy a home 3.have a baby all in one year. It took some tough love to show Zach that the chances of that happening are slim…or at least the chance of us being able to afford all that is slim.

I don’t quite think he realized just how much money is spent when you have a child, unfortunately there is no magical insurance that just foots the 15k bill for child birth. When I got pregnant in 2009 I was 19 working less than 25 hours a week and a full time college student. Needless to say parent’s medical insurance doesn’t quite feel like they should have to pay for children’s pregnancies and I ended up on Medicaid. It was an experience that allowed me to walk away without a penny to pay in medical bills. THAT to me was a onetime “oops pass.” It was embarrassing to even have to rely on it while pregnant, but it was that or end the pregnancy because unfortunately it is much cheaper to end a pregnancy than it is to carry out a pregnancy. I would NEVER EVER EVER consider having a second child, a PLANNED second child at that, and have the state Medicaid program pay for it. Not that I would qualify for the program at this stage anyways, but just the thought that parents are out there having multiple children sometimes even planned children and think it is wonderful to have the state pick up the bill is infuriating to me. BUTTTTTT let’s get me off that subject I can already feel my blood boiling.
Priority number one is saving up enough money to have a wedding. A lot of the saving involves paying down my current debt. Between a line of credit that I got qualified for to pay down my credit cards and nasty shopping habit to my school loans I have quite the amount of bills each month. I don’t unfortunately have any rich family members to wipe away my debt or loan me the money to get it wiped away on my credit so it is left up to big girl Ashley to budget. Priority two would be saving up enough to put a down payment on a home. Priority number one or at least the paying down debt part will be critical when it comes to buying a home because my DTI (debt to income) is disgusting. Until I get that paid down a mortgage loan is NOT in my near future. Lastly and after both 1 and 2 have been accomplished we will talk about giving Jocelyn a baby sister or brother. Much to Zach’s dismay unless we win the lottery or inherit a large chunk of money from a long lost relative all three of those will just flat out not happen by 2015.

There is a LOT of money spending in the next couple of years and I would really like to plan for it enough that it doesn't send me into an early grave. It is going to take a LOT of budgeting and a very tight spending plan is going to have to come into the picture and more importantly STAY in the picture. Luckily being a banker I have had lots of practice creating budgeting and savings plans for customers and one of the parts I love most about my job. I am GREAT at helping other people get out of debt and start saving for their life plans…just can’t quite seem to get myself on the same page.

First step is to get all of the monthly bills down on paper. What bills are due, when they are due, and how much is due each pay period. Zach and I get paid within one day of each other and are able to divide the bills up to paying them 2 times a month. That I have already had in an excel spread sheet for some time. We usually have a “big bills paycheck” and a “small bills pay check” (Rent and one car bill is due at the same time each month) the biggest struggle I have is whether to take the extra money and put it towards my credit card and line of credit or stick it in savings. Getting my debt paid down will help with the monthly bills but it will also put me in a situation where a lot of the wedding costs will have to just be put right back onto the line of credit or credit card and sticking all the money in savings lets us build up for the wedding but doesn't do anything to help alleviate the debt problem. There is a solution in the middle if I can stick to it.

The biggest thing that needs to be accomplished is figuring out between paying down debt and putting money into savings HOW MUCH can be saved up for the wedding. Until I can know and be confident in the wedding budget I won’t be able to start making any plans or putting any deposits down.

The idea I give to my customers and the plan I set them up on works. I've seen it work time and time again with my customers. The biggest problem is because it is something I came up with when it comes time to following it myself I tend to try to “change” my plan because well I CAN. Which results in the plan completely getting wiped away.

All the o so fun planning that needs to take place and the strict budget that needs to get put in place will all result in us getting to have the wedding we both want. So it will all be worth it in the end.

Some things I would like to accomplish or at least START in the next 3 years:
· Get married (duh!) July 2014 1 year 3 months away
· Buy our first home before interest rates are projected to go up in 2015
· Ok ok give Jocelyn a baby brother or sister start trying fall/winter 2014
· Enroll back in college even if it’s just 1-2 classes a semester Spring semester 2014
· Force Zach back into College classes spring semester 2014
· Get promoted into management before 2014
· Lose 15 pounds (yes I promise it’s there to lose) next 6-7 months
· Be unsecured debt free (credit cards/Line of credit/student loans)By summer 2015

THATS A LOT OF BUDGETING AND SAVING

"So how'd he do it?!?"

The first 5 days of my engagement have been a whirl wind. I have been so happy these last few days not many things could break my good mood...except the news I received tonight, but lets keep this post happy shall we??

While we were over in Seattle we were walking into every retail store imaginable including jewelry stores, but we weren't looking for engagement rings (well it sounds like he secretly was) we were looking for a new set of earrings for Jocelyn. We were never in the stores for more than 3-4 minutes, but as I was walking through Ben Bridge I saw this gorgeous sapphire engagement ring. 2 years ago I went to a wedding where the groom was Australian. I didn't have a date so I was put at a table full of Australians because the bride knew I would be able to make conversation with anyone. Every lady at that table was married and they all had beautiful wedding rings, but NONE of them had diamond engagement rings; They had sapphires/rubies/emeralds/etc. Well the conversation got brought up of course as I was oogling over their rings and we determined that America was the only country that seems to demand a diamond for an engagement. Ever since that moment I has been obsessed with not doing an ordinary diamond (it definitely helped that all the ladies rings were drop dead gorgeous). Needless to say in the last 6 months i'm sure ole Zach has listened to that story at least a dozen times! Hey sometimes you really have to burn the stuff into mens brains for them to get it.
Zach would not own up to how he managed to get a hold of the ring for the LONGEST time...and by longest I mean like 5 hours ha. We were together all day so it blew my mind that he was able to purchase the ring without me seeing. He lucked out because we were in downtown Seattle. 95% of the stores downtown do not have public restrooms. Well we have a 2 yr old who is completely potty trained so when she would have to go to the bathroom we would sometimes have to run blocks with her to get her to one. There were a few times and I mean few times that we were shopping and instead of both of us dropping what were were doing just one of us would grab Joc and take her. Even when they were blocks away I don't think it ever took more then 10-15 minutes, but he pulled it off somehow during one of those times. Props to Downtown Seattle Ben Bridge for that speedy transaction. It definitely worked out that the ring fit me perfectly.
After a very active day and right before Jocelyn fell fast asleep I ran down to the corner market and grabbed a bottle of wine so we could have some while watching a movie in the room. Well while I was gone Zach "set up" the room. It definitely helped that we had an AMAZING room. We were in the corner so an entire wall was a huge window that led out to a little balcony and we had a perfect view of the Space Needle. Well anyways I come walking through the door to Zach and Joc on their knees by the window.
Lets get one thing straight I REALLLLLYYY felt like when the time came I would know it was coming. I felt pretty damn confident in that so this completely knocked me on my butt in the surprise department. I honestly think I just stood there frozen for a solid 15 seconds...which is probably a VERRRRYYY long time for someone on their knees proposing. I finally was able to talk and all I could say over and over again was "are you serious?" "I don't understand are you serious?" I finally got over my shock and then was finally able to give the poor man a yes. I don't think I have ever been stunned to silence before in my life so that was a first teeheehee I sure pick great times. I spent the next 2 hours sitting on the hotel bed taking pictures of my ring and squealing like a little girl.
Soooooo here are some pictures of my awesome ring!

Seattle Trip!

We went to Seattle this last weekend to take Jocelyn over and experience the Zoo and all that Seattle has to offer. Well it was a whirl wind vacation, parts were amazing and parts made me question bringing Jocelyn. She was the perfect angel in the car ride though which was by far what I was the most afraid of.

It was the least “vacation like” trip I've been on. We were up by 8am and in bed by 9pm. It was all worth it though getting to see the looks on her face at the zoo/aquarium/science center. She had an absolute blast and was quite the trooper with no nap time. I even look back and think how nice it was to be out and about early in the morning and experience that part of a big city. I am normally the person crawling out of my hotel bed at 10 or 11 am so getting out to grab that early morning coffee and breakfast was a new experience for me. Saturday morning Zach woke up with Jocelyn around 7am and went off in search of a smaller stroller and I got to “sleep in” until 9am.

Zach and Jocelyn time enjoying yummy freshly made juice

All of you that know me KNOW I do NOT consider that sleeping in ha. The best part of the vacation was the Kids Science museum. Jocelyn absolutely loved it and it was over the top when it came to all of the interactive things you can do. She may not have understood the meaning behind some of the things but she loved it all. They had a butterfly room that was just amazing.

Surprisingly Jocelyn really took to the ocean while we were there. She would want to go and look at it multiple times a day. It was almost like she just wanted to convince herself that it was still there. We would walk up to the pier and she would spend less than 30 seconds looking out at it with the huge cargo ships and ferries and then she would be fine to move on, but every couple of hours she would want to go back and check on it. Just make sure it was still there. My biggest regret was not going on the huge Ferris wheel they put in place last year. It is right on the ocean and I know Jocelyn would have just loved it, but we kept forgetting.
The aquarium was fantastic and Jocelyn loved looking at all the bright fish tanks. She wasn’t keen on the otters and sea critters, but she would have sat and stared at the fish tanks all day.

The zoo was an experience we held off going until Sunday morning and that was a smart call. It was the only day that was blue skies. Jocelyn Zach and I got to start off the Zoo feeding some penguins which was awesome. I think Zach liked that the most, he is quite fond of penguins. The monkeys were Jocelyn’s favorite and by monkeys I mean Gorillas. Anything that even remotely looked like a monkey was a monkey in Jocelyn’s mind. Every time I tried to let her know they were Gorillas not monkeys she looked at me like I was stupid and I think I may have seen an eye roll or two ha.

Feeding the penguins so much fun!

We went through the North West section and all Zach could talk about while looking at the bears and Elk were wanting to shoot them...I swear the looks on some of the people's faces that were overhearing was PRICELESS.

Overall it was a fantastic trip I think Zach’s highlight was figuring out he can pull off that o so popular pastel look. O joys…



OOOO btw Yes I completely know there is nothing in here about my engagement teeheehe I am writing that post as well, but figured it deserved its own title.