Saturday, September 3, 2011

$$$ Where do you spend your dough? $$$

When we decided to make the move to California, people would always tell us, "Oh, good luck, it is so expensive to live in California!" And I would just say haha yeah... and think to myself, "I really don't think it's that bad.." Of course I never really took into account what my financial experiences were when I was living in CA.... NONE! I was living with my parents. I didn't pay for food, rent, utilities, insurances, bills, etc.
Needless to say, I now know what people mean by saying that it is super expensive to live in CA. All I thought that was going to be more expensive was rent. I never took into account that food would be sooooo much! The movie theater here cost us $24 dollars for the both of us! I miss the dollar theaters!! Now that we have "grown up" jobs, we will be paying for our own cell phone service, insurances, etc. It was a great thing for both of our parents to help us out these past couple of years, we were so spoiled and we are so so grateful for them helping us! But now working it into the budget is going to be a challenge. It all seems overwhelming. We have rent, bills, school loans, food, tithing of course, insurances, luckily both of us have cars that are completely payed off, but anyways... We are wanting to get people's advise as far as how to spend your mula.
What I really wanted to write this post about is debt. We have school debt that we need to start paying off. We have this "plan" to get all of our debt payed off in 2 years from now. How long did it take all of you to pay off your debts? I am not talking about house or car. Just school and credit card. I think it would be really smart if Josh and I could get some different stories. It would be good to know the steps you took, the things you did or didn't do, sacrifices you took, maybe , if you feel comfortable, to tell us how much debt you had and how long it took you to pay off, or the path you are on to eliminate it, etc. Ok.. get your comment on!!!!

:)

Thank you!

Job offers = moving out of Utah = Moving to Glendale,CA BABY!!

Josh got a job offer last summer with the company he had interned for; Ernst & Young in LA. We actually had a choice between the LA office and the Irvine office. We decided on LA for a few reasons;
1. Josh has more opportunities in the LA office verses the Irvine office,
2. I have a better chance succeeding as a hair stylist in LA, more opportunities as well for my career,
and 3. LA is awesome!

We graduated in April, stayed in Utah for the summer working full time, and then almost 4 weeks ago, we moved to Glendale, CA! Josh, Bear, and I absolutely love it here in Glendale! We are living in a 1 bedroom tiny apartment, but we all love it so much. Our last house was great at first, but with our landlord not willing to fix things, and he eventually got the house foreclosed and lost it to the bank, it was definitely about time we were OUTTA THERE. Plus there was no dishwasher, no air conditioning, no ventilation which meant that we had to leave the heater running a lot of the time so we could keep our teeth from chattering! That lead to extremely high bills, and lets not even get into our basement neighbors!!! Uhhh!!! Oh, and IDK if you know, but I am absolutely TERRIFIED of spiders. Just ask Josh, or my sister, Raechel. Anyways, our house was the place to be if you were a freakin spider! I'm pretty sure I had a few mini heart attackes just from spider incidents in that house, like the one time I woke up and got out of bed, and there was a spider exactly where I was just laying were... Um... Yeah, I hyperventilated...
Anyways, back to my point, I am very happy with my new apartment. There is no washer and dryer inside the apartment, but we have them literally right next to us, which is nice, we don't have to deal with them heating up the entire house, and we have that much more room here in the house. New carpets, new appliances, modern feel, we have AC, hallelujah!! Plus, I have not seen a single spider inside the house yet. There are, however some pretty huge freakin spiders outside, but as long as they are not secretly stalking me inside my home like the last ones were, I'm ok!
I will add some awesome pictures of the apartment tomorrow morning. :)

Thursday, September 1, 2011

My Bucket List!

Well, I decided I'd make a Bucket List!! I haven't thought of everything, obviously, but here are some things to start with, and they are in no particular order either;

aOFFICIAL BUCKET LISTa

1. Witness a solar eclipse
2. Ride a gondola in Venice
3. Meet my favorite Hollywood star (Jennifer Aniston)
a4. Get married in the Temple
5. Be a Mother
a6. Learn another language
7. Vacation in Europe
a8. Vacation in Hawaii
9. Vacation in Mexico
10. Vacation in Japan and/or China
a11. Go on a Cruise
12. Go with the Animal Cops and kick some butt!
13. Save someones life
a14. Eat gumbo in New Orleans
15. Climb up the Statute of Liberty
16. Visit all 50 of the United States
17. Go whale-watching (as an adult)
18. Visit the Great Wall of China
19. Go to Disney World
a20. Solve a Rubik's Cube
a21. Start a blog
a22. Own a dog
23. Visit a Renaissance Fair
24. Ride a motorcycle
25. See at least 4 of the 7 Wonders of the World. Preferably all 7
26. Attend New Year’s Celebration in Times Square
27. View the famous Northern Lights in Iceland
28. Ride in a hot air balloon
29. Learn how to garden
30. Then grow a garden
31. Learn how to paint
32. Then.... paint
a33. Ride in a limousine
34. Do hair for movie/tv show/commercial sets.
35. Be a person hair stylist for a celebrity
36. Spend the night in an underwater hotel
37. Master the art of hair coloring
a38. See a tornado
39. Be completely debt-free
40. Be a Home Owner
41. Be a Landlord
a42. Watch all 10 seasons of FRIENDS
a43. Watch all 10 seasons of FRIENDS 5 times
44. Watch all 10 seasons of FRIENDS 10 times
45. Watch a metier shower
46. Donate my hair
47. Ride in a Helicopter (not in a Hospital one preferably)
48. Corn row a famous person's hair
49. Have one of my photo shoots be in a magazine
a50. Move out of Utah!!!