In the Waiting...

Hi, my name is Krystle, and I'm a planner. I make all sorts of plans... event plans, meal plans, camping plans, holiday plans... and I write them all in my planner! Some times I make some pretty lofty plans or "I'll never" plans, and it moments like that when I think God just laughs, rolls up His sleeves, and says, "Oh, you think so? Watch this." But when God messes up my plans for His own, His always turn out way better than mine ever would have!

We are now over one month residents of Ohio. However, we are still unsettled. We knew when we left Washington that we were entering the unknown, where timelines didn't exist and our faith had to be bigger than our fears. We knew. And my in-laws have been so gracious in opening their home - and three of their bedrooms - to us; for which we are extremely grateful and blessed!! But we are in the hallway... doors we cannot even see are ahead of us, and only God knows when they will be visible or open. For a planner and researcher like me, that can be difficult. I know what we need, I know how to find it, but I have to wait. I have to trust in His plan, because He's brought us this far and everything else has worked out perfectly thus far.

I think most everyone knows that we left for Ohio unemployed, with no job prospects in the works. Not everyone knows that Justin has been selected for a position with the Columbus Department of Veteran's Affairs! He is currently in the pre-employment process and awaiting a start date! We are so excited that he was able to find a position with the VA within a month of arriving in Ohio. God is good!

To Do List:

Sell House

Move to Ohio

Get Justin a Job

Buy a House

Now... we wait again. We had a big list of hopes and dreams for our move, to include:

• Me being a stay at home mom
• Justin having a shorter commute (45 - 60 minutes in Washington)
• A house: privacy, no HOA, more land, basement, etc.
• Slower life in general

Now that we are on the cusp of being ready to find a house, we are finding that there is very limited inventory in the area we would like to be in. We did find a house that we loved. It was a fixer, but the layout, size, and land were everything we had hoped for. The commute for Justin, however, was 53 minutes without traffic or weather factors. During our tour of the house, Justin and our agent found a fairly wet spot outside of the house... and we haven't had too much rain for that kind of sogginess. We inquired about it with the listing agent and the homeowner checked it out - a broken pipe from the sub-pump. While this house wasn't going to work for us, hopefully us paying it a visit saved a big problem for the homeowner - the house is empty and has been on the market for 80+ days... who knows if this could have become a bigger problem.

So, while we are waiting in the hallway, we give thanks for the waiting... because in the waiting is typically where God is doing the most work - on us and in His plans for us! 

My friend Dave.

Let me introduce you to my little friend - Dave Ramsey.

Dave hates credit cards. He hates auto loans. He hates debt. Dave LIKES people not having to stress about money and debt.

We've always had credit cards, and used them. What's the big deal? Everyone has credit cards. We have also always had two auto loans... sometimes two auto loans and a trailer loan and a motorcycle loan. What's the big deal? We can make the payments.

We tried a few times to reduce our debt, but it was all very daunting and it seemed just as easy to continue making the payments. When Justin and I decided to move to Ohio, it made sense for me to be a SAHM once we got there... childcare is for real expensive, people! And, with plans for a smaller mortgage and the very real possibility I wouldn't find a comparable salary there, we would just suck-up the income loss. But that meant we were going to have to eliminate some of this debt.

I had a three year plan. Pay off ALL of our debt!! Let that sink in for a moment... two car loans, trailer loan, motorcycle loan, credit cards. So, we did what our friend Dave suggested.

Our debt was officially holding us back, and that just wasn't going to work for us. We started selling things. We were actually selling so much stuff that my cousin approached me, concerned that we were in financial trouble. And we were! We weren't in trouble because we couldn't pay our bills; we were in trouble because we were living to pay our bills.

Good-bye dirt bike. Good-bye quad. Good-bye Coach handbags that were sitting in my closet. And the moment I knew Justin was really serious was when he chose to sell his motorcycle.

Boy, she was a beauty. She was on the pay-off schedule and we could have kept her. However, he said that the money we could make from selling her would get us that much closer to our goals. So, our tax return paid off the bike loan... and the bike sale paid off another debt. And - just like that - $8,000 in debt... GONE. It was amazing, and I felt like we were breathing fresh air for the first time!

I noticed other changes, too. Our house was feeling a little empty. We'd sold furniture, kitchen stuff, clothes... and it was like our house was taking a nice, deep breath, too! (This was playing in nicely to that book, the Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I loved so much!)

All in all, by the time I found out I was pregnant with Skyler in June, we had paid off $14,000+ in debt in 2017 alone. Then, with the pending arrival of a new baby, we had to reconsider our move. It was decided that the baby really had some divine timing, because - with our debt pay-off success already - we could justify pushing up our move 2 YEARS, so that I could stay home with baby from the beginning.

This is not our starter home; this will be the 3rd house we've sold, and we've upgraded with each house move. Thankfully, with the current market, we were in a prime spot to sell. The sale of our house will allow us to further our debt pay-off goals and comfortably go forward on 1 income. With that said, here are my home buying tips that I use to ensure a good sale in the future:

1. If you buy new construction, ALWAYS buy during phase 1 of the neighborhood; you pay the lowest price.
2. Buy the biggest lot, the corner lot, the house with the widest front elevation.
3. Everything you add to your house, should be add with resale in mind; even if you're "never" moving.

It's so nice to see that hard work and sacrifice really do pay-off! Years of working 70+ hours a week, commuting 2+ hours a day, and pushing through when we wanted to give up... 10 years after marriage, we are headed towards a simpler life!

So, if you're ready to be brave and tackle your debt... or just turn your direction towards financial freedom, I highly suggest meeting my friend Dave. (Just click on his name!) If you're looking for more support, I suggest joining Jenplans.com's Facebook group. It's a great place to get advice, encouragement, and share your successes with people on the same journey!

I'm going to leave you with my favorite Dave tips!

** There is no boasting or horn-tooting about this post. This is our story, and we hope that it inspires others to dig in to dig out of debt! Living pay-check to paycheck sucks, and you don't have to do it! Meet Dave, follow the steps, get a 2nd job, whatever it takes! YOU CAN DO IT!

STOP! Planner Time.

Hi. My name is Krystle and I love planning. Not like let's-make-plans-and-get-together kind of planning... like paper planning. In a paper, spiral-bound planner. This is my 2018 planner:

Example of a 1-week spread

This is a Recollections planner from Michael's. I think I paid around $14 for it with a coupon. I used to order Erin Condren planners, however I just can't justify a $60 planner when this one is exactly the same; just without the personalized cover. (FYI: You can order custom/new covers on Etsy. Yay for supporting small businesses!)

Anyway... I bought two A5 Filofax planners a year or so ago. I'm not really sure why, other than I just love patent leather and the colors! So, I've had a hot pink planner and this turquoise one just sitting around. 

I really needed to find a use for them or get rid of them. As I was determining what I wanted my SAHM days to look like, I decided I really wanted to incorporate more faith-based books/studies. I'm starting now, but really hoping to dive in after our move. We'll see. I've been home for a week and have managed to read for 30 minutes before bed one time; but I'm also playing catch-up around the house and packing, so I've cut myself some slack.

Anyway, I decided that I could use one of these dusty, unused planers for taking notes. I just had to figure out how to organize it so that it was easy to use. In my search or ideas, I came across a planner insert pack and decided to try it.

Pack includes dividers, insert pages, pocket and extra. (Etsy $15)

Here's how I set-up the planner and how I plan to use it:

Opening page

The pack came with 6 dividers, so I think I will include 2 months per divider. I originally thought I would separate by book/study, but I just don't think that's practical given how quickly I would run out of dividers.

1st page after divider

I'm going to try using this page for a monthly book list and goals. I'm not really sure how it's going ot work quite yet, and I may end up changing it later. That's the nice part about binder planners, everything can be reorganized later!

2nd page in each section

I really like these pages that came with the packet. It should be an easy page to check-in on each month. It's also double-sided, so I can use a page per month and make the two-months-per-divider thing work.

Backside of 2nd page and note page.

This will be for notes, obviously. I'm not into highlighting books; I've tried, really. So, it will be nice to have a place to record book excerpts that resonate with me, reflections on the study, etc.

I'm really happy to have found a use for this planner... and even happier to have such a beautiful, functional space to help me dive into my upcoming studies!


**If you would like to set-up your own planner, I'd be happy to gift you my pretty pink one to get you started!

Goodbye. Hello!

On May 31st, 2018 I said good-bye to my employment, my coworkers, my income, and what I used to consider my independence. 

I cleaned out my drawers, took down my pictures, and turned off the light an hour before quitting time. It's quite strange to see this empty space, when just a couple years ago it was this empty as I was moving into it, into our new office building. And now, it's empty so that I can move on. 

Some people look at an office as a sign of success. I've had my own office for years, and believe me... sometimes it's just a sign of separation. Separation from your coworkers, from your family, from everything that's not on the screen in front of you or out the window next to you... and that gets kinda lonely. 

I've been very fortunate to have worked in an industry where I flourished professionally. I've had amazing bosses, not-so-amazing bosses, professional growth, and my work has been very rewarding at times. However, the older our kids get - and the more we have (LOL) - the harder it is to work outside of our home. 

We recently hung this sign in our hallway and it tugs at my heart each day.
You can get it in different sizes at Smallwoods.

So, while my professional career is ending for now, I'm looking forward to doing some pretty important work at home. It's not going to be easy, and it's surely not always going to be fun, but it's going to be pretty amazing stuff.