where is the tape player?

Do y'all even know what this is?

This is a cassette adapter that I use to play my iPhone in my car. 

I know, 1985 called and they want their New Kids on the Block tape back.

Do you know what Kyle said when we bought our 2nd car with cash?

"Where is the tape player?"

Then I said "oh no, how will we listen to our iPhones?"

Who says that when we live in 2014?

WE DO!

So, if you've been following our journey to become debt-free, you know that we bought our 1st "new to us" 2005 van with cash in March! (click to read that story here). Well, WE DID IT AGAIN at the end of June. We ended up getting a 2004 Ford Expedition (Eddie Bauer-fully loaded!) 

We went from a 2002 Tahoe with 228,000 miles to a 2004 loaded Expedition with 133,000 miles. By loaded, I mean a DVD player, the 3rd row folds down by pushing a button, 6 disc CD changer, and such. After we sold our Tahoe, we only paid $4,100 for it. BAM!  I think that is a pretty awesome upgrade. 

Another goal met!!! 

We are slowly getting to where we want to be! 

In our automobile life right now, we are in the stage when they were phasing out tape players and going strictly to CD  players. This was before the iPhone so there are no iPhone aux cable plug-ins for cars. 

And that my friends is an example of the sacrifices we are making to pay off our house!

Food for finance: home ownership horrors

The joys of home ownership. We tend to have to dip into our emergency fund more than we'd like. Let me give you an example of what goes on in our lives. 

For a while now, I've been noticing that part of the floor in the bathroom was warm. Since I'm post-pardum, I thought it was my hormones acting all crazy and didn't think nothing of it. 

Saturday, Kyle showed me a stream of water surrounding our house. It had not rained. 

Strange.

We called a plumber and he was coming out the next day. 

Then it hit me. 

Could the warm floors (and now warm carpet in the living room) be connected? I did what any normal person does these days. I googled it. 

The "I'm feeling lucky" google search said:

HOT WATER PIPE LEAK UNDER THE CONCRETE SLAB. 

Kyle sent a text to the plumber about the warm floors and he said that was most likely the case. And it was. I'm such a great problem solver...thanks to google!

He had to cut 5 holes in our walls to find the leak. He cut 3 holes in the living room and 2 in the kitchen. Then he cut around the hot water heater.

We were so blessed to have our neighbor give us their plumber's number. It would have been EXPENSIVE to have a plumbing company to come out on a holiday weekend. Thankfully this guy wanted the extra work on his days off. We had someone from our small group come out and confirm what we knew. We have such a sweet church family.

All this to say, I am so happy and thankful to have a fully funded emergency fund. Yay for having a baby step 3! This is the very reason why Kyle and I are on the Dave Ramsey program. Unexpected things are going to happen. We want to be prepared when they do, with our fists up ready to fight! It's annoying to have these things happen (because it delays our long term goal to pay off our house) but not at all stressful. Well, maybe I'm a little stressed that I'm going to be swallowed up in a sink hole. 

Jonah watching handy-man Jose repair the wall. 

Here is an update: we no longer have holey walls! Our wonderful handy man came out to repair them. He also painted our shed. (Happy father's day Kyle!) If you ever need a handy man, I've got the guy for you! He is AMAZING!

Happy home ownership y'all!

food for finance: we paid CASH for our minivan!

"Success occurs when your dreams become bigger than your excuses." I have no idea who coined this phrase but it is one of my favorites. Our dream is to become totally debt-free.

so...

We are MINIVAN owners as of March 27!

This REALLY happened people (no Aprils fools joke!)

This shock comes to me 2-fold. 

1. I am THAT mom I said I'd never be. I'm driving a mini-van. Never say never. Kyle has always wanted one, even before kids. He is weird, I know, but I love him. Plus I have 2 pretty cool kids (a 4 week old and 18 month old) that override the minivan stereotype! They make the minivan in style! 

2. We saved our money and paid cash for it! Another financial goal met! 

It's not a secret that we are on Dave Ramsey's plan to become totally debt-free. I've talked before on how I want to document our journey for accountability and so our kids can read about all the hard work we put in for our future. I want them to know that this is no walk in the park. It takes hard work, discipline, communication, and missing out on some things. 

How we paid cash for our minivan: 

We did the Dave Ramsey baby steps. To re-cap, we paid off all of our debt but our house (baby step 2) and have a 3-6 month emergency fund (baby step 3). After we reached those goals, we created some of our own baby steps (save for taxes and save for our minivan) and paused the rest of Ramsey's plan (which he recommends if you need to make a big purchase). 

Do you see what happened to our goals? Yes-we beat 2 goals! We had moved a retirement plan over to a Roth IRA and we thought we would have to pay taxes on it. Well come to find out, they took the taxes out when it was rolled over! So we ended up getting a tiny tax refund. We added our "would have been tax money" to our already existing car fund and had enough! That enabled us to have our minivan fund in place (11 months early!) The reason our car goal was for 2015 is because I am on maternity leave and will not be getting paid here soon. So we knew that without my income, we really couldn't save as much as we would've liked. 

I'm not sure which he is more excited about: paying with cash or owning a minivan. I think both! 

We got a 2005 Toyota Sienna. It only has 74,000 miles on it. It looks brand new!! We bought it from a couple that are in their 60s and they bought it brand new. I test drove it and I admit, it is nice. I'm still in shock. 

Why did we save up and pay cash for a vehicle?

In a nutshell, we ran the numbers and instead of paying interest on a car loan, we flipped it and had (compound) interest work for us.  And of course we are trying to get totally out of debt so a car loan would just set us back. A brand new car was not an option. We don't have a high enough net worth to justify the loss in value that new cars lose within the first 4 years. 

Doing it this way takes a lot of commitment and determination on our part. We both drive 12 year old cars. They are paid for so all we had to do was keep up with the maintenance, which was in our budget. We had extra money set aside because we knew that having older cars with a lot of miles means things would go out (like the starter!) 

I keep saying it but I'm still in shock. Our goals are becoming a reality! Thank you for all the encouragement. This is not easy but it's totally doable! The small victories lead to bigger ones and that is what keeps me going. I want our kids to know what a big deal this is. So kids, (me talking to them 15 years from now) THIS is a big deal! 

thanksgiving, football, walking, and more

I'm trying to cram all this blogging stuff in to get caught up! So here is what happened in November. Jonah was 13 months. 

Kyle's work sent us to a fundraiser for the DeSoto Family Theatre.

I could not help myself to take our picture on the red carpet!

I was having a big pregnant craving for pumpkin spice pancakes at Brother Juniper's. 

So we went and I dressed the boys alike for game day! 

The sad news is that they ran out. Why would they do that to a pregnant lady?! But, I had the cinnamon roll pancakes. 2 thumbs up!!!

Then we swung by to see the Perrys and snuggle up with Quinn!

Since Kyle works for a bank, he has all those fun holidays off. Veterans Day was boys day!

Kyle said that Jonah wanted to watch the Dave Ramsey show while he ate his lunch. He looks pretty happy!

Next up: My Uncle Dennis and my dad's birthday are in Nov. We went out to eat to celebrate!

Vicki & Uncle D

My dad not cracking a smile. Maybe that is where Jonah gets it?!

Uncle Jake and Aunt Connie

Granny playing with Jonah

Jonah loving on everyone!

I finally got to go to a football game! 

UT-Martin played U of Memphis. Memphis got beat by us in 2012 and they wanted a re-match! It was a pretty sloppy game. 

Shelly called us and got us an upgrade to the suite! whoo hooo! Good to know people in high places. This happened before to Kyle and the story is hilarious! 

High rollers...

The soon-to-be Whites!

Memphis got their come back. 

Another weekend we went to the Christmas open house in Hernando. 

The leaves were perfect for a photo shoot!

My boys!

And now time for our friends-giving! Kyle already had plans to go to Starkville for a football game. He took Jonah so I could have a break and relax. Nana and Pops did not mind one bit!

I'm already practicing have 2 under 2!

Marianna! She was a great hostess!

Friends-giving turned into a wedding shower. 2 for 1. YAY Adam and Shelly!

food was yummy as always

hanging around

So, Marianna has a man-cave for Andrew and he has a 3D tv. 

 It was amazing to watch Top Gun in 3D!

around 5 months....about 25 weeks

fun with friends! and babies!

We went to another Thanksgiving dinner at my parent's church.

Jonah is so close to walking. He loves to get your hand and walk around. He did that all night with my mom.

Lastly, Jonah had his 1st McCoy Thanksgiving! We had to move it to Starkville because the Egg Bowl was Thanksgiving day. 

And...the night before Thanksgiving, Jonah started WALKING!! Just 4 days shy of 14 months. 

He is happy to enjoy the food this year. 

Grandparents and Great-GrandMimi

Mimi and her grand kids

Jonah loved the food!

Yum!

Touchdown Thanksgiving!

Kyle and Josh dressed alike AND sat by the food. I should've sat there!

Jonah ready to cheer on the Bulldogs! They won this year and get to go to a bowl game. Happy McCoy family. 

We went to happy hour at Starbucks. The cup is empty but Jonah wanted to look like a coffee guy!

food for finance: e-fund re-established + new goals

We've been on a roller coaster ride with Dave Ramsey's baby steps. We had things come up and as of today, we re-established our emergency fund! All we have left to pay off is the house. WHOOT! I went on a rant a couple of months ago about my frustration about being stuck in baby step 3. But today, I'm feeling accomplished!

 

I told Kyle that we needed to re-visit our goals back in December. I told him we should run the numbers to see when we could pay off our house and be completely debt-free. We live in a 3 bedroom, 1300 sq ft starter house with our 2nd baby due in 6 weeks. We don't plan to be here 5 years from now but do know that we can't sell our house now in this market. So...just for fun, we figured out that our house could be paid off in March of 2020. That is 6 years from now! Once we buy 2 cars (with cash) we will throw all of our other money on the house.

 

We kid around with each other and say that we'll just stay in our house since the house will be paid for in 6 years. Who knows what crazy thing we will do. But for now, it is fun to see what could be if we are disciplined! I am a big fan of long-term goals. I am a big dreamer and if I have it written down, it gets me through the days when I want to throw my hands in the air and give up. Or when people look at me like I have 3 heads when I tell them what we are doing.

 

Kyle and I are meant to be with each other. We have so much fun talking about saving cash for a "newer" car. I mean, who gets excited about that? We do! I would not have it any other way.

 

Now, our emergency fund is strictly for emergencies (which is why we had to re-build it, we had emergencies come up). But if one of our 12 year old cars decided to bite the dust, that would be an emergency and we'd take some of that money to pay for a car with cash. So we have a back-up plan just in case.

 

So please ask me how it is going. The more people that know about our plan, the more accountability Kyle and I will have to stick to our guns. We just want to be able to be financially free when we are in our 40s. We want the best for our kids and being completely debt-free will allow us to do so much. We'll be able to give more, allow me to have my dream job of just working 2 days a week, buy our RV, and much more!

 

I want to document this journey so that our kids can see how hard we worked when they were younger. How much we said "no" to many things so that we can say "YES" in the future!

 

I'm excited to see what is in store!



update on our road to be debt-free

I've been pretty open about our road to become totally debt-free. I need to give everyone an update on our progress.

 

Jonah (8 months old at the time) attending his 1st family budget meeting!

 

So...a re-cap.

We are doing Dave Ramsey's 7 baby step program. We became debt-free but the house in Feb of 2011 (baby step 2). We had our 3-6 month emergency fund in place in Feb of 2012 (baby step 3). After that we started saving for Jonah's birth, I call that baby step 3b(baby).  I made that one up! Then we started saving cash for a "newer" car, and I will call that baby step 3c(car). I made that up too! Then, Kyle got a new job and we transferred his retirement over to a Roth IRA. We had to pay taxes on that. I will call that baby step 3d(duh), yup made that up.  We'd rather pay the taxes now, while the money has not grown, than to pay the taxes when we retire when the money has grown and we are in a bigger tax bracket. Look at me talking like I know what I am talking about! I've learned a lot!

 

THEN...

Life happened.

We've had things pop up that we've had to pay for. I am SO thankful for our emergency fund. I won't bore you with too many details, but I will name a few things that happened.

 

Kyle ate some ice and broke a tooth. Sounds harmless, but it ended up costing us $3,000. That is some expensive ice.

 

Our cars are older (2002) and we've had to maintain those...

 

Forced home repairs happened...

 

Just stuff happened!

 

So the bad news is that we are having to rebuild this emergency fund. Kyle found another retirement fund from an old job that he rolled over to a Roth. Now we save for that too. We are having baby # 2 and we save for that.

 

The good news... it was NOT stressful. We didn't have to worry about where the money was coming from. It was nice to just write a check and be done.

 

Sometimes I get frustrated that our wheels are just turning. Then I have to step back and take another look at how far we've come. Seriously, I'm mad because we had to use some of our emergency fund? Really Angie?? There are people out there living paycheck-to-paycheck. People that have debt up to their eyeballs. And here I am pouting that we had to use our SAVED CASH? We have worked so hard to get to this point and I need to be proud! Reality check! I'm sure a lot of people would love to have this problem!!

 

Even though we've had to take some steps back, we are still doing awesome!

 

Our goal is to own our house. We want zero debt as soon as possible!

 

If it means that we drive our 2002 model cars for 2 or 3 more years until we have the cash to pay for a newer car, then so be it. We are in this together.

 

Why I love my husband. He sent me a text that read...

"Budget meeting when Jonah goes to bed?"

 

WE.CAN.DO.THIS!!!

 

 

sunset symphony and the grizz playoff

 May really is the best month in Memphis as far a fun outings go.

My in-laws came up for the weekend so we had a date night to go to the Sunset Symphony.

 

Or so I thought...

 

Kyle got a call from a friend that had an extra ticket to the play-off game. It was game 4 of the Grizzlies vs the Spurs. How could I tell Kyle that he couldn't go when he would be on the 10th row? Plus this was the first time that the Grizzlies was in the west coast finals. Best wife award please!!! 

 

Ok so maybe there were a lot of us going to the symphony...

 

Pre-game at the Brasher's before heading to the river.

 

 

All the girls. It was a beautiful night!

 

Chillaxing

 

I forgot to mention that we did not have to pay for our tickets to the Sunset Symphony. My friend got them through work. Then Betsy got some VIP tickets for a tent from a law firm she deals with at work.

Betsy and I enjoying our dinner at the VIP tent! I was made to be a VIP!

 

Here are some pictures from Kyle trying to get to the Forum.

Beale street was cra cra!

 

Kyle's awesome seats!

The sad news is that the Grizzlies lost but what a great year!

 

Meanwhile, on the bluff...

I ran into my old roommate aka flatmate Kristen!

Kristen, April, me and Angie

The sunset at the symphony!

 

The VIP tent was giving away light up wine and beer glasses so I took Kristen down to get her one! They were so much fun in the dark.

 

So I was waiting to potty in the VIP tent and look who I ran into...

 

Lia from Sunkissed and Southern.

We went to college together and were sorority sisters! YAY ADPi's!!

 

I had a blast! Kyle had a blast! Fun times!

 

And bonus...we hardly paid for anything!

 

Nana and Pops left on Memorial Day. They were sweet to come help out with Jonah and make our flower beds look presentable!

You can't really tell but Jonah and Pops both have on seersucker shorts on. Twinkies!

 

 

Jonah loves Nana!

 

What a fun weekend!