The First Step to Becoming Debt Free

Let's talk about the first step to becoming debt free & no, it's not the first baby step! 

If you're thinking about starting your debt-free journey, first congratulations! That is a huge accomplishment and you should be really proud of yourself for putting your mindset into the right direction. 

Before you start your baby steps and snowballing yourself and your family out of debt and into financial freedom, it's important to take note of where you are currently with your spending.

The first step to becoming debt-free is to track your current spending!

Take a month and save every receipt or download a tracking app to see just how much money you're spending. You can always use an excel or google sheet if you're someone that likes to do things manually. I used to track everything on a google sheet before using the everydollar app by Dave Ramsey. 

Once you get a good idea of how much you're spending on the regular, it will be a lot easier t see areas that you may be able to spend less. The best part is that you may not know that you're spending money on eating out or groceries etc.

Once you know how much you're spending then it's time to start your baby step! If you don't know what I'm talking about - check out Dave Ramsey's baby steps to get out of debt! We've been following them ourselves and are currently on baby step #2 (snowballing out of debt from smallest debt to largest). Next will be baby step #3 which is 3-6 months of savings! 

Leave your questions below! 

How we're handling paying off debt with Covid-19 happening

Soooo with Covid-19 hitting all small businesses really hard and especially the wedding industry/our wedding photography business, we had to be really careful with our income right now.

At the beginning of the year, we decided to buy a car (yay!) but we were taking some money every month out of our paycheck to cover the larger purchase - this way we could cash flow it.

Welcome Spen the Range Rover

When Covid-19 hit all of our spring weddings got postponed and some of our weddings even got canceled. Such a bummer for all of our couples who's wedding expectations got totally flipped upside-down. My heart really hurts for them. Anyway, we had to take a large look at our business and make sure we were okay for a few months without bringing in too much income for the business. Luckily, we qualified for the PUA (pandemic unemployment assistance) and the stimulus check which has really carried us through this hard time as self-employed individuals. We are so grateful for what we have and the assistance we received to get us through. For many self-employed individuals (us included) this has been a very unsure time and we weren't sure how everything would pan out for us.

So what does this look like for our debt? Well since the government passed the CARES act which put federal loans in forbearance, our student debt (approx. 14,700) has not been accruing interest. [yay] but we've also been in storm mode.

What is 'storm mode' ?

Storm mode means that instead of aggressively paying off debt - you save all of your extra money when your financial situation is unsure. Since we don't know how long this virus is going to last or how long restrictions on large gatherings will be in place. We are currently in storm mode and haven't made a payment on our debt since March. That sounds crazy to me but honestly, it has been helpful. My dad recently retired and I will no longer be able to be on his health insurance so we are looking into the options for getting another health insurance plan. Many financial decisions and changes coming in the future!

Until next time,
Emily

Debt Goals for the New Year (2020)

I'm so excited for 2020!

This new year has so much good coming I can just feel it. We are moving along into our second official year of business as Tom and Em Weddings and I just love getting to know our 2020 couples better and better. We aren't quite where I want us to be yet but I have high hopes for this next year.

With that said I'm looking at 2020 and thinking about our debt plan this year. How can we squash this thing? When I was working my full-time job in Phoenixville we had planned for the entire process to take about 16 months. Unfortunately, we moved, I quit, life changed - as it does. So here we are looking at our debt which is about 15.5k. We are looking to put approx. $1,250 per month into our debt.

Let's see if we can do it!

December 2019 | Debt Update

Hiya, welcome back to my Debt Updates!

This is December 2019 Debt Update

This months we've paid $1,000 towards debt so far. This is by far the hardest month to save money because I love giving gifts. There are a lot of gifts I'll be giving this year that are close to free or made from things I already have, but there are also a lot that I wanted to buy for people - which is okay as long as you have the money to do so!

By the end of the month, we will have also contributed $250 as a minimum payment towards the debt as well. We keep our minimum payments on while we pay things off because it just keeps us going with a little more gusto!

Thinking about more ways to make more $$ while we continue through this journey - what are ways you make extra income?

- Emily

Painting Wood Paneling

Last year around this time, Tom and I started painting our (now) rental home. It is owned by my parents and at the time, the previous tenant had just left and they need to do some fixing up. This is very common with rentals and since my parents have had rental properties my entire life, I've been a part of this process plenty of times. I was itching to quit my job and get out of that area for a fresh start with something new. We saw the door open for this home and knew we'd like to have a go at freshening it up.

For us, this meant painting everything white. Sorry, painting everything all the wood paneling white.

So how did we do this?
It's pretty simple and I know there are a ton of online resources that are probably better than this but, this is our experience!

We ended up sanding the walls from the top to the bottom. This was brutal to the arms and we definitely skipped some corners and edges. This was a big mistake. Obviously, 70's wood paneling is like plastic material and paint will come off plastic pretty easily. We found this to be true in the many places along the edges of trim that we did not sand. The paint started peeling off immediately. At this point, since we don't own the home and it's a true 'don't upgrade anything' rental - we decided to let it be and just live with a few peely-spots.

After sanding we did a basic primer and then a basic white paint from Lowes.
We did 3 rooms and one hallway all white. I think we'd like to touch up the trim and doors at some point, but for now, we are content with how things are.

Nov. 2019 Debt Update

This month did not go as planned!

We wanted to put $2,500 towards debt but only ended up paying our minimum payment of $250/month. #reallife If this isn't real life I don't know what is.

Honestly, I'm very discouraged and more upset with myself than I think Tom is.
Reasons why we fell short this month
 1. Our New Credit Card
We are currently using a special credit card that is supposed to boost credit scores. Why are we using this after we cut up our payments? Because we want to be able to buy a house within the next few years and after Tom's unfortunate pay-back history and then paying all of Tom's debts off at once his score was really low. We needed to raise the score but we didn't want to take out a loan just to do so. Our best option was this card. You need a refundable down payment for the card itself and can only spend that amount of money. Well the card is working and Tom's credit score has risen significantly since we've been using it, but we haven't been as careful as we should've been. I honestly don't like having it AT ALL but at this point we need it.

 2. Copeland's School & Kennel Cough
So we knew we needed to invest in puppy school for Copeland and we found a really great place in town to do so BUT it was pretty expensive and after the two-week program, they wanted us to bring him back for additional training work. Unfortunately, after we wend home on Friday, we notice Copeland started coughing. Of course, it was kennel cough. *Que additional doctors visit and medication expenses* We always want to make sure Copeland is ok and has what he needs

 3. The Farmers Dog
While we do want the best possible food for Copeland, the Farmers Dog is just too expensive to maintain - for our size dog, it's about $138/month. When we could easily be paying about $50 for kibble instead. I think we'll be doing more research on it before we switch, but for now I think we'll make that change.

 4. Friendsgiving
Almost every year, we host a Friendsgiving dinner with all of our friends. This was way more expensive than I thought it would be. We ended up making all of the food while everyone else brought dessert, appetizers, etc. I thought this would be a good idea but honestly, it wasn't. It was a lot of stress trying to cook everything and get it warm at once and then to also buy all of the ingredients. Next year we will only be cooking Turkey and it will be BYOB lol.

Trying "The Farmer's Dog"

So We've been searching and searching for a good food option for Mr. Copeland.

When we first brought him home we were on a kibble diet, but of course, after learning more about kibble and how not helpful it is for doggos, we nixed that from our options and only have it on hand for emergencies. If you're curious about the kibble and effects it has on dogs, go ahead and watch "Pet Fooled" on Netflix - it may change your mind about what you feed your pup!

We then tried a raw diet through Instincts pet food, but there wasn't a lot of information about the ingredients. While he LOVED this food and jumps for joy every time we get it ready for him, after more reading, it's really hard to determine if he's getting all of the nutrients he needs as a puppy from eating raw. Plus, it's super freaking expensive to buy supplements for dogs only to wonder whether or not they are actually getting everything they need.

So here we are researching all of the dog food options possible. Currently I see the most benefits from a cooked and regulated diet from food delivery services. Guess what - there are a million and 5 to choose from. We looked at the Farmer's Dog, Darwins (raw), Spot & Tango, and more. It was an exhausting search. After crunching some numbers, it seemed as if Spot & Tango was the cheapest service for us, but I had more personal recommendations for the Farmer's Dog and just felt better about it.

So, we've made our first trial order for the Farmer's Dog and it should arrive around Nov. 7th. We'll do another follow up post then. If you've been looking around and want to try a food delivery service, you can use this code for a free box of food no strings attached!: (https://www.thefarmersdog.com?ref=QYBVMK)

I think eventually I may go back to RAW for Copeland if I can do more research and get a better understanding of what he'd need, but for now we'll see how this works out!

October 2019 | Debt Update

October Debt Update:

We're at a debt standstill right now & if you were to ask me how we are doing I'd say "ok." 

Not good but not particularly bad - just ok.

Right now we have $17,784 left in my student loans. My goal in this whole process is to be as open and honest as possible about what we're doing and going through during our debt repayment.

Our goal for October is to pay off $3,000 in debt. We had to buy Copeland with credit based on the store we got him from so he is now paid off and so is a big chunk of my smaller loan.

So far we've paid off $2,288.68 in loans for October meaning we have $711.32 to go!

I have about $600 I know for sure is coming in before the end of the month, I just have about $100 more to figure out. I'm sure we can make it work.

Where are you in your debt-free journey?

Bringing Copeland Home - Puppy Diaries

We got a dog!

Tom and I have been searching for a dog for a while and we honestly did not expect to get a puppy. We were looking at rescue dogs but we did not qualify with most of the adoption agencies. Why? Because we don't own our own home and we don't have a fenced-in back yard. But we do have a loving home environment, plenty of time to take pup to the park and outside, and so much love to do what's best for the dog. Sometimes I feel disappointed in myself knowing what I know now about the system but after talking to my cousin, Krista, she reassured me that the most important thing is the dog and doing what's best for him now.

Sept 6th. DAY ONE

We picked up Copeland on Friday, September 6th, from the pet store in town.
(I'm not going to link anything to them because since bringing him home we've found out a lot of things that we do not agree with - I knew pet stores were not great but I really trusted them because they were family-owned and local)

When we picked him up he was timid and scared of everything

When we first took Copeland to the vet, we found out he had ear infections and ear mites. The poor pup was struggling since day one!

Sept. 7th Day 2
So on day two, we took it pretty easy during the day. Tom had to go to work aka shoot a wedding all day and my mom was having people over for a funeral reception for my aunt. Copeland came with me that night to my moms and was such a good boy! Everyone swooned over him and his cuteness obviously and he stayed near me the entire time. He slept at my feet and walked around a bit but never went too far. He was still pretty scared of everything but quickly warmed up to people. 5 weeks later and I think this was the best thing we could have done for him. He now knows that people are friends and he's super friendly to everyone he meets.

Sept. 8th : Day 3
It was a Sunday and I was off to a bridal shower. Leaving my dog baby for the first time (only for a few hours) was harder than I expected. I thought I'd find some small relief from cleaning up after him etc. but I just wanted to be home with him cuddling.

Sept. 9th : Day 4
Monday we tried getting ourselves back to work and seeing how things would go with Copeland at home with us all day. He was really good and mostly just sleeps. We spend a lot of time outside to let him exercise and play. He loves digging in the sand and following us around. At this point, he was only about 6/7 pounds of fluff and so short. We are so excited about the start of this new journey!

Ho Chi Minh Trail - San Diego

We were in San Diego for a family vacation and I cannot not talk about Ho Chi Minh Trail!

While we were there it would be my sister Katelyn's birthday. After searching around looking for ways to make my her birthday as special as possible - I found a post on Pinterest of this awesome looking trail/hike to the beach. This trail is apparently a shortcut for surfers headed to the beach but we did not know what we were getting ourselves into!

None of us are really "hikers" per say and I'm not sure if a lot of people would classify this as a hike... but my rule of thumb is usually if I feel like I need to be wearing sneakers, its probably a hike.



There were lots of twists and turns and little slips here and there. It also was not all tiny passageways - there were some general walking paths through it. The views the entire time were so worth it!

I will warn you there is totally a rope at the end that we did not see coming. 2/4 of us fell and I hit my head really hard. Did I mention I'm not much of a hiker?

 
Once you get to the bottom, the beach is pretty secluded with a few people and mostly day-surfers. I can't speak to the weekend though to travel at your own risk. There were quite a few people going through the path as well - and I was very glad there wasn't any more or things could've gotten tricky.


What do you think? Is this view worth it? We thought so - although we chose to take the road back up to the car instead of following the path. Not sure if it was the right choice as it zig-zagged up the hill and took us forever in the hot sun. I'm glad we took on this adventure though!

One Month Plastic Free

My close friend, Charity, put into the Facebook universe a few weeks ago that she is doing a plastic-free July. I was very interested in this since I've been wanting to go plastic-free for a long time but never had a real reason to.

Not going to lie, this is not going to be an easy process. In the weeks leading up to July, I kept noticing just how much plastic I not only bring in to the home but also consume from stores like Starbucks and etc.

A few things I know will be difficult for me:

- I often carry reusable shopping bags - but not produce bags. It will be important for me to make some before my next grocery trip

- I typically order my groceries through instacart which is a grocery delivery service where you can order food online from participating grocery stores. I can request that they use paper bags when checking out from Aldi, but unfortunately, almost everything I buy at Aldi is pre-packaged in plastic. Yikes. This is going to require much more time and effort to not buy "middle-isle" foods packaged in plastic.

- Milk. I'm grateful that there is a local dairy farmer that packages their milk in Glass containers (it's the best milk in around) but it's not cheap.

- Time. I know it's going to take a lot of planning time and shopping time to get the things we need this month without contributing to plastic waste. I am nervous that time will be a factor in the process but I'm committed to success.

- Soda. Same as milk, it comes in plastic and unfortunately I do not have a soda stream yet. This month might be better for my health, too! 😂

- Remembering my reusables. I know I have reusable items like cups and straws, but it will be important to remember to take some when I go out and not just leave them at home.

I'm nervous but excited.

Here goes nothing!

My Cost-Effective Bridesmaid Gift Guide

There are so many options out there for bridesmaids gifts!

I loved finding gifts for my bridesmaids and trying to keep the cost low (since there were 6 of them!)

1. Personalized Robes

Something I knew I wanted to get each of them for sure was personalized robes.
When do you ever get something personalized for yourself? It was really important to me that everyone got something special to them. There were so many options to choose from but I really wanted to keep the cost low! Luckily for me I had a few options because I was buying them right around Black Friday - but!! the robes I bought are still on sale!

The Robes I Purchased:

From the Knot.com $17.99

Other Options

OurLoveStoryCoShop - Etsy.com $20-$25

2. Pashminas

Since I was getting married in December and I had picked out really strappy dresses for my girls, I knew I wanted to get them some kind of shaw for them to wear outside or if they got chilly etc. So I ended up buying pashminas from MiaKraftsShop on etsy & love it.

The Ones I Purchased:

From: MiaKraftsShop - Etsy.com $40 (with Shipping for 6)

3. Candles

A really cost-effective part of the box was the candles. I got each bridesmaid a mini candle to fill some space within their box! Guess where these candles were from ... the dollar store! The dollar store has awesome candles if that's your thing. I am not much of a big candle person now so if I could do it again, I'd probably include oil rollers because I LOVE my essential oils.

4. Candy

I just added some chocolates to everyone's box just to fill some space and add something sweet.

The box itself also came from the dollar store. They were selling Christmas gift boxes for the holidays and I noticed the bottom part of the box was white (score!) I bought 4 packs of 3 for a whopping $4. It was awesome.

I was on a serious budget - but I still wanted to make sure my girls knew that I appreciated them being a part of my wedding and this is what I could do.

Total for 6 boxes : $161.00

We're 22 and 47,500 in debt...

Yikes. It's true. We are newlyweds, 22, and $47500 in debt.



We decided after months of financial arguments in pre-marital counseling that we needed to be in control of our money and not let our money have control of us. In January we looked our $47,500 of debt straight in the eyes and said goodbye (with it went our comfortable lifestyle)!


Since then we traded my new fancy car, killed the credit card and its debt, and now are working our way through student loans.


When we got engaged, I was living my best life. Working full time at a job I didn't love for low pay and doing well saving. Except for the fact that I bought a car and still had a ton of student loans. I look back on that time and wish I would've put all of my money into loans while they weren't collecting interest.


Now we have to pay the price.


We read through Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover" and started budgeting out how we'd make this work. We were scared of making such a big life change because Tom was in the first year of being self-employed and I was our primary provider making $35,000 a year in the # 1 wealthiest county in PA.


We started making changes.

We traded my car.

We started the envelope system.

We made a budget.

We started our snowball.




And now we're sharing our story and tips on how we're getting creative to save an extra buck. This is our journey. If you're in debt too, you're not alone.

Updating our Tiny Rental Kitchen On A Budget

We're renters and we have a small apartment. Like... a very small apartment. Our kitchen consists of four sets of cabinets, a sink, and a refrigerator. Also, in case you were wondering... this is the width of our entire apartment. We know we have to make the most of our place and want to leave it better than how we found it so we decided it was time to paint the kitchen!

Honestly, you really can't tell that these cabinets aren't white unless you put the before and after next to each other or watch us paint them but they were a light green almost mint color.

Greasy hair painting session.

Overall it really wasn't that expensive. It cost us about $50 total for the paint can (one) and brushes/rollers.

We painted directly on the cabinets instead of taking them off just because we could tell that's how they were painted before and getting a little paint around the edges wasn't a huge deal. If you're going to do this the right way, I highly suggest you take the cabinets off and paint them outside.

Before the paint:

After Paint:

We ended up getting a new kitchen island and sold our last one, organized our cabinets and made it look as good as we could. We tried moving our toaster oven (the only oven we have) but it came back to the counter shortly after this photo was taken.

In case you're curious, yes that is a hot plate in the window. We have deep enough windows to hold our hot plate which was really great for us because we wouldn't have anywhere else to put it. We also do have a microwave but it's in the bottom cabinet so you can't see it.


We also decided to get peel and stick backsplash from Amazon for about $25 and we ended up getting 2 packs of them which came out to be about $50.

Our entire spend was roughly $100 - not too shabby for a small kitchen makeover.

Before:

After:

 

Getting Engaged!

This is of course my long overdue post about getting engaged in San Diego!!

As I write this post, I am 19 days away from saying "I Do." I feel so overwhelmingly blessed by all of the love and support surrounding me over the past few months and I can not wait to marry my dreamboat.

Before our trip in San Diego I had no idea we would get engaged. I thought Tom was broke and it would at least be another 6 months until he asked the question. But something in me had to ask. I remember sitting on my bed two days before we were leaving and asking Tom, 'are you going to propose in San Diego?' He said no and kept folding clothes. I accepted it and literally didn't think about it again.

There were some hard times to the trip. My sister and I were not used to being with each other 24/7 and an entire week was getting to us. Don't get me wrong I love my sister - it just wasn't our week.

That's when I got an inkling of what was to come.

We were trying to take family photos and it wasn't working out with timing and everything so I told Tom I didn't want to take them anymore and he insisted. Tom never wants to take photos so I thought this was very weird. Then everyone started being really nice to me which was suspicious as well.

But, nevertheless I didn't ask too many questions I just went with it. We got to this beautiful lookout at Sunset Cliffs in San Diego and Tom gave his camera to my brother-in-law and my camera to my sister and was super enthusiastic about getting a photo at this one location. We posed for a few photos and boom. We're engaged!

So that's the story. Definitely beyond my wildest dreams, just like my Thomas.

Year of New

Last year was my year of peace and peaceful it was. I learned so much about peace and God's peace over my life. It was a refreshing year after so much chaos to get to where I am, I an only see the impact of this word in hindsight. Always funny how that works.

Every year I pray for a word over my year that I can focus on and that I feel like God is going to work on in and through me.

I felt like God was telling me at the beginning of the year that this year would be my year of "new."

I actually forgot about this until I re-visited this blog. I missed this little personal project/outlet I used to be able to go to. When I first started using this blog, I was documenting outfits and style just because I thought it was fun and I had just started taking photos so it was a good way to get out and start creating images. After awhile it turned into experiences and a form of documentation of events and after that it became a class project for two classes. I was posting more consistently but everything for school that wasn't voluntary always felt like work.

While I am happy I have a lot of these photo stories and articles, I feel like it's time for me to regain control... and with that ... I have no intentions for this space. I actually kind of hope no one reads this or stumbles upon it and if they don't, even better. :)

This is my space to write, have an outlet, and remember these seasons. I love having these memories to look back on. I'd love to continue it for that reason.

Welcome to my journey. Welcome to my year of "new." This is where I'll look back and remember it.

Winter Retreat Wk. 2

eaphotography.co

I had so much fun taking photos for Penndel Youth Ministry this past weekend at their Winter Retreat event. I had so many moments as a teenager at that camp alter where I met God and He poured into my life, influencing me forever. Now as an adult, I get to use the talents God has given me as a ministry. I am able to watch and capture moments when teenagers meet Jesus and surrender their lives to Him.

My faith is a huge part of my life and following Jesus is no easy feat. Though, when you encounter the presence of God, there is nothing that can compare to being with your creator.

I also get to watch some of my incredibly talented friends lead a room into an anointed atmosphere of worship. These are people to surround yourself with.

Below are some of my favorite photos (just a few) because they represent my version of the event -

The camp had brought in evangelist Nate Clarke who spoke life into these student's lives during every service.

Free time is my favorite time.

And I can't leave out the boss, Mark. This week we had a ton of students in our back room learning about the aspects of production. For some of these students, this introduction to media could be the beginning of their professional lives (which is literally so exciting).

There was also an awesome visual of a "missions board" representing projects for Speed the Light that Penndel wants to support. It was so awesome watching leaders go up on stage to turn on their light bulbs and light up an area in faith that God will provide the funds for that project.

Overall it was an awesome weekend as always with some really quality friends and people who feel more like family. Shooting these events brings me so much joy. Can't wait for Week 3!

-Em

AMY.

See entire set at: http://www.eaphotography.co/amy

So a little while ago, I used twitter and Instagram to reach out to my followers and friends to see if there was anyone willing to model for me. There was some confusion about it considering most of my comrades on campus are shooting for their portfolio. I just want to shoot for fun, because it's what I love to do. I understand everyone's taste in photography and style is different. Not everyone does portrait, or landscape, or still life, or what ever. I happen to love nature, flowers, and portraits. This has been central to the recent photos I have taken and integral in how my style is progressing.

Today I wanted to share a portrait session I did with a good friend of mine. After I reached out on social media, Amy was one of the first to respond. She is always such a joy to be around and I couldn't have been more excited to have any excuse to hang out with her.

Amy and I met my freshmen year of college during the fall of 2014. We sat next to each other in a class that I can only remember as boring. We sat in the back right corner next to each other every day. After awhile we would start responding for each other when attendance was taken to see if our professor would notice. He never did. The one thing that really bonded us together was a terrible group project. Since Amy and I were the loners in class, our group project consisted of us and two other people who didn't have a group. Needless to say we got through the project, better friends than ever. 

I've watched Amy grow and mature over the course of our friendship but she always stayed constant in her overwhelming qualities of grace and kindness. She is always one to encourage and pour into every persons life she encounters. 

Anyway, I hope to be doing more sessions like this one in the future. I can only hope they go half as well as this one did! If anyone sees this and is interested in modeling for me/getting coffee and talking about life please contact me! I am always looking for more beautifully unique individuals to shoot and get to know. 

 To Amy: I am so thankful for your time to help me out and your willingness to jump right in. I admire you in so many ways, and just wanted to thank you for modeling for me. I couldn't have asked for a better model and friend. :) 

To view our entire shoot follow this link: http://www.eaphotography.co/amy

-Em