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.