Category: Bryan’s Blog

Last week I wrote about my new challenge. Here’s an update. Pretty much a fail on the bed time thing. I was aiming for 10pm, but we were all over the place depending on what was going on. We were usually much later. One night I wanted to finish a great book. Another night Davin’s volleyball match went late and we were all pumped up once we got home. I’m disciplined in some areas of my life, but this is one that I’ve always struggled with. We’re going to shift it to 10:30 for me and Lianne, and try again. I usually get headaches if my sleep schedule is way off, and I haven’t had any headaches, so I guess I’m doing OK. On the tracking side I did a pretty good job. As you can see here, I missed 2 days out of the last 10. It really is revealing when you start logging what you eat, or tracking how many steps you take. Much like a financial budget shows you where your money is going, a food journal shows you where all your calories are coming from. Here’s what I discovered.

Continue reading Health and Fitness, Week 2 of 9

I wrote about the need for people to have a challenge or a struggle in their lives. We accomplished our financial goal, so now it’s time for a new challenge. Since Spring is here, I’ve decided to tackle health and fitness. Similar to our finances, I would say that our health is above average. We do a decent job of avoiding fast foods and sugary drinks, and we are reasonably active. Still, I know we can do better. We all sit too much, we don’t sleep right, and we don’t get enough fruits and vegetables. So, it’s time for a plan. Here is Week 1.

Continue reading Health and Fitness, Week 1 of 9

March was pretty good. My bonus was a little more than I expected, but the government sure took a large share from me. Our refrigerator died. We’ve got a large, standalone fridge. We custom built our kitchen around them, so we needed something that was roughly the same size. That was a big chunk of change. That was a hit to our emergency fund, but if we don’t replenish that right away, we can actually pay the house off in April. We are so close. I can’t wait. Lianne caught some of my excitement and agreed with me, so we’re going for it. In fact, we’re paying off the house tomorrow. Continue reading Paying Off the Mortgage, Month 9 of 10

“The struggle is real.” It’s an ironic expression we say when something minor doesn’t go our way. Just a few hours ago I realized, “Dang, I forgot I made that cup of coffee. Now it’s cold.”

Jaron, in his low, morning monotone, replied, “The struggle is real.”

It’s another way to make it seem like we’re self-aware and that we realize we’re dealing with “1st world problems.” I look at my day to day activities, and the lives of my kids, and I realize that life is too easy. We have everything we need. I’m not complaining. I’m glad, but I wonder if we’re missing a key aspect of the human experience.

Continue reading Make the Struggle Real

Tentative house payoff date is May 19th! Holy cow. It’s crazy to be within sight of the finish line. We had some relatively large expenses in February. One was our HOA fees, which should have been in the budget, we just missed it. The 2nd was some maintenance work on the van, but we’ve been under budget on car maintenance over the past 8 months, so the budget absorbed the extra hit with no problem. The payoff date is moving closer because of the larger than expected tax return, and a larger than expected bonus at work. I am very thankful for my job. I definitely take it for granted sometimes. I need to work on my gratitude.

Now, for some pictures of what debt free looks like in our driveway.

Continue reading Paying Off the Mortgage, Month 8 of 12 (maybe 11)

We overspent a little on Christmas. Maybe a little more than a little, which is better than a lot more than little, or the dreaded lot lot. One big culprit is that we signed the kids up for a bunch of stuff as part of their Christmas gifts. Archery and tennis lessons for Davin, and voice and dance lessons for Ava, for example. We tried to account for these recurring monthly expenses, but it’s not quite working out. We’re going to scale back some other activities and do them every 2 weeks, which will help offset the added cost.

Oh, another thing, I think I’ve finally come around on credit cards.

Continue reading Paying Off the Mortgage, Month 7 of 12

I read the book “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen a few years ago. It was a good book and after reading it I realized that my younger two kids have never been to the circus. I’m ambivalent about the circus. It’s a bit of a ripoff, and I am conscientious about animal treatment. On the other hand, it seems like the circus is something every kid should experience at least once. Our oldest, Jaron, has been to the circus. We went when he was 6 years old with some friends, and there’s one enduring memory from that experience. The Tiger Tamer.

Continue reading The Tiger Tamer

We’re at the halfway point, and all systems are go. We’ve got a few slippery items on the budget coming up. Jaron’s tax refundable college expenses, for example, which depend on how much scholarship money he earns. We’ve also got income tax return money and a potential bonus in March. I’ve made conservative estimates for all of them so we’re on the safe side, and we’re still well on target. The budget did get “blowed up” in December, but it worked out fine because we were on top of it. We knew we wanted to spend more on Christmas than we had allocated, so I rigorously updated the budget throughout the month based on our purchases. This allowed us to shift things around on the fly to make sure we weren’t impacting our mortgage payoff plan, but still continue to bless others during the holiday season. I’m not sure how most people follow their budget, but for us the discretionary items are flexible, as long as the bottom line balances out. Continue reading Paying Off the Mortgage, Month 6 of 12