Tag Archives: making sacrifices

Day 3169 – What It’s Like To Share A Car In Your 30’s – repost (with an update)

Posted on by
Reply

I have really enjoyed sharing a car with Bret for the past 3+ish years. Man, I can’t believe it’s been that long already! In some ways, it feels like we’ve always shared a car. I still agree with all the reasons I gave below. But the biggest thing that we’ve gained, that we didn’t know we’d need, was more money to invest in our real estate investing business. I’m grateful that God saw where we would be going a few steps down the line and set us up perfectly for where we needed to be.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
originally posted 10/15/15
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have been sharing a car with my husband for about ten months. It’s not the “normal” thing that people do these days. “Normal” people have two vehicles. We realized though, that we don’t need two vehicles.

Here’s what we’ve learned over the last ten months:
– Sharing increases our patience with each other. There have been times one or both of us have had to wait for the other.
– Sharing a car gives us more time together in the morning and afternoon on the days we both need to be somewhere.
– Sharing a car has decreased our expenses.
– We are thankful for the vehicle we DO have.
– It has shown us we don’t have to be “normal.”
– And finally, it really isn’t that big of a deal. Thankfully, my current job doesn’t require a lot of driving and when it does, it’s an easy “drop Bret off at school, drive where I need to and pick him up” situation.

What about you, have you shared a vehicle? What did you learn?

IMG_0895

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
Join our Facebook group, Planning an Epic Road Trip on Any Budget
Join the Journey With The G’s email list (bonus – you get my Epic Road Trip Budget spreadsheet)
Buy my book, Planning an Epic Road Trip on any Budget.
Buy my book, Trusting God With 2 Cents: 22 Days To Becoming A Successful Christian Business Owner.
Shop on Amazon (no additional cost to you, this gives us a percentage of what you order).
Check out our resources page.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel

Day 2287 – What It’s Like To Share A Car In Your 30’s

Posted on by
Reply

I have been sharing a car with my husband for about ten months. It’s not the “normal” thing that people do these days. “Normal” people have two vehicles. We realized though, that we don’t need two vehicles.

Here’s what we’ve learned over the last ten months:
– Sharing increases our patience with each other. There have been times one or both of us have had to wait for the other.
– Sharing a car gives us more time together in the morning and afternoon on the days we both need to be somewhere.
– Sharing a car has decreased our expenses.
– We are thankful for the vehicle we DO have.
– It has shown us we don’t have to be “normal.”
– And finally, it really isn’t that big of a deal. Thankfully, my current job doesn’t require a lot of driving and when it does, it’s an easy “drop Bret off at school, drive where I need to and pick him up” situation.

What about you, have you shared a vehicle? What did you learn?

IMG_0895

Day 1395 – How We Paid Off 30K In 3.5 Years OR I Can’t Believe Bret Tweeted How Much Debt We Had!

Posted on by
13

On May 1, my dear husband tweeted this in response to another tweeter:

I’m not going to lie, I was a little “upset” that he posted the actual amount of debt we had. I was all for saying, “yay! We’re out of debt!” But didn’t think we really needed to share HOW MUCH. But, then I thought about it some more…especially after having a few friends make comments about it…saying things like, “you want advice on getting out of debt? Ask Jen and Bret!” I realized, we do have valuable information on the topic.

Here are some of the ways we did this:

  • Trusting in God. I know it sounds like a “warm and fuzzy” thing, but it is THE ultimate reason why we are now out of debt.
  • “Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.” – Anonymous i.e. Making big sacrifices.
  • We didn’t buy birthday, Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc. gifts. This was SUPER awkward at first!
  • We didn’t buy new clothes, unless it was absolutely necessary. I went about 5 years in between jeans. The line was when EVERY pair of jeans had a hole.
  • We moved back in with my parents.
  • We didn’t go out to eat as much as we would have liked. One of the hardest things is having to say no again and again….AND AGAIN to hanging out with friends.
  • Eating generic food.
  • Cancelling gym memberships.
  • Downgrading our insurance.
  • Checking books out of the library instead of buying them.
  • Selling things we didn’t use.
  • Saying no, even when it’s painful. i.e. Not visiting Bret’s family for Christmas last year. This was such a big deal because it’s the only time of the year we can see them.
  • Extra money went towards paying down the debt, no questions asked.

It’s painful, it’s sacrifice, but it can be done!

I thought this was an appropriate post today, because we actually had a shopping spree! It was probably the first time we went out, bought things we needed and didn’t say things like “oh, man, we can’t afford that.” A bonus for this shopping trip is that we can write off pretty much all of it! The clothes we bought can and will be worn at weddings/personal training sessions/networking/etc.

The highlight of my purchases? Oh these sparkly heels of course! I’m all about the sparkly!

day_01395

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
Join our Facebook group, Planning an Epic Road Trip on Any Budget
Join the Journey With The G’s email list (bonus – you get my Epic Road Trip Budget spreadsheet)
Buy my book, Planning an Epic Road Trip on any Budget.
Buy my book, Trusting God With 2 Cents: 22 Days To Becoming A Successful Christian Business Owner.
Shop on Amazon (no additional cost to you, this gives us a percentage of what you order).
Check out our resources page.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel

Day 1193 – Moving Back In With My Family

Posted on by
3

You may remember Bret sharing that we were moving back in with my family. Well, tonight is our last night in the apartment. I can’t believe how fast the last 3 years in this place have gone. It has been an amazing time. I’m so thankful that we got so much time to grow as a couple before we had to move back.

Now you may be reading this and thinking…”wow Jen, way to go with the full-time photography! Guess that’s not working out!?” Well, you are certainly welcome to think so. I’ve come to realize, especially over the last few months, I will never make everyone happy. It’s funny, you’d think that’s something a person would learn a long time before 30, but hey. Well, I learned it…but have only just recently accepted it. I do want to share a little more of the story that brought us to this decision.

First, we made the decision to move back pretty quickly after Bret lost his job. The numbers just didn’t make sense. Then, a few weeks later, money actually looked pretty good….but we still decided to end the lease. The day after we mailed the letter that said, ok dudes, we’re moving out, a neighbor was mugged….in their home. Scary right? Yea, you could see my vehicle in the news clips. Yikes. This was a HUGE sign from God to us that we were making the right decision.

Second, my family is awesome. Hands down the coolest family I’ve ever met. It also means consistent workout buddies. Someone is almost always home. I will also have access to so many different books, it’s crazy.

Third, and really, most important. I saw a quote once, that I cannot for the life of me find right now….so I’ll paraphrase.
“Give up today things can’t believe so tomorrow you can live a life people can’t believe.” Or something like that. If you know the right quote, let me know! But the basic idea is that we’re giving up the “luxury” of living on our own to save our money. It’s also because we believe in our business so much, we would rather see that grow than have me get a second job.

So, don’t see this as a “failure” on our part. That we couldn’t get enough work, so we had to “take the walk of shame” back to my parents’, type thing. This is a “need to do now so we can have life we want down the road” type thing.

Also, thank you to all of you who have sent kind words about Bret losing his job. It means so much.

For giggles, here’s my poor computer on the floor of the apartment.