Weekend Update

This past weekend:

• I ran the Race to Wrigley Fun Run 5k with dad {and ran my fastest time, yet!}


• I cheered on the Rush Softball team


• I wandered around some of my favorite downtown spots {the lions, horses, exhaust pipe sculpture, blossoming trees in grant park, and the tulips}, and had one of those "I love Chicago" days.

A lovely weekend indeed.

xo,

PJ

Financial Fitness: Debt Free!

{via Instagram}

We are consumer debt free!

After eleven months, we have completed our second major financial goal:

• Goal One: Set up Emergency Savings Fund // Completed 


• Goal Two: Payoff Consumer Debt // Completed


• Goal Three: Payoff Student Loan Debt // In Progress

We have decided to stay living with my parents, and plan to continue our financial fitness efforts. I'll be posting an update of our next financial goals and steps shortly. For now, I'm going to bask in the satisfaction of reaching a major milestone!

Yippee!!

xo,

PJ

Be Kind to Yourself

{via Pinterest}

Though living with my parents has been an incredible blessing for our financial well being, it has been difficult.

Difficult in the sense that we're married {have been for almost 6 years}, and living with my parents.

Difficult in the sense that everyone around us seems to be on the next chapter of their lives including home-owning, baby-making, second baby-making, etc.

I try to focus on the good things: the money-saving, debt-freeing, quality time moments. But who am I kidding? We are living. with. my. parents.

If I'm not careful, it easily becomes a pity party - feeling sorry for myself and my perceived regression of "normal" life stages ultimately leading down a destructive path I call the "if onlys".

Are you familiar with the "if onlys"? As in "if only (fill in the blank) my life would be so much better". {My favorite fill-in-the blanks: more money, a better job, a child, a house, a car, a different career.} If you've ever been there, you know this: It's a dark, lonely place.

The truth is that we always want the things that we don't have. Jealousy brews just beneath the surface of well-intentioned joy sharing accomplishments of even the closest friends.

I am not proud of this. I am however, realistic. Realistic about recognizing my own tendencies to compare myself to others. It takes a lot of effort to keep my jealousy in check and to live in my own accomplishments.

Not only have these past several months fostered growth in financial maturity, they have served a ginormous lesson in personal growth. I am grateful for this.

I'm learning to be kind to myself, to accept my life for what it truly is: mine.

xo,

PJ