Weekend Trip

This past weekend, We went away for our early one year anniversary. We went to the UP, Canada, Mackinaw Island and to a friend's house. We have a blast! We had four full days which was such a blessing, since Nick has changed jobs this year.

I didn't work on Friday but Nick did. So I was able to load the car, take the dogs to my parents and be already to leave when Nick got home. Nick ended up working late so we didn't leave until 8pm. Which was 2 hours behind what we wanted.

We got to St. Ignace around 4 am. By time, we got into the room and unloaded, it was 4:30. I have this sweet spot at 5 am that I'm instantly awake. So as soon as i laid down, I wasn't tired anymore. But i did fall asleep but around 8ish, I woke up starving.. Thankfully our hotel had a Continental breakfast. After breakfast, i went back to the room and took a bath in the Jacuzzi tub that we had in the room.
Nick woke up and then we went out to explore St Ignace. I had been there multiple times before but Nick had never been. We went to Castle rock. It was super foggy so we weren't able to see the lake but it was still really cool! We went to a few stores and ate lunch at my favorite pizza place. Then we tried to find a fishing spot. I had promised Nick that on Saturday He could fish. We found a few spots but the gnats were so bad. It made me understand the plagues in Egypt. lol.
After fishing, we went back to the hotel and watched a movie. After the movie, we went out to eat. One of my favorite restaurants in St Ignace, is the Gangplank.  They have amazing food.
After supper, we were going to go to more shops but changed our bed and went back to the hotel. We were both tired and just wanted to rest

On Sunday, we woke early and took the 9:30 Am Ferry to Mackinaw Island. It was the ferry that went under the bridge and it was cold! lol After the ferry ride and we arrived at the island, we took a carriage ride (which was awesome!!) There was two carriage rides. One was drawn by two horses and took you through the town and to Surrey Hill. At Surrey Hill, you get off the ride. They have food, A Museum and Wings of Mackinaw. Wings of Mackinaw is the butterfly place and it was amazing!!!! Nick took lots of pictures and it was amazing to see all those butterflies. After the wings of Mackinaw, it was a short walk to the grand hotel stable. It was amazing to see all the old carriages that they have there. They're still in good condition too.
After Surrey hill, We boarded a 3 horse drawn carriage, and went to Arch rock. At Arch rock,we had 7 mins to take pictures. I had seen the arch rock from below, but it was amazing to see it from the top and to see it with Nick. After Arch rock, they dropped us off and we walked down the hill to go eat lunch. We waited 45 mins for our food but it was amazing. After Lunch, we went to the fort.
We didn't spend a whole lot of time at the fort but it was still amazing.
After the fort, we went into some shops on our way back to the ferry. We both got some fudge and sweatshirts.
On Monday, We woke early and went to Canada!! I love canada. We went fishing and the gnats were still really bad. But we had a blast.
Tuesday morning we woke up, loaded the car and drove to my friends house. She had just had a baby a few weeks ago. I loved visiting with her for a few hours and it was amazing!!
Then we drove the 8 hours home. We got to my parents to pick up the dogs at 10 pm and got home and in bed by midnight lol. It was a long weekend but wonderful.

Christmas, New Years and Tax Season

My goodness! Where has this last month gone? Oh i know, Christmas, New Years, Tax season, College, Yep pretty much sums it up.

Christmas was great for our first year being married. We have 7 Christmas, and we made it to 6 (I was very sick with a migraine for the 7th.) While it was a busy 4 days, it was a good busy. I can't explain to you how amazing it was to wake up next to Nick on Christmas morning and be like "Merry Christmas!" and it be able to see his excitement when it dawned on him that it was finally Christmas. It was like watching a kid on Christmas lol Having Christmas just the two of us was great too.


We had plans to go away for new years but my friends who were supposed to cover my Sunday nursery shift got sick, so we canceled our plans. But on New Years Eve, I got to hold my friends newborn baby girl and we went out to another friends and played games. Then we went back to our little home and watched the ball drop.

Tax Season has officially started which means i'm working over 50 something hours a week. January has always been the hardest month but this year it has actually gone by fairly easily, which has me worried that Feb will be bad.

College started back up for both Nick and I. While i'm online and he's in class, College is annoying. He has class 1 day a week and i do class at work. I should be done this coming summer. yay!!

Another thing that I've picked up this year (2019) is i'm crocheting more. I'm hoping that is summer(once tax season is over) i can start an etsy shop and actually sell my crochet but until then, go check out my crochet blog at crochetbyhg.blogspot.com


Hope you all are having a wonderful new year!!

HG

Bucket Budgeting

I heard once someone say you should do envelope budgeting. That's fine but i never use cash. I can't keep track of it for my personal budgeting. After i moved out, i spent 9 months trying to have a better peace of mind for my budget. and then i found it. It's called Bucket Budgeting. Just like the envelope system but using digital envelopes such as bank accounts. I find it so easy. the first couple of months are hard. So be warned. But once you get used to it, it does get easier. I promise. So For a year now I've done bucket budgeting.. After we got married Nick joined that as well..
Here is how we do it.

We use Capital One 360 Savings and Checking account. You can have 3 checking accounts with unlimited withdraws and the savings accounts are unlimited amounts but only 6 withdraws a month.

We have the 3 checking accounts.
1- For our Credit/Debt Payment
1- For Our House Payment
1- for Our "Lump" account.

Then we have our savings accounts
~ Utilities
~ Car Loan
~ Fitness (This is for plexus right now but someday will be for the gym)
~ Car Insurance
~ Gas Fund
~ Groceries
~ Phone Payment
~ Emergency
~ Medical
~  Gift

We transfer money every Monday from our Personal/Joint checking into the Lump account. It deposits into the Capital One account on Tuesday and Then i transfer each individual amounts into their accounts. Something like this. This is based off our December Budget


Lump account- $1000.00 deposited into the lump account.
the following amounts get transferred out of the lump account,
House account- $128.75
Credit- $200
Utilities- $43.75
Car Loan- $46.50
Fitness- $33.75
Insurance- $75.00
Gas- $87.50
Groceries - $93.75
Phone- $43.75
Emergency- $10.00
Medical- $50.00
Gift- $37.25

This happens every week. Some of the accounts have Auto Transfer but most don't. For fear that it will take longer for the Personal/Lump Deposit from our bank.

Our Budget is the same week after week. It doesn't change when they're 5 weeks in a month. So some of our accounts start the month at zero and end at zero but some don't because of the 5 weeks.

The accounts that start and end at zero
~ Credit account. Some Months we pay more on our debt.
~ Gas Fund- Generally This starts and ends at zero. We have a speedway Credit card that we use for gas and I pay this card off each week, Sometimes the bank account has some left but most of the time, it's drained.
~ Car Loan- If it's had 5 weeks, We just pay a larger payment.

Some accounts gather money through out the whole year. Like the Insurance Account.
Our Car insurance is due monthly and it's only $245 so we're putting an extra $55 dollars in a month. We do this so that eventually we'll hopefully be able to pay the whole balance at the beginning of the 6 months.
Utilities - We put more money into this account than we take out. Why? Well we are currently on budget billing but eventually We'll have to pay the balance on our budget billing but also because i like to have that security and not have to worry about bills.
Phone- This was a great idea! We just kept the extra in the account until we had enough to pay off my phone. Which was great! because it lowered our monthly payment so now we're putting anymore into savings.

Having this money in each savings accounts, just helps my peace of mind when it comes to paying our bills. Even though it's not all in the same account, it's still something in savings.

If anyone has any questions, Feel free to comment :) Hopefully this explains how we do our bucket budgeting