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About Me

Hello! I'm a stay-at-home mom with a passion for personal finance and healthy living. Join me as a I explore budgetting, eco-friendly brands, gluten-free recipes, capsule wardrobes, and everything in between! Want to learn more about me? Subscribe below and check out the About tab!

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In my years on this minimalism journey, letting go of physical items has generally been pretty easy. Even sentimental items. Even books! You put the item in the trash or a box to be dropped off at donation center and then it’s done. It’s out of your life, and you’ll probably never think about it again. But letting go of intangibles, like the person I want myself to be, can be much harder. I learned how to golf at an early age; it was something I enjoyed and something I was told I had a natural talent for. But I gradually went to the range less and eventually I stopped. I even sold my clubs (finally!) this summer. Do I like golfing? Yes. Is it something I’m going to try to pick up as a hobby, again? No. The joy of playing a round of golf is not an equal trade off for what I would have to give up with my time. So I let that go. We live in an area with a lot of great hiking. I enjoy being in nature and doing physical activities. When we moved here I thought about how fun it would be to go hiking with the kids. I’ve also thought about it going in my downtime when the kids started school. But I’ve gone hiking by myself zero times in my entire life. So I let that go. When we were housing hunting, I loved driving through all the “fancy” neighborhoods in our area. Fancy, for me, was the neighborhoods with sidewalks, well-kept yards, maybe lots of stone and brick. These were neighborhoods I imagined teaching my kids to ride their bikes, having sporadic outdoor gatherings with the neighbors (also young families), and feeling pride just looking at my home. But the trades off were less in our emergency fund, less going towards retirement, and potentially going back to work with no degree and 2 toddlers. So I let that go. And sometimes it can feel really painful to say you’re letting go of a version of yourself you’ve always wanted. But what you can gain....that’s where things get good. (continued in the comments)

Now that my human babies are in school 35 hours/week, my mothering skills are underused so I bought myself some new plant babies 🌺🌴🌻🌲💐🌿 It’s also time for budget check in since we are halfway through August! I don’t know how the month has flown by so quick. I start classes next Wednesday, and I am not ready 😩 So even after the birthday blowout for the kiddos, we are still on track to hit our budget goals for the month! 🙌🏻 The biggest budget buster has always been food which we’re currently at $731 with $519 left for the month. How’s your food budget going for August? It’s never too late to re-group and re-focus to finish out the month strong!

A little late to post, but this rounds out my week of photos celebrating these two kiddos that had some major milestones recently. The solo photos are from their actual first days that were not on the same day so, of course, I had to snag a photo of their first day together. They are already rocking kindergarten like it’s nothing new. So proud of my babies 👦🏼❤️👧🏻❤️ #hoopertwins

We celebrated my sweet babies turning 5 yesterday with a big backyard party. I have to say, I feel incredibly blessed that we have so many friends who came out to make the kids’ birthday special. The absolute best part of the day was getting to watch the kids interact with friends from pre-k that hadn’t seen all summer. The looks on their faces when they ran up to greet them and how they kept remarking to me about how excited they were, it warmed my heart. And it made to grateful that my husband and I are truly living our values, raising children whose favorite parts of their birthday aren’t the cake or the presents, but the family and friends they spend it with. #hoopertwins

Kicking off a week ALL. ABOUT. MY. BABIES. with this lovely surprise on the front lawn from over the weekend. We have orientation today and then a staggered start for kindergarten with Emma going Wednesday, James going Thursday, and both of them going Friday. And if that wasn’t a big enough week, the kids’ 5th birthday is SUNDAY. If you couldn’t tell from the photo, I am one proud momma 🥰 #hoopertwins

My friend Michelle posted the other day on Facebook about not letting the perfect little squares on someone else’s Instagram make you dissatisfied with your own life. Which is so so so true, and one of the reasons why I took my #digitaldetox this summer. But her post also made me think about how I will correct something that is done just to make it better for better’s sake. Take the kids’ bedroom for instance. It is their responsibility to make their bed every morning and put their clean clothing away once/week after it’s been laundered. Is it done to my skill level? No. Because they are 4 year olds. Is it done? Yes! These two photos are exactly their room, no staging or touch ups after they put away their clothing and bed their beds earlier this week. Now you may look at these photos and say “wow, this looks perfect to me!”.....but I’ll let you in on a little secret....turning up the brightness makes every photo look perfect; it’s like the Face App smoothing tool for interior photos. But I see beds not tucked in the way I prefer and clothing not hung up my color and type (yes, I know I sound crazy). It’s been a continual challenge to not try to “fix” how they manage their room. Long story short, don’t let those “perfect little squares” on Instagram make you feel dissatisfied with your own life. But also know that those individuals probably share my perfectionist tendencies, and are those pretty pictures just make them really happy 🥰

We went through another round of toy decluttering recently, and it’s been interesting to see the differences. This time, James and Emma decided for themselves exactly what to donate/sell. The sale of their play kitchen paid for this new storage container from Target they picked out along with glow-in-the-dark stars for their room (not shown) so in terms of #butwhatdoesitcost we came out net positive. I’ve noticed since then they’ve been more creative in how they use their toys. James has been building the most interesting structures with his blocks, like this little metropolis scattered around the family room. And Emma has been devouring books, mostly making up the words along the way, but also trying to sound out words. And when they build something with the wooden blocks, trains, and tool set, it can sit out and my brain doesn’t register it as mess. It actually makes me feel contented just staring at scattered wooden cars and blocks, towering structures, a book or two with a beautifully illustrated cover, all in the middle of a heavily trafficked room. Adding Legos to the mix has been a big topic of discussion in our house lately, and I am truly on the fence about it. I don’t them to lose the open-ended play that comes from our current toys, and I don’t want my mind to just see a mess, counting down the minutes until it seems appropriate for me to tell them to stop playing and clean up. So for now we will continue with this small collection of toys, and I will do my best to explain to the kids why momma doesn’t want them in the house just yet.

Who’s budget is ready for August!?!? My husband and I had our EOM money meeting last night (before FINALLY watching Avengers: Endgame 🦸‍♂️) so we could set these numbers for the month. We mainly use @mintapp to track expenses, but it’s so easy to change those budget amounts and pretend that grocery trip that put you over budget never happened. Writing everything in ink on paper means I can’t lie to myself about what we actually wanted to spend at the end of the month. You’ll notice that our income and savings lines are hidden. While I am an open book and will share everything and anything, my husband is the yin to my yang (I’m a 1w2 ESTJ and he’s a 5w6 ISTJ), and he would prefer I not share our exact household income. But I can share that when we bought our home, our mortgage was less than 20% of our monthly income after taxes. I will also add that I think our food budget is INSANE. And we normally go over this number 🤦🏻‍♀️ So in an attempt get our spending in this area under control, I’m going cash only for this category for August. I kept the categories pretty simple for this written budget, but to break it down: utilities = electric, water, gas, internet, mobile, TV (streaming services), auto = insurance and fuel for 3 vehicles, home management = supplies like dish soap or toilet paper, monthly pest control, pets = food, monthly insurance, hobby = my husband’s budget for his project vehicle and books. Also not listed are expenses that come from sinking funds like my tuition and books for fall semester (estimated $5500), some plumbing work we need completed (estimated $250), and the kids’ birthday. If you haven’t started thinking about your budget for August, it’s not too late! And if you have, what budget category do you want to be lower and how are you working to accomplish that?

The latest home project we finished around here was the hall bathroom used primary by the kids and guests. Swipe for the before photos, the last one being exactly what it looked like when we moved in, and the one with the hole in the being what we found when we took down the mirror 😩 Active time to complete was about 3 days, but we spread it over about 2 weeks. The most challenging part (for Ryan) was addressing how to mount the lights because the studs were directly where we wanted to mount if we wanted the lights centered with the sinks; he ended up building a box to mount them to and we mounting the box to the wall. The most challenging part for me was painting the cabinet. But when faced with $50 for supplies versus $500 for a new cabinet, it’s a no brainer. And if you’re wondering #butwhatdoesitcost.....we spent a grand total of $732.91. This not only includes the things you can see like the lights, mirror, backsplash, decor, and paint, but also electrical supplies for addressing wiring issues, crown molding, and a pneumatic brad nailer to properly install the molding.

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