First let’s recap my Q2 Goals (AKA the last blog post I wrote…)

Exercise 5 Days Per Week – Out of the last 14 weeks, there were only 3 weeks I did not complete at least 5 workouts. It definitely helped that the weather has been great for lots of walks. 

Time Blocking/ Batching – Overall this was a bit of a failure, but I think I’ve decided it’s just not the way I operate best!

Organize and Declutter Spare Room – Done! Feels good to be cleaned and organized in there.

Spend More Time Writing – When I made this goal, I definitely meant to spend more time writing blog posts here on Will Save For Travel, but a few days after I made this goal I signed a new virtual assistant client writing blog posts. We also updated the Travel Mug Podcast website, and I’ve signed another new VA client which will involve writing. Scotland blog posts are also coming your way!

Q3 2022 Goals

Pinterest

Business wise, I’d like to get back into using Pinterest, and start using Pinterest for the podcast! We have growth goals for the podcast, like hitting 1000 downloads per month!

Exercise 5 days per week

Carry over from last month, but I don’t want to give this up! I feel so much better when I’m exercising regularly. 

20% Of Take Home Pay In Savings

Right now we are saving about 10% into our RRSPs, and I’d like to bump that up a bit. We are saving another 20% into short term savings like travel, renovations, Christmas and utilities. 

Enjoy Summer

I am doing surf lessons weekly, but I want to make sure we are getting out and enjoying the best season in Nova Scotia! We are adding a new dog to our family very soon, and hope to take her on some road trips and hikes.

2022 Goals Update

Since we’re a little more than halfway through the year, it’s a great time to look at my great big 2022 goals!

Invest More – Haven’t done this yet! It plays into my goals for this quarter though.

Look into Solar – After numerous quotes and chatting with installers, we decided that solar wasn’t a great option for us right now, as much as I wanted it to be! It was going to be around $30,000-$40,000, and it was only going to offset 70% of our electrical usage. To heat our home we’ve decided to invest in a wood forced air furnace instead. It should keep us toasty warm in the winter and be less expensive than our current baseboard heaters and oil furnace. 

Exercise 3 Days Per Week – I’ve been ontrack with this, and feeling stronger!

Shop Small Businesses – Going well, we’ve been enjoying local coffees, restaurants and more!

Get A Will – Still not done! 

We still have some things to work on, but overall 2022 is going well!

Recap of Q3 Goals:

Stay Under Budget For Groceries

We stayed under budget about half the time in the last 3 months. Groceries continues to be one of those challenging things in my budget.

Set Up The Profit First System

I’ve set up the profit first system for my business! I ended up changing banks for my business banking to get a better deal. I plan to write a full post on the Profit First system soon!

Go To The Beach Once A Week

I definitely went to the beach at least once a week in July and August, but stopped in September. It’s been so nice to be close to the beach again. I’ve really enjoyed it!

Q4 Goals

9 Blog Posts Published

I have been slacking on writing blog posts, and I want to focus more time on this blog in the next 3 months. I love writing, but since becoming a virtual assistant, I’ve spent a lot more time writing for other people and not as much for myself! 

3 Days of Strength Exercise Per Week

As the weather cools off, I want to make sure I’m sticking with my fitness goals. In the summer I spent a lot of time walking outside for exercise, and now I want to make sure I get strengthening exercises in the mix as well. 

Save $1000 Towards A New Car

Our 2011 Toyota is hanging in there, and hopefully it will for a while, but we are saving for a new car for the future. We are hoping to buy an electric vehicle, and want to have as much saved as possible. To save $1000 by the end of the year we’ll have to save at least $143 each pay day. I think that’s doable!

Final Thoughts

Making these goals definitely helps me stay on track and keep in mind the things that are important to me. Do you have any goals you’re working on?

We’ve officially had our Douglas by GoodMorning.com mattress for 120 nights! Which means we’ve reached the end of our “sleep trial period”. 

GoodMorning.com gives you a generous almost four months to make sure you are happy with your new mattress purchase, spoiler alert: we are keeping ours!

What Is The Douglas Mattress?

If you missed our original post, we got a mattress in a box delivered right to our door in mid August. It only took about 6 minutes to set up, and it was so fun to watch it expand; check out our video below.

Read More: Douglas By GoodMorning.com: My Honest Review

I love that Douglas mattresses are made in Canada, with environmentally conscious materials. The 3 layers of foam are less dense than traditional foam, so they are lighter and easier to ship, but don’t worry – it holds its shape!

This mattress is so reasonably priced, the queen bed comes in at just $749, and it shipped so quickly!

Highlights:

• Made in Canada
• 15 Year Warranty
• 120 Night sleep trial + FREE returns!
• No off gassing smell
• Machine washable cover
• EcoLight®️ cooling gel foam keeps you cool at night

Review After 120 Nights

I wrote in my first review that we were feeling unsure after the first few nights, but then after the first week we have been loving our mattress! My husband ended up ditching his pillow to the spare bed (lucky guests!), but I love mine. 

I was a bit worried about sagging since this mattress is made entirely of foam but there are no indents in it at all. It forms to your body at night and springs (metaphorically, there are no springs!) right back in the morning when you get up. They recommend rotating your mattress every 4-6 months, so we’ll be doing that to make sure it wears evenly! 

The dog definitely loves sleeping with us at night, and I don’t notice her moving around too much, except when she pulls the blankets off!

Final Thoughts

I couldn’t be happier with our Douglas mattress! I know we’ll be enjoying it for years to come. 

The good news? If this mattress isn’t for you, GoodMorning.com has 6 others to choose from! Make sure to check them out. They even have a quiz you can take so you find your perfect match.

A year already?! Although the past year seems like it simultaneously went by in the blink of an eye and also at turtle speed. So much has happened and changed in our lives, but also so much has stayed the same. I’m excited to go down memory lane with you in this post!

Also I just needed to take some time to celebrate that we have not gone back into debt over the past year!

What I Thought Debt Free Life Would Be

When we were in the middle of paying off our debt, sometimes we threw $1000+ a month onto the debt. Most months it was a bit less than that, but it was a big chunk of change every month. I thought once we were debt free we would be able to SAVE that much (spoiler alert – we haven’t)!

I knew it would feel amazing when we finally became debt free, and it totally does, but I wasn’t prepared for the lack of direction I would feel for a few months after. 

Finding My Footing

Last summer was a bit of a mess financially. We took a trip to Toronto and Niagara Falls at the end of July that was a bit of a budget buster, and then I took a few weeks off budgeting as I switched us over to bi-weekly budgeting from monthly budgeting. My husband also switched jobs, which led to a little drop in his income initially. 

Once the Fall rolled around I found my footing and we settled into a new budgeting routine that included saving quite a bit for travel. 

We took an amazing trip to Disney, all paid for in advance and then set our sights on a Meditteranean cruise for April 2020.

2020

Financially we decided we needed to start saving for a new car. I set a goal of saving $10,000 in one year, which was a bit of a stretch but I thought we could do it! We also were saving for our April trip, and we had definitely experienced some lifestyle creep by going out a bit more.

Of course in March everything came to a screaming halt when I was mandated by the government to stop working. Our April trip to Italy and the Meditteranean was cancelled and I lost my income for the next 11 weeks. Thanks to the government CERB program, I was able to top up Ryan’s income so we didn’t go into debt or use much of our emergency fund. 

Going Forward

That brings us up to today! I’ve been back at work for the last 4 weeks, but to be honest I went back part time. This was a personal decision, not so much a financial one. My income is less than it could be right now but I needed to step back a bit. Massage therapy is a physical job. I didn’t realize how much it was affecting me until I took an extended break. 

To be even more honest I don’t know what my future career will look like. I’ve been wanting to step back from massage therapy for a while, I’m just not sure what to do next. I’m grateful for the space to figure that out!

As I stated in my Quarter 3 goals post, we are not currently focusing on saving for a new car. Instead – short term – we are focusing on saving to replace our deck, and then we’ll see what our goal will be after that.

As for the mortgage, which is technically debt, we are still chipping away at it, little by little! We got it  under $200,000 owing a few weeks ago! Our mortgage is up for renewal in a few months as well. 

Final Thoughts

Being debt free allowed us to weather a pandemic, and going down to one income without too many financial repercussions. I can not be more grateful that we paid off the debt last year instead of this year! 

If a global pandemic has taught me anything, it’s the importance of pivoting. Being able to pivot your business, your financial goals, and your focus.

2010

I graduated massage therapy college in June of 2010, so for the first half of the year I was living on student loans and some money I had saved from my highschool job and from working in the summer. My husband and I had been dating for about a year and we moved in together in June 2010. It was a big year for us! 

I started my massage therapy career in August, and finally got my first “grownup” paycheck! It was slow going at first because I was new and still building my clientele, I was actually scared I had made a huge mistake! Over the last couple months my income started to increase as my clientele grew. 

When I graduated college, I had accumulated about $15,031.34 in student loan debt. My husband also had student loan debt from his 4 year university degree, and a brand new car – and the payment that came with it! It was definitely a struggle navigating paying back loans and getting our first apartment together. 

Between my student loan, my husband’s and his car our debt would be approximately $54,588.64

2011

As I settled into my career my income became more steady and I felt more confident managing my finances as a self employed massage therapist. I wasn’t making a lot but my husband and I split finances 50/50. Luckily at this time we weren’t taking on any consumer debt but we were struggling to get the student loans under control. In the spring we added a little poodle spaniel mix to our family: Ellie! We also took our first real trip as a couple this year – to Disney! I paid for the entire trip with tips, sort of a precursor to sinking funds! 

2012

Not much of note happened in 2012 as far as I can remember! My husband was trying to figure out his career and had worked a few jobs in a few different fields. We made enough to cover our bills and travel a little. I made my first trip to Thunder Bay to visit my best friend that year. We refinanced the car to TD instead of with Honda to save some money on interest.

2013

Early in the year we got to go back to one of my favorite cities – New York! My husband decided to go back to school in 2013 to take a paramedic program, which meant that I would be the only one working for about a year. It was a scary leap but I worked 6 days a week to cover the bills while my husband furthered his education. Unfortunately this meant adding $9450 to his student loans. We made it work and I even squeezed in a trip to Iceland with my step mom in October, which is still one of the best trips I have ever taken! 

2014

For the first half of 2014, my husband was still in school, and I was still working 6 days a week. On June 1st my then boyfriend became my fiance when he proposed on a hike in Cape Split (one of the best hikes in Nova Scotia!). This meant we started saving for a wedding and honeymoon. He graduated from his paramedic program in the late summer and began the hiring process (which lasts forever) and he worked a retail job in the meantime. It was so nice to have a second income again! 

2015

This is what you might call a banner year! 3/4s of the year was saving as much as we could for our wedding, honeymoon, and then for our house downpayment. My husband started his paramedic job and we were finally back to two full incomes. In June we started house shopping and we ended up putting an offer in on a house about 2 weeks before our wedding which was on August 1st! I can’t say I recommend that timeline! A week before our wedding we had the home inspection and we closed on September 15th, about 3 weeks before our 14 day Europe honeymoon began. Thanks to saving as much as we could and the generosity of our friends and family through wedding gifts we managed not to take on any debt from the wedding, or honeymoon. We had saved enough for a 5% downpayment on our house, and we took on $242,000 mortgage. 

Our honeymoon took us to Iceland, then London and Paris. We had such an amazing time, from seeing a Chelsea FC game to visiting Disneyland Paris I am so grateful we got to spend those 2 weeks together after the stress of a wedding and buying a house all within 45 days!

We also finally paid off Ryan’s car loan and I paid off the last of my student loans. 

2016

2016 was a quiet year compared to all the fun things we got to do in 2015! We settled in to home ownership by doing a few projects around the house – mostly finishing the fence in the backyard and then adding stairs off the deck so we could enjoy our little property. We did lots of local traveling because we had depleted all our savings the previous year. I did manage a trip to Thunder Bay and Minnesota to visit my BFF.

2017

We started the year by traveling to NYC in January for a friends wedding, and it was an amazing time and a great way to start the year! In the winter I started to think about writing a blog but I had no idea how to build a website or even buy a domain. I eventually mentioned it to my husband (I was so nervous that he’d think it was silly!!) but he responded with the fact that he was interested in learning code and he started learning and building my website. In June we finally got back to Disney World after 6 years, I had missed it so much. In July Will Save For Travel was born! Putting our lives and finances on the internet was one of the scariest things I have done but it has been such a positive in our lives. Of course in September 2017 I wrote that we were ready to seriously tackle our debt and we made a plan to pay it off in 2 years. Our debt was $26,556.14, not including the mortgage. 

We finally started budgeting more frequently (and successfully) and I was surprised at where our money was going.

2018

If you’ve been reading a while you probably know most of the next 2 years were full of paying off debt. After finally getting serious we managed to pay off $16,246.84 in one year. On the travel side of things I got to go to Las Vegas with my best friend in the Spring, which was an amazing trip and then back to Disney World in the fall with my Husband. Disney at Halloween was one of my favorite experiences! 

2019

We started this year on a Bahamas cruise and exploring Miami with my Mom and Step-Dad in early January. It was so much fun, and nice to be warm in January! In July we finally made our last ever student loan payment and became debt free except for the mortgage! It was such a great feeling, I was so relieved that part of our financial journey was over because it freed up so much room in our budget! In August we explored Toronto and Niagara Falls to celebrate our anniversary, birthdays and becoming debt free! We finished up our year by traveling to Disney once again – this time to see all the beautiful Christmas decor. 

The Next Decade

I hope the next decade will bring a lot more traveling (duh, why else would I name my blog Will Save For Travel?!). Other than that I’m not really sure what the decade holds. I believe I’ll make a career change in the next 10 years, and it’s possible that we will move. I’m excited to see what adventure life will throw at us!

Any highlights you want to share about the last decade?!

A few years ago, turning 29 seemed scary. It’s been ingrained in our culture for so long that your 20s are some of the best years of your life, so why would you be excited to leave them behind? My 20s have certainly been filled with amazing things; my engagement and wedding, meeting some of my best friends, buying our house, so many travel adventures, and becoming debt free! It’s also been filled with so much personal growth, that I refuse to believe that my 20s will be the “best years”! Here are some random thoughts I have on turning 29 that I thought I would share:

Just yesterday it dawned on me that I don’t wear makeup anymore, and I don’t really care to. To be completely fair, I do get eyelash extensions, but I haven’t worn makeup in months. I have never been skilled with makeup, and I used to be jealous of those that could flawlessly do their eyeshadow, and that gorgeous winged eyeliner. I’ve spent so much money on makeup to try and teach myself, only to give up and let it sit in my makeup bag for months – or years – before finally throwing it out. Not saying I’ll never wear makeup again but I’m grateful for the confidence that my late 20s have brought me.

Experiences make me happier than things. I am still learning this one, but as I look around my house and see all the “things” that we have, I know that most of my happiest times are not buying a pair of shoes, or a home decor item. It’s all the travel, playing board games with friends, and hanging out with my husband. When I go through my Joy Journal, I’ve barely ever written about a possession, and always write about the days spent on the deck with my family, cuddling with my dog, and time spent connecting with others. I’m still working on not buying “things”, but I’m trying to remember that they aren’t what makes me truly happy.

Finding your “tribe” is the best thing ever! In the past few years I’ve been lucky enough to connect with a lot of people over similar interests. Lots of new friends made, and reconnections over Disney, budgeting, blogging, and traveling in general. It’s such an amazing feeling to talk about Disney to other people who get it. Even if you can’t meet in person, a Facebook group, or an online chat is a great way to talk about the things you love.

It’s okay not to know what you want the rest of your life to look like. Will we live in Halifax forever? Move abroad? Have kids? Change careers? Honestly I have no idea! But I’m okay with the unknown for now. You don’t have to make all the decisions at once.

So there are some of the random thoughts bouncing around my head as I enter the last year of my 20s! Have an amazing weekend my friends, I’m grateful for each one of you that are reading.

I started this blog to have some accountability to get out of debt, and also share my love of travel. What I’ve gotten is an amazing community of people that have cheered us on, and celebrated our wins, as well as encouraging us through the not so easy times. 

As you probably know, we became debt free this month, we paid off over $26,500 in 21 months and I’m really proud of that. I’m excited to enter the next financial chapter of our lives.

In the past year we’ve traveled to Disney, Miami, The Bahamas, and all over my beautiful province of Nova Scotia! Next week we set off to check out Toronto and Niagara Falls. 

I hope the next year of bloggings brings lots of travel, savings and adventure! I can’t wait.

Read The Most Popular Posts

I thought it would be interesting to see which of my posts have been the most popular in the last year. I’m a little surprised that the top 4 are Disney related, and that all of them are travel related!

1. Adults Only Disney World Trip
2. The Best Snacks At Disney World
3. No Park Day at Disney
4. Tips For Epcot Food and Wine Festival
5. New York City In The Winter

GIVEAWAY!

One of the things I’m most proud of is the budget binder. I wanted to be able to share my system with you in a way that was easy to follow, fun to use and inspirational. I’ve been using this binder for about a year now and it’s made such a difference! So I want to give one away to one of you! Enter below and I’ll draw for a winner on August 4th 2019!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

February was a bit rough on us honestly. The whole car fiasco wasn’t something we expected but I’m grateful we had the money in an emergency fund to pay for it!

I would recap my February goals but let’s leave it at I failed on all 3 this month. I did not work out regularly, I did not sell $250 worth of stuff (I tried, but I think everyone is purging right now) and I did not go through my closet. So, blank slate, I forgive myself and let’s start again for March.

I did get this amazing new mug, so that’s one good thing!

March Goals:

Here’s to a better month!

Health Goal – Run (hopefully outside). If I’m going to run in the Bluenose in just a few months, I better get my butt moving!

Finance Goal – Does do my taxes count? Okay fine, I’m also going to bring my lunch and/or breakfast to work so I don’t have to go out and buy anything.

Other Goal – I’ve got a little secret project I have been working on that I will announce this month, I just need to finish somethings up first!

Net Worth Update:

Not too bad for a car emergency. We have paid off 84% of our debt!!

My great big health goal was to write in a gratitude journal everyday, I actually did an entire post on this, but I did it! My joy journal has just become part of my routine and I will definitely keep going. It was so fun to read back over the joyful moments of the year.

My great big finance goal was to be under $10,000 in debt. I’m so proud of us for sticking to this goal. There were so many times I wanted to spend money on other things but we did it! In January 2018 we had $22,466.70, but tonight when the last student loan payment of the year comes out we will have just $6219.86 left! We paid off $16,246.84 this year.

I can’t help but think what would have happened to that money if we hadn’t been tracking where our money was going. Probably would have just gotten spent on food and Disney

My great big other goal was to launch a side hustle. This path was winding, and took me in a little different direction than I had thought when I first made this goal. At this time last year I was thinking of developing a continuing education course for massage therapists here in Nova Scotia. I spent about 6 months doing research and planning before I realized that my heart wasn’t in it, and this project was taking up a lot of time that I wanted to be spending on other things. In the summer I started a new project I was very excited about, and I finally launched it YESTERDAY! I did a webinar on how to make a budget using the zero based budgeting method, and launched my Budget Binder. I am so proud of this binder, which has the worksheets that we have been using to manage our money.

You can find more info here!

P.S. you can still see the webinar replay by joining my Money Talks with Will Save For Travel facebook group.

2019

Now for 2019. I think 2019 is going to be pretty great on the travel front, we’re taking off for our very first cruise in 4 days, and then we have Disney World booked for December 2019. I’m sure we’ll think about adding a few more destinations in there. I’ve done a lot of thinking over the last few weeks about what I want 2019 to look like, and the goals I will set:

Health Goal:

Start running again, and then run the 10K at the Bluenose Marathon in June. I have run the 10K twice before, and while running hasn’t always been my favorite activity, I love the feeling of accomplishment when you finish a race. The Bluenose Marathon weekend is always a great time. So I’ll be making a training plan, and maybe you’ll see me hitting the pavement!

Finance Goal:

The easiest goal to set for the year would be to pay off the rest of our debt, however I’m fairly confident that we’ll hit our debt repayment goal by September 30th. I’d like a little challenge in there as well, so I’m also going to make a goal to increase our net worth to $80,000. We’re currently sitting around $70,000 so by the time we pay off our debt, I think this will be attainable.

UPDATE: We hit our $80,000 net worth goal in June 2019! I am upping the goal to $90,000!

Other Goal:

As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, the environment is important to us. I have decided to try and limit the amount of single use plastic that we bring home. By making sure we bring reusable bags to the grocery store, not buying produce wrapped in plastic and not buying bottled beverages, we should be able to reduce the amount of plastic that we recycle!

That’s it! Before we know it I’ll be writing 2020 goals! I hope you all have a happy new year tonight, and I’ll be back again tomorrow with my January goals!

Thank you so much Lau Family Travels for nominating me for the Sunshine Blogger award! I didn’t know it when I started blogging, but the friendships and connections I’ve made along the way have been one of my favorite parts! It’s so awesome to cheer each other on and watch each other grow.

What Is The Sunshine Blogger Award?

The basis of the Sunshine Blogger Award is for bloggers to recognize other bloggers who are positive, creative, and inspiring. It is also a way to meet new bloggers, help spread the word about different bloggers, and just spread some sunshine in general!

The Rules

There are a few rules to the Sunshine Blogger Award and nominations, as to get to know and discover fellow bloggers. These are:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you in your blog post and link back to her /his blog.
2. Answer 11 questions that the blogger asked you.
3. Nominate 11 new bloggers to receive the awards and write them 11 questions.
4. List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger award logo in your post on your blog.

The Questions

1.When did you start blogging & why?

I started blogging about a year ago, we just had our first birthday in July! I wanted to share my love of travel with people, and I was ready to take control of our finances and help others do the same. I hope I’ve inspired people along the way!

2. What would you do with 1 million dollars?

Oh man, what would a personal finance blogger do with a million dollars? I would pay off the rest of our debt, then invest and of course take an amazing vacation with family and friends!

3. What tools do you use the most for your blog?

Probably tailwind, a scheduling app for Pinterest so I don’t spend a million hours on there everyday. I also like Answer The Public for brainstorming topics.

4. If you could go on a vacation anywhere (all expenses paid) where would you choose?

Right now I’d say South of France and Spain. That could change tomorrow!

5. What is your biggest struggle when it comes to blogging?

Of course I struggle with feeling insecure. I put a lot of myself out there for this blog, especially about our finances. I was worried when I first started about people being too critical but that hasn’t really been an issue!

6. What’s your favorite thing about blogging?

The friends I’ve made and the people I’ve connected with! It really is a supportive community of bloggers, that’s something really special

7. If you could pick a song to be the theme song of your life what would it be?

“A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes” I love this song! Reminds me to keep dreaming and working towards that dream.

8.What was your favorite vacation you’ve been on?

I think my husband, family and friends would expect me to say one of our Disney vacations! I love Disney so much, the thought of going makes me giddy. But one of my favorite vacations was a quick trip to New York City to see my husband’s best friend get married. It was such a fun trip, just full of laughing and eating and drinking! I’ll always remember that trip as being so happy.

9. Where do you see your blog in the next 5 years?

I really want to continue to grow and reach more people! I have some exciting ideas that I’m not quite ready to share yet!

10.What is your favorite social media site?

I’m such a Facebook addict! I love seeing what people are up to.

11. Tell us 3 random facts about yourself!

1. My favorite color is blue! It’s everywhere in my house. I think it’s because I love the water/ ocean so much.
2. I really want to go to Antarctica.
3. One of my biggest dreams in life is to write a book.

My Nominees:

1. Travarela
2. VeraVise
3. Oh Sweet Disney
4. Mickey Chatter
5. My Alternate Life
6. Let’s Get Tripsy
7. Nomad By Trade
8. Castle Party
9. Two Drifters
10. A Great Big Hunk Of World
11. Kait Around The Kingdom

My 11 questions

1. How did you choose what topic you would blog about?
2. What is your favorite item you own and why?
3. Where would you travel if you were given an all expenses paid vacation?
4. What is the best thing you’ve eaten while traveling?
5. What would you do with a million dollars?
6. What’s your guilty pleasure?
7. Where would you live if money was no object?
8. What’s your favorite book?
9. What do you love about blogging?
10. What’s your biggest blogging struggle?
11. Window seat, middle seat or aisle seat while flying?

Spread the sunshine!

It’s been so fun to connect with and nominate other bloggers! I love spreading the sunshine with other people who I know work hard on their blogs. If nothing else comes from my blogging, the people I’ve connected with is all worth it.