Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend.
We didn’t do a whole lot, but it was a nice relaxing weekend.
Our good friends (W has been good friends with the guy since first grade) are getting married this Friday and decided to plan a quick wedding so we have a lot to do this week to get ready for that and it’ll be a lot of fun!
I booked our engagement photography last week. She takes great photos and I’ve been stalking her wedding website and Facebook for years now so I’m glad I was able to book with her! We are of course taking our engagement photos with our dogs too and I’m really looking forward to it. W is really not looking forward to taking photos. Anyone else had this problem? I feel like I can’t convince him to do this at all haha. I’ve already paid though and it’s $400 for the engagement photos so he will for sure be coming.
Lately I’ve been talking a lot about how we want a new house. We figured that until we actually find the house and are 100% about to buy, then we really need to be doing little things around our house until then to prepare and not be overwhelmed at one time. Also, why not make our house perfect for while we’re leaving here? So we have a long list of things that we need to do. This past weekend I cleaned out my closet and had 2 large trash bags full of garbage to throw away. And this was pure trash: receipts, plastic bags, tags, paper, etc.
This upcoming weekend I plan on de-cluttering everything and getting rid of clothes in my closet. Hopefully I can actually get rid of some clothes and possibly make some extra money too!
So, quick question for all of you: What thing around your house did you improve before you tried selling it? I’m looking for all tips as we want to sell our house for as much as we can and also as quickly as we can. I have a long post dedicated to this in the future but am wondering if there’s anything that I’m leaving out!
I paid off one of my student loans, and it was my only private student loan! Back in 2007 I took out the loan and it totaled $6,000. I paid off the rest the other day and it looks like I accidentally overpaid by $0.01! It’s a nice feeling and I never honestly thought that eliminating student loans would be this exhilarating haha.
Spending
I don’t think we bought anything in the past week, at least nothing that I can think of. We have been doing really good with this and I’m proud. I guess you could of course count for engagement photography that I paid for, but I did budget for that awhile ago.
Also, we have some major expenses coming up. We are paying for W’s parents to go on a vacation. It’s going to be a present to them for being such great people and we’re really hoping that they enjoy it. We’ve saved up for quite some time and are covering the airfare and all-inclusive hotel. I don’t think they’ve ever been to the Caribbean so I’m super excited for them!
Extra Income (does not include salary from our jobs)
I received $823 in payments in the past week. Still waiting on some more payments so I hope they come through soon.
Affiliate income is still my number 1 goal right now. I’m really working on that and hopefully it’ll be around 50% or more of my total extra income each month. Eventually though, my new side hustle will completely take over and hopefully become a larger part of my income. This side hustle will eventually take up a ton of time.
I wish I could tell you guys more! A couple of you asked me if it’s related to blogging, and it’s not at all. It is not related to writing, blogging, advertising, etc. Something completely new! If anyone wants to guess, I’ll take all guesses and confess if someone actually does come up with the right answer. And, if you already know what the new plan is, please don’t tell! I already told a couple of you. 🙂
Food
We haven’t had a meal plan in forever, but we have been doing great with eating at home. We made dinner 5 days last week. The two days that we did eat out were super cheap. Thankfully our 2 favorite restaurants are right next door to each other and just right down the street. They are both super cheap and we spent a total of $35 on going out to restaurants to eat. That’s pretty cheap to me, less than $20 for each night!
We want to continue to eat in as much as we can. We have really enjoyed it. We have more time to relax and hang out since we aren’t in a busy restaurant.
Wedding
As I said above, we booked our engagement photography to be done. We’re not taking them until May because we want everything to be blooming and colorful. Our photos will be a start park with lots of great hiking and pretty cliffs. Sounds like a disaster once you mix heels, dresses and 2 dogs but oh well 🙂
Being healthy
Having the treadmill in our basement has been great so far. I’ve run on it three times in the past week and it’s been great. I’m going to try and at least fit in a couple of miles here and there whenever I have 10 or 20 minutes to spare also.
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I don't now if I can follow up on Glen's guesses. 😉 Great work on getting that student loan paid off! We paid all of mine off just over a year ago and it was awesome to see that 0 balance after paying everything off!
Haha I don't think anyone can follow up after Glen! 🙂
Thanks John, I'm glad it's off. I can't wait until they are all at a 0 balance.
My recent post $823 in Extra Income and Life Updates
We just sold one of our properties ourselves to avoid the realtor commission. I am putting together a post on my experience. We ALWAYS made sure the house was spotless, decluttered, and smelled really nice. We went through a few fabreeze cans.
YES! Exactly the post I am looking for. You'll have to let me know once it's live.
My recent post $823 in Extra Income and Life Updates
My advice on prepping you home for sale – update hardware on cabinet doors, door knobs, hinges… Even faucets and light fixtures if they are outdated. Make sure paint (especially on trim) is fresh & clean. De-personalize & lose any clutter. Also, price it right!
Thanks Sam! I always love your advice 🙂
My recent post $823 in Extra Income and Life Updates
Hahah oh my Glen, no that is thankfully not my side business! Selling deer-anything is a no.
And nope, I'm not selling fudge 🙂
My recent post $823 in Extra Income and Life Updates
Mr. PoP hates pictures, too (I'm not big on them either, so it's not a big deal), but I can totally imagine him saying, "you paid for the engagement pictures, you go be in them!" =)
That's exactly what W said! haha
"It is not related to writing, blogging, advertising, etc. Something completely new! If anyone wants to guess, I’ll take all guesses and confess if someone actually does come up with the right answer."
Hmmmm…what could it be….
My recent post 5 Things I Wish I Had More Time For
You can always guess 🙂
When my wife and I sold our first house we did the following:
+ Fresh coat of (neutral colored) paint in as many rooms as we could stand to paint.
+ Massive cleaning effort (including self-shampooing the carpets)
+ decluttered – EVERY personal picture removed from sight. Potential buyers want to see themselves in the home, and that's hard to do with someone else's pictures everywhere.
+ Ripped down all wallpaper (the home had some dated wallpaper).
Good luck, and looking forward to following how it goes for you!
Luckily we have like no personal pictures up, so we won't have to do that! We do need to freshen up some things with paint though and do some cleaning.
My friend's house sold in one day in January, after he'd spend months doing all the little things, prior to listing. Let's see: gutting closets, like you've said, repainting anywhere that has dings in the wall/trim. – taking down personal photographs (& filling the holes), doing a deep clean, replacing anything that's quasi broken/cracked, checking that all of your lightbulbs work and are fairly bright; if you haven't painted ceilings in awhile, do at least your darkest room, it makes a huge difference.
pressure wash your exteriors – driveway, sidewalks, patios; make sure your fence is standing straight and looking good. trim back any landscaping to ensure maximum brightness inside and tidiness outside. Clean your carpets.
That should be a few to keep you going for a bit! Sorry for the terrible grammar with the list.
Wow that's awesome! Great tips, thanks!
Best thing you can do to your house is touch up all of the paint. That goes a long ways in the buyers mind.
My recent post Personal Finance Week in Review for February 17, 2013
I agree!
even though I haven´t any house of my own, my family has moved a lot. what I`d recommend is to declutter and remove a lot of your super personal stuff. If the house is full of nicknacks and pictures from your entire life, people might feel like their trespassing. you have to make your house feel like a warm and welcoming place where someone other could imagine living.
You are very right. Thanks!
Though you had a relaxing weekend, it still seems you are busy Michelle. While we are in the process of preparing our home to be listed, we are dealing with cleaning the house, replacing the carpet, getting rid of unwanted junk, staging, power washing, fixing anything broken, yard appeal, and all the good stuff. I have a long list on my whiteboard.
These are all things that we really need to do. UGH so much work.
Engagement pictures are always super cute! Can't believe you are already selling your first house!
I'm excited to take them! I will most likely share them on the blog. And yes I know, so soon.
When you go to stage your house, make sure it's completely de-cluttered! No knick-nacks, magnets on the fridge, etc… Clean out closets, make sure people can see the space. Oh, and make sure there is nothing broken. Knobs, handles, etc…
Congrats on paying off one of your student loans! And that is sooo sweet that you are sending W's parents on a vacation 🙂
My recent post Budget, Smudget!
On the house issue, my best advice: I hired a stager to walk through the house with me and point out changes. Rather than pay someone to do the whole job (expensive), hiring them for an hour was a way to find needed upgrades without breaking the bank.
My recent post Average Joe vs. Upside Down Teacups and Other Nonsense
Good idea! Thanks.
Yes I'm pretty happy that we are able to send them on a vacation! And haha I've never had a family photo or anything taken, so I'm pretty excited. This will be my first professional photo ever.