by Amanda Barnard | Oct 28, 2019 | Family, Jeeps on the Rock
Our anniversary is October 24th. For the past couple of years, I have tried to be intentional about taking a little time off of work for us to spend a little time together. I have really been wanting to go to Walt Disney World for last few years, around this time of year.
During this time every year is the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot. I want to try food from everywhere. Most is sure not to be keto-approved, but it isn’t something we would do every anniversary.
Many of you may or may not know, but back in May we bought a jeep. So this year, I got a bright Idea to go to Disney. After watching many videos on YouTube and Brad showing me even more.
But this isn’t Disney like you may have thought. There was no food from around the world, unless you count Mexican. Also there was no Mickey, Minnie, or any of the rest of the gang.
We ventured off to Disney, Oklahoma, where there is alot of off-roading fun for us in our Jeep! With trails, rocks, and water the area did not disappoint. It also gave us the opportunity to see what the Rubicon was capable of.
We have done a few modifications to our Jeep, completely on a tight budget. Thankfully, though, we did mod. I’m sure we could have done several things without any alterations from stock.
More elaboration on the trip later, but for now….. click here for a sneak peaks….
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by Amanda Barnard | Apr 16, 2019 | Financial
Of all the dumb things I have done in my life, carrying a balance on a credit card and paying interest is at the top of the list! I have been working on paying down credit card debt. But, as any venture advances, inevitably something comes up at some point or another, (and usually out of nowhere), that “needs” my help. Oh the curse of being such a giving person!
(I’m actually kidding about the giving part being a curse, but on a serious note, I cannot help everyone. I also can’t help to my own detriment AND if I am helping someone else by using a credit card that I am trying to pay off – well DUH, I am not helping them by hurting myself!)
SOMEONE TELL ME THAT TINKERBELL ISN’T THE ONLY FAIRY THAT HAS DONE SOMETHING DUMB!
John needs Tinkerbell’s help and after all, John is one of her favorite Darlings, SO being the amazing Tinkerbell fairy that she is, what does she do? Finds her pixie dust, knowing that she will sprinkle a little bit of magic around! Tinkerbell goes to her fairy dust (spreadsheet), full of fairy dust (available credit), and trusts that she can figure this out, because this is what fairies do! They have learned over the years how to bibbidi-bobbidi-boo from the best Fairy Godmother out there! Did you see the transformation she did to Cinderella? Amazing, right?!
As she continues going through the fairy dust bag (spreadsheet) to see how much magic can be strews about, she notices that one of the fairy dust makers (credit card companies) has added more fairy dust, but failed to inform her. So imagine the surprise when she realizes there is more available magic in the bag.
Tink had been working on making this list of everything in the bag (my spreadsheet was kind of like the one Dave Ramsey calls the Debt Snowball. Dave suggests using this method to pay down debt in a lowest balance to highest balance manner. He believes this gives most people a sense of accomplishment and keeps their motivation higher.)
She hadn’t realized there was more magic at first, but had noticed this envelope in the mail from one of the Fairy Dust Maker “V” (Visa), earlier in the day. She had received the same kind of envelope from this company before, so it was no mystery what was inside. (blank checks connected to my account, intended for balance transfers. Usually this also meant a promo offer for a ZERO interest for a set period of time OR an extremely, lower interest for an assigned time. What was a conundrum, was why they were sending them to me. I had recently taken advantage of an offer to transfer a balance with zero interest and there wasn’t much room left for anymore transfers. Well not that I knew of, anyway.)
THE FOOLISHNESS CONTINUES…..
After looking online at balances, I update my spreadsheet. I open the envelope and find that the promo offer was 1.99% interest for an allocated time, which turned out to be longer than 1 year. So this was, in fact, a great deal with the excessive rates that I was currently paying.
Now back to Tinkerbell spreading some magic to John Darling. She sees that she can transfer the magic from Fairy Dust Maker “MC” (MasterCard), liberate “V”, so John can obtain the things needed for the Darling household. Now a side note: the plan was for John Darling to give Tinkerbell all of the fairy dust that he used, to put back in her bag in a timely manner. So theoretically, Tinkerbell wouldn’t lose any of her fairy dust, in the long term. In essence John is only borrowing it AND is going to put it back, and be responsible for any interest incurred. This isn’t a huge issue, since Tinkerbell knows exactly where John Darling lives and even has access to his incoming future fairy dust.
Moving on; in my haste of trying to “figure it all out” to help my “favorite Darling”, I wind up transferring……….
wait for it…………
literally the lowest interest card! (*insert face palm)
Instead of taking a little bit of time, processing, and processing some more, yes I did! I didn’t even realize it until I had already completed the task! Right there in front of me, on the spreadsheet was the highest interest card and the available balance that needed to be transferred was under the allotted amount. (*insert another face palm, because we all know it is warranted!).
Now this wouldn’t have helped the favorite Darling, but it definitely would have helped Tinkerbell in the quest to fill up the fairy dust bags! And we all know that any amazing fairy, knows better!
by Amanda Barnard | Jan 15, 2019 | Motivation
Oh the war that goes on in the mind when faced with making someone mad. For some people, it isn’t a huge issue. But for others, oh the frustration!
When you say something to someone and then fret about how they may interpret your statement, this can cause some extreme anxiety. Yet the truth of the matter is, the scenario that have been conjured in your mind are most always not even remotely close to the facts.
I’m going to go out a Disney limb here, what if you were to be like Elsa in Frozen and just “let it go”, because there is no art to people pleasing. Maybe you could make it a personal theme song, every time those thoughts invaded your mind, you simply determined NOT to think the worst and literally let it go.
Take that thought captive and RELEASE! You have more power over your own mind than you may think. You are in control! You are the boss!
What if the flip side occurs? What if someone really does get mad at you?
So what?! Let them be mad. Haters gonna hate, they always drinking the “haterade”. There is nothing you can do about it. Why lose one ounce of sleep?
I heard Joyce Meyer say once that NOTHING and NO ONE is worth giving up peace for! Protect it at all costs.
I agree wholeheartedly – KEEP YOUR PEACE!!
