mindytempleton7371

No more tampons..period

Let me tell you something that’s going to blow your mind. I used tampons for a good 20 years of my life, and much like all the other topics I write about, I did it because everyone else was and I literally didn’t know there was another way. Sure there are pads if you want to throwback to your diaper days and feel disgusting for a week out of every month..ummm..hard pass. I still remember in great detail my struggles as a teen learning how to install my first tampon with the super unhelpful directions and diagrams that come with the box. Even after twenty years of practice, it still never felt like it was installed right. 🤷‍♀️

Imagine my surprise about four years back when another woman casually mentioned to me her menstrual cup. Ummm..excuse me..are you getting a drink for your vagina or something?? WTF is a menstrual cup?? Better yet, why has nobody told me, your fellow woman, in all these many menstrating years, that there were other options?? I felt like y’all have been holding out on me, and I don’t want anyone else to go even one more cycle without the period knowledge I’m about to flow upon you. Because the menstrual cup is a GAME CHANGER. 💃🏻

How a menstrual cup will change you:

1. Comfort-Seriously..nothing like the feeling of inserting a tampon on a light flow day and having the experience of pulling that bad boy out at the end of the day..ouch. Also, the leaking..the freaking leaking..why do I even bother with wearing it if it’s still going to ruin my underwear? Don’t worry..these are concerns that I have never had with my menstrual cup!!

2. Better Periods-Because if you’re going to have one every month for 40ish years, might as well make it your best version right? I swear that my periods have been shorter and lighter since I stopped using tampons. Also, the cramps are almost gone and bloating has decreased a lot. I really think a lot of period symptoms are due to all the tampons laced with chemicals. ☠️

3. TSS-See my above mention of the chemical and dye soup that is just begging to attract bacteria into your body from tampons. Also, I used to get UTI’s and yeast infections and haven’t had not a single damn one since I stopped wearing tampons four or so years ago. Coincidence? I think not. 💁‍♀️

4. Convenience-I used to change tampons every 2-4 hours, and first I had to find another tampon, go buy one if I’m out, and sometimes the only option is the gas station sandpaper ones, and then next was go install it and find a trash bin for the applicator and wrapper. Now I simply just have to bring myself and my cup, and only empty it out every twelve hours. So I do it when I wake up and when I get home..that’s it. I’ve never had it leak during a run or downward dog, and no it doesn’t look like a murder scene when I empty it like the menstrual cup memes make you think. I’ve had one incident where I spilled, and I cleaned that shit up like a good murderer and went about my day. No evidence. No big deal. I would however advise you to leave your four year old son out of the public bathroom with you if you need to empty, because well, they have questions, and loud voices, and they tell EVERYTHING to EVERYONE.

5. Mother Earth-Did you know that each of us menstrating women generates 1,000 lbs of waste in our lifetime from tampons, and the applicators take 500 years to break down?! Ditch the tampons for the turtles!

6. Money-If you go through the average 12,000 tampons in your lifetime, then you will also spend around $4,000 in total. Go get you a $30 menstrual cup that will last you ten years, and invest the rest. Throw that money into a Roth IRA instead of a landfill. 💰

Alright..I know you have questions and I’m not shy..so ask away. 😉

And if you’re sold like I was..link below to change your menstrual life today!

https://amzn.to/2ITT9VZ

Rental House #2 Details

Our newest tenant moved in on October 1st, so I figured it would be a good time to stop slacking and post the details. This one has a funny story with it. House #1 we bought on location location location, and house #2 is no different, being an adorable 2/1 that’s walking distance to a cute downtown with shops and lots of activities like a farmers market on the weekend. Turns out I totally have a type. 😂

First off..let’s talk money, because I know y’all are nosey like me..lol. Since we are paying the mortgage on house #1 out of our own money. (we no longer have daycare, so replaced that payment with the mortgage payment) This allowed us to use the rent funds from house #1 to fund the down payment of house #2. Our tenant for house #1 had paid the whole year up front, which was around $10,000, so talk about creative ways to leverage other people’s money. I decided to put that money to work, instead of letting it just sit in our account being lazy. 🤷‍♀️

We found house #2 and put an offer back in June that was like $12k under asking, but a fair offer based on comps in the area. They didn’t accept it, and they ended up having someone else back out due to finances falling through. I found out because I was creeping online looking for the next deal and saw it pop back up on MLS. Funny part, they ended up dropping the price to the same amount we originally offered. So we decreased our offer by a few grand, and the seller accepted it. Should have just accepted our first one. 💁‍♀️

So total purchase price was $86k and we put 15% down, so around $13k to closing and our monthly mortgage payment is $595. We are renting it out for $875, so around $225 cash flow after mortgage and property management. For the property manager, we will pay around $50 a month, and one month rent for the initial showings and tenant screening. We didn’t have much of anything to do or money to spend to get rent ready, besides a whole lot of magic erasering and replacing the nasty toilet. 🤢

The tenant did ask if she could install a garage door opener (with her own money) and we told her no that we would not only cover it, but we would send our guy to do the install. She works crazy shifts and said she would feel safer being able to pull right in late at night. I honestly didn’t even notice it didn’t already have an opener and felt bad. Before she moved in, I did get a bid for converting the one car garage to a bedroom and think I will save up the cash flow to pay for that renovation after this tenant. We may even get crazy and attempt this project on our own. 😉

A few things I learned through this one.

1. Life was really busy when we got this one, so I enjoyed not having a lot of random little details like trim painting or landscaping or really anything to do, but I also feel like I’m ready to roll up the sleeves on the next one. 💪🏼

2. I am excited about the potential to increase the value and rent through adding a bedroom. It would only take about 2 1/2 years to recoup the project expense through increased rent, and that doesn’t even cover the added value that we could then use to BRRRR, just with a few of the r’s switched around in there. 😜

3. I’m so glad to have started the tenant move in baskets. It went over well and sets a good first impression for under $20.

4. I am feeling a little uncertain about the property management portion, and think we have learned a lot since we first started. I know we can handle on our own and my husband thinks opposite. So I’m working on my persuasive speech for self management on the next one (I can’t wait to report back on who wins this one).

5. I am ready for the next deal..since you know my type..who’s got it??

The Debt Epidemic

🚨Keepin it real rant ahead🚨

This is us..this is America..scary huh? What if I told you that we are all responsible for this culture of debt and living above our means and we all have to contribute to putting an end to this. It’s hurting us, our kids, our health, our planet, it’s an epidemic and I wish more people were feeling terrified about the topic. It just keeps getting worse each year, small credit card purchases, car payments, student loans, slowly adding up to over $13 trillion. 💳

Who’s ready to break the cycle?? And I don’t mean just pay off the minimums and maybe a little extra to continue to be a slave to debt for the rest of your life. I don’t mean to just do a debt consolidation or home equity loan or line of credit to pay off..because debt is still debt..whether it’s paying ten different people or paying one. And now that you’ve consolidated, guess what, you’re probably just going to add MORE debt now that you’ve freed up those credit cards. 🤷‍♀️

Your past will continue to haunt you if you aren’t ready to take a long hard look in the mirror and realize that YOU created this mess, and YOU have to do the hard work to not only get out of it, but STAY out of it. You have to STOP talking about how you don’t make enough money, you’re just barely scraping by and don’t have any extra to pay, maybe once you pay off the car or once you get that tax return you will, or once you get a raise you will, you are lying to yourself. STOP playing the victim and STOP making excuses for your spending habits. You’re only hurting yourself.

Also, those student loans, yeah those suck just as bad as the credit cards, but you CHOSE to go to school and you took them out, so guess what? You owe it..so PAY that shit back already!

YOUR kids SEE you living that lifestyle, and they HEAR you fighting about money, and they FEEL your stress at the end of the month when there’s not enough paycheck to go around. They see you treating yourself “because you earned it”, and they are learning that shopping makes everything better..new stuff will take away that rough week..only it wont.

Harsh words, but let me ask again..who’s ready to break the cycle??

Seven FREE Apps to help you become stress free

Ok..so my title may be a little misleading..since becoming stress free is likely impossible. But I needed to get your attention and it sounded catchier than seven free ways to reduce stress. 🤷‍♀️

You guys..it’s 2019 and we KNOW that we are all living with a more demanding schedule causing a more stressful life AND it has been proven to have an impact on our health. Some studies say that as many as 80% of people are feeling both physical and psychological effects of stress, such as fatigue, headache, stomachache, muscle tension, anxiety, nervousness, irritability, and sleep disturbances, just to name a few. Do you currently feel stressed?

I keep talking about minimizing the demands on your time and that as a society we need to stop glorifying “being busy” as a status symbol of success, but are you listening?! We also need to start ditching unhealthy coping mechanisms, like drugs, cigarettes, over or under eating, alcohol and my personal favorite..the art of ignoring your stressors until you have a nervous breakdown.

You guys..can we please try to be proactive instead of reactive already?! I’m not begging you, but pretty damn close, because this is that important!! I’m even going to make it easy and convenient and FREE for you, so that takes away all of your excuses. Here are seven tools and/or apps to keep in your back pocket, and you should be at minimum doing 2-3 of these things in your day to day, and holding on to the rest for those extra stressful days.

1. Headspace-this app reminds me of Notorious BIG and the song Hypnotize. 🎶 sometimes your words just hypnotize me 🎶 This app has helped to hypnotize me both to get to sleep at bedtime, and then back to sleep middle of the night when my brain was ready to party. 🧠

2. YouTube yoga videos-there are SO many videos that it’s likely you could watch a new video each day for the rest of your life. Depending on you and your unique coping, you may need either a restorative gentle video or an intense vinyasa flow. Or maybe you fall in the middle..but just don’t fall in the group that doesn’t take advantage of the free yoga available and go get you some zen! 🧘‍♀️

3. Journaling-Daylio, Jour and Reflectly seem like good journaling apps, or if you’re like me, you can always just grab one of those random notebooks around your house and write it out (don’t act like you don’t have a hundred of them).

4. Music-ok so my AppleMusic isn’t free, but the radio is, or YouTube music videos, or Spotify or Pandora. Make yourself a few playlists..one for high stress and needing some good vibes and high energy, and another for relaxing music to calm your soul.

5. Walking/Running-no app required..just the outdoors or a treadmill. But if you’re looking for coaching, the C25K app or the Nike Run Club are both apps I love and use!! Bonus points for grabbing a dog to take with you, they get stressed to you know.

6. Daily affirmations-I have an app called affirmations, and it’s one of the first things I look at on my phone after I’m up and moving in the morning. I get a new one everyday, and it’s just that daily reminder that you are a bad ass and can handle any of life’s stresses today, so bring it.

7. Reading-I use the Libby app., which syncs with my library card and gets me free ebooks and audiobooks. Nothing like feeling stressed and taking a moment to forget it all and get lost in a good book.

These are all ways to ditch stress and get back to being awesome.

How do you manage stress?

No Spend Year Update

Brief recap of the one decision that I made back in January that has literally changed my life. It has created a snowball effect and has really helped me reset, basically like a “financial cleanse”. I made the decision to not buy certain things for the entire year of 2019, including clothes, shoes, accessories, purses, makeup and also gave up hair dye, products and haircuts.

I was doing REALLY REALLY good with it and staying strong and not missing anything and in fact finding myself in the process. (mainly by avoiding stores and unsubscribing to all the emails) Lately though, I have definitely been struggling to stay motivated and the consumeritis can sometimes feel contagious. 😷

I know I justified and bought sunglasses a few months back when mine broke, and if we’re being real honest, I could have worn one of the random cheapo pairs lying about my house, like the ones I got at a conference with built in bottle openers on the sides..lol. I also caught myself borderline begging my husband to tell me it’s ok to buy some used earbuds from a neighbors garage sale. 😂 Then there was this past weekend at Target where I was getting a few toiletries and a new nail polish jumped into my cart. 💅🏻

See below..they are both cute and will last me for years to come. 🤷‍♀️

It’s not about the $14 collective dollars that I’ve spent this year that if you want to get all technical..are totally on my banned items list. It’s more about me losing my way and my why in the process.

Life has been throwing a bit of a difficult season my way, and it’s easy to fall back into old ways and “things” to make me feel better. But I still ultimately know it’s only a temporary feeling and it’s a VERY slippery slope. The long term mindset shift is more important to me than the temporary gratification followed quickly by buyers remorse. So I’m committed to getting back on track, especially knowing that we are entering into the biggest spending season. Since it’s my first one on my new path, wondering if anyone has any tips on how to get through it without buying all the things. 🤔

Carnival Season

It’s carnival season around here..one of my favorites for watching my kids just be kids and enjoy some screen free fun time, it’s also my favorite for people watching, and don’t forget the funnel cake.😋 🎡

The one thing I don’t like is how much it all adds up in price..parking, vendors, a ride here, a ride there, games and then of course the drinks and food. 🍕🍦🍿🥤

This year..we just picked one of the three carnivals we usually go to. I also avoided the $10 parking by finding a spot on the street for free. We ate before we left the house and brought our own water.

My best move was convincing my kids the games weren’t as much fun as the rides. Since they only care about the prizes anyway, I told them we would go to Dollar Tree after, and they could pick out any item in the store. They didn’t even ask to play any games, and we even saw another kid asking his parents to play and Caleb told him that “the games were a rip off because they were just trying to take his money to get rich” 😂

We did splurge on the $20 all you can ride wristbands for each kid, and a $5 funnel cake to share, so with my Dollar Tree promise, I was all in for $47. I was proud of this, because we usually spend at least double, if not triple this during carnival season, and we end up with meltdowns about “one more game”, and end up with a bunch of crap toys or stuffed animals we don’t need also. 🧸

To be honest, the spending less part was great, but we had more fun this year with one carnival and without all the extras. Getting used to a more simple minimalist lifestyle gives us a chance to really enjoy the best things in life that have always been free..the memories. 💕

Lifestyle Choices

This is going to be one of the hardest topics yet to cover at a very high level and also my first mention of FIRE in my writings (financial independence retire early). My goal is just to inform you of two choices and get you rethinking, especially if you feel like you don’t have choices and are stuck in your current financial position. I am by no means claiming to be an expert on the topic or to get into the HOW in this post. I have just dabbled with both lifestyles mentioned and I feel like there are not enough people (especially women) who are thinking about or providing information on the topic..so looks like you are stuck with me. 😜

The above picture is the best way I could summarize the concept of lifestyle creep. For now, as mentioned, this is just to introduce you to the topic, so I have a few stats and thought provoking questions to hopefully do so.

First..the stats tell an alarming story. I recently read in this USA Today article https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/34378157 that the average household is bringing in around $75,000 annually, and of that, they are spending 90% of it, which equates to $67,500 outgoing and only around $7,500 extra annually. (which the article states a lot of this is going towards interest payments on consumer debt). This breaks down to $5,625 in expenses each month and $625 extra. That doesn’t leave much wiggle room and helps paint a picture as to why people aren’t putting anything or very little towards saving, investing, emergency funds and retirement. 😳

Essentially pointing out that people are living a paycheck to paycheck lifestyle. I don’t know that this was a surprise to any of us, but it may be a surprise that people are making the choice everyday with their actions and spending habits to live this way. Disclaimer that there are people living in poverty, so for the sake of my post, I am referring to the middle class mentioned above.

Now on to the questions. Feel free to answer in comments if you want to share, or just answer to yourself or as an internal conversation or with your significant other. Keep it real because denial is a great way to protect yourself from the truth right now, but long term in fact it just ends up hurting you more.

1) Are you living paycheck to paycheck like the scenario mentioned above?

2) Have you noticed that no matter what you do, you just can’t get ahead?

3) Do you receive regular raises or have you changed jobs to make additional money over the course of your career, yet you aren’t seeing a difference in your monthly budget after expenses because they always seem to match what’s coming in?

4) Do you ever pay attention to how much you spend on conveniences like pre-made food, someone to mow your lawn, someone to clean that big house, someone to wash that new car, someone to groom your dog, someone to do your hair/nails/makeup, etc because you are too busy working to do these things?

5) Have you ever wondered why things are like this for you and probably a lot of people you know, yet it’s still a taboo topic to discuss money, so everyone just keeps working harder and staying in the vicious cycle mentioned above?

6) What will happen if you change nothing and keep following this path?

Please reference the above picture as you are going through these questions to see if lifestyle creep has found a way to creep into your life. Remember..be honest.

Next, know that there is another option. As mentioned above, lifestyle creep is a choice and I’ve said this so many times on purpose. So many think they have no choice unless they make more money and this is far from the truth.

Lifestyle creep is a path that many in our society have walked and not challenged until recent years. Here are some questions to ask yourself and see if you’re one of those ready to challenge the traditional path and choose a different way.

1) What upsets you the most about always being broke and living paycheck to paycheck?

2) How has constantly feeling stressed from working so much and not having any money to show for it affected you?

3) What are your values and what are you spending your money on? Do they line up?

4) What are your passions and what do you dream about doing?

5) What could change if you have an open mind and put in the work, I mean really put in the work, to change your current financial path and mindset? Think of one quick and easy way you can change today.

6) What will happen if you start to live a lifestyle designed by you instead of others?

As mentioned, a lot of people have started looking at the above stats and questions, and are starting to make the decision to customize their lifestyle based on their own unique values, not what society tells them to value. Spoiler alert..it’s not through making more money as mentioned above..it has never been about that. It’s about a lifestyle of being content with only those things that bring you value. Luckily, it usually don’t cost anything at all, just the basics needed like food, shelter, experiences and none of the extra crap. 😊

Don’t get this lifestyle design twisted with a life of going without, because it’s actually the opposite of that. You have room for so much more when you let go of stupid shit.

Well..shocker..I have lots more to say but I’ve said enough for one day. What are your thoughts or questions on the two different paths mentioned above?