Laundry Room Paint Colors

I need to figure out what color I wanted to do for the laundry room. And I am painting the WHOLE SHEBANG here y'all: walls, ceiling, maybe even the floor if I decide to get totally crazy. On the back wall I am going to stencil with a gloss version of the same color or go with white if the paint color is dark enough. Let the paint battle commence!

Thunder by Benjamin Moore

Benjamin Moore Hale Navy (I worry it might look too close to the Black Pepper in the gym/baby room and I want to take a chance on this space with color and do something different. But I do love the classic Navy of this color..... ugh!)

A few of these Sherwin Williams colors, namely Classic French Gray and Agreeable Gray.

And then: EUREKA. I found it. Rockport Gray by Benjamin Moore. Since we are having white appliances and white shelves, this space is the most on point for our vision:

As all of you avid readers know, I have been dying to get board and batten in the hallway and maybe, just maybe this little laundry nook will be my first pass at it. It would look SO polished and finished! I think we are going to do white for the counter top in here above the laundry units so Rockport Gray or Hale Navy: I am coming for ya! You'll have to wait till after Christmas to see who won and HOPEFULLY how it looks in the space.

I hope that each and everyone of you has an incredibly peaceful Christmas. Whether or not you are with family or friends, or working, or taking time for yourself... I just hope that peace finds you and hugs you so tight.

December 2014 Debt Update

Holy moly schmoley you guys. I haven't been this excited to share a debt update in ages. You see, a crazy thing happened over the last 6 weeks. We paid off the Tires, LB's card, AND got started on the two biggest credit cards we had. HOLY GUACAMOLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Since I am so pumped about all this debt progress, we are going to have a money week here on the blog. That's right. In the middle of DECEMBER we are talking budgeting and money and shiz is gonna get real. :) Hold on to your overpriced pants y'all. In October this was the scenario:

Plus the tires with a balance of $-775. So our total debt at the end of October (one year in to FPU) was actually

October 2014:  $-8,635.28.

Our goal by mid-November/beginning of December was to be at

November goal: $-7027.61!

As of this morning this is where we are:

That's right y'all we blew right past that goal by $814! The tires are paid off, LBs card is paid off, Bank of America, Best Buy, Home Depot, Amex! WOOOOOOOOOT!  We are for real FINALLY on the last two debts in our debt snowball. THE LAST TWO!

We have passed the $10,000 mark people!

When we started FPU we owed

$-17,000 in credit card debt alone!

To have that debt down to

$-6,212.87

Means that in the last year  and two months we have paid off

$10,787.13 !!! In DEBT!

Areas for Improvement:

LB has been kicking butt at work and we are taking most of his increased commissions to make bigger debt payments. We aren't taking all of the extra because well, we're human. I'd like to say that we will take more of his increased commissions to put towards debt, but he is going to start a retirement account with some of it, life insurance with some of the rest, and buying concert tickets and trips and nonsense with the rest. I'd like to knuckle down on the nonsense portion, but we haven't done a TON of treat yo'self stuff in the last year. Don't worry, we aren't going crazy.

Advice

Here is my incredibly non-technical advice from Dave for the holidays:

"Remember: Even at Christmas you must act your wage, you aren't in Congress."

We have put $40 per paycheck in a cash envelope for Christmas since the beginning of the year. Next year we will kick it up to $60 because we've got more kids and babies and friends to buy for... plus about 6 very special birthdays in December as well. It is just a lot. A LOT A LOT. So we're gonna kick our budget up in that category.

What are you and yours doing to make Christmas less financially stressful? (*In my never really all that humble opinion, getting financially strapped is just NOT the point of the holidays.)

*Remember to enter the city print giveaway! Only a few days left!