September 2015

We get it- going to the gym doesn’t always sound like a blast. But since we are aiming to live to be super old geezers, staying healthy is important. That’s why we have come up with 8 ways to make going to the gym more fun.  While Mat and Lacey both agree on the main points below, we both share our individual perspectives on each.

1. Choose the right gym partner.  Lacey – A gym partner is not just someone that can spot you, it’s someone that can help you set and reach goals, celebrate successes, someone to attend a new class with, hold you accountable, and most importantly, to have fun with.  Mat – your gym partner can make or break your mood on any given day.  Choose someone that’s positive and upbeat.  You’re going to have days when you don’t want to be there, it’s their job to pick you up.  …as it is your job to do the same for your partner.

2. Music.  Lacey – The importance of a good playlist can’t be stressed enough! For me, it’s my girl Bey and Rhi Rhi. Yes, we are on a nick-name basis. 😉 Sometimes I get a little caught up in my play list and end up dancing more than lifting, but hey, whatever works.  Mat – play what I call your “ahhh shit” music when you work out.  By that, I mean when that song comes on, you automatically go “ahhh shit, this is my jam”.  This will instantly boost your mood and energy.  For me (right now at least) it’s Old School Hip-Hop.  Funny stuff like Kris-Kross and Young MC.

3. Laughter. Lacey – Especially when you do something silly like trip in the middle of the gym. Or fall on your face when going until failure on push-ups.  Mat – everybody messes up or embarrasses themselves in the gym.  I usually trip over something or bonk my head on a bar or anything hanging.  You can’t take yourself too seriously.  Laugh at yourself as much as everyone else who saw it happen is laughing at you.

4. Try new things.  Lacey – So you hate lifting legs? Try one legged squats instead of regular squats. I promise you will be focusing so much on your balance that you will forget you hate lifting legs. Dislike cardio? Mix it up with some sprint intervals. You don’t have to do them as long as steady cardio, and it burns more fat!  Mat – agreeing with Lacey.  Whenever leg day comes around, my mission is to trick myself into thinking I’m not really doing legs.  Jump squats, box squats, clean to a front squat and other “different” leg lifts help keep my mind off how much I dislike lifting legs.

5. Give positive reinforcement to yourself and partner.   Lacey – If you notice an increase in strength in yourself or your partner, point it out! Any reason to celebrate is a good idea.  Mat – if you’re working out, you’re likely trying to make yourself more fit (whatever that may mean to you).  It’s always nice when your gym partner or significant other points out that your hard work is paying off.  With that in mind, pay others compliments when you notice how hard they’re working.

6. Engage in a little friendly competition.   Lacey – This can be with your partner or yourself. It’s always fun to win!  Mat – I’m more of a compete against myself type of person, but it never hurts to engage in some friendly ball busting with your gym partner.  Just enough to motivate each other to keep getting better.  If you know your partner could have put more effort in to their last set, don’t be afraid to call ’em a Sandbagger to let ’em know they’re better than that.

7. Be efficient.  Lacey – It’s easy to dread a two hour workout, but a 45 minute one? That’s not a big deal! A good workout can be done in 45 minutes if you super set lifts, include quick bursts of cardio between sets and keep the energy up. 45 minutes is less time than an episode of Game of Thrones, so you should have time for it.  Mat – there’s nothing worse than going to work all day and thinking about how you have another hour and a half at the gym, then a quick dinner, then bed…then repeat.  Get your workout done in 35-45mins.  Anything more than that is overkill in my books.  That way going to the gym doesn’t seem like that big a part of your day.  …an additional recommendation would be to do it in the morning.  I know, it sounds awful, but once you’re done you literally have the rest of the day to do whatever you want.

8. Candy. Lacey – Yep, you read that right, candy! I was definitely excited to include this in our gym routine. Something about glycogen levels or something. I didn’t really care, because it means I get to eat gummy bears after I’m done!  Mat – ha, going off of what Lacey wrote…yes, eating certain candies immediately following your workout will boost your glycogen levels allowing your other post workout supplements to process quicker/easier.  Lacey and I grab about 5 gummy bears each and follow it with some whey protein, glutamine, and creatine.  You can read more about this from fitness celebrity Jim Stoppani here.

Got any other tips you’d like to add?  Feel free to drop ’em in a comment below!

Three years ago, Lacey and I were sitting on a restaurant patio in downtown Boise, eating breakfast, sipping coffee, enjoying a beautiful summer morning.  What started as a simple conversation on how awesome this particular moment was, turned into a bigger discussion as to why we weren’t doing things like this more often.   That snowballed into the hour-ish long back and forth about what else we weren’t doing in our lives that we wished we were doing.

After finishing a stack of pancakes and 4 large cups of coffee, it all came down to this…we wanted to travel, see more live events, and be more social with our friends and family.  So, ok…cool.  We knew what we wanted in life (big first step).  The bigger question now was, what was stopping us from living the way we wanted?  Bills!  That’s right.  We had too many mother f***ing bills.

I’m going to tell you how we fumbled through the downsizing process, so hopefully it’s a little more efficient for  you.  Take 5 minutes and run through this checklist and you’ll more than likely find an area where you could save some dough.

A good starting point is to take a look at where you live.  Do you need all of that house?  When was the last time anyone slept in that guest room?  When was the last time anyone hung out in that yard that you hate mowing and are paying out the ass to water?  Lacey and I owned a 3 bedroom, 3 full bathroom (2040 sq ft) home with an upstairs bonus room, a front and back yard and a 3 car garage.  Not to mention our house was a 20 minute drive from downtown Boise.  And yes, you heard me right, it was JUST Lacey and I living there.  Once we snapped out of the societal brainwashing idea that “this is the type of home where people our age should be living”, we were able to identify what an incredible waste of money it was.  We sold that place as fast as we could and bought a 1 bedroom, 900 sq ft, condo in downtown Boise.  Our monthly mortgage (including utilities) went from about $1500 a month to less than $700.  Good enough right? Wrong, there was still money to be saved in other areas.

yeah, our entire condo in 1 picture. ha!

Still have a cable bill?  Most people have wised up at this point with the worldwide love of Netflix taking over and all, but as of about 1 year ago, Lacey and I were still paying $120 a month for our cable bill.  That was a quick fix.  I called the cable company and cancelled that shit and signed us up for Netflix at $11 per month.  Took 10 mins to start saving over $100 a month.

Next stop, cell phone bill.  How much are you paying?  How many calls do you actually get now days?  It’s all texts now right?  Maybe that’s just me….and the rest of the world.  I was paying $93 a month to AT&T for a cell phone that I used maybe 100 minutes of talk time on per month.  For 12 years I paid this ridiculous bill.  I never stopped to think there might be a cheaper option.  Guess what? If you only need your phone to text, talk a little bit, and to hop on social media, there are cheaper options.  Virgin Mobile has unlimited talk/text plans starting at $35 a month!  That’s another $60 a month to put towards traveling with Lace.

How much are you spending on food?  Do you go out to eat a couple times a week?  Are you getting Starbucks every morning?  Do you go out drinking with friends on weekends?  This is a super obvious tip, but start cooking for yourself.  Start drinking your own coffee.  Start pre-funking at your home before you head out on the town with friends.  These small adjustments could end up saving you hundreds of dollars a month.  The next time you stop at Subway for lunch, just think of how with that $9 you’re about to spend, you could have purchased a loaf of bread and a pound of sliced deli meat at the grocery store next door.  Don’t get me wrong, Lacey and I still go out to eat and drink with friends often, but we typically eat at home and have a couple drinks at home before heading out.  This way, we’re more than satisfied with splitting an appetizer and each having A drink at dinner rather than dropping $60 on meals and drinks.  The fun part for us meeting friends out for dinner is being social, not necessarily the eating part.

How can you travel for cheaper?  The answer is short and simple if you’re responsible financially and have decent credit.  …travel for free with credit card reward points.  Stay in hotels for free with these rewards.  Get rental cars for free.  The list goes on.  I talk a little more about how to do this in a previous post but the main idea is that you can pay your normal monthly bills with a credit card…when you reach the spending minimum to achieve the sign up bonus for that card you will receive a bunch of points that you can exchange for free travel.  This is literally the only way Lacey and I can afford to travel as often as we do.  Make sure to educate yourself on how this process works before you jump in.  A good starting point is ThePointsGuy.com

spend more time grocery shopping than eating out!

That’s the basics on how Lacey and I got started saving some extra cash.  It’s been a long road to get to this point (with a long way to go) but so far these adjustments are helping us achieve the original 3 goals we set for our lives that summer morning eating breakfast.

This is the brief story of how we ditched our bills.  If you have any additional tips or stories you’d like to share, please message us or post a comment below!

Since today marks our six month anniversary of marriage, we thought it would be a fun time to post about our wedding. After getting engaged in June 2014, we knew we didn’t want a long engagement. We also knew we didn’t want the typical, local, big wedding. We had elopement plans ranging from a house in Italy (near where we got engaged) to a rooftop in San Francisco (where we met). Lacey was really pulling for a surprise wedding disguised as an engagement party, but Mat wasn’t on board.

We decided to rent a villa for a week in the Pedregal Hills of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. This was a happy medium and a good compromise for everyone. Since we were planning this wedding on a strict budget, we decided to focus on what we really cared about, and what we wanted our wedding to feel like for guests. We also wanted to make sure it was unique. Continue reading to see how we created our own, very “Lacey and Mat” wedding.

1. We knew we wanted more more than just one night with our guests. We have been to countless weddings where we were able to talk to the bride and groom for MAYBE five minutes during the reception, but that was it. We didn’t want to feel rushed, and didn’t want our guests to feel like just one of many. That is why we chose to rent the villa for a week and have this time to spend with family and friends. We had an itinerary which invited everyone to participate as much or as a little as possible-hey, it was their vacation and they can choose how to spend it!
2. We wanted our guests to feel included. The way we look at our relationship is that we wouldn’t be where we are now without the help and influence of those that love us; kind of like the whole “It takes a village” thing. We had our close friend marry us (which was AMAZING, by the way), we had nine people speak during the ceremony, two speak during the reception, our mothers performed the beginning of a ring blessing ceremony and Lacey’s dad wrote a prayer that he prayed over us right after our exchange of rings. Everyone also helped out a TON, including a close girlfriend that did Lacey’s hair and make up, and Mat’s sister who did all of the flowers.
3. Focus on the ceremony. We understand most people go to a wedding for the party after the ceremony, and not the ceremony itself. Don’t get us wrong, we like to party at weddings as much as the next couple, but we always feel a little cheated when the ceremony is so quick. We wanted our guests to leave knowing they had witnessed an extremely important proclamation of commitment, and not just a party. We planned to put our energy into writing our ceremony, and then go out dancing in downtown Cabo for the “party” portion of the evening. Also, our Make the Cake party turned into a real party!
4. Don’t make people feel obligated to come. This was the main reason we chose to not have bridal parties. We didn’t want to force anyone to be there that didn’t absolutely want to.
5. Above all, we wanted to the ceremony to feel intimate. We were literally surrounded by the people we loved during the ceremony.  We wanted them to feel the love we shared for each other and we wanted to feel the love and support from our guests.  This is why we chose to have the chairs set up in a semi-circle around us, rather than chairs in rows facing us.

We know that this type of wedding isn’t for everyone, probably not for most, but we absolutely loved it and wouldn’t change a thing! We will forever be grateful to those that traveled to spend this time with us and help us celebrate the most important decision we have made thus far. We love you all and want to do it all over again every year!

I love celebrating birthdays. Always have. I like to think of my birthday as more of a birth”week” as opposed to a birth”day”. Mat has never really been into celebrating his birthday, so this makes it difficult for me to plan anything. We also have come to realize (thanks to this eye-opening 5 Love Languages quiz) that neither one of us are big on giving or receiving material gifts, so we did away with getting each other presents for birthdays and holidays. Instead, we have decided to spend that money on vacations and experiences.

Since our birthday vacation isn’t until the end of September, I still wanted to celebrate Mat’s day of birth, and since it conveniently landed on a Friday, I wanted to celebrate the whole weekend! We found some middle ground by keeping things low key (Mat’s preference) on Friday and Saturday, and then having a larger birthday celebration on Sunday (my preference). I must get the whole celebrating-birthdays-big thing from my family because check out what my parents and I rented for the water slide birthday bash….!

There were minimal injuries, but tons of hysterical laughter from everyone. My family sure knows how to party!