Tag: 101 in 1001

101 in 1001 · Health & Fitness

51. run 6 miles

Rachel Atwell5 Comments

At the end of February when I finished the Couch to 5k training that I began in January, I thought I’d use the momentum I had going to begin the Couch to 10k training.  My goals were to be complete all the training {3 scheduled workouts a week} and cross off one of my 101 in 1001 list, run 6 miles. Last week I completed both {and actually did the 6 miles 3 times}!

run 6 miles | Atwell Adventures 1

During the six week training, I walked/ran 86.89 miles, and also did an additional 27 miles of walking to hopefully meet my one of my April goals/101 in 1001 goals of walking 3 miles a day!  That’s 113.89 miles total!  This is the most consistently I’ve ever kept up with running {3 months, 8 days, and counting}.

For the final run of the training, Gary and I headed to the Augusta Canal Trail and did the trail 3 miles out and 3 miles back.

run 6 miles | Atwell Adventures 3

This was our first time running on this trail so it was a good way to end the training – especially since the course was flat and shaded in alot of areas.  The views, sunshine, and other runners also helped a little!

Augusta canal | Atwell Adventures 2

Augusta canal | Atwell Adventures 1

Augusta canal | Atwell Adventures 3I’m going to try to keep up with my 3 miles a day schedule and maybe do some longer runs on the weekend, but for now, I’m excited to rest a little!  And let’s not forget, I still have 10 miles and 13 miles that I want to accomplish on my 101 in 1001. {YIKES! What was I thinking?!}

ps – let’s give a big round of applause for G who did 6 miles twice last week without training.  #WhatAStud

run 6 miles | Atwell Adventures 2

 

101 in 1001 · During Our Marriage

30. pay off debt by 2015

Rachel Atwell12 Comments

Hey! Happy Monday!  Guess what?

debt free | Atwell AdventuresThat’s right! We’re debt freeeeeeee!

Its been almost two months since we paid off our debt, but it still feels so good – and so unreal – to type that.

I never thought that we would be able to pay off everything as quickly as we did, but looking back, it’s a great reminder of how the Lord provided SO much for us these past few months! From G being offered a job and an early start date allowing him to take leave time he built up in the USMC, to a rental house that was within our price range, there were so many answers to prayers and we are grateful for the opportunity to be living without the burden of debt.

When we began to work on paying off our debt in September {read: paying more than the monthly minimum on what we owed}, we hoped that we would be able to pay it off by our first anniversary but tried to be realistic and give ourselves until the end of 2014 to pay it off, just in case life happened and we had to put money towards other things. After all we didn’t really know what our next few months would like with G finishing up in the military.  

Some of the things that we did that were key to us paying our debt off more quickly:

  1. Pay off smaller debts first. We read about this idea through Dave Ramsey, and it truly did give us momentum.  And who doesn’t put a cross through a line of debt once its paid off?
  2. Create a spending budget off of less than your income.  If you make $100 a month, create your budget based on $60 and put the other $40 towards debt.
  3. Reduce “fun money” spending. This may sound like a no brainer, but we worked over our budget a few times and tried to cut out things we could do without. While it definitely wasn’t fun to cut down on our “fun money” spending {clothes, home stuff, eating out more than once a week}, it was very worth it.  It even gave me time to gain new perspectives on needs vs.wants, buying things I love, and investing in quality items.  I’m definitely still learning though!
  4. Evaluate spending every month. Each month, we would list out how we did on our budget, and make notes if we went over in certain categories.  This helped us stay more accountable and be realistic about our spending.

We still have a long way to go in learning about money {giving, saving, and planning} but we’re grateful to be doing it now without the worry of a payment!

What are some ways you tackle debt? Any tips?

ps – Want to read more about how we got started? Last fall during my 31 days series, I wrote about how we deal with money, communicating about money, goal setting, budgeting 101, a helpful tool, easy ways to save, and settling into a home on a budget.  

101 in 1001 · About Our Savior

1. become members of a church in our new home

Rachel Atwell1 Comment

Last October when I listed out my 101 in 1001, the first thing on my list was to become members of a church in our new home.

Now I’ll admit writing that out seems on a “to-do” list {especially in the first spot} might seem strange to some, but for us being active in a local, healthy church has always been important to us as individuals and now as a family.

When we began the process of finding a new church last September in North Carolina {before I wrote my 101}, we knew we were only going to be there a few months. Because of our short time, we made the decision that we would get involved in the church as much as possible but would wait until we knew where we would be in a few months before joining.  We were happy to find a church that helped us grow, held us accountable, and helped us in establishing community around us during our time together in North Carolina.

Fast forward to November when we found out we were moving to the Augusta area. We quickly started looking online for a new church. We knew that this being a more permanent move, we wanted to find a church that faithfully preached the Gospel, was apart of the community, challenged us to grow, and allow us to serve.

Thankfully, the Lord provided a church for us and we were able to visit our first weekend here in December.  After visiting the church for a month, learning more about it, meeting the pastors, and praying about our decision, we decided to take steps toward membership and now we are happy to call Berea Baptist Church our church home!

It’s only been a little over three months since our first time at Berea, but we are so thankful for the church family God has given us here and can’t wait serve and grow with them!