A Happy Life

How to pay off your credit card and get out of debt

January 11, 2019 by Meg 3 Comments

Before we moved over to Ireland, we were living paycheck to paycheck and both of us had massive credit card debt. It’s not like we had an extravagant lifestyle in South Africa, we were both earning good salaries – we were just terrible at budgeting how to spend what we earned each month.

We both come from fairly conservative, budget conscious families so I am not really sure why we were so bad at managing money. I can only put it down to the fact that we just ignored the issue, and thought about living in the now, without much consequence for the future. But the truth is, the lack of a good budget and the fact that the last week of the month was always the hardest – it really did worry us. We spoke about it a lot in private, we lay awake at nights plotting how we could get out of debt. Looking back, we never really made the necessary sacrifices to budget properly and we never honest with ourselves about how we were spending money.

How we got into debt

A couple of things happened which I think caused the debt to spiral out of control, the biggest being that we bought a house. We used our credit cards to finance some of the hidden costs that come with buying a home (transfer fees and legal fees etc). Being in so much debt, especially credit card debt, was a hard lesson to learn. I don’t regret buying our first home together, but I do think I would do it differently if I could do it all over.

We both can be people pleasing, so often when people invited us out for dinner or to go away for the weekend – we said yes, even though we knew we couldn’t really afford it. We wanted to have a certain lifestyle, one were we went to great restaurants, bought things for the house and ourselves, and went away on nice holidays. Before we sold all our belongings, and packed up to come to Ireland, we had both maxed out our credit cards. The money we were paying into our credit card each month was basically paying off the interest only, and by the time the end of the month rolled around, we had maxed our credit cards again.

How we got out of debt

Fast forward to the decision to move to Ireland. Although we didn’t realise at the time, this was the second chance we had been waiting for. Selling all our belongings, including our cars, helped us pay off some of the debt.

We came over with 2 suitcases each, 3 boxes that we shipped over (which we probably didn’t need), and some savings that we got through our last paychecks, paid out leave, and selling our belongings. This fresh start meant that we had to do things differently. We both agreed that once over in Ireland – things would be different. We didn’t know it at the time, but we ended up living on one salary for a year – and yet we still managed to pay off the outstanding credit card debt and start saving properly. This is how we paid off our credit card and got our of debt:

Stop using your credit card

We started with our credit card debt first because that was the biggest, most obvious debt we knew we could tackle. It was an obvious move, but we stopped using our credit cards – we took them out of our wallets and put them safely away in a cupboard at home. This meant that when we were out, we didn’t have the convenience of using them.

Pay off debt each month

Each month we paid back our credit card debt, and at the end of our first year in Ireland we paid our last lump sum to the credit card on Black Friday of all days. I guess that shows you how our mindset changed over that first year abroad. We saw paying off the debt as more important than buying something new.

Know where your money is going

We both have credit cards here in Ireland. I actually haven’t used mine at all – it is still in the envelope it arrived in. We use Rob’s credit card only to rent cars, but we pay off the car rental costs as soon as we book a car. The credit card is now only used to hold deposits, or to buy something we intend on paying for in full at the end of the month. We prefer to stick to our budget each month, and have carefully consider all the things we spend money on each month – everything is accounted for. From obvious bills and food costs, to getting my nails done and paying a small fee for my blog maintenance. Every euro we spend is accounted for. At any given point in the month, we know how much we have left for groceries (we do a weekly shop now) or our entertainment budget – yes, we now have an entertainment budget. We also have a travel savings pocket that we use to save up for holidays we plan to do. Once you get used to sticking to a budget, it becomes habit.

Prioritise how you spend your money

Living on one salary forces you to prioritise. You quickly discard the things that are not essential – like eating out, coffees, even things like hair appointments, and a big one for me was that I stopped buying clothes. I started realising that we were trying to buy our happiness, but that being in debt made us unhappy – so we learnt to say no to things we couldn’t afford and through that – we started to pay off our credit card debt. We used bonuses and tax refunds to further pay off our debt. In the past that money would have been spent on some big thing we really wanted – but what we really wanted now was to get out of debt.

Stick to the Budget

I am not saying that sticking to a budget is easy. It is still really hard. In the early months of getting out of debt, we struggled saying no to things. We missed important weddings, skipped out on meeting friends for dinner, said no to concerts and events others were going to. It was really hard to say no to all of it, but we knew we didn’t want to go back to the way we were living back in SA. We figured in the bigger picture, if we stick to the budget, we can do the things we really want to do later. Not everything has to be immediate.

Have a rainy day fund

Once we paid off our debt, we took the money we put into our credit cards and started putting that all into savings. The reality is there might be unexpected costs that crop up during the month that your budget hasn’t planned for. Like one of us could lose our job and we could go back to living on one salary. We now have a nice rainy day fund set up – its not where we want it to be, but we are getting there slowly.

Now that we don’t have credit card debt, and we have a budget we stick to – we don’t live paycheck to paycheck any more. January is not a hard month for us. We have learnt our limits, and we have learnt to focus on the future, by saying no to things right now, or holding off on big expenses until we can actually afford it. Slowly managing our money has gotten easier. I didn’t realise at the time, but getting out of debt was not the end goal – staying out of debt is.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE WAYS YOU STAY OUT OF DEBT?

Live Simply & Travel Slow,

~Meg~

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How to pay off your credit card and get out of debt

Recap of the Highs and the Lows of 2018

January 1, 2019 by Meg 2 Comments

After all the best nine of 2018 have been posted, and the insta stories that showcase all the highs of 2018 are finally tapped through… I had planned to jump on both bandwagons and share all the highs that made my 2018 great – but then I thought of all the struggles, the tears, the lowest lows and thought that sharing the full picture is more accurate than only glazing over the stress that happened in 2018. It is because of all the shitty moments that the sweet moments were made even sweeter. If I hadn’t gone through all that crap, I would never have savoured all the joy 2018 did eventually bring. So here is my recap – the good, the bad and the out-right stressful life that was this past year.

At the end of 2017 we visited Edinburgh, as a way to end the year on a bit of high since 2017 was the year when literally all the wheels fell off most of our big plans. We went into 2018 hopeful that things would work out, and they did… spoiler alert – it just took 6 months for it to all work out.

In January we headed to Sligo for my birthday, and while it was a great weekend away, my birthday is always a difficult start of the year for me. Partly because I have in the past put heavy expectations on what birthdays should be like, and all the goals I wanted to achieve but didn’t get round to often leave me feeling a bit defeated. 2018’s birthday was no different for me. I was left wondering what I had achieved in 36 years of life, no matter how I look at it, it never feels as though its enough. So while instagram was showing all the exploring we did in Sligo, I was secretly battling with my own demons.

If you live in a country that has winter in February, you know that what is the shortest month of the year, ends up feeling like the longest month – it felt like spring was never going to arrive. And for a while, it didn’t, in fact, the Beast from the East arrived instead and we were snowed in for 3 days. Our first snow day as a family, and Jack’s first experience of snow. It ended up being a great break, and we used the time for loads of walks in the snow together.

In March we had our first visitors for the year, Jane and Nic arrived from SA and we spent time showing them around Dublin. We spent our second St Patrick’s day in Ireland in Dublin. Then after they left, I got a chance to head to Lisbon, Portugal for work – it was a busy 3 days in Lisbon but I still managed to fit so much in and I really was grateful for the trip, even if the stress of work was hard.

We ended the month visiting London and our dear friends, Kristy and Kirsten. They pulled out all the stops with a surprise birthday cake for Rob, tickets to watch an Arsenal match, street art hunting, gin and wine drinking, and just spending time with these two on their couch talking till the wee hours of the morning was so good for both our souls. Honestly, through all the uncertainty that we had going on in our life, their friendship has been there for us no matter what. The infinite voice notes from Kristy throughout the whole year was honestly one of the reasons I think I made it through the year.

April started off well with an interview on a podcast about our life as expats in Ireland – it was kinda surreal that someone wanted to listen to our story. You can listen to it here. But with all the stress that followed us from 2017 still left uncertain, I hit breaking point and suffered my first of many panic attacks this year. Anxiety and stress all bubbled to the surface and I was left making some heavy decisions about who my friends were, and how I planned to recover and get back up. I am grateful that looking back, I can see that I did eventually get back up – but at the time, April was honestly one of the hardest months for me. At the end of this month we decided to make a few changes, and started looking at moving out of the city and somewhere closer for me to travel to work.

At the beginning of May we visited more friends in the UK, Derek and Candi and they showed us around their new home. We visited a lot of places with them including Manchester, Liverpool, Chester, York and even dipped into Wales for a day.

Even though we had no idea what was happening with our expat lives, we decided to take a huge risk and move to our dream home out of the city – it was a move that at the time seemed crazy to do, since we had no idea what the future had in store for us but it is one I am happy we made because in the end, things did work out and this new home has meant new friendships have blossomed and we have better life balance and a place that we can truly feel at home.

In fact things worked out just 2 weeks after we had moved in… Rob’s work permit came through and it meant that he could start his new job. We found this out the day we landed in Glasgow, and were about to start our road trip through Scottish Highlands to Inverness. It was the relief we needed to truly enjoy our second trip to Scotland. Scotland will always hold a special place in my heart because of this. Looking back we went to Edinburgh in December 2017 unsure if it would be our last trip abroad, and ended up opening the future for us and extending our stay indefinitely in June 2018. Life really does have a way of working out in the end.

As a way to start anew, in July we did a road trip just the three of us to explore West Cork and the Beara Peninsula. It’s a part of the country that is so wild and untamed, possibly one of my favourite trips of all time. I also started yoga twice a week, and it had life changing effects to my mental head space.

In August, we saw our family after nearly 2 years after leaving South Africa, Rob’s parents came to visit us. We spent just under two weeks doing an epic Irish road trip starting with a trip up to Northern Ireland visiting places like Belfast, Giant’s Causeway, Castlerock, Coleraine, Derry, and ending the North of Ireland adventure in my now favourite visited county, county Donegal.

We continued the Irish roadtrip with Rob’s parents into September, this time heading to Leitrim, then heading south to Cobh, Waterford, then Dungarvan, then along the copper coast, all the way down to Kinsale. September saw the final end to our immigration stress, with my work permit renewal being processed after 15 weeks of waiting.

In October I decided to invest in myself, and I started the unselfishly me 8 week course. It instilled some more good habits like listening to inspiring podcasts, journaling, and daily meditation. The course uncovered a lot of what I had failed to work through mentally in previous months and I learnt a lot about myself and the kind of life I want to live. Including letting go of toxic relationships and forgiving myself. I did a lot soul-searching and honestly can’t recommend meditation or this self love course enough. At the end of October we did a road trip as a family and explored Hook Peninsula, in Wexford. Another great part of the country, even though this trip was slightly less run around and see all the things – we perfected the art of slow travel and fully rested that long weekend. We came home feeling recharged and rested.

In November I had to travel to Killarney for a work event, Rob joined me and we had a great trip with my work friends. For the rest of the month I continued to practice yoga, journal, meditate and finally felt the anxiety and panic attacks ease a bit. I am learning that its best to take life day by day and to stop worrying about the future so much, rather focus on being present and mindful in the moment.

We ended 2018 with a trip of a lifetime visiting my whole family in Mauritius. My brother and his family live in Mauritius and my parents made the trip out from South Africa so that we could all spend Christmas together as a family. It was a lot of sun, sea, drinks, swimming with dolphins, running and screaming with my niece and nephew, simple moments with my family in their home, pushing my niece and nephew on the swing, playing hide and seek, cuddles, tears, laughter… it was indescribable all the joy and sadness I felt in that holiday. The joy of spending time with family and loved ones, and the sadness in not knowing when the next time will be.

So there you have it. The highs and the very lows of 2018. And when I look at it all set out in this blog post – I realise how much we have done; we visited 6 countries and explored 21 of 32 counties in Ireland. We did a lot of local travel and 2019 will be no different – we plan to see more of this beautiful country we are fortunate enough to live in. We plan to continue to face the struggles and admin that surrounds living away from home and in a foreign country – hopefully with a little more grace, and with a lot of deep breaths.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, WISHING YOU AND YOURS THE VERY BEST IN 2019!

Live Simply & Travel Slow,

~Meg~

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35 moments that made my 35th year

January 30, 2018 by Meg 4 Comments

This past Sunday I turned 36. Lately I have been focussing on all the negatives that surround my birthday (the awkward time of year it is, how people are always broke, and a lot of people often forget about it entirely!). But I recently stumbled across a new blog that I am absolutely falling in love with, and I loved her outlook on reviewing the moments of your previous year around your birthday. I decided to follow her example and rather focus on all the incredible things that have happened this past year, my 35th year of life – my 35th trip around the sun. When I went about writing this list I got a little teary. It’s been a challenging year, but it has been filled with some outstanding moments.

I got to experience working from home. When we first over my previous employer in South Africa offered me an opportunity to work on contract while I moved over and settled in. It was the first time I had experienced such a way of working. Working away from the team, and in a totally different country was challenging but there were some incredible plus sides. It meant that I could walk Jack in the middle of the day around lunch time, I could stay in my PJ’s all day and work if I wanted to, I was able to keep the home tidy, and the laundry done in between work – which meant when Rob came home from work, we were 100% free to do what we wanted. It was a great time, but the one thing I really missed was chatting to people and being in an office sometimes helps you to engage better at work – and to brainstorm and get creative with other people. Two heads are better than one and all that.
Getting caught in sideways rain and laughing so hard. This such a fun walk we did one day, and ended up walking over the east Link Bridge in the middle of a heavy downpour of rain. ending up being half wet – half dry just because of the wind and the sideways rain. In the middle of winter, we could have been grumping but it only made us laugh. Such a fun moment.
Our first braai in Ireland. Rob and I found a disposable braai in the shed and it was the first proper sunny day, we opened a bottle of chilled white wine and did what any South African would do – we braai’d. It was so lekker.
Seeing Jack run along the beach and swim in the ocean. This little South African pug, born in Pretoria, and raised for the first 2 years of his life in Johannesburg, with no sea. Seeing how excited he gets to run along the beach, and how when the weather gets warmer, how he loves to see how deep he can get (just deep enough to stand, he is not really a great swimmer). Pure joy and happiness, I can see it beaming from his face and it always makes my heart full to see how good moving to Ireland has been for him. It was exactly the kind of life he was meant for.
Taking risks and going to new places on my own. I made a few friends through a Facebook group and went to Athlone to meet them. I have to say that the trip there, I was nervous about meeting new people at first but at the end of the day, on the way home, I was so happy to have taken the risk and made some great friends.
Finding a job in Ireland. You wouldn’t think this would be one of my fond memories, just because the job hunt and the process to getting a work permit was such a long and slow process. But finding the right job, at the right time, with the right company, with an amazing group of inspiring people who work in the team – that is pure magic. I have been fortunate in my career to make moves that meant that my role and my working environment taught me more about myself, raised me into the person I am today, and mentored me into growing and reaching my dreams. I am incredibly thankful to have found a role that is even better than the last. This is because leaving South Africa from a job point of view was risky – I had finally found my dream job back in SA, and it was hard to leave. There was always a risk it wouldn’t work out, but I am grateful that it worked out even better than I had expected.
After work drinks, and picnics at the beach. Summers in Dublin might not be super warm, but the long days make for amazing excuse to live in the now and make spontaneous plans to go exploring or just to get out the house.
Making friends that fill my heart with love and light. And through the strangest of situations. I have been so very brave this past year – at putting myself out there, and at making some friendships that even if everything were to change, I know these are people I will always hold on to. The love these women have shown me, I can only hope that I will one day pay it forward.
Enjoying time with my little family, just me, Rob and Jack – just us. This time here in Ireland has meant we really had to stick together and I have enjoyed the QT we have had just the three of us.
Exploring Dublin first. It is no secret that the original plan was always to arrive and travel overseas. We wanted to use Dublin as a central spot for all our travels. Life had other plans, and it meant we had to change our ideas about what travel and exploring meant to us. This past year has shown me that you really do need to explore your own city first – there are tons of things to do in Dublin and in Ireland, and so few people take the opportunity to really look in their own back yard. If tourists come to your city and find things you have never heard of or done yourself, you are only doing a disservice to yourself. Take the opportunity to explore your home city like a tourist.
Trusting strangers and going on adventures. We met a bar owner in Waterford who kindly offered us a ride to Dunmore East. Had we not taken him up on his offer we would have missed exploring more of county Waterford.
Getting to see more of Ireland. Even with limited funds we have somehow managed to see over 14 counties in Ireland in one year – and saw a lot more than what most people get to see all over Ireland. This year we want to keep exploring Ireland. The trips we took only made it more obvious that there is so much more to see here in Ireland.
We had great friends come and visit us. All throughout the year, friends came to visit with us. We are incredibly grateful that they took the time, spent the money, and made the trip to visit us here in Dublin. I got to be in my element of planning out itineraries and creating things for them to do while they were here. I hope that they left feeling like they really saw Dublin, how we see it and perhaps even feel a little more in love with how captivating this little city can really be.
I finally got my capsule wardrobe sorted out. It was a long time coming, a lot of scaling back. But when I look in my cupboard now, I see all the clothes I love to wear, and none of the clothes I held on to in hopes that I would wear them or that they would somehow fit. I went from two full length double hanging closets, a full row of cupboards, and a chest of drawers filled with clothes to: one hanging closest and 2 shelves. And I have never felt freer, and less anxious about my clothes. It has been an incredible journey to less is more.
Visiting Northern Ireland. I absolutely loved all the trips we took this year, the first mini trip we did was in April when we went up to Northern Ireland for the day. I loved exploring Giant’s Causeway so much so that I only have a few photos of that day – I was too busy experiencing the day to really worry about taking loads of photos!
Learning to live on one salary. I can’t tell you how good it is to be in January, and not be stressing about when pay day will come. If we hadn’t experienced having to live on one salary we would never have learnt how to manage our money better, and get into better spending habits.
Going camping in Ireland with Irish folk! My friend Ruth and her husband invited us to go camping with them and a group of their friends. It was such fun, made possible because they all grouped together to give us a tent to use, and sleeping bags etc.; even a lift down to Tipperary. It was a great weekend away and came at the right time for us, a time where we needed a bit of laughter and a bit of hope that things would work out.
We paid off both our credit cards on Black Friday. It was the most satisfying purchase I have ever made. Slowly we are getting out of debt, and it feels great to know how we plan to get there and that it is possible. For the longest time I thought we would forever be in debt and forever be anxious about money.
Sneaking Jack on to the Luas to go for a walk to Phoenix Park. While not entirely legal, the only way for us to get all the way to Phoenix Park with Jack is if we take him on the Luas. And he loved both the tram ride, and the big walkies in the park.
Seeing how I can be the stronger partner. Just knowing that I have this strength and resilience in me has been such a confidence boost. Sure it only took me till I was 35 to actually see it, but I am happy that I know that I can be a strong partner if I need to be.
Swimming in the sea. One evening after Rob finished work, we went off to go swimming at Sea Point. It was amazing, we had a picnic there, brought Jack with, and I managed a whole 5 minutes in the sea – even in the middle of July, it was still freezing!
Seeing the Cliffs of Moher through the mist. Watching the mist roll over the cliffs could have been someone’s worst part of the trip. To sit on a bus all day and then arrive to mist covering the cliffs, what a travel fail, right? Wrong. We let go of our expectations on what perfect travel is, and just enjoyed being there and you know what? The mist rolled off the Cliffs just as we were leaving meaning that our reward for acceptance was what we wanted to see all along.
Loads of hiking trips, missioning by taking a bus and walking 5km to the Dublin Mountains will always be a fond moment in my 35th year. I loved hiking those trails, it was also just at the start of summer in Dublin, and all around us it was so very green. Just beautiful views for day.
Watching over Guinness Lake, finally getting out exploring Wicklow mountains and Glendalough was another treat of a day – getting Rob to watch ‘p.s I love you’ before the tour was hilarious achievement for me and the memory will always makes me laugh. The guy must really love me!
I got really good at finding all the free things to do in Dublin – I have tons of tips on how to do it, from free museums, to art galleries, to simple things that don’t cost a cent in Dublin. It was a challenge I fully accepted this past year, and one I intend to build and grow on every year. From now on, I am all about budget friendly, free stuff to do in any city or place we travel!
Another year of conquering fear of heights – I am deathly afraid of heights, I do not like it at all. I freak out at the second floor of Penney’s. But somehow I always seem to put myself in situations which test my fear of heights. Throughout my travels all over the world I have conquered my fear by going up various tall buildings and towers, always pushing myself out of my comfort zone. This year I kissed the blarney stone and did a sunset tour on top of croke park stadium. Both of which, really tested my fear of heights yet again.
Visiting Cork and long-term friends. I have known Amy for over 16 years and it is so special that through all that time, and all our own life challenges that we have managed to keep our friendship. Plus we loved visiting Cork and we might have only scratched the surface at what cork has to offer but we are happy we started somewhere, and with Amy.
A hundred walks, a few hills and taking all the panoramic pictures. We have done some pretty rad walks, along cliffs, up steep hills, we just always seem to find a new place to walk each time.
Sampling every donut Dublin has to offer. I am not kidding either, last year we tried every single donut shop in Dublin, I need to update this list, because since this post even more donut shops have opened up. It is incredible.
Getting rid of 465 items and wanting to get rid of more. I took up the Minimalist Challenge for 30 days and I realised so much more about Minimalism. Aside from just throwing out a bunch of stuff, I realised that living a simple life and letting go of things that don’t bring me joy.
Seeing snow – this past Christmas was an exceptionally cold one in Dublin, we nearly got a snow day. I will never forget how it felt to arrive at work the one morning and see all the snow on the ground and on the mountains. Forgive me for my childlike excitement about snow but I am South African, we don’t get to see much snow! Also seeing Jack eat a melted snowman in Kilkenny will always make me smile.
Trying tiny living in Kinvarra. As part of our first Irish roadtrip with Jack. We rented our first Airbnb, and off the grid cabin in Kinvarra – let’s just say, we learnt a lot about tiny house living. More to follow in another post.
Letting go of other people’s perceptions and expectations and doing our own thing – we decided not to give presents this year for Christmas. With all the financial strain we have been on, it just felt silly to be spending money on gifts we didn’t really need or want. It was our first Christmas were we decided to be present, and have experiences instead of buying gifts and I have to say I learnt a lot from doing it. I think it might become a new tradition for us. We had such a special Christmas, even more so because we didn’t mask it with heaps of gifts.
Having our first ever friend-mas at our place. Along with letting go of peoples perceptions and expectations, it took a lot of courage to let our friends into our home, one that we are not entirely proud of (simply because our home is old, and small). Our first ever Christmas with friends was truly a moment I will always remember – it was so much fun!
Ending 2017 in Scotland, our first trip overseas the whole year was a great way to end a personally challenging year for us. Not to mention being at Edinburgh Castle while it was snowing will always be a highlight for me.

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR BIGGEST HIGHLIGHT FROM LAST YEAR WAS?

Live Simply & Travel Slow,

~Meg~

p.s. If social media is your thing (snap! It’s my fave too!), you should totally follow me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or join my exclusive Facebook Group. And because I seriously am an open book, if you ever want to bounce ideas off me, or just chat and connect send me an email (I really love chatting!).

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Lessons from 2017 and Hopes for 2018

January 2, 2018 by Meg 2 Comments

Happy New Year! I love this time of year because it is the one time of year where we have a chance to reflect on the year that has been and consider what our hopes for this new year may be. 2017 flew by within a blink of an eye – I think the older I get the more I realise how quickly time really does goes by. It feels like just yesterday I was saying we are moving to Ireland, and then at the same time, it feels like forever and a day that we have lived here.

I set some pretty big goals for myself at the beginning of 2017, some I totally did not achieve at all (like running once a week, entering races and all that craziness) – while others were smashed completely (eating breakfast daily and blogging more consistently). At the beginning of 2017 I decided my word would be kindness. I wanted 2017 to be the year I was kind to myself and those around me. This was a word I chose without fully realising what 2017 would have in store for us. While I might have had a few hard days on myself, I think overall, I did pretty well to keep that one goal to myself. I learnt to be kind to myself first. I stopped sweating the small stuff and let go of a lot of times where I would have ordinarily been upset or stressed out. In terms of the bigger picture, the small things don’t matter so much.

One of the biggest learnings from this year has been about patience. Looking to get a bit of patience? Become an expat – you will learn to have heaps of patience when you live abroad. What with the paperwork and admin, to the figuring out how things work and trusting the process – patience is the only thing an expat can have. I have learnt how to take a deep breath and breathe out all the fear and anxiety that comes with waiting for things to happen. I think I managed this year’s stress pretty well – in fact I wrote about how strong I have been in 2017 a few weeks ago.

This year has been a year of change – change in countries, change in jobs, change in mindset, change in priorities, change in ways of doing things. I have learnt a lot about myself, but also about Rob, as well as learning who we can lean on – the friends and family who have been guiding and shiny lights under the most amount of uncertainty, one thing is for sure – we have amazing support group.

We learnt how to get out of debt. Slowly we are getting our debt under control. One of my goals was to get my credit card down to a manageable amount. It was maxed out at the beginning of Jan, but by Black Friday, we had completely paid off BOTH of our credit cards. Now we are working towards paying off some other bits of debt we owe. It feels good to not have debt hanging over our heads.

Less is more was another big learning. I culled all the unnecessary things in my closet, and went to a capsule wardrobe mindset. I now have under 30 items of clothing that I love and enjoy wearing, and I have never felt so free in owning less. I also challenged myself to the 30 days Minimalist Challenge, and through that challenge threw out 465 items by either selling, donating or trashing it.

We learnt to travel slower. At the beginning of this journey to moving overseas, we had big plans of travelling the world from top to bottom and inside out in under a month. We wanted to see all and do all – and although that hasn’t really changed, our timeline to complete the entire bucket list of destinations has extended to a slower, and more intentional pace. Now we are looking forward to exploring more of our own city first, to broadening our horizons and exploring more of Ireland as a whole, and to hopefully extend our sights on seeing a bit more of this big world we live in. We realise we can’t do everything and be everywhere, but we can appreciate where we are and what we choose to see. I had originally written a goal to do 5 hikes/walks; to see 3 more counties in Ireland (excluding Dublin) and to do 2 big holidays. Well, we ended up doing way more walks and hikes like these, and this one, plus this one. We started exploring the Dublin Mountains, as well as Glendalough in Wicklow Mountains too. We also ended up seeing 14 of 32 counties in Ireland! Not to mention our first Irish road trip with Jack! Plus, we ended 2017 in Scotland. I definitely feel content in all the exploring we did this past year. We might have kept it local, but I feel like we got to know our home better this way.

2017 has been full of surprises, some good and some not so good – but one thing is for sure, the world keeps turning and the days keep marching forward. Whether we like it or not, 2017 is behind us, and 2018 upon us. So what are my hopes for 2018? My hope for 2018 is that we continue to practice the lessons we learnt this year: kindness, patience, getting out of debt, having less, and travelling slower. I would like to add that perhaps I would like a little less change, and a lot more laughs and happiness. Laughing and happiness are how we got through all the change in 2017, but this year, I would like things to get a little more settled and constant. Not boring, because that would be boring, just a little more calm and peaceful. More contentment and intentional living.

WHAT ARE YOUR HOPES FOR 2018 AND WHAT LESSONS DID YOU LEARN FROM 2017?

Live Simply & Travel Slow,

~Meg~

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