Student Loan Update and $805 in Extra Income
Hey everyone! Happy Monday. I’m still dreaming of my trip to St. Thomas and wish we were both still there!
Last week I was super sick. Not sure what happened but I was pretty much just crying in pain for 5 days straight. Of course it was a perfect weekend with awesome weather and I had to miss most of that because I didn’t start to feel better until Sunday afternoon! Oh well, just glad that I’m feeling better.
Yesterday was W’s mom’s birthday and we had a BBQ and it was a lot of fun. And tomorrow is my birthday 
We would love to buy a house in his parents’ historic neighborhood, but they never go for sale. The house to the left went up for sale the other day and we have been seriously thinking about it. We drove by and took this picture and can’t stop looking at it. It’s over 100 years old but completely renovated on the inside and looks very nice. Oh if only we were ready to buy right now… Our current house is still awesome and we don’t feel like going through the process of selling it right now.
I announced the winner to my Novica giveaway but never heard from her. I announced a new winner and already sent her the certificate code. Congrats to Cat at Budget Blonde!
Student Loan Update
I know, I know, around a month ago, I said that my student loans would be done in either April or May. Then recently I said May for sure. Well, it looks like the official date will be June. We have the money saved, but it would drain our emergency fund, so we have decided not to. We don’t want to touch any retirement accounts or drain our EF.
Why will we not reach the May goal? Well, we came across some good investment opportunities and dived into that. W has been wanting to start a side hustle for quite some time, but I’ve always said no and that we need to SAVE SAVE SAVE. Well, that’s not very fair of me, so the other day he took some cash and started a side hustle with his dad in an area where they have expertise. I think it’ll work out great! The return is higher than what my interest rates on my student loans are, so I figured it was still a good value.
Have you slowed any debt repayment to take advantage of something like this? A good investment, a new house purchase, etc.? Tell me all about it!
Spending
We did some spending last week. I spent around $100 on clothes (hey, I need some summer clothes!) and W spent around $150 because he needed new work slacks. He must be growing because his pants have all become high-waters. So yes, we spent around $250 on clothes. Other than that, I don’t believe we spent any money.
Extra Income (does not include income from our main jobs)
Extra income was a little low last week (but I’m not complaining!) mainly because I was playing catch up after my vacation and I was sick for 5 days last week. UGH that’s what sickness does to you! Still though, $805 (not including my office job) is still a good week. I have a lot of playing catch up this week since I didn’t get much done last week. I’m expecting a couple of payments this week also which will make up for it.
Affiliate income is still doing great but I’m thinking about getting into more areas so that I can ramp this up. I have been thinking about my extra income a lot lately and where I want to take it. I would like to keep diversifying so that I can rely on my side hustle income more and maybe even dive into self-employment entirely. Any tips?
Posts from my blog:
- St. Thomas and $3,038 in Extra Income – Extra income was still up even though I was on vacation. That’s always nice to know!
- St. Thomas Pictures – SUP, Parasailing, Relaxation! – In this post there are some pictures from our vacation. It was a great time!
- My Minimalist Confessions – I’m not always a minimalist - I always love Jordann’s minimalism posts, and here’s another great one. She collects other items, and isn’t always a minimalist!
- 12 Facts about Student Loan Debt that will make Your Hair Stand on End – How much do YOU owe in student loans? There are some crazy stats in this post.
Link Love
- How much money do you need to make online to be happy? Yakezie - For me, I think the number is lower, just as it says in the article. I love everything that I do online, so it doesn’t exactly seem like a “job” to me.
- I Quit My Job Club Thrifty – WOOHOO! This post makes me oh so happy.
- Fort Building Kit for Adults Unique Gifter – Love this idea!
- Dos and Don’ts of applying for a staff writing job My Multiple Incomes – Here is a great post for those of you who are looking for staff writing jobs.
- Dear Parents, Charge Your Kids Rent Broke Millennial – I would definitely charge my kids rent, depending on the situation of course too though.
- Why I shut down my profitable online business Debt Roundup – I would have done the same!
- Taking the Plunge: Freedom Without Boundaries is Enslavement Frugal Rules – This is another great post relating to self-employment. You probably get the idea of where I am heading.
- Best 0% Balance Transfer Credit Cards of Summer 2013 Money Life and More – Good post for those who are looking.
Being healthy
I have not been doing the best with this in the past week. I was very sick last week, and could hardly eat anything. I definitely plan on changing that this week! Also, I didn’t work out at all since I was sick. Even just sitting down felt like I was killing myself!
Have you been doing well with your extra income, spending and being healthy?
St. Thomas Pictures – SUP, Parasailing, Relaxation!
We had a TON of fun in St. Thomas. I’m still recouping, so for today please enjoy these pictures. I didn’t really use my camera and used my iPhone for nearly all of my photos, so sorry about all of the Instagram pictures.
I will do a full recap eventually, and if you have any questions about St. Thomas or the U.S. Virgin Islands, please ask below or email me so that I know what to absolutely include in my St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands’ recap post.
In the near future, I also plan on talking about blogging and getting freebies. Specifically blogging and getting travel freebies. Some of you know this already, but lately I’ve been able to score a lot of vacation freebies. These have included: free hotel stays, guided tours, snorkeling/kayaking excursions, dinners, drinks and so on. It is something that I just started with in the end of 2012, and I’m still learning more and more about it. Is there anything specific that you would like for me to include in the post? Look out for my post on Blogging for Free Travel soon!
Lastly, don’t forget to read my latest life update and extra income post
The lovely beach at the resort! Half of the beach is a little rocky, but the left hand side is perfect for getting in without it being rocky and hurting your feet. The water is crystal clear and BEAUTIFUL. Continue reading
St. Thomas and $3,038 in Extra Income
Hey everyone! Happy Monday. We are leaving St. Thomas today and we had so much fun. I’m sad that my vacation is over, but I’m honestly ready to go home. I miss my dogs, oh yeah and I miss W It was a vacation with my sister and it was much needed!
A couple of you have asked me to do a full St. Thomas recap since you will be going on vacation there soon, so look forward to that! We both took tons of pictures. We spent a lot of time at the beach, got really sun burned, SUPed (for the first time!), went kayaking, and went parasailing (first time for this also). We didn’t leave the resort once in the whole 5 days but had tons of fun. Usually I explore the area where I go on a vacation to, but we decided to just stay and have a relaxing time at the resort.
I announced the winner to my Novica giveaway but haven’t heard back yet. If your name is Erika, please check the Facebook post where I announced the giveaway so that you can see if it’s you. I want to give you your certificate code!
Oh yeah, and go congratulate my sister, she is now a personal trainer! AND this is my birthday month so you all better be super nice to me for the rest of May. I kid, I kid, you should be nice to me all the time I definitely know what I want for my birthday, and that is a stand-up paddle board.
Spending
I don’t think we did any spending outside of the vacation budget. Earlier in May, our dryer did break though. Luckily we had a gift card that was good at Lowes which covered the whole purchase. It made having to replace the dryer not hurt our budget at all.
Extra Income (does not include income from our main jobs)
Extra income has been good for this month so far. I’m expecting a couple of payments this week. Affiliate income is still doing awesome. It’s nice to know that when I was on vacation, that you awesome readers were still clicking on my affiliate links. Of course I don’t count that as income until I actually receive it (usually 45 to 60 days after you click on the link), but it is still nice to know that future income has been made.
Not sure if this should be included in my Extra Income section, but I did win $85 to Starbucks last week. WOOHOO! I haven’t spent money at Starbucks in what seems like forever because I seem to constantly win Starbucks gift cards from giveaways.
Posts from my blog:
- Home Updates – How we Plan on Selling Our House Quickly – We have a tooooonnnn of things that we need to repair/replace/update in our house, but luckily most of it is pretty small.
- Why You Should Start a Blog – So Many Positives – In this post, I talk about all of the awesome reasons for why you should start a blog. What are you waiting for?
- How Being a Minimalist has Helped my Finances – This is a great post by Jordann. Hope you loved it!
- I want to learn more about you - I took an idea from another blogger and asked all of you a few questions. Loved the responses! Looks like W and I need to work on our food budget…
Link Love
- Fighting Boredom and Restlessness as you Work on Long-Term Goals The Frugal Farmer
- 3 Businesses you can run from anywhere in the world Young Adult Money
- Why Having Two Jobs Pays off Budget Blonde
- Do You Hoard Vacation Days Squirelers
- What are you willing to do for money My Shiny Pennies
- Pros and Cons of Living in a Smaller Home Retire by 40
- Why I will never regret a dime spent on vacations The Happy Homeowner
- Finance Carnival for Young Adults – I was included!
Food – Clean Eating!
We are still doing good with our food spending, but it’s hard to say because I’ve been gone for 5 days and W can’t cook to save his life (I have no idea what/if he’s been eating while I’ve been gone). But this is a new week and I know we will do awesome! What’s on your meal plan? Share any links, recipes, pictures and so on in the comments below.
Being healthy
I’m still doing great with being healthy. Our hotel room was on the 7th floor and we took the stairs nearly every single time (except for when we had luggage), which means something! We also worked out at the gym here. It was only one time, but seriously those stairs killed us. After we went down the 7 floors, it was also another 98 (maybe 96?) steps down to the pool and beach area, and we walked that EVERY single time as well. I should have killer legs now.
Have you been doing well with your extra income, spending and being healthy?
