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Spending, Life, Income and Food Updates…

Last Updated: BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 47 Comments

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Old picture of a waterfall near Atlanta

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend.

We went to a bonfire on Saturday and had a pretty cheap, but still really fun weekend. Aren’t those the best?

I didn’t do any of that work that I thought I was going to do (the work I brought from home). The weekend just seem oo fly by so fast and I didn’t find time to do any of it. Oh well.

My updates:

Spending: We did some shopping last week But nothing that will kill us. Our goal right now is to not make any extra purchases that we think we don’t need. Of course “need” is something that can mean anything, but we want to really think about what we need and don’t so that we can save up more money for the holidays.

Extra Monthly Income (this is on top of my salary from my job): Extra income was great again this week. Made around $800 last week. I’m starting to wonder when this will settle down, or what will end up happening (such as if my extra income just completely falls off the face of the earth).

My goal now is to start throwing almost all of this extra income towards my student loans so that I can pay them off even quicker.

Food: We’ve been doing much better with this! I think we only ate out two times this whole week. Yes, this is an achievement for us. We plan on only eating out once this week.

And we’re good with groceries this week, we definitely don’t need to buy any new food. We spent around $100 on groceries last week and around $50 on eating out. Since we don’t need any extra food this week, and our goal is to only out once this week, we’ll be at around $175 for two weeks, which is definitely a big step up for us! How has your food spending been going so far?

Being healthy: I FAILED at this. I didn’t run even once. I don’t know where my time is going. However, I did start Insanity last week. I felt like death and couldn’t even finish the first session. Oh well, I’ll keep trying, I just have no endurance.

How’s your spending, working out and extra income going?

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About Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Michelle is the founder of Making Sense of Cents, a blog about personal finance and traveling. She discusses how her business has evolved in her side income series. She paid off $40,000 in student loans by the age of 24 mainly due to her freelancing side hustles. Click here to learn more about starting a blog!

Comments

  1. [email protected] Adult Money says

    I've been having more and more trouble fitting in exercising. I started to go to lunch with my team at work, and that was when I used to work out. Spending was pretty good – we stayed within our budget for most categories.

    Extra income I am still working on. With closing on a house this week and moving over the next couple weeks, there won't be a ton of extra time for me to get in all the work I want. Anyway, glad your extra income has been so good lately!
    My recent post What are Health Insurance Exchanges and How Do They Work?

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  2. John S @ Frugal Rules says

    Awesome work on the side income! I think that's a great idea to throw it at your student loans if you can manage it. Our food spending has been fine, we're usually quite a bit under our budget so we can pad our grocery stash. Working out has been a huge fail for me as well. For me it all comes down to just making time for it and staying committed to it.
    My recent post I’ve Joined the Yakezie Challenge!

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  3. Sam says

    Wow your extra income is awesome! You rock girl 🙂 Bonfires are my favorite thing in the fall!

    Oh, you will get used to Insanity. I've done it twice & you will be amazed the endurance you build up & be happy with the results when you finish. Although I must say it gets harder to stay consistant once the workouts start getting to be an hour or so long.
    My recent post All about the Art

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  4. adahat1 says

    Great job on the income. I did insanity for a month and half. It was just way to time consuming. You might want to try looking into The 4 Hour Body. Just so you know, I am not affiliated with it in any way, I am a case study that dropped 50lbs in 6 months.
    My recent post How I Am Generating Passive Income by Dumping My Savings Account and How You Can Too

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  5. Budget & the Beach says

    Eating out is one of those expenses that really adds up (as I'm sure you're aware of), but I totally understand the appeal of it. I miss being able to do it more often. The positive side is that it's usually healthier to eat at home so that's killing two birds with one stone. Congrats on all your side income!
    My recent post Week in Review-10/7/12

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  6. Christine says

    Spending is good. I basically spend zero money outside of food and necessities since my new job has seen my salary cut in half. Working out…right, sort of non-existent. However we're supposed to be starting "team workouts" at my new job this week for team building so I guess I'll have to get better. 😉 As far as side income, I feel like I'm still kind of floating around trying to figure out how. I'm already working with Crystal but I'm trying to learn what I can do to make my site more appealing to advertisers.
    My recent post Two Financial Mistakes I Made Last Week

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  7. SWR says

    We spent a ton of money on food yesterday. Buuuuut, we felt like it was okay because (1) We like to shop bi-weekly to match payday, and then just pick up some produce on the "off" weeks, and (2) this was the first time in a few months that we weren't forced to stick to rice, beans, and sale produce!
    My recent post The weekly menu

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  9. therandompath says

    Wow, you are rockin' that extra income! Good for you 🙂

    We've been eating take-out a bit more than I would care for. Either it has been too warm to cook, or we just didn't feel like it. Now that the weather has cooled off, hopefully we can get our food spending under control.
    My recent post October is a Time…

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  10. kimateyesonthedollar says

    I think I have to join a challenge to make something work. I am afraid to spend to much at the grocery because Mr. CBB is in my head and Savvy Scot is in my head to work out. Blogging has been good for finding people to be accountable to! Insanity kicked my butt the first few times I did it. I like my classes at the rec center better. Other people to share you pain.
    My recent post Being a Boss, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

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  14. iheartbudgets says

    Well done on the income! It would be awesome to kill your loan with that money! You should make a graph for debt payoff progress and show us how much interest your extra payments are saving you.

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  15. Rebecca says

    Wow, way to go with the extra income! I too have trouble finding time to work out. I've never tried Insanity, but I have tried P90x. That was really time consuming and really really tough. Good luck with Insanity. I'd be curious to know how it turns out.
    My recent post 7 Ways to earn some extra cash

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  16. @nomorespending says

    Great progress Michelle – I love that you're snowflaking your loan with the extra income._For me everything is going okay up to now this month..grocery spending under control, exercise is happening, and I even made a little extra income.

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  18. mrsplungedindebt says

    Good for you! I also need to get off my butt and get outside for walks more with the baby…I don't even have an excuse that it's raining, we have a treadmill, I can totally strap her into the carrier and walk. I'm lazzzy haha. I have to make a goal of doing it at least 4x/week though!
    My recent post Ok, I’m Joining

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  19. SavvyFinancialLatina says

    No idea how you just spent $100 on groceries!

    We went grocery shopping Saturday night and we spent $120, and it was mostly for him!

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  21. worksavelive says

    I'm always nervous that my extra income will fall off the face of the earth too; that's a very realistic possibility when you're running a website. Hopefully it continues though; $2400/month is an impressive feat!
    My recent post Blog Income and Site Statistics – September 2012

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  23. Nunzio Bruno says

    Sounds like it was a good week. I am really cheering for your update on eating out because over the last few weeks eating out has been ruining my budget. I've just been on the go so much teaching 7 courses between 3 colleges. As far as working out goes it's pretty much the same for me too – I think I made twice lol. Good luck this week!
    My recent post Hiring Child/Family as a Social Media Intern

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  24. @prairieecothrif says

    That side income is awesome. Great work. Don't beat yourself up too much about the running thing. I have been trying to get back into it myself and I haven't been able to get over that mental hurdle. It sucks.

    Reply

  25. americandebtproject says

    Hey Michelle! My spending was under control in September: under $600 (for everything other than regular bills) for the first time since I started tracking in January! Working out and food I don't have much to report but I would like to step it up in extra income. I am working on a bunch of long-term stuff and my impatience is kicking in….
    My recent post To Get Out of Debt, Just Get Started

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  26. Sarah Kate says

    Food spending is one area we could definitely work on. I really like to make new recipes every week, but that means buying a lot of ingredients at the grocery store, etc. If I stuck with the same meals every week, we'd probably save more.
    My recent post my brown-eyed girl

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  27. Canadianbudgetbinder says

    Mrs.CBB and I are pretty healthy and keep fit almost every day of the week. We have noticed this year since cooking more from scratch and leaving any conveniences behind that our grocery budget has shrunk considerably. Do you find that you are working towards making changes not only in your healthy lifestyle but your meal planning now that you are focused on your spending? Do you buy ready made foods, crackers,soup,beans in a can, broth in a can, crisps, granola bars etc? Congrats on only eating out twice.. that can easily eat up a budget… way to go!!
    My recent post The Grocery Game Challenge Oct 8-14,2012-Fresh Air!

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