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$1,175 in Extra Income, Life, Food Weekly Update

BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 70 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Happy Monday everyone! Above are some pictures from my weekend. I'm really loving having an iPhone 5 because it makes everything much easier. Expect more pictures from me! Also, if you scroll through my Twitter, you will be able to find my Instagram (I posted it multiple times), so follow me! Yes, I will make it difficult and not post it directly on my blog. 🙂

Thanksgiving was really great for us! I love going to the Boy's Grandma's. So many family members go (well over 100 I'm guessing) and it's a lot of fun. Just check out the dessert table that I posted on Saturday, so many awesome desserts! And I also got my ears pierced on Friday. Yes, I know, truly sad.

I also updated my blog a little bit, I think it looks better, what do you all think? I also added an Extra Income tab above so that I can keep everyone updated and my readers can quickly click on each update without searching too too hard.

I also wanted to thank everyone for your support for my aggressive $38,000 student loan payoff plan. I am excited to finally start putting more effort in this, and I can't wait for it to be done.

My updates:

Spending:

We are still doing good with our spending. We have bought some Christmas presents for each other (the Boy is completely done), but I still need to tell him what I want! And then we still need to get presents for my sister and the Boy's family. Still not sure what to get everyone.

I did go shopping over the weekend. Bought a dress, a shirt and a cardigan. Yes, I probably didn't need these items, but I know that I'll enjoy them! Did you do any Black Friday shopping? I wasn't and never will be brave enough to shop with the crazy crowds.

Extra Income (this is on top of my salary from my job):

Yet another great week. I made around $1,175 from online income (staff writing, website, etc.) last week. This is before fees and everything else though. I am still in the middle of drafting my extra income explanation post, but if you have any questions, remember to ask.

Also, don't forget about my iPad Mini and Cash giveaway, there are only a couple of days left!

Food: 

We've been doing well with our food spending. We ate out a couple of times last week but it was all cheap food. This is something that we are of course still working on and we will be working on it forever most likely.

I've been thinking about this, do any of you do batch cooking? I tried it once and it didn't go great for me, mainly because I have no patience to cook all day?

I forgot yet again to do a meal plan yesterday, so here it is below:

Monday -Philly Cheesesteas, Tuesday – Out to eat, Wednesday – Jalapeno Pepper Chicken, Thursday – Parmesan Baked Rotini, Friday – Beef Carnitas, Saturday – Out to eat, Sunday – Pizza

Being healthy:

I've been doing MUCH better with this, but mainly only with me eating better. I ran with my dog a couple of times, but it was so cold last week that each run was not for a very long time.

I did lose 3 pounds last week. I am very surprised how just eating better helped me lose so much weight. Here it goes to future weeks/months/years/decades of better eating!

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. DC@Young Adult Money says

    November 26, 2012 at 6:09 am

    As you know from my constant commenting on the topic, I can't wait for your extra income post! My goal is to bring in $1k/month from Young Adult Money, but I may not be taking full advantage of other side incomes (spreadsheet stuff I do, freelance writing, etc.) so I will be interested to see what you do to bring in that cash.
    My recent post Black Friday Haul

    Reply

  2. Sam says

    November 26, 2012 at 6:28 am

    Great week of extra income again! I am SO looking forward to that detailed post. I’ve never done batch cooking, but one thing I love is my crockpot! This time of year i love making soups & it usually makes enough to feed the bf & I for 2 nights. Oh, and try http://www.bodyrock.tv for working out girl!

    Reply

  5. Living Debt Free Rocks! says

    November 26, 2012 at 7:37 am

    It sounds like you had a great week-end and a healthy extra income week too! I too have been doing my best to eat clean but I don't really sweat it when I occasionally succumb to my sweet tooth.
    My recent post Debt Freedom Day

    Reply

  7. Holly@ClubThrifty says

    November 26, 2012 at 8:16 am

    Good job on your extra income and staying on track with your spending! I was afraid that I would fall off the healthy eating wagon over Thanksgiving…but I didn't. Whew.

    Have a great week!

    Reply

  10. SavvyFinancialLatina says

    November 26, 2012 at 9:06 am

    That's so awesome!!! Side income is so nice. I really need to make a plan for my blog, and figure out how I'm going to monetize it. I would love to make some side income. I am such a procrastinator though.
    Spending has been meh. We just keep having things pop up. Plus, we are not controlling our spending on food as much as I would like. It's hard because we are young, and just want to enjoy ourselves.

    Reply

  11. Jason @ WSL says

    November 26, 2012 at 9:52 am

    Great job again on the extra income! So did you go to a shooting range this weekend? My wife and I visited her family up in Omaha and we were able to shoot a bunch of different guns! I think we shot around 6 total of which included an AK47, an AR15, and a few different handguns. I had never shot a handgun before so it was a lot of fun!
    My recent post 4 Keys to Achieving Financial Peace

    Reply

  15. Jason Clayton says

    November 26, 2012 at 11:45 am

    Nice work on your extra income. I look forward to reading your post about how you make this a reality, as I could use some extra income. 🙂
    My recent post Save Thousands of Dollars with this One little Rule

    Reply

  18. Brick By Brick Investing | Marvin says

    November 26, 2012 at 12:13 pm

    I love following your progress especially the firing range 😉 My wife begged me for the iPhone 5 but we chose the 4S because it was a cheaper option at the time. We’ve tried batch cooking before but it didn’t go too well due to the fact we were staying at my parents while our home was being built. Now that we’re in our new home we plan on trying it out again next week!

    Reply

  20. Anne_UGifter says

    November 26, 2012 at 12:50 pm

    Once again, thoroughly impressed by your side hustle income! I keep meaning to try out some batch cooking, but haven't got there yet. I made a meal plan last week and that was awesome. naturally, I neglected to do it for this week and we will be off to a rough start. I have a meeting tonight that includes dinner, which will leave us scrambling for lunches tomorrow as my spouse will likely only make enough for one person tonight.

    Reply

  21. @danilee_13 says

    November 26, 2012 at 1:01 pm

    I can't wait for your extra income post!! I'm doing really well this month so far, but some of it is money I won't see right away. 🙂 Great job on everything you do!
    As for batch cooking, I'm going to try a new strategy in December. I'll be posting about it too, hopefully later this week!
    My recent post An Amazing Weekend!

    Reply

  25. fromshoppingtosaving says

    November 26, 2012 at 4:08 pm

    So glad you're on instagram so I can keep tabs on you more =) Glad to see things going well!!! Looking forward to the extra income post, especially since I will be quitting my job soon and winter break is coming up!

    Reply

  30. Holly says

    November 27, 2012 at 4:02 am

    Here is my secret to batch cooking:

    Each week I make 1 dish w/multiple servings, usually on Sun

    Recently that has been soups:

    Chicken stock

    Gumbo

    veg/mushroom/barley

    On my list of to dos is:

    meatloaf muffuns

    6/more servings of chicken (usually split flavors: lemon, BBQ, oven fried)

    lasagne

    I have in the freezer some lentil stew, chicken cassarole, rice & beans, salisbury steak, swiss steak.

    Reply

  31. mycanuckbuck says

    November 27, 2012 at 8:40 am

    Yes, I do batch cooking – chili and ham/lentil soup. A little time on the weekend, and then meals for several weeks. 🙂 That is amazing on the weight loss – healthy eating does definitely make a difference!
    My recent post 30% off Ontario tuition? It could happen to you!

    Reply

  33. Chelsea says

    November 27, 2012 at 6:43 pm

    I think I'm most interested to know where/how you find the staffwriting/freelance jobs?
    My recent post OOTD: All The Bloggers Are Doing It….

    Reply

    • makingsenseofcents says

      November 27, 2012 at 10:39 pm

      Great question! I will definitely be answering this in the post. I posted in a personal finance forum (Yakezie) and a couple of site owners emailed me. There are websites out there where you can sign up as well. I think ProBlogger is one of them but I might be wrong. I've never signed up on a job board, but there are a couple of staff writing job boards out there.
      My recent post Budget Busters

      Reply

  34. Elena Moiseenko says

    November 27, 2012 at 9:22 pm

    Even going out to cheap fast food restaurants can be a budget buster for many of us. I would suggest making whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce and a simple lettuce, tomato, cucumber salad 2-3 times a week which is healthy, will feed the whole family and will cost you almost nothing compared to even one trip to McDonalds.
    My recent post Discover Exciting Careers in Radiography

    Reply

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