$2,420 in Extra Income, Life, Wedding Updates

Happy Monday everyone! The weekend went by way too quickly and of course I’m not happy about it. I still have so much to do and don’t feel like I accomplished much. This weekend we did a lot. We looked around on Sunday to try and think of possible areas that we want to buy…

Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Last Updated: May 26, 2023

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

This is the style that we are kind of going for. We LOVED this house. And it faces a lake.
This is the style that we are kind of going for. We LOVED this house. And it faces a lake.

Happy Monday everyone! The weekend went by way too quickly and of course I’m not happy about it. I still have so much to do and don’t feel like I accomplished much.

This weekend we did a lot. We looked around on Sunday to try and think of possible areas that we want to buy in, and we found a couple that we like. We pretty much know what kind of house we want (we are pretty open, but love older styled and southern style homes).

We’re still unsure about how much we want to spend, and I guess it all just depends on how much we are able to save. It also depends on whether we want to go all Young House Love and renovate the house ourselves and make it perfect for us, or just buy something that someone else liked. I’m still not sure what I want to do! Oh yeah and we don’t know if we want a house that’s in an HOA or a home with a lot of land.

I have a feeling that buying this next house will be a long process, and much longer than when we bought our first house at the age of 20. Anyone else feel like this the second time around?  It’s just that nothing seems perfect and what we’re exactly looking for!

I guess I should probably make a post soon that details everything that we want or need, and then I can makes references to that whenever I need to. What do you think are “needs” with the house that you buy? Let me know because there could easily be something that I’m overlooking. We want to live in our next house for awhile and don’t want to forget anything.

I’m still looking for possible guest posters as well. Since I am kind of close to paying off my student loans, I’m thinking about starting a debt payoff guest post series. Anyone interested? Topics can be about what you’re doing to pay off debt quickly, how you’re paying them off, whether you think your debt is good/bad, etc! A post that is somewhat related to the topic of debt is great.

I’ve also been constantly updating my blog post from the other day on How To Start A Blog. There are now added tips and instructions so that you guys don’t get too confused when starting your blog. I also have several other posts about blogs in the works, including how to transfer your blog from Blogger to WordPress.

Also, don’t forget to check out my sister’s blog, FITnancials. I’m helping run it, while she is the writer. This blog has been going pretty well and I’m still excited about it. My sister is a new writer but seems to be doing well. She’s still learning about the whole blogging thing but is starting to get the hang of it. She recently got a Page Rank of 2  from the recent update as well!

Spending:

I don’t think we bought anything in the past week, at least nothing that I can think of.

extraincome

Extra Income (does not include salary from our jobs):

The $1,635 was for the first 10 days of February. This does not include the $325 from my sister, payments that I’m expecting or any affiliate income. If you add up just the $1,635, rent payment and some additional affiliate income which will come by check (I don’t want to count the expected payments until I actually receive them), then I have made $2,420 for the first 10 days of February.

I do feel like like I’m on a slow start for February so far, but I don’t think I’m doing bad. Hopefully I can start reeling in these payments that I’ve been waiting for!

I’m still working on my affiliate income as it’s one of my main blog goals for 2013. For now, will you tell me if you do affiliate income and what I should know? Any tips, opinions, etc. would be awesome.

This was our Friday night dinner. Chicken in vodka sauce, toasted ravioli and toast. YUMM!
This was our Friday night dinner. Chicken in vodka sauce, toasted ravioli and toast. YUMM!

Food: 

No meal plan for this week, but we have been doing really good with eating at home as much as we can. We also ate out a couple of times last week, but we had a coupon for every time. Buy one get one free dinners at all of our favorite restaurants? We’ll take it! Thankfully it was W’s birthday last week so we got tons of free coupons.

Wedding

Nothing new with the wedding right now. We finally have decided on photographers. I love who we chose and I’m super excited! Now we just have to get everything else on track, which there is a lot. I don’t feel too rushed though, and I’m not really worried.

homegym
Our home gym in our basement is complete!

Being healthy:

The treadmill came in last week and we put it together. Took around 2 hours for us to put it together but it was well worth it. We thought about paying the company to put it together but we decided that it was not worth the extra $250 to pay the company to do this.

One thing that we didn’t really think about when we bought our home gym was making sure the ceiling was high enough. Yes we measured the height, but didn’t measure how much room we would actually NEED. So even though the home gym fit, we can’t actually do pull ups on it because the ceiling is so close (but come on, I most likely would never do a pull up anyways).

So this also means that if a giant wanted to run on my treadmill, they would be out of luck because there head would most likely hit the ceiling. Luckily I am only 5’4″ and have around one more foot before I hit the ceiling when I’m running.

I’ve only ran on it twice so far, but I have been swamped with things to do so I will blame it on that. My goal is to run on it 5 days this week and most likely at least 5 miles each time. Wish me luck!

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


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Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Author: Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Hey! I’m Michelle Schroeder-Gardner and I am the founder of Making Sense of Cents. I’m passionate about all things personal finance, side hustles, making extra money, and online businesses. I have been featured in major publications such as Forbes, CNBC, Time, and Business Insider. Learn more here.

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  1. I love the style of home you're considering, very beautiful. For us, what mattered most was we knew what city we wanted to live in. It had to be a safe neighborhood within that community with a great school system (even though we didn't have children at that time), walkable distance to beach (hubby is an avid surfer and we love the beach) and most importantly – affordable mortgage. We could have bought a larger home (sometimes we probably wish we did) but it would have cut into our "fun" money. We love traveling and we weren't willing to give up our "fun" money for a bigger home. It's definitely a balancing act and knowing what matters most to you. We love our home and can still take lots of mini-trips and one big family vacation.
    My recent post Valentine’s Day Love Box

    1. Thanks for stopping by my blog. This is something that we're trying to decide as well. Should we get a big house that cost more or something smaller that we can pay off quickly?
      My recent post How to Live on One Income

  2. Nick @ AYoungPro.com

    Great update! I love hearing about all of the progress you are making. We are currently building a new home and our main focus has been keeping monthly costs as low as possible. One of the nice things about buying a new home as opposed to an older home is that you can focus on adding a lot of the "green" perks and advances in construction technology. Good luck, I know buying a home is stressful.

    1. We are trying to decide if we want a new or old house right now. I love that we can decide everything that we want to with a new house, but I just love the timeless styles of older homes 🙂
      My recent post How to Live on One Income

  3. Haha that would be hilarious if I ran for some public office. I'll have to keep that in mind 😛
    My recent post How to Live on One Income

  4. Canadianbudgetbinder

    Love the home gym, I have a very similar set up in mine and love it! I'm always adding something new. Great going with the extra income again. I also bought my first home at 20, my second a few years later and it was a bit of a process yes and I did score a decent house. You learn so much from one house to the next that's for sure. Cheers
    My recent post The Grocery Game Challenge Feb 11-17 Stock-up When You Can! Pancake Day!

    1. Have you made a post about buying young? You should if you haven't! 🙂
      My recent post How to Live on One Income

  5. brickbybrickinvesting2012

    I love the home gym. I built one for my garage it helps out tremendously!

  6. The Blonde

    I love the style of that house! I`ve always had a fondness for American architecture, as i find them more charming and much nicer than what I`m used to. and wow, that`s a great extra income! congrats!