Hey everyone. I hope you all had a great weekend. It was a nice and relaxing weekend for us and I'm sad that it went by so quickly. This past week was pretty boring and uneventful, but I guess that's a good thing also. On Wednesday, May 1st, I'll be publishing my April goals update and extra income post, so be sure to come back for that!
Spending
I can't think of any shopping that we did in this past week (except for food of course). Definitely a cheap week for us! We are thinking about buying a kayak (as seen in this post) for the spring and summer time. We've been wanting one and we currently have a gift card for Cabelas that would cover it. Free kayak? SURE!
We also have more work to do to the house, and of course that will be a lot of spending in the future. A post on all of the updating around the house that we need to do will be up soon. We finally did the spring clean up at our house and cleaned the gutters, raked leaves, hauled a lot of garbage after the tornado and so on. Our house looks so much nicer now and I'm sure our neighbors love us.
Extra Income (does not include income from our main jobs)
Extra income was similar to the week earlier and I am of course happy about it. I'm waiting on payments from multiple people but hopefully I receive those soon. Also, I'm still looking to get more into passive income, but I need more TIME.
I have also been thinking a lot about Lending Club and peer lending. Before I started blogging, I honestly had no idea about any of this, but it seems like a lot of other bloggers are always talking about it. Are you involved in peer-to-peer lending? What are your thoughts? TELL ME! If you know of any awesome posts relating to this (even if they are your own posts as well), please share them below.
Also, tell me about any other things that you do for extra income. I always love hearing about what others do. If you want to guest post on my blog about paying off your debt, side hustles, and so on, then please e-mail me. I always love sharing guest posts with my readers, because then you can learn about other readers and bloggers and follow their blogs as well.
Posts from my blog:
- Clean Eating and $1,910 in Extra Income
- Should I pay off my house early? – Pros and Cons – I loved everyone's opinions and comments on this post. Thanks everyone!
- Are you a risk taker? Risk tolerance and finances
- Relationships and Money: Talk is Not Cheap
Link Love
- Should I be called out for not spending in acceptable categories? Save Spend Splurge
- Retirement Planning Versus You Only Live Once The Frugal Path
- Making Money Versus Doing What You Love Our Freaking Budget
- Extreme Retirement Is Fools Gold Krant Cents
Food
I am still doing good with eating better. I'm trying to cut out a lot of bread that I eat. I can eat a whole container of croissants or Hawaiian rolls in one sitting. Yes, one sitting! I can't be the only one who does this, right? Also, avoiding snack aisles at the grocery store seems to be working as well. We spent around $100 on groceries last week and we are pretty positive that this will last us some time, especially since our fridge was packed full before we even went grocery shopping this week. As always, if you have any recipes, share below please 🙂
Being healthy
I have been doing AWESOME with running and working out more. I know it's not much but I have been trying to run 3 or 4 miles every day. I've been running more and I've also been running with my dog everyday.
Have you been doing well with your extra income, spending and being healthy?
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I haven't done P2P lending yet, but there's a little part of me that wonders just how good an idea is loaning money to people who couldn't get a loan from a bank. What happens when a recession hits and a bunch of these people, many of whom are taking out loans to pay back other loans at a lower interest rate decide to default? I'm not sure if P2P lending has been around long enough to convince me that it's a good investment.
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This is what I've thought about as well, and this is what makes me nervous to do it!
I also haven't gotten in P2P, but if I ever did it would simply be a part of my overall investment portfolio. So it would just be a part of the fixed income part of my investments. I wouldn't look at it as a standalone activity.
Great job on the extra income! I'm still working out how to build that up for myself, so no tips, but I'm impressed with your progress.
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I agree Matt, I wouldn't do it as a standalone activity either.
Yet another great week Michelle! You are one of my biggest inspiration to try and monetize all my side ventures. So far I am MILES behind you, but I have managed to pull in about $1200 this month. Baby steps. I have to keep telling myself that it is a long term thing.
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Thanks Glen! I'm glad I can be your inspiration haha 🙂
$1,200 is AWESOME!
Another great week Michelle! I'm not sure if we have peer to peer lending here in the UK, so can't help you there…..could help you to eat croissants though! 😉
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Haha yummm croissants 🙂
I've not done P2P lending yet either, but that's mainly because I've not researched it much yet. I agree that there do seem to be a lot of bloggers seem to be into it so it does have me a little interested. We just finished the main part of our bathroom remodel so we're waiting to get the bill….not one I am looking forward to. 😉
How much do you think your bathroom remodel cost?
My side income is doing alright, but could always do better. I still would like to generate $1k/month on average from my blog, but I'm lagging behind. I might start pursuing some freelance writing in May, though I could also commit that time to improving my site…so many decisions to make!
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Yes, so many decisions to make! I still don't know what I want to do.
Krant's post was really good! I'm glad you had a good weekend. I need to start working on my extra income again as well!
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Yes, I agree Lance! And I'm sure you're doing awesome with your extra income 🙂
Another rocking week! You go girl! And yes, I can totally eat a ton of bread (and cheese…and wine…mmmm) in one sitting. I'm trying to be good too though! 😉
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yummm I eat too much cheese also!
Great job on your extra income! We had a great month in April too!
Have a great week!
Thanks Holly!
Nice work Michelle. I have been wanting to do P2P lending for some time, but my state doesn't allow me to lend direct loans. I have to use a trading platform and I just don't want to do that. It makes it even more complicated. I guess I will have to figure something else out when it comes to P2P lending.
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Interesting! I haven't even thought about what my state says about it.
Congrats Michelle, another mind blowing week! Hope you have another great week 🙂
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Thanks Catherine 🙂
Your money posts are inspirational…u ever think about kiva i think its called.
Thanks Christopher!
You inspire me to keep looking for side income. None yet, but I won't stop trying.
Thank you Michelle!
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Thanks Allison! Yes, please look for side income 🙂 It is AWESOME.
I can eat Hawaiian rolls in one sitting too! That's why I don't bring them in the house 😉
Congrats on the extra income Michelle!!
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Yeah, my friends make fun of me because sometimes I'll buy a whole bag and bring it with me and eat them as I'm shopping and in the car haha
I'm willing to consider P2P lending since it's an investment that doesn't require a lot of cash to start. I had some experience as a part of a nonprofit that approved car loans for people who can't get bank loans, so I feel somewhat comfortable determining who to lend money to. I've been doing micro-loans via Kiva to entrepreneurs around the world with pretty good repayment results. I don't get any interest for the Kiva loans though. I'm choosing to believe that people are generally good and will make good on their word.
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That's awesome that you have relative experience to this. I have none so that's why I'm nervous to start.
I love carbs! You are not the only one. I need to start cutting back more though.
Great job on your side income! Great inspiration!
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If I cut out bread then I could probably drop 10 pounds a month haha
I really looked into Lending Club about 6 months ago and determined that it would be very interesting as soon as I had some money to throw at it. That being said, I would never have more than 10% of my investment portfolio in P2P lending just because it tends to be a bit more riskier than average mutual funds. Congrats on another great week!
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I agree, I don't think I would ever put TOO much money into it, just like you said.
Unfortunately P2P lending isn't allowed in the state I live in, but I have heard some great things from others who have been talking about it! Your side income is amazing! My girlfriend and I are still looking into more ways to increase our side income, and you're a huge inspiration for that! Have you thought about putting your adventures into creating side incomes into an ebook? If you take a couple minutes each day to write, it might take a month or two at most to make a book. Then you can sell it on your site to those interested in a guide to duplicating what you've been able to accomplish. It's definitely an idea for creating a little more passive income for yourself…and I'd definitely be interested in it!
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Thanks Kyle! I have been thinking about an ebook but I just don't know if anyone would be interested enough. So it's good to know that you are interested!
Great job on the running and, as always, all the extra income! I agree about the Hawaiian rolls – they're sooo delicious! I can't keep them in the house. I started P2P lending a little while ago – nothing big, I just wanted to test out the waters. It'll be interesting to see the results of this little experiment.
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Thanks! And yes, please keep us updated on how it goes for you 🙂
Has it been going well so far?
I have never heard of peer to peer lending so I'm looking forward to hearing more. I LOVE kayaking but it's one of those things that is not good for the shoulder right now. But I love being out of the water, but close to it…and it's a great core and upper body workout.
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I hope we buy one soon. I just need to stop being so cheap! Even though we have a gift card, I still want to hoard the money on it.
All the extra income we are getting goes towards vacations and house repairs right now 🙂 Congrats on your extra income and on working hard on other goals!
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That's awesome! 🙂
Wow! That is awesome that you made that much in extra income in one week. I look forward to reading more about how you make your extra cash!
Thanks! I've made a lot of other posts on them, so be sure to read them if you haven't yet 🙂
Looks like you had another great week, Michelle! I have not tried P2P lending but have been burned lending money to co-workers before. 🙂
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Thanks Shannon!
Thank you for the link! You had a stellar income for the week 🙂
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Thanks! 🙂
Hustle hustle, girl! So awesome to hear about your income spoils every week. We've barely begun the monetization game, but you're an awesome success story to look to aspire to.
And thanks for the link love! Always appreciated.
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Thanks!
You rock Michelle! I haven't tried peer-to-peer lending yet but I definitely want to!
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If you try it, make posts on it please! 🙂 I know we would all love to read it.
Another solid week of extra income!
Hows that camaro treating you? It's finally getting nice enough to really take it out and have fun!
Thanks Brian! And the Camaro is WONDERFUL.
Impressive as always. Eating healthy – not so good. Working out – not too bad. Extra income..not much at the moment. 🙂
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Thanks 🙂
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I do P2P lending, and there are a LOT of caveats. I'll post on them later, but suffice it to say that the average ROI is NOT what you will get because of how the two main sites have grown–these returns are VERY inflated. That doesn't mean you won't get a decent ROI, but it won't be anything like 13%.
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Interesting. Excited to read your post on this! 🙂
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Running 3 or 4 miles isn't much?? I've just worked my way up to that and I am dying!! 🙂
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Haha well I just worked my way up to that and I'm still dying!
My recent post Nicer Weather and $1,916 in Extra Income
Thanks for the mention.
I haven't done P2P lending because it hasn't been available in Michigan. Although I have heard that it may have recently been allowed, but I haven't had a chance to look into it.
Passive income would be great, but I've found that there really isn't any truly passive income. It all requires research of some sort or another. Although some income streams are more passive than others.
Best of luck with the house repairs, I've got a similar list that needs to be tended to.
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No P2P in NJ 🙁 I was thinking about trying it out, but no dice. Congrats on another impressive week.
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With money, I’m doing pretty good so far. Eating, I have more good days than bad at this point. Workouts, I still have a tendency to let daily things get in the way and am not sticking to a schedule. It’s one of those things that I push way down on my to-do list every time something else comes up for the day.
Well done! we don’t buy snack items if we don’t have to. If we have them in the house we will eat them. I do bake bread and cookies and treats but once every couple of weeks for a treat. Most times we eat lots of fruit salads with greek yogurt and toasted coconut, nuts, and we eat more pita instead of bread lately.
I've been interested in P2P lending as well, but haven't taken the plunge yet. Great work on that extra income!
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Thanks for the links, I am in good company.
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You need to get into the game on Peer-to-Peer Lending .
For your readers that are looking to get the superior returns of Peer to Peer Lending but don't know how to get started, I have a service that will facilitate your investments for a small fee. Check out http://www.peerlendingadvisors.com
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