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I Started a New Blog and $1,258 in Extra Income

Last Updated: BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 65 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.

I Started a New Blog and $1,258 in Extra IncomeHey everyone! Happy Monday. I hope you all had an awesome weekend. I still can’t believe that it’s June. The year is just flying by.

We didn’t do a whole ton this weekend, just did a lot of relaxing and some side hustle work.

This week I have Thursday off and we are taking our engagement photos. W isn’t too happy because he doesn’t like photos. I honestly just want pictures of us and the dogs haha… I hope they turn out great! I really don’t want the normal cheesy looking photos where everything is posed. I want them as natural looking as possible. I’ll share some photos with you all as soon as I get them.

I wanted to share something funny with you all – well at least it’s funny to me. The other day I received an email from a reader, and she was telling me that my blog is helpful. We then started talking back and forth and she actually went to the same high school as me, and she lives in the same town as me! Small world, right?

Also, don’t forget but Google Reader shuts down in a couple of weeks. Don’t forget to switch your reader over to something else. I’ve come to love Bloglovin, so I recommend trying that out. What are you switching to?

Student Loan Update

My student loans are ALMOST GONE. That’s so nice to say. I will definitely have them paid off by the end of this month. I know that I’ve had some delays, but I am still of course very happy with my progress. Also, not putting thousands of dollars (my minimum payment was less than $500 but I’ve been throwing a lot of extra money towards the loans) towards student loans every single month will feel awesome!

Spending

We did do some spending in the past week. We bought W some new clothes for the engagement photos but I believe that was all. Spent around $200 but he could use the clothes anyway, so it was worth it.

 

I Started a New Blog and $1,258 in Extra Income

Extra Income (does not include income from our main jobs)

Extra income was good last week, but I’m still waiting on quite a few payments. Hopefully these will FINALLY be collected this week because some are so old that they were due when I was on vacation in St. Thomas early last month.

I also finally launched my new blog this weekend. Diversified Finances is live! There isn’t much on it right now. I was going to wait to share it with you all, but I’m not much of a secret keeper and wanted to share it immediately. This blog will be all about how I’m trying to diversify my finances and eventually become financially independent.

Some of you might be wondering WHY I started a second blog. Well, I figured I wanted to bring Making Sense of Cents back to all things personal finance, and not talk 100% about my side hustles.

I went through my past posts recently, and pretty much 99% of them are about my side hustles. I have a ton of ideas for side hustles posts for the future (like over 50), and decided that since I like to talk so much, a second blog would probably be a better idea. I don’t think I will be posting too, too often on Diversified Finances, but maybe 2 to 3 times per week.

So what does this mean for my extra income posts? I’m still not sure. What would you rather I do? Should I post my monthly extra income posts on this blog or the other one? It would fit on the other blog better, but it seems to be such a big staple on Making Sense of Cents! Let me know what you think in the comments below.

 

Posts from my blog:

  1. $7,641 in Extra Income – Side Hustles! – This is my monthly extra income posts. I answered a lot of reader questions, so I hope you all enjoyed it.
  2. How to prepare for self employment – I plan on making the switch, and there are a lot of things that I need to think about. Thanks everyone for your wonderful suggestions!
  3. Finding time for it all – Summer edition – This is a post by Jordann. Summer always seems to fly by!
  4. Keep driving an old car or buy a new one – This is a post by Gary. We all know that me and W like our cars and have new ones. Go judge me 😛

 

Link Love

  1. Early Retirement Isn’t Us Evolving PF – This was probably my most favorite post recently. Early retirement isn’t for everyone. I don’t want early retirement either, I want financial independence! I definitely recommend that you read this post, along with the interesting comments.
  2. Can a Masters Degree yield a negative return? Student Debt Survivor – Interesting post! I do think that my Finance MBA was worthwhile.
  3. When Passion Turns Into Work Debt Roundup – Another great post since I am making the switch to self employment. Will my self-employment work just all become “work?”
  4. Baby Fever. Kids are cute but they sure are expensive! Mo Money Mo Houses – I agree, everyone is having kids!
  5. What do you actually want? Cash Rebel – This post is something that I have been thinking about a lot lately. Cash Rebel is a great blog and I definitely think everyone should be reading it.
  6. Strategery – Save Time and Money Working From Home Club Thrifty – Haha another one of my favorites.  I definitely see us being able to save a lot of money (or at least some), once I make the switch.
  7. Would you take a 10% pay cut to get Fridays off? Budgets are Sexy – YES I WOULD! Three day weekends all the time would be amazing. The pay cut would stink, but I do think the exchange would be worthwhile. Would you take a 10% pay cut?
  8. I was mentioned in a carnival also at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff 🙂

 

Being healthy

I have actually been doing AWESOME with being more healthy. I did eat unhealthy yesterday, but for the most part I have been eating pretty healthy and working out a good amount.

I’ve been trying to run/walk at least a mile each dog with our dog (the other dog doesn’t go for walks – the joys of having a French Bulldog runt). I’ve also been trying to run around 4 miles every other day along with working out each day. It’s so nice having a gym in our basement and a cute pup to run with. I think I’m going to make it a monthly goal to run/walk at least 100 miles each month. It’s a lot, but I definitely that that it is doable.

 

Have you been doing well with your extra income, spending and being healthy?

 

Related Posts

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

  2. smallivy says

    Fantastic that you are paying off the student loans. I hope you’ll take a lot of that money you’re saving and start investing it so that you’ll get extra income without the extra work! It’s a lot easier to do if you start early than if you allow your lifestyle to swallow the money that used to be going to the loans and then try to cut back to invest. You can then use some of the income you get from investing to supplament your lifestyle, and you’ll have your cake and eat it too.

    Reply

  3. DC says

    Awesome new site! I have a plan for a new one that is not personal finance related and I’m going to start planning it over the Summer and maybe launch in the Fall or Winter depending on how side income from Y.A.M. goes. I hope your engagement photos go well and don’t worry too much about them being too posed. A good photographer will make sure that doesn’t happen.

    Reply

  4. Thomas says

    I’m like W I really dislike taking photos. Go figure as my wife loves them. Thats amazing how small the world is that someone who emailed you could be right around the corner. As for the income reports maybe give the weekly reports here and the monthly reports put on both. This is online and most people what to know what you make and how you are doing it so I wouldn’t take it completely away.

    Reply

  8. Girl Meets Debt says

    It is such a small world that the reader you were emailing with is from your hometown and went to the same high school as you! I would be freaking out if that was me but I was born and raised in a really small town lol. Congrats on the new blog, I checked it out this weekend and thought it looked fab 🙂 I think side hustle updates would work better over there.

    Reply

    • Michelle says

      Yes it was so weird! She graduated a couple of years before me, so we didn’t actually know each other. But our high school was pretty small (around 300 kids in each grad usually), so I was shocked!

      Reply

  9. Grayson @ Debt Roundup says

    Good luck with the new blog Michelle. I would take your side hustle posts to the other blog because that is the point of it. It will give you good content and keep readers because they will want to do the same. Thank you for the mention, I really appreciate it.

    Reply

  11. Ree Klein says

    Hi Michelle, I just checked out the new site. I like the design. I think you should put the financial updates on that site; you can always have a page on this site that provides a history of links on both sites that chronicles your progress.

    Cheers,
    Ree

    Reply

  13. Brian @ Luke1428 says

    I can’t imagine running two sights. I’m working hard enough just to take care of my one. 🙂 I think it’s a great goal you have to run/walk 100 miles a month. That will be especially challenging but you can do it. I’ve got a goal to run 1,000 miles this year and am on track to complete that barring any injury. And I love the results in that it really helps give me energy and focus for my daily tasks.

    Reply

  14. Budget and the Beach says

    Good luck with the new website! I just switched to bloglovin too but the only thing I don’t like is that it doesn’t highlight new posts that have come in like google reader did. Is that a setting?

    Reply

  15. Ashlee says

    I’m so excited to follow along with your new blog! You will do great!

    We are hoping to get our engagement pics taken this week as well. All this rain has made us have to keep putting it off. I hope your dogs will be more cooperative than ours, lol! I love those dog pics with signs around their neck that say “my humans are getting married!” 🙂

    Reply

  16. Keren says

    Two sites! WOW! Busy lady!

    I guess I’m indifferent about where to put your extra income. I think it kind of belongs on both sites, actually!

    Rock on!

    Reply

  20. Sean @ One Smart Dollar says

    I am not a huge fan of having my photos taken either. We did 6 month photos for our daughter this weekend and I must admit it was pretty fun. We were outside and the weather was perfect. Much better than being in a studio somewhere.

    Reply

  28. E.M. says

    Yay new blog! I think your plan of having more “personal finance” things on here, and putting your side hustles on the new blog, is a good one. I will definitely read both!

    My boyfriend and I both hate taking pictures. I think he is photogenic but he disagrees, and I am my own worst critic. I would be so nervous! I’m sure your pictures will turn out great; a good photographer will let you guys be yourselves and have fun with it.

    Reply

    • Michelle says

      Thanks! I’m glad no one thinks it was stupid to start a second. Things were just getting too focused on hustles on MSOC, so a second blog was pretty much a NEED!

      And haha I hate taking pictures too. I always seem to make the weirdest face.

      Reply

  30. Jenny @ Frugal Guru Guide says

    My husband always wants family photos right after I’ve had a baby and am approximately the size of a Buick. I think the new edition makes him sentimental, but I don’t really agree with the timing!

    Reply

  31. Alexa says

    I’ll be reading both blogs so I am fine with you posting your income updates on either 😉 Just keep posting them, I love to read them! And yes I would definitely take a 10% pay cut to have Fridays off. T hat would be great!!

    Reply

  33. Kim@Eyesonthedollar says

    I don’t know how you have time for another site, but more power to you. I think people will follow your income updates regardless of where you post them. No excuses for the rest of us when we see what can be done.

    Reply

  35. Squirrelers says

    Congrats on the new site! I checked it out, looks like you’re getting started already.

    I vote for keeping the income reports here, as they’ve become as staple as you’ve noted. But, the rest of the side hustle articles go there. Just my opinion, but obviously you’re in total command of since they’re you’re blogs. That’s a nice perk of being a blog owner 🙂

    Reply

  36. sharon says

    Hi well done on your new blog. Your site and community are awesome. Please check out my link, it’s made for people like you. I really would love to know what you think of it.

    Reply

  37. Mr. Bonner says

    The new site looks great! I really enjoy the side hustle articles, so I’m looking forward to reading them on either blog.

    Reply

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