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Self-Employment and $5,382 in Extra Income

BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 84 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.

Self-Employment and $5,382 in Extra IncomeHey everyone! Happy Monday. This past weekend was a very relaxing one, but I did get a good amount of work done. The weather was also fantastic. It was almost a little too cold for windows to be open at night!

The picture to the left is from yesterday when we went for a long drive. We live in a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, and drove around in Illinois along the river. There were tons of boats out yesterday! Perfect weather for it. Definitely makes us want a sailboat.

I have been thinking about travel a lot lately. I am thinking about a road trip to the Pacific Northwest.

There are a lot of outdoorsy activities that I want to do there. I also want to go to Colorado in the winter time, go to Chicago to visit family, and hopefully go somewhere warm with a nice beach and good drinks.

An Alaskan cruise has been on my mind also. Can you tell that my mind is just all over the place? 🙂

This is what will be great about self-employment, the freedom to do things that I want. However, until I know how self-employment will be for at least a little while, travel will wait until I am certain that some long-term travel won't kill our budget and savings.

 

Spending

Spending has been fairly low the past couple of weeks. I can't really think of too many things that we have bought lately. I did go to a thrift store the other day and found some aviator Ray Bans for only $35 (yes, they are real), and I had to get those immediately as I was thinking about buying a pair, but at $150 I am not interested.

We did find out that we need to buy new tires for the Camaro already. AH! The car only has 8,000 miles on it which hurts even more, but oh well.

Food spending has been lower than ever, and we are doing great with eating in more often. It does help that we have been too lazy to go to restaurants and prefer the comfort of eating in our own home. We are wanting to start our own garden as well. Does anyone know of any good intro to gardening blogs?

 

Self-Employment and $5,382 in Extra Income

 

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

Extra income was good in the past two weeks. September seems like it will turn out to be a strong month. I'm hoping that it will be better than August.

If anyone needs any help, check out my Hire Me page and let me know what services you are interested in. Lately, a few other website owners have asked me to help run their website while they are gone for just a month or two, so this is a new service that I am also offering. If you are starting a new job, about to have a baby, want to do some long-term travel or something else, please let me know.

I do need to start ramping up my side hustles, as lately I haven't been trying to get myself out there as much and contact potential new clients. I'm really just focusing on providing high quality work to my current clients. However, soon I will have plenty more time and I want to fill up these time slots with other work of course.

I have started making some major steps towards my self-employment switch date. I will be making an announcement once everything is said and done so that I can protect myself. Stay tuned…  🙂

 

Posts from Making Sense of Cents:

  1. Credit Score vs. Credit Report – Do you know the difference between a credit score and a credit report? Do you know what your score is?
  2. Things I probably wouldn't do to save/make money – There are a lot of things that I wouldn't do to save money. Yes, I am frugal in some cases, but I won't do something crazy to save $5. Would you reuse toilet paper or live in someone's attic?
  3. How much do you spend on food? – Jordann and her husband spend around $400 a month on food. We would like to be somewhere around that point as well.
  4. Things to do in St. Louis – There aren't many St. Louis bloggers, and because of this I am constantly asked what people should do when they visit here. Here is a great list. I might do a follow-up and include restaurants and some nice areas to walk around and shop in old neighborhoods.
  5. Is cable or satellite worth it? – We have been thinking about either downgrading our TV package and/or eliminating it completely and choosing something different such as Netflix. Right now we pay around $60, how much do you pay?

 

 

Link love:

  1. Do you define yourself by your career? Mo Money Mo Houses – This is something that I have been thinking about for a while, and I also have a post in the works about it. Since I am leaving my job soon, I have had a lot of people look down on my decision, almost like I am letting them down.
  2. How to get brands to notice your blog Frugal Beautiful – Soon, I want to start reaching out to more companies to see if they would like to partner up. This is a great post about that!
  3. Risk Reward and Taking Action Single Moms Income – Alexa is an awesome freelancer and is making the switch soon. Congrats!
  4. What if I never borrowed money? I Heart Budgets – What would your life be like if you never borrowed money? This is an interesting read.

 

 

Being healthy

This section has been a complete fail lately. I must be doing something right because my wedding dress was a little too big when I picked it up, and I need to get it taken in (I ordered it to perfectly match me). I have been doing well with eating a little more healthy, and I have been going on a couple of long walks every week.

I have been thinking about joining that Diet Bet thing that everyone is talking about. You put something like $30 into a group pot and if you lose a certain amount of weight then you get to split the pot. Sounds interesting to me. I know that the dollar amount isn't something that would kill me to lose, but I definitely do think that it would be a good motivator to be more healthy.

Have any of you done this Diet Bet program? Tell me about it!

 

Wedding Planning

My wedding dress arrived last week! I picked it up on Saturday, and all of my dress regret is gone. I am so in love with it. Some of you are probably thinking that I'm overreacting, but I tried the dress on in pink (they didn't have it in white), so I was afraid that when it arrived in white that I wouldn't like it anymore.

I still have not decided on wedding colors. I'm stuck between cream, blush and peach. All very similar but still hard for me to decide. We also need to send out our save the dates soon.  And find a caterer.  And a DJ. And find a tent, chair, and table rental company. The other things can wait a little bit longer.

I do have a post about how I'm churning credit cards to help pay for my bachelorette party in Vegas. Should be live either Tuesday or Wednesday. I know, I know, some people think that it's tacky that I am helping plan my own bachelorette party, but I really do not care. I always plan our girls' vacations, so why would this be any different? I also don't want my girls to spend a lot of money on the trip, so I'm working on racking up points to help pay for the trip.

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

 

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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. Pauline says

    September 23, 2013 at 3:04 am

    The Pacific NW is so beautiful! But you have to go fast or winter will come in. I am in France right now, feasting on all the foods I miss in Guatemala, not good for the waist but so good for the soul.

    Reply

  2. C. the Romanian says

    September 23, 2013 at 3:21 am

    That’s some nice extra income, just like always! The weather is really cold here already and we were just talking the other day that this must’ve been the coldest year we’ve ever seen with the shortest summer. I don’t like cold weather so I am a bit depressed now that the fall is really here.

    Reply

  3. Simon @ Modest Money says

    September 23, 2013 at 4:06 am

    Wow, your incomes figures are usually quite encouraging. September has been an awesome month for me in terms of my goals for more side income, health and happiness 🙂 definitely looking forward to ratchet up my hustle efforts.
    Secondly, seems like you have your plate full in terms of planning for your wedding and all. Wish you the very best.

    Reply

  4. Allison says

    September 23, 2013 at 4:49 am

    Awesome job on the income as usual!!!

    We went to the Pacific Northwest in our honey moon and loved it. But, I don’t know if I would want to live there. A bit to mellow and a bit to rainy for me. But going for a week was fun!

    Reply

    • Michelle says

      September 23, 2013 at 7:20 am

      I’m glad that you don’t think it’s tacky. I was reading something online and people were practically yelling at the bride on a forum and calling her tacky. It was ruthless!

      Reply

  8. DC @ Young Adult Money says

    September 23, 2013 at 6:01 am

    Great to hear all the updates, Michelle. It sounds like you are definitely going to have a strong September income-wise. I will have to check out that Frugal Beautiful post. I really want to partner with brands more in the future and hopefully diversify my blog income more through that.

    Reply

  11. Christine says

    September 23, 2013 at 7:16 am

    Aww!! So glad you still love your wedding dress! 🙂 When I got married I even got mine in the same color I tried it on in and I was still SO nervous for it to arrive!

    Reply

  12. John S @ Frugal Rules says

    September 23, 2013 at 7:17 am

    Great work on the income as usual Michelle. It’s looking like it’s going to be another good month for me as well. I hear you on the travel, we really want to do some more, but having little ones makes it a little more prohibitive for us. We’re going to Vegas in January and I am so looking forward to it as it’ll be our first kid free trip in a year or two and it’s all on rewards points. 🙂

    Reply

  13. Alexa says

    September 23, 2013 at 7:18 am

    You are doing amazing and I am so glad you’re making the switch. If I get bored during the day maybe we can chat on Twitter lol. But seriously, so excited for you!!

    Reply

  14. Cash Rebel says

    September 23, 2013 at 7:34 am

    I’ve also been feeling a strong urge to go on a trip! It’s just so nice out.

    I find that when I work from home, I don’t get nearly the number of steps. It’s like 3,000 per day instead of 10,000. Those long walks are clutch.

    Reply

  16. Buttercup says

    September 23, 2013 at 7:57 am

    I love the Pacific NW! I lived there for a little while when I was interning for school. It is the most beautiful place I have been. I definitely agree that you should go there in the summer when the weather will be nicer. The most gorgeous views in Seattle when Mt. Rainier is “out”. And the weather has to be perfectly clear for that.
    I am definitely feeling the urge to plan a trip as well….just haven’t decided where yet. Maybe Bermuda or St. Thomas?

    Reply

  17. Matt Becker says

    September 23, 2013 at 8:13 am

    I think the goal of being healthy is a good one, but I’m not sure that weight is really the best measure of success. Who’s really to say that a specific weight is “healthy” for you specifically? I would focus more on developing healthy habits and letting your weight fall wherever it does naturally. If anything, focusing too much on weight leads to more unhealthy habits than healthy ones.

    On another note, I would love to go to the Pacific Northwest as well. One of my best friends moved up to Seattle a few years ago and absolutely loves it. Hopefully I can go visit him in the near future.

    Reply

    • Michelle says

      September 23, 2013 at 8:23 am

      Yup, that’s why I’m not focusing on numbers. I’m focusing on how things fit and feeling better about myself 🙂 And don’t worry, I’m definitely not obsessively being healthy.

      Reply

  20. Tammy R says

    September 23, 2013 at 9:15 am

    Michelle, so happy you love the dress in white and that all your plans are coming together nicely. I know you definitely should not look to our blog for gardening tips as I tried to grow two tomato plants last year and ended up with two golf ball-sized tomatoes. CJ said I could eat both…

    It was almost 16 years ago, but we saved on a photographer for our wedding by contacting a local college. One of their students, who had only previously done yearbook gigs, charged a very low rate and captured some very beautiful shots I don’t think a “fancy photographer” would have. He captured guests in relaxing poses, my two (now deceased) grandmothers talking in the pew, and a candle burning in one of the windows. Really beautiful and he was very inexpensive.

    I like how you also wrote about what you are doing for side hustles, so we can keep you posted if we hear anything.

    Reply

    • Michelle says

      September 23, 2013 at 11:54 am

      Haha I am afraid that we will kill our garden as well.

      We already paid for our photographer, and she was a great deal. She has been super popular in the area lately so I’m glad we were able to book her beforehand because her rates have increased!

      Reply

  21. Hayley @ A Disease Called Debt says

    September 23, 2013 at 9:35 am

    As always, I’m really inspired by your extra income Michelle! Your wedding planning sounds so exciting, all of those colours are lovely whichever you decide. Thanks for sharing some great reads, I’ve read a couple and will check out the other ones!

    Reply

  23. MonicaOnMoney says

    September 23, 2013 at 10:01 am

    Michelle, wow! Congrats on all the extra side income. I always love to see how well you’re doing with the side income and I’m happy that you LOVE your wedding dress. I completely understand how you felt about still liking it when you get it. It’s so important to love the dress, good luck on the rest of the wedding plans!

    Reply

  24. anna says

    September 23, 2013 at 10:08 am

    So excited for you that you got your wedding dress and that you’re loving it!!! You’ll look gorgeous, can’t wait to see how everything develops with your planning. 🙂

    Reply

  25. jackie says

    September 23, 2013 at 10:10 am

    ahhh so happy that you love your dress – so important! (and i just bought mine yesterday, so hopefully i’ll still love it when it comes in in a few months.) i’d love to transition jobs as well so i’m looking into saving money too and am going to start looking into some side hustles too!
    — jackie @ jade and oak

    Reply

  29. Jake @ Ca$h Funny says

    September 23, 2013 at 11:44 am

    Sounds like another awesome week. We had great weather in Minneapolis this weekend as well. A bit chilly, but it was a nice fall weekend. It’s so nice to be able to enjoy the outdoors without sweating. Have a great week, Michelle!

    Reply

  30. Jacob | iHeartBudgets says

    September 23, 2013 at 12:28 pm

    Congrats again on the pending wedding. Exciting and busy times are ahead! And nice work on the income. My blog had a KILLER August, then a slump this month. But I haven’t spent much time on it, so it makes sense (of cents….HAHA, I CRACK ME UP! GET IT?!).

    And definitely make s trip up to the Northwest. Absolutely stunning out here in the fall 🙂

    Reply

  33. KK @ Student Debt Survivor says

    September 23, 2013 at 3:00 pm

    I don’t think it’s tacky that you’re planning your bachelorette party, and I think it’s awesome you’re helping with the cost. I’ve not been doing that well with my eating better and excertising. But I’m trying to stay on track with running at least 3 times a week. I was going really well for a while then feel off the wagon a little when my fall course started. I’d be totally interested in learning more about the diet bet thing.

    Reply

  35. Kim@Eyesonthedollar says

    September 23, 2013 at 3:43 pm

    I’m always thinking of places I want to go on trips. I think it’s cool that you aren’t making your bridesmaids pay tons of money. Somehow my husband got to go to Vegas before our wedding, but I did not. How fair is that?

    Reply

  38. Mo' Money Mo' Houses says

    September 23, 2013 at 6:05 pm

    Thanks for the mention! So far my extra income (or I guess main income at the moment has been good). I’m so lucky that I’ve been able to afford to be unemployed these past few months because of my freelance writing. I don’t think I’ll ever stop!

    Reply

  40. Daisy @ Young Finances says

    September 23, 2013 at 11:30 pm

    Looks like the spending and income sides of things were really working out for you! Good job. I always struggle with staying healthy. I eat predominately VERY healthy, but then I love salty snacks. It’s an uphill battle, but I think lately I’ve been winning it. Just take it one day at a time!

    Reply

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