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Fun, Frugal, and Free Activities

Last Updated: March 6, 2021 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 68 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’ve never been a super outdoorsy person, until recently. Having fun does not automatically have to mean spending a lot of money and in fact there are many free activities out there. And sadly enough, this is something that I have just recently come to terms with.

My life has changed so much in the past year, and with it comes the activities that I used to enjoy, versus the activities that I enjoy now. Before, I feel like all I did was shop. Ah, I have no idea how I found that fun to do every single day.

Having fun by doing things frugally does not mean that you have to hate your life. Lets please not confuse frugal with cheap. I will not just stay inside and look at a blank wall 24 hours a day just to save money. There are so many things that you can do out there that don’t require much money.

Today’s post will be all about the many frugal and low-cost activities that you can do, including some free summer activities for your family, children, and friends as well. Below are several fun, frugal, and free activities for you to try out. I also have a post dedicated to the many fun and frugal things to do in St. Louis for you to check out if interested.

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A Wedding and $2,715 in Extra Income

Last Updated: August 17, 2014 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 75 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.

Hey everyone! Happy Monday. This weekend went by way too quickly. I have had 3 day weekends for the past 2 weeks (and then a week-long vacation the week before that), so this week will be a rough one! I haven’t worked a full week since the beginning of August.

Boardwalk Empire was on last night! Did anyone catch it? It’s definitely one of my favorite shows. Last night’s episode was kind of slow, so I’m not sure how this season will be.

My good friend got married on Friday, and I was a bridesmaid. It was a really fun day, and she looked beautiful! Definitely the prettiest wedding I have ever been to, and it was my first time being a bridesmaid.

The winner of my Swagbucks giveaway is Kristen B. (Swagname: kbon). Please email me if this is you!

Spending

I don’t think we have done much spending in the past week. We bought W a new tie and a new shirt for the wedding at H&M and spent around $40. And I had some spending for the wedding I was in also, but that was already known about. Hair and makeup was $102 altogether.

Food spending has been pretty low lately. We are really working on eating only at home. We haven’t gone out to eat for dinner in a while. Food is better at home, it’s usually healthier, and I don’t have to wait 30 minutes or more to actually eat it (and no driving is involved!). Win!

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

Extra income has been good so far this month. I’m hoping for a strong September, and I’m really wanting the rest of the year to be strong also.

I have my 100% self-employment switch date in mind. I’m keeping it a secret for now but I will let all of you know very soon. I am feeling much more confident and comfortable about switching to self-employment and I cannot wait!

We have been working on lowering our budget as much as we can. We really want to have this at a lower amount so that we are able to live off of a lower income and still be able to save a good amount. We still want to enjoy life as well. We are mainly just working on lowering our food spending, and also focusing on more outdoorsy activities, such as kayaking, biking, hiking and so on.

I have not really researched health insurance too much. I have been looking up prices but I really need to dive into this soon. Do you pay for your own health insurance? How much do you pay each month?

Posts from Making Sense of Cents:

What’s Stopping You From Living Your Dream? – I assume that most people have some sort of dream. What is your dream? How are you working on reaching your dream?
Minimalism: One Thing at a Time – This is a post written by my staff writer Jordann. Definitely read this one!
$9,554 in Extra Income – Last month was slower than recent months, but it was still a successful month.
August Goals and Life Update – I posted a picture of my wedding dress in this post.

Link love:

10 ways to make your 9-5 workday a little better The Joy of Simple – Do you enjoy the job that you have? There are little things that you can do in order to enjoy your job a little more. Or if you are like me, you have started making plans to switch things up and make life more enjoyable.
How to become a brand ambassador Dear Debt – Here is a side hustle that I haven’t really thought about. Have you ever wanted to be a brand ambassador?
Taking the Plunge: Is the Grass Always Greener? Frugal Rules – For those who have made the switch or are thinking about it, this is a great post to read. Frugal Rules has a great series about self-employment and I recommend reading all of the posts in this series that they have published.

Being healthy

I have not been the healthiest person in the past week. I have been eating kind of healthy though. I will blame this on being extremely busy, especially with having many wedding activities this past week. I wouldn’t change a thing though, as it was an enjoyable week!

We have been riding our bikes a lot lately. We have had a little bit of a heat wave lately though, so riding a bike in 100 degree heat along with the high humidity has made me not want to ride lately. Hopefully it cools down soon!

Wedding Planning

I haven’t done much wedding planning lately. However, by the end of October I do have a couple of things that I need to get done. We need to find a caterer, book the music, and send out the save the dates.

I also need to decide on the bridesmaids dresses. I really like the look of a different dress on each bridesmaid. And I like the look of short cream bridesmaid dresses. I know that a lot of people are against choosing this color because it “takes away from the bride,” but if anyone confuses a bridesmaid for me then they probably don’t know me at all (most of my friends are blonde, whereas I definitely am not 🙂 ). What do you think of cream bridesmaid dresses? What about blush or peach?

We have also been thinking about flowers and how we will save money. We really want a lot of flowers (I’m thinking rectangular shaped reception tables that are just completely covered in flowers and candles, so there will most likely be well over 100 vases/jars just full of flowers altogether), and I would really not want to spend thousands of dollars on flowers. We are thinking about planting and picking our own (we both want a lot wildflowers at our wedding) and also buying flowers in bulk and arranging them ourselves. Has anyone else ever done this? Another way to save money is that we will be printing our photos using HP ink jet cartridges on our HP printer. Tell me all about it in the comments, or any tips that you may have!

My wedding dress should be getting in soon. I can’t wait to see it! I’m really hoping that I don’t regret buying it before actually seeing it.

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

What’s Stopping You From Living Your Dream?

Last Updated: October 18, 2014 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.

Hey everyone! I had an early start to the weekend as my good friend is getting married today. This is actually my first time being a bridesmaid, WOOHOO!

The other day I noticed that a lot of blogs participated in a blog hop about what they would do with their time if they had 3 months to do whatever they wanted. It was nice reading everyone’s posts, but it made me think about what is stopping people from living their dream.

Yes, I understand that sometimes it’s because of lack of money, maybe it’s debt, maybe you have children, medical reasons and so on. But today, I want to ask everyone what is stopping them. Tell me your reasons, and whether or not you are working towards your dream.

What exactly are you doing to reach your dreams? Are you working on paying down debt? Are you selling your stuff? Increasing your income and saving as much as you can? [Read more…]

Minimalism 101: One Thing a Day

Last Updated: August 16, 2022 BY Jordann - 33 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’ve been working really hard in the evenings and on weekends for the past year to generate extra income to pay off my debt. It’s worked!

I’m now only two months from having the entire $38,000 eradicated (I had the same amount as Michelle). Now that I’ve pretty much got my debt in the bag, I’ve resolved to make a little more time for myself and spend less time side hustling and writing.

Since I’ve had a bit of extra free time in the evenings and on weekends, I’ve been on a huge minimalizing kick and becoming a minimalist.

I’ve let things pile up around here, and without the time to address it, it has been driving me crazy.

The problem is, once I start cleaning and eradicating clutter, I sometimes get carried away and before I know it, half of my house is torn apart, and I’ve been so busy flitting from one project to the next that I haven’t been able to actually get rid of anything. Maybe it’s the millennial in me, but when I’m at home, sometimes I have a hard time concentrating on just one project, and completing it, before moving on to the next thing that catches my eye. [Read more…]

$9,554 in August Extra Income – Looking for Affiliate Income

Last Updated: August 9, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 123 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.

Hey everyone! I hope all of you had a fun and relaxing long weekend. On Monday, I published my August Goals and Life Update, and in it I stated that my goal was for $10K in side hustle income.

I sort of reached this goal. Before fees and expenses, yes, I reached this goal, but once you account for fees and expenses, I did not.

August was a slower month than usual. I also took a vacation, so I will blame not being able to reach my $10K goal on that. However, I did receive an uptick in the amount of bids I put out. I received many emails from business owners who were interested in hiring me. Hopefully some of these pan out!

Since August was a slower month (but not horrible by any means), it did give me a slight taste of self-employment. I was able to take a vacation and still almost reach my income goal.

In August, I made $10,310 in extra income, before expenses. Just last August, I made $1,603 in extra income. I am definitely happy and proud of my progress.What a difference one year makes! I never even thought that I would be anywhere near this amount. I always thought that other freelancers who posted their income were just “lucky.”

I know that this is a lot of “extra income” but please keep in mind that I spend many, many hours every single day on my side hustles. This is definitely not passive income. I have also been growing this for quite some time, and for around one year I was not making a single dollar, but I was still putting full-time hours into my side jobs. Taxes also take approximately 30% to 40% of my extra income. This is something that not everyone thinks about.

There were some expenses, and they are listed below. In case you are new to my blog, “Extra Income” consists of all income that I make on the side, and does not include my office job that I have in the financial services industry.

Extra income also does not include any money that W makes either.

As I say every month in my income update posts as a reality check: this is still work. I spend enough time to make this a full-time job on top of my already full-time job. Luckily, I do enjoy what I’m doing so it’s not like I’m dreading anything. The goals that we have are also a great motivator. The fact that I plan on making the jump to self-employment is the biggest motivator that I will ever need! Read further on my Extra Income page.

As always, if you have any questions about my monthly extra income that you would like me to include next month, please let me know.

This is for the month of August and before fees and expenses (expenses that lower the amount above include approximately $755, which includes payments for staff writing on my blog, work with FITnancials, PayPal fees, etc.) being taken out.

August’s number above includes a rent payment from my sister. So after all expenses and fees, I made approximately $9,554. In the amount above, I do not count the amount that I bring in to blogs that I help run, I only include the amounts that are my actual earnings from my services.

You can find my 2013 goals update here.

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August Goals and Life – Wedding Dress Picture Too!

Last Updated: September 2, 2013 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 80 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.

August Goals and Life - Wedding Dress Picture Also

The dress was in “oatmeal” when I tried it on but will be white when it arrives.

Hey everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend, and if you have today off (I do!) I hope you are having a great Monday off as well. I can’t believe it’s September, this year is flying by so quickly. Halloween stores are already open and I’ve heard that stores already have Christmas decorations out.

Today, I decided to post a picture of my wedding dress. It looks so much better in person, and I can’t wait until I can show all of you a picture of the one that I actually bought.

Hopefully W doesn’t look at this post. I was inspired to share my dress by this girl, and her dress is beautiful! There are additional pictures of my dress on my Twitter.

My dress will be white though, and in the picture included in this post, it is pink. Yes, that means I tried it on and bought it when I only tried it on in pink.

For some reason that’s all that the bridal store had! I fell in love regardless, and some of my bridesmaids and even W’s mom wanted me to buy it in pink. I just couldn’t though!

This whole summer has been great, and we have had great weather. However, the past couple of weeks have been filled with 100 to 105 degree heat each day, and it is definitely no fun when paired with the high humidity.

August was a great month. We went on vacation to New Orleans and that was a lot of fun.

Also, August was great for our budget even though we did a little bit of spending. September will be a fun month as well – my wedding dress is supposed to arrive this month, and my best friend gets married this FRIDAY.

This was our first full month without paying a crazy amount to student loans, and it felt great. August was a little slower than usual for side income as well, so I’m glad we were able to save that money instead of having to put all of it towards student loans. WOOHOO for my student loans being gone!

Since August was slower for side income, I would really like to find additional freelancing gigs. Once I make the switch, I will have more time available (at least 60 hours each week will be freed up), so I will want something to fill in at least some of that gap.

I do have a question about switching to self-employment. What is a tip that you would give to someone making the switch? It can be anything about making money, budgeting, saving money, taking a vacation and so on! Also, what do you think a person MUST do before they leave their job? I just want to hear what everyone has to say 🙂

Once I make the switch, I definitely want to save money as much as I can. Now, this doesn’t mean that I will be cutting everything fun out of our lives, it just means that I want to save money on food, save money on personal items, and save money on pretty much everything. We will be frugal – not cheap. Most of the things that we do will focus on having fun, being healthy, and enjoying life, and not revolve around money. We want to be smart with our money. However, I will say that I don’t see us getting rid of our cell phones, cars, cable, etc.

We are also very close to the amount that we would like to have in our emergency fund before I make the self-employment switch. See below for further information!

We are still thinking about our dream house, but once I make the switch that will be on hold. We haven’t fallen in love with anything yet, and the area that we want to live in doesn’t have a single house for sale…

My August extra income post will be live tomorrow, so make sure to come back!

August Goals Update

Run 20 miles per week and lose weight. PASS. I did pretty well with eating healthy and working out.
Make an extra $10,000 (after expenses) this month. FAIL. I was slightly under this because of expenses. I also forgot to account for the fact that I took a week-long vacation in August and didn’t have reliable internet access. If I didn’t take a vacation, then I’m sure I would have beat this goal, however, almost $10K with a vacation included? I’ll take it! August was also a little slow for extra income, but September will be better.
Replace the garage door. FAIL. Haha I don’t even know why I have this on the list because it will obviously never get done!
Make an actual plan for my switch date. PASS. You will find out soon!

September Goals

Keep our food budget under $450. We have been doing very well with our food spending, but I would like to limit both our grocery and restaurant spending to less than $500 this month.
Create a meal plan. I haven’t made a meal plan in forever, and our food budget has definitely been hurting because of it.
Do more free activities. We have been doing a lot of free and cheap things lately, but we would both like to attend more free events such as festivals and so on. Usually we blame the heat or our laziness for not getting out more, and we would like to change that.
Fully fund our emergency fund. I would like to have around a full year of expenses in our emergency fund just in case something were to happen to my freelancing. I used a lot of out EF in order to pay down my student loans, and I would like to fully fund it again. We are almost there, and just need a little bit more income to finish this goal.
Run 20 miles each week and lose weight. COME ON MICHELLE!
Make an extra $10,000 this month. Same as last month – I definitely think this is possible. I have been doing very good with my extra income lately. I still do want to diversify my extra income methods a little more though because I want to be ready for anything that happens once I make the freelancing switch. So much of this extra income goes to taxes, and you also have to factor in benefits that I am losing when I am 100% self-employed.

How did you do in August? What is your main goal for September?

When Is It Too Late For You To Buy Life Insurance?

Last Updated: September 5, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 12 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.

The answer to this question is kind of lengthy. If you decide to wait until later in life to purchase life insurance, you’ll have to pay much higher premiums or even have to settle for a life insurance policy that you don’t really want in the first place.

Additional Underwriting Requirements

The longer you wait in life to get life insurance, the more medical exams and fine print you’ll have to go through to get a policy in place. The underwriting requirements for older people and people with diseases are much more complex.

Seniors have the option to purchase smaller life insurance policies that don’t require a medical exam.

I recommend checking out Policy Genius if you are looking for life insurance. [Read more…]