Blog - Page 180 of 277 - Making Sense Of Cents

Cheap Ways to Stay Healthy

Last Updated: November 5, 2020 BY Jordann - 44 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 think we can all agree that being financially responsible is important, but is it the only thing we should be concerned about?

Myself, I don’t think so. I’m big on being keeping my financial house in order, but I think that’s second only to staying healthy. Without my health, no amount of money in the world will make me feel good. There are plenty of cheap ways to stay healthy.

That said, I don’t think that the two are mutually exclusive. Some people complain that they can’t get enough exercise without going to the gym, or that vegetables and healthy eating is too expensive, so it’s hard to be healthy on a budget.

To that I say, bull.

I’ve been living on only 45% of my income for the past year, and I can say that with the exception of extreme case (there are always exceptions) it’s entirely possible to be both healthy and frugal. Here are a few ways I manage to stay healthy on a budget.

[Read more…]

$11,117 in July Extra Income – Growing but I crave stability

Last Updated: August 9, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 133 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.

Yesterday, I published my July Goals and Life Update, and in it I stated that my goal was for $9K in side hustle income. Well, I definitely blew that number away!

July was another awesome month. I’m really hoping that August will be the same, but I’m not sure if it will be.

In July, I made $12,942 in extra income, before expenses. It is crazy to think that just last July, I made $1,425 in extra income. 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. I have also been growing this for quite some time, and for over one year I was making $0, while still pouring full-time hours into my side hustles. Taxes also take approximately one-third of my extra income…

Also, even though my extra income is higher than ever, I still constantly worry about what 100% self-employment will be like. I’m terrified of everything tanking the day after I make the switch. This will all be included in a post on Diversified Finances soon!

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, as he doesn’t do too much for extra income and he is mostly commission at his work (so it fluctuates every month anyways).

As I say every month in my income update posts: this is not all easy. None of it is. 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 July and before fees and expenses (expenses that lower the amount above include approximately $1,825, which includes payments for my virtual assistant, staff writing on my blog, work with FITnancials, PayPal fees, etc.) being taken out. July’s number above includes a rent payment from my sister. So after all expenses and fees, I made approximately $11,117. 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.

[Read more…]

July Goals and Life Update

Last Updated: July 18, 2020 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 103 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 everyone had a great weekend. Saturday was a really relaxing day, and we went to see The Conjuring. I thought it was scary but W thought it was stupid. We also had a family get together yesterday and that was a lot of fun!

July was another great month. The weather has been awesome and I’ve been busy, busy, busy. I went to a bachelorette party in Chicago a couple of weekends ago and it was a lot of fun. My best friend gets married next month!

We also bought bikes last month and have been getting decent use of them. We would still love to one day bike from St. Louis to Kansas City on the Katy Trail.

Definitely need to prepare for that though. Have any of you ever done long distance (200 miles and over) bike riding? Tell me all about it if you have!

August will be a fun month as well because we are going to New Orleans with another couple. None of us have ever been and we are all super excited.

I also finished paying off my student loans in the beginning of July and it still doesn’t feel real. I thought my goal of paying off my student loans wasn’t very realistic, but I still tried really hard. It’s weird having so much extra cash flow every month, and we are still coming up with a plan for everything.

Before we were throwing EVERYTHING towards student loans.

We are still thinking about buying our next house, but we haven’t found anything that we absolutely love. Since we already have a house now, we definitely don’t just want to buy something just for the sake of buying it. We want to live in it for quite some time, and not just a couple of years (like our current house). So unless the perfect one comes up, then we will be waiting.

Waiting to buy is also good because we will have more time to adjust to the self-employment lifestyle, and also save up for a larger down payment.

I’ve also been thinking about posting something related to our net worth. I want to keep our privacy, so I’m not sure what I will do. Any ideas? Or should I just not do that because net worth updates are boring? I honestly like them so I still do want to share them.

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

July Goals Update

Pay off student loans. DONE! 🙂
Run 20 miles per week and lose weight. Meh… I did pretty good with being healthy but I could definitely be doing better.
Make an extra $9,000 this month. PASS! I made a really good amount last month. And I keep hearing from everyone that things should start picking up even more starting in August/September, so that is good also. I spend a lot of time on my extra income, and I also worked for free for quite some time also, so not all of this is easy money!
Replace the garage door. FAIL. We didn’t even look into this.
Get carpet for the living room. FAIL. We didn’t look into this either.
Decide on my freelancing switch day. I have a date in mind… 🙂
Read 2 books. FAIL. I didn’t even start a single book.

August Goals

Run 20 miles per week and lose weight. COME ON MICHELLE!
Make an extra $10,000 this 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.
Replace the garage door. We want to do this soon. We will probably do it ourselves because a lot of people said it shouldn’t be too hard. I’m sure the labor costs are high if we hired it out, so I would rather do this myself.
Make an actual plan for my switch date. I have of course been thinking about this a lot, but I need to start writing everything down and have a positive plan for things I need to do before I leave my job.

How did you do in July? What is your top goal for August?

Tips for Diversifying Your Income: Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Last Updated: August 9, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 20 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.

Today I have an awesome post written by my friend Alexa. She talks a lot about side hustles, so don’t forget to click on over to her blog. Enjoy!

Imagine that you walk into work tomorrow only to be told that due to company downsizing your position has been eliminated.

Your last day will be two weeks from now and unfortunately the company isn’t offering any severance packages. This comes to you as complete and utter shock. You have no backup plan.

What are you going to do?

If you are a regular reader of Making Sense of Cents then you are already aware of the advantages of diversifying your income. Just look at Michelle, she is making an insane amount of income, all on top of her regular day job. If she loses one of these income streams she’ll be fine living on the other.

The other great thing is that even her side income is diversified. So, if she loses one revenue stream of side income she can work on increasing all the others to make up for the difference.

When your income is diversified you are building a safety net. If for some reason you lose your day job or get your hours cut back, you can rely on other income sources that you have built up. It’s a beautiful thing!

Here are a few basic steps to help you diversify your income:

[Read more…]

Should Your Job Dictate Your Emergency Fund?

Last Updated: August 9, 2022 BY Jordann - 42 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.

Happy August everyone! Today, I have an awesome post written by my usual Thursday staff writer, Jordann. I also have a new post on my other blog about Disadvantages/Negatives of Working From Home.

An emergency fund is money that is set aside in case of emergency. It’s there for you when you need it for an unexpected expense, to prevent you from dipping into a credit card or a line of credit and ending up in debt.

Emergency funds come in all shapes and sizes. Some people, like myself, have a baby personal savings plan, because they are spending most of their money paying off their debt or saving for something. Others have a much larger emergency fund.

Common wisdom (aka: Google) says that you should have three to six months of expenses saved in your emergency fund. What I’m wondering is, does that amount work for everyone?

Steady Job, Baby Emergency Fund

As I mentioned above, I have a baby emergency fund. I’m doing this while I’m paying off my debt, because I hate the idea of large amounts of cash languishing in a savings account while I’m accruing interest on my loans.

I’m comfortable with this amount because my job is fairly stable, and I don’t anticipate being laid off in the near future. In my case, my emergency fund is meant to cover emergency expenses, not job loss.

Of course, ideally, I’d love to have three to six months of living expenses in my account, but that goal will have to wait until after I pay my debt off. I say that my job is stable, but no job is ever truly stable. Due to this, having several months of living expenses squirrelled away would be good insurance incase the worst happens.

[Read more…]

Bad Financial Habits – Part 2

Last Updated: July 15, 2019 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.

Last week, I talked about bad financial habits and how almost everyone has a weakness when it comes to personal finance.

I received a lot of really great comments in Part 1. Turns out that I’m not alone. So many people don’t budget correctly, don’t know their true worth (this was a main topic talked about in the comments), and so on.

And this is what is great about personal finance blogging, I love reading the comments and learning from others’ mistakes. And hopefully people can learn from my mistakes as well.

A lot of you said that you were looking forward to part 2 of this series. I’m glad everyone wants to read all about our financial mistakes. There are so many things that we probably shouldn’t have done, but how else would we learn?

No matter who you are, you either are currently committing bad financial habits, or you have in the past.

I don’t know of anyone who is perfect with their finances, so no one should feel completely horrible about themselves just because they are currently committing some of these financial habits or have in the past. The important part here is that you are changing for the better!

Below is the list of bad financial habits you may be taking part in: [Read more…]

Does your budget suck? – Budget Categories

Last Updated: September 10, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 77 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.

Lately, I have been having a good amount of people asking me for help with their budget and creating a budget. This includes my sister, my friends, and readers.

It seems like a lot of people aren’t sure what to put in their budget, or how to even start their budget. How to budget is such an important question though!

I know that not everyone has a budget, and some personal finance bloggers don’t even believe in a budget. However, I think budgets are important because it can help you reach your financial goals. Learning how to budget correctly can change a person’s life.

Some people think that budgets are only for people who are living paycheck to paycheck or people who have no money. WRONG.

Budgets help people manage their money better, it’s that plain and simple. A budget can help you realize where you might be going wrong with your finances and how to fix the financial issue that you may be having. Budgets also help you designate a certain amount of money that you feel comfortable with to certain areas, such as investments.

Different people spend different amounts in their budgeting categories. A lot of this depends on what is important to you (some hate to spend a penny on their cars, whereas others love having cars). Some people live in high cost of living areas such as New York City. [Read more…]