Budget Archives - Page 157 of 158 - Making Sense Of Cents

Spending Recap

Last Updated: December 8, 2014 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 5 Comments

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Since I got back from my vacation, this is what I’ve spent:

Beer: $13.71 (August 20)
Groceries: $37.28 (on August 21)
Gas: $38.45 for me and $37.69 for him (August 21)
Lion’s Choice: $3.30 (August 21)
Parking Pass for classes: $162.00 (August 22)
Walgreens School supplies: $5.14 (August 22)
Gas bill: $30.34 (August 22)
Sewer bill: $60.45 (August 22)
McDonalds: $3.34 (August 22)
Amazon textbooks: $138.47, $85.67 and $60.99 (August 23)
Arby’s: $3.29
McDonalds: $2.17 (August 25)

How has your spending been so far this week? This has been an expensive week for me. A lot of these were unavoidable though. I wish I could do no-spend days. I need to get my BF on board also….

Fashion on a Budget

Last Updated: July 13, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 2 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.

As many of you know, I love clothes. I have been following a great website for quite some time. J’s Everyday Fashion is wonderful! Here is a quote from her website.

“J’s Everyday Fashion is not a personal style blog. You can think of it as a how-to fashion magazine with a personal twist – J uses items from her own closet to illustrate different styling tips or try out new trends to see if they work for the everyday woman! At its core, J’s Everyday Fashion was created to inspire women to have fun with fashion and to address the serious lack of practical style advice in America. Most people can’t afford a personal stylist, and fashion magazines and blogs are full of fantasy fashion that is too expensive and not obtainable for 99% of women.

How to make your budget stretch, with shopping and budgeting tips.

How to use what you already have, with styling features such as the same item worn 10 different ways.

How to achieve the looks you see on celebrities, with outfit posts that show the transformation from inspiration photo to real life.

How to find your own personal style, with outfit posts covering a range of styles, age groups and occasions.”

She always has great ways to transform clothing items and how to wear them differently.

I also love Really Petite. I am not considered “really petite”. I am 5’3″ and I have size 7 shoes, so I am probably considered humongous to the girls on that site, since most of them are under 5’0″ and have size 4-5 feet! I do love the site though because she puts great work outfits together, and these outfits help me when I’m out at the store looking for clothes.

Note: I was not paid to write this post, I just wanted to share my love of these two sites with you guys.

What are your favorite fashion blogs? How do you shop on a budget?

How I plan on increasing my income and therefore my savings

Last Updated: December 8, 2014 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 23 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.

Me and the BF have been talking, and we want to pay down our debt faster, and start putting more in savings.

We want to add around an extra $1,000 (after tax) to our monthly income. This shouldn’t be too hard.

Our steps for doing this include:

1. Doing more secret shops. I have made around $250 so far. My plan is to make around $150-$200 a month.

2. Continuing with my online surveys. Probably only around $30 a month. But this along with Swagbucks will probably be around $50 a month altogether.

All the money I earn from Swagbucks I use for Amazon gift cards, and I plan on just using this for Christmas time for the kids in the extended family.
From the survey company that I participate through, I also get lots of free products. These are not just trial sized products (actually none of my surveys have includes trial sized items). I get full products such as 8 rolls of toilet paper, 5 tubes of lip gloss, $200 to spend on Captain Morgan, gift cards to spend at grocery stores, TRESemme conditioner and shampoo and so on. All of this free stuff also saves money.

3. We have a friend moving in with us. This person is going to pay $300 for rent and utilities altogether. Our house isn’t huge but we have a finished basement, so altogether our house is around 2,500 square feet. So, with a roommate we still won’t be cramped.

FYI, we are not having them move in just for the money, just so everyone knows.

4. Also, hopefully I can convince the BF to get a second part-time job. His hours at his current job have been cut (but he’s still making the same amount of money, I have no clue how that worked out), so he has time now. Now I just need him to be motivated to look.

I know he can find one, a lot of our friends own restaurants and businesses and they are always asking him if he would like to work with them. I estimate that if he can find a part-time job, that he will make somewhere around $500 a month.
He asked for more hours today (right after I posted this) at his work and now he’s making an extra $300 a month from work.

5. And then I plan on maybe getting a side job also. As many of you know, I have been asking you what you do and pretty much just bugging everyone. I’m not sure how I will have time for a side job, as I work 50 hours a week and I attend MBA classes full-time as well (12 credits this semester).

I have two friends who are beer cart girls (both work at a different golf course, and they are both teachers and beer girls on the weekend). They make AT LEAST $300 every weekend, for just one day and just a couple of hours.
They usually work from around 9am to around 1pm. So this sounds like pretty easy money to me. They also always tell me to join them because they always need help.
So even if I worked just two days a month, I should clear at least $300 (pessimistically thinking) a month from this.

I know that all of this won’t happen, but that’s why my goal is only for $1,000. We then plan on paying off my student loan that actually has an interest rate right now. This loan is at around $5,700. So if we can pay off this loan in 5-6 months, we would then be able to start paying off my car completely and have that done within 4 months after the loan is done. So sometime by before next summer, I should be free of my student loan (that has interest) and my car loan! Then after this, I will be graduating with my MBA soon after, and then I can start working on paying down my enormous student loan.

What have you been doing to make extra income?

Do you have Earthquake Insurance?

Last Updated: July 18, 2020 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 5 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.

There have been many earthquakes this past year. Do you have home insurance to cover it?

About 5 months ago I bought earthquake insurance. It was extra and I practically had to BEG for it from my insurance company (Statefarm). It’s an extra $60 for a year, which I don’t think is too bad. I think it’s worth it for the peace of mind, just in case anything does happen.

While we’re on the subject of insurance, do you rent? If you do, do you have renter’s insurance? I don’t rent, but I have many friends who are about to move into their own apartments.

How much do you pay? Do you think it’s worth it?

Seven Things

Last Updated: December 8, 2014 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 8 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.

What are seven things you can’t give up, could live without, or have already given up? Here’s mine.

7 Things I can’t give up:

Each of us having our own car. It would literally be impossible to share a car where we live, or to take public transportation.
Getting my MBA. This will help me a lot with my future.
My dogs. I love them too much. They are my children.
My cell phone. I feel secure with my cellphone. Sadly to say, whenever I forget it at home, I feel lost.
My laptop. I need the internet and I bring my laptop everywhere with me.
Internet. I feel that you can do EVERYTHING with the internet.
Going out on the weekends (I would of course trim this down if I needed to, but going out on the weekends does not have to entail spending loads of money)

7 Things I could live without if I had to:

Cable. I don’t watch TV a ton, so I could live without it.
Blockbuster Express (the one that gets shipped to your house, not the one like Redbox)
My new car, I should trade it in for an older model
Unlimited texting on my cellphone. I could start calling people, but that would be hard 🙂
My dryer. I could start line drying.
I could turn my air conditioning up a little bit more
Smoothies. I have smoothies all the time and I love them. They help me get rid of my migraines, so in order for me to eliminate smoothies, I would need something else for my migraines.

7 Things I have given up:

HBO, cost around $16 a month
Showtime, cost around $8 a month
My excessive clothing shopping, I used to come home with BAGS and BAGS of clothes everyday when I used to manage a clothing store. My BF would get angry and I was at the point where I would hide my bags in my car and sneak them in.
We used to drive around just for fun, but haven’t done that since gas went past $3
Internet on my phone, not really needed since I bring my laptop everywhere
Tanning (I got rid of this to save money, but also because I don’t want skin cancer)
I eat out a LOT less. We used to eat out everyday for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Your turn!

Where does your income go?

Last Updated: July 13, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 9 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 just read a great article about how income is distributed to different parts of a typical budget. Check it out here.

How do your finances stack up compared to others? What percent of your income do you spend on your different bills? I think this is a great article to compare your finances to others, and to kind of see where you should be.

For me, these amounts will all be averages and after tax.

I spend around 21-24% on my mortgage payment, home insurance, PMI
18% on my car payment, car insurance, maintenance and gas
15% on food
0% on health insurance since we are both very fortunate to have free very good health insurance
5% on entertainment (the 15% we spend on food can also be considered entertainment, since we like to go to bars and eat as well)
2-3% on clothes
And the rest on saving, miscellaneous, etc.

How do your expenses add up?

How I’ve cut expenses and adjusted my budget

Last Updated: July 13, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 15 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.

We had a great time on vacation! However back to reality now. I start my classes today and I’m not super excited. I’m taking 12 credits this semester for my MBA, while also working full-time of course, so I will not have much time left.

This is also a good thing because I will most likely be saving money because I won’t have time for anything.

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