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I’ll Never Be a Frugal Blogger

Last Updated: December 8, 2014 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 115 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’m what you might call a bad personal finance blogger. Or maybe just a bad frugal blogger (never said I was a frugal blogger though!) Anyways, yup, I said it. I like nice (and brand new) cars, big houses, vacations, cable and premium TV, and everything else. I don’t really talk about using coupons a whole lot either. I also use loans to my advantage by obtaining low interest rates (such as 0%) instead of paying for things with cash when I have the cash available.

Some of the things that I just wrote seem to be things that some bloggers and readers might frown upon. Yes, I would like to retire early and not have to worry about money. However, I do like buying things and having nice things also. For me, I don’t see it as me trying to keep up with the Joneses, I see it as I work hard for my money, so why not enjoy myself? I’m not the type of person who wants to retire early by being extremely cheap with everything that I do (no offense to those who do this).

I am not perfect, and if I have the income to support the things that I want, then why not? I’m all about increasing my extra income, and a lot of it is used to pay down my $38,000 student loan debt. After that is gone, a lot of it will be funneled towards savings but also for fun things in my life. I hope you all do not hate me by the end of this post by the way.

A couple of months ago I talked about my Budget Busters and My Plans. There are a lot of things on this list that I will be spending money on in the next 18 months. Big wedding? CHECK. Big house? CHECK. Paying off student loans? CHECK. Vacations? CHECK CHECK CHECK. Oh yeah and I plan on getting a new car also.

These girls said it best

These girls said it best

I agree with Cait and Leslie. Even though I am definitely not a frugal blogger, I am money conscious and watch my spending. I manage my money well (at least I think so) and make sure that I am able to pay all of my bills. I also make sure that my spending and expenses equal less than 50% of our income. [Read more…]

115 Comments
Filed Under: Blog, Life, Minimalist, Retirement Tagged With: Blog, Frugal, Life

Are Tablets Worth It?

Last Updated: December 8, 2014 BY Jordann - 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.

Are tablets worth it?I’ve wanted a tablet since the first one was presented to the world. The sleekness, the small size, the operating system!

I collectively gasped right along with the rest of North America. Ever the frugal girl, it would be years before I got to hold my very own in my hands, as a Christmas gift from my Dad.

I was in love, I got a Nexus 7, and I didn’t put it down for three straight days. It didn’t do anything my cell phone couldn’t do, but the seven inch screen was so much easier to navigate.

It wasn’t until I was sitting on my couch a few days later that the bubble burst. I had my lap top on my lap, my cell phone in one hand, and my tablet in another. My inner minimalist cringed. That’s just too much technology. I shrugged it off, I had a new tablet! Who cares if it didn’t actually add much functionality to my life, it was so pretty.

Then, on the way into bed, I picked up my phone and my tablet, and carried them over to my night stand. That cringe again. Two pieces of technology instead of the traditional one? Weird.

So, are tablets worth it?

[Read more…]

23 Comments
Filed Under: Debt, Minimalist, Money Tagged With: Debt, Minimalist, Money

Spending Less Money on Clothes

Last Updated: July 18, 2020 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 71 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.

My closet last year.

Hey everyone! Today’s post is all about spending less money on clothes.

And there’s a giveaway too. I’m glad to be a part of another giveaway. I really am enjoying taking part in these, and I hope you guys still love winning stuff! If you’re anything like me, then you probably enter tons of giveaways every week.

I made a post early last year titled A peak into my insanity (AKA my closet). At that time, I talked about how I had TONS of clothes. My closet is actually the old laundry room (we have the washer, dryer, etc. in the basement), so this is a decent sized closet that I have. And it’s COMPLETELY packed. You can hardly walk into it now.

I don’t wear a ton of it because a lot of my daily outfits are business clothes for my job. I had over 50 dresses, over 20 skirts, over 70 shirts, and so on. And this is with me selling my clothes every month. If I never sold clothes or got rid of them every month, I can’t even imagine what my closet would look like.

While I would love to save that my shopping problem is under control, it most likely is not. Yes, I’m not spending as much money as I used to, but I really need to start selling things in my closet in order to make things more efficient. Spending an hour each time I’m looking for a specific clothing item is just a little excessive.

Jordann, on my blog, recently talked about Maintaining a Minimalist Wardrobe. This is something that I definitely want to work on.

My plan

Now, I don’t plan on just not buying anything ever again. I do love clothes and dressing nice. Instead, my plan will be to focus more on quality and not just quantity. Yes, I will buy the occasional “trendy” dress from Forever 21 or Express, but for the most part I want to be saving my money and spending it on better quality items that will last longer. I will also be following a lot of the tips that are listed on J’s site How to Save Money on Clothes. I love her website and how she’s able to come up with so many different ideas.

I also plan on not buying items until I clear out items out of my closet. For every 1 item that I buy, I want to put TWO items from my closet into a bag that will be either sent to be donated or sold.

How much do I want to spend?

I do want to start spending less on clothes as well of course. I want to spend the least amount of money out of my own pocket on clothes that I can. My goal is to spend less than $100 out of my own pocket on clothes per month. So this does not include whatever I spend on gift cards or the money I get from selling clothes.

This is not exactly a “no spend” year, but it is a start. I know many people who spend much more than this amount every week on clothes.

This doesn’t seem like too hard of a task for me to complete, but it’s also about me cleaning out my closet. I have a couple hundred in clothing gift cards already, and will make a couple hundred more from credit card rewards. Also, I already have a ton of clothes in my closet that will work for the next year and still look great, so it’s not like I’ll be going naked everywhere.

I have a decent amount of clothing gift cards that I have received lately. Some I received for Christmas from my sister, and some I have won from giveaways. I plan on trying to use gift cards to fund my clothing spending. This won’t be super difficult, as I also plan on using the gift cards and cash that I earn from my credit card rewards towards this as well.

I also plan on selling a lot of my clothes that are currently in my closet and using this money towards buying new clothes as well. Wish me luck! At the end of 2013 I will make an update post on how much I spent on clothes throughout the year, and how much I spent out of my own pocket on clothes.

Are you trying to spend less on clothes?

What do you do to save money on clothes?

Last question, how much do you spend on clothes in a month and in a year?

71 Comments
Filed Under: Giveaway, Minimalist, Money Tagged With: Budget, Clothes, Giveaway, Minimalist

Cooking in a Minimalist Kitchen

Last Updated: August 6, 2017 BY Jordann - 19 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.

Find out how to cook in a minimalist kitchen. This is a great list!One of the things I was looking forward to the least when we moved into our 400 sq. ft. house was the tiny kitchen.

I’d been living in a one bedroom apartment for four years and then a studio, but the kitchens in those spaces were expansive compared to the tiny little space I was about to try and cram my cooking arsenal into.

My kitchen consists of two shelves, two reasonably deep cupboards, and two more that are only about a foot deep.

There’s no counter space to speak of, other than a single surface to prepare food.

I knew going into it that I was going to have to really take a look at my kitchen stuff and pair it down in order to function in that tiny space efficiently.

 

One of Each

When it came to food preparation tools, like pots and pans, I stuck to the one of each rule. One big frying pan, one small. One cast iron pan. One cookie sheet, one big casserole dish, one small. By eliminating duplicates (many of which I’d accumulated as hand me downs through school) I was able to fit most of my cookery into one of the cupboards.

 

Keep Only What You’ll Use!

I think everyone reading this has some product in their kitchen that they’ve never used but can’t bring themselves to throw out or donate. Something that you think you’ll need someday, perhaps? I took a hard look at what had been gifted to me over the years and started to pair down.

I got rid of the handheld mixer (I love to cook, but don’t bake), the four beer pitchers, the small veggie chopper, and innumerable other things that I knew that I’d honestly never use. I didn’t get rid of everything though, I kept one nice glass pitcher, the gravy boat, the handheld immersion blender, our Magic Bullet, and I’ll keep our new blender until it croaks. Sure some of that stuff I only used occasionally, but it was worth hanging on to. Most of it – however, got donated.

 

Minimalist Cutlery

I live with my fiance, and since our place is so small, we don’t entertain too often. Because of this, an expansive collection of plates and bowls isn’t necessary. I have a set of four bowls, plates and mugs, and that’s more than enough. A bonus to having less of this stuff is that doing the dishes is so much easier! We’re never tempted to leave the dishes unwashed, because we’ll run out if we do!

 

Organize and Clean Often – Be Merciless!

Living as a minimalist in a small kitchen can be a challenge. Things can get messy and out of control in the small cupboards quickly. The only way to keep things under control is to clean and organize frequently. Any food ingredient that is more than a year old gets put on the “cook with this now” list or gets tossed.

For example, I’ve had a bag of dried black beans taking up valuable real estate in my cupboard for awhile now. Our mission this month is to use them up, otherwise, they’re getting tossed! Luckily, because there’s so little space, frequent cleaning and organization sprees don’t take long.

 

Move the Seldom Used Items Out of the Way

There are a few things that I need for cooking, but rarely use. I hate pawing through various items in my cupboards in search of a random utensil or pan, so instead, anything that doesn’t get used regularly goes into storage in our laundry room, where space isn’t so precious.

If I need the item, I’ll go and get it. This is where I keep my crock pot, my large simmering pot, and my roasting pan.

 

Doing Double Duty

This is the key to a minimalist kitchen. Do you really need three salad bowls of varying sizes when a mixing bowl will do the same job? Do you need a complete tupperware set when you can just throw some tin foil over a bowl and achieve the same effect?

My favourite double duty item is the mason jar. It makes the perfect container to store dry goods, left overs, smoothies, freshly ground coffee, and for taking my lunch to work. I even use one to grow sprouts at home. I always have a few mason jars in rotation for whatever needs done.

 

Living with a Minimalist Kitchen – You Have to Want It

I recently was trying to help a friend pair down her kitchen utensils. She had everything one could wish for in a well appointed kitchen, but no place to put it all. Every time I would make a suggestion for her to get rid of something, she’d explain why she needed to keep this item. This went on for awhile until I realized that she didn’t want to give up any of her stuff.

Being a minimalist in the kitchen takes some adjustment. There will be moments when you say “Damn, I wish I had _____”. Eventually, those moments will become fewer and farther between, and in time, you’ll be completely adjusted to living with a minimalist kitchen.

Have you ever thought about living with less in your kitchen? I want to know!

 

19 Comments
Filed Under: Debt, Minimalist Tagged With: Budget, Home, Improvements, Minimalist

Maintaining a Minimalist Wardrobe

Last Updated: September 24, 2018 BY Jordann - 69 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 have many reasons for having a minimalist wardrobe and becoming a minimalist. I move around a lot, I haven’t lived in the same place for more than eight months in awhile, so not having a lot of clothes to pack up and unpack is beneficial. Minimalist living is what I am all about.

I also live in a 400 sq. ft. house, which, needless to say, has no walk in closets. Finally, I’m trying to pay off $20,000 in debt, so buying fewer clothes means more money (read further about how to make extra income) to send towards my debt.

That said, I love to shop. I really didn’t spend too much cash on my wardrobe in University (what with have no money and all) and now that I’m out and earning a steady paycheque, the urge to upgrade, replace, and spend spend spend has been strong.

My preferred poison is online shopping, where I can agonize over the perfect pair of jeans, hunt for free shipping, and make wish lists galore, all from the comfort of my couch.

In order to keep that shopping urge under control, I try and keep my wardrobe minimalist. Whether you are wanting to have a minimalist travel wardrobe, a french minimalist wardrobe, a chic minimalist wardrobe, and so on, it IS possible! Minimalist living most of the time starts with your closet.

Here’s how I do it: [Read more…]

69 Comments
Filed Under: Budget, Minimalist Tagged With: Beauty, Budget, Clothes, Minimalist

Avoiding Lifestyle Inflation

Last Updated: December 19, 2015 BY Jordann - 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.

Today’s post is from my staff writer Jordann. I’m still loving her posts and she writes every Friday for me. I’ll let her take it away now!

I’m in debt. I have student loans up to my eyeballs and a car loan. I hate my debt, and I’ve been working hard for the past twelve months to get rid of it.

I’ve cut my expenses, I’ve increased my income and I’ve poured every last dollar I have into debt. Now, a year into my little “become debt free” project, I’m starting to see some serious results. I’m projecting that I’ll have paid off over $16,000 in debt this year, and with a little luck I’ll get that much paid off again next year, bringing me slowly but steadily closer to my goal of debt freedom.

It’s been tough though. As much as I’m proud of myself for my accomplishments, and as driven as I am to get out of debt before anything else, I’m tempted. I’m tempted by lifestyle inflation.

With my increased income comes the increased temptation to improve my living situation. I’m tempted to start saving for a house payment, maybe buy a second car. Some bloggers will make lifestyle inflation sound like a quaint little story. They’ll paint it as having one too many coffees or taking an extra expensive vacation every year. They’ll make lifestyle inflation sound like an inconvenience that must be ignored, even though it’s something that might be nice to indulge in.

For me though, lifestyle inflation represents something a little bit more substantial than an overall increase in my spending. For me, lifestyle inflation is part of the act of becoming an adult. Right now, I live in a 400 sq. ft. one bedroom house, and drive one car between my fiance and I.

I’d really like to save for a downpayment on a house, or even upgrade to a larger apartment with a second bedroom and maybe even space for a kitchen table. I’d love to have a second car so my fiance and I don’t need to constantly coordinate our work schedule because we live in a rural area that has no public transportation. These things aren’t extra coffees or a shopping spree. These are real, genuine temptations that would make my life easier. These are things that to me represent adulthood.

As much as I’d like these things, I can’t have them. I want to get out of debt, badly, and I’m not willing to take on these extra expenses at the cost of an extra six months of debt repayment. That’s a slippery slope that I don’t even want to set foot on. I feel like if I did, before I know it, I’m a homeowner with an extra couple hundred thousand in debt and another 45% of my income tied up in minimum payments. It is, however, very, very tempting.

How I Avoid Lifestyle Inflation

Avoiding lifestyle inflation has been tough, but I think I’ve done a decent job at keeping my spending in check, even as my income has increased. Here’s how I’ve done it.

Visualize It – Instead of justifying these things by saying “It’s only a few hundred extra a month.” Instead I visualize the overall impact that few extra hundred a month will have on my goal to become debt free. A few hundred less a month towards debt repayment, for example, would push back my debt free date nine months.

Beyond that, with regard to savings, the results are even worse. $200 per month put into a retirement account starting at my age would easily yield over $300,000 by the time I retire. All in the name of a second car? I think I’ll deal with the inconvenience today.

Enjoy the Little Pleasures – Yes, I live in a small space to save money. That doesn’t mean that I need to live in a hole though. I spend money on making my small house more comfortable to live in.

That includes things like investing in paint, better bedding, and new furnishings. These small investments will make this place more bearable to live in, resulting in me staying here, and thus saving money, longer.

Remember The End Game – I spend a lot of time focusing on what I want. I want freedom. I want freedom from debt, and freedom to make decisions based on what I want, and not on what’s going to get the bills paid.

Being debt free, and eventually having substantial savings will afford me that freedom. In the mean time, buckling down and avoiding lifestyle inflation is a necessary means to that end.

How do you avoid lifestyle inflation?

23 Comments
Filed Under: Career, Debt, Minimalist, Retirement Tagged With: Career, Extra Money, Life, Minimalist

eBooks: A Frugal Minimalist’s Dream

Last Updated: November 18, 2015 BY Jordann - 50 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.

eBooks: A Frugal Minimalist's Dream

I didn’t always like reading. When I was very young, my parents couldn’t get me to read. I was behind in the school reading level, and they spent hours with me trying to get me to learn to read. I wouldn’t have any of it, I just wasn’t interested.

I wasn’t interested, that is, until I found out that reading could actually be fun. I was pretty horse crazy as a little kid, and once I got my hands on some “horse books” I went from barely being able to read to a 12th grade reading level by the time I was out of elementary school.

After that, I couldn’t stop reading. I regularly used to get in trouble at school for reading a book during class instead paying attention to the teacher, and my collection of books expanded accordingly.

Things haven’t changed much since my horse crazy days, I still love to read. Unfortunately, I’m responsible for buying my own books now, and with my strict budget and debt repayment schedule, I can’t afford to purchase several books a month to satisfy my reading appetite.

Not only that, but I also have a hard time stomaching spending $20 or so per book. I love reading, but that’s a high cost for something I may very well read only once.

There’s also my minimalist tendencies to consider. I live in a 400 square foot house, with one book case. Needless to say, shelf real estate is at a premium. The poor thing is already heaving and groaning under the weight of all my books, I can’t add any more. I also hate lugging piles of books from apartment to apartment, and since I move fairly frequently, this is a factor that can’t be ignored.

Click here to buy a Kindle or an Amazon Fire.

eBooks to the Rescue

I’ve only recently come around to the ebook craze. I was very resistant at first because I never thought I’d be able to get used to reading a book on a screen. I was also deeply attached to the idea of being able to physically handle my books and turn the pages.

Things started to change when I got my smart phone. It was the first device I was able to read a book on, and it’s when my opinion started to turn. I had some books in storage and instead of digging them out, I downloaded their ebook counterparts, which happened to be free because they were classics.

The convenience of ebooks came immediately apparent. Since I was reading them primarily on my smart phone, I always had one with me. I could read my book literally anywhere, without having to lug a big heavy book around in my purse. I could also read it at night, in bed, without having to turn a lamp on. My fiance really appreciated this.

eBooks are a Minimalist‘s Dream

At first the idea of not being able to handle the physical book was disconcerting. I didn’t like the idea of staring into a screen to get my reading fix. Once I actually tried it, however, I realized that the very thing I took to be a draw back, was actually a perk. I could read a whole book without ever having to actually touch a book. That means no extra weight on my shelves, no extra space being taken up in storage, and absolutely no extra boxes to lug into a moving van.

eBooks are Cheaper!

Not only are ebooks easier on my limited space situation, they’re also easier on my wallet. I always had a hard time buying books that were new releases. Most books are offered in hardcover first, which can run up to $30 in Canada. I remember stalking certain books for months waiting for the soft cover to come out, and waiting still longer for that version of the book to go on sale or turn up used.

J.K. Rowling’s new book, Casual Vacancy is available on Amazon.ca for $26.96 in hardcover right now. In the Google Play store, it’s available as an ebook for $14.99. I’m on a pretty limited budget, so a $12 savings (without even factoring in taxes and shipping) is significant enough to make me take notice.

Letting Go of The Old, Embracing the New

Must like making the transition from DVDs to Netflix, switching from real books to ebooks is a strange change. To me though, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks, and getting used to making ebooks my primary source of reading material has been a great decision that satisfies both my frugality, and my inner minimalist.

Click here to buy a Kindle or an Amazon Fire.

Do you use ebooks?

 

50 Comments
Filed Under: Budget, Minimalist Tagged With: Frugal, Income, Minimalist

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My name is Michelle and I'm the author/owner of Making Sense of Cents. Learning how to save money and make more money changed my life. It allowed me to pay off $40,000 in student loans, start my own business, and I now travel full-time.

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