In the room where it happened/prom on a dime

 

 Random pics from the weekend of getting to see Hamilton that happened to be in the college town where my oldest daughter is. So of course we made a weekend of it staying in her dorm for free, eating in the dining hall for free the next morning (parents eat free) and prom dress shopping at a reduced price dress store while we were in town and able to include big sister in little sisters first prom moments. 

First off Hamilton was AWESOME!  So happy we planned for the tickets and bought them. But then I won two more so my son and his girlfriend got to go. She was super excited. He admitted it was good but generally doesn’t even watch tv. Great Korean dinner for oldest daughters Gotcha Day but that’s a splurge we do every year. 

Youngest daughter is learning the art of enjoying life with careful spending.  She spent (yes she did we don’t pay for prom) less than $130 for a beautiful dress, jewelry and shoes. We will do her hair and make up as always and she’s good to go. So proud!

You would never know we got off so cheap for the whole weekend but it’s one of the best weekends I’ve had in a long time. 

Budgeting For Free

Load Google sheets to your phone or use on your laptop or pc for free.  Watch the video for formulas and ideas on how to start your own personal budget. 

Hit me up for any questions and help. I am pretty good at making a dollar stretch 

This is a budget for beginners. Beginners without credit card debt.  If you have credit card debt you need to also factor that in and get it paid off as it’s a high interest payment.  There’s an order to getting credit cards paid off while also putting money into savings to stop the vicious cycle. 

If you’re good with credit cards and always pay off monthly,  I say keep using for the rewards. That’s what I do. That’s actually my vacation savings. If you’re not, don’t use them at all. Make everything come out of your bank account so you can’t get behind. 

I know I’m not in the majority but tithing, vacation savings, entertainment etc is not a necessary. Those are amounts you can tweak to still be able to pay for essential living expenses like home, food and utilities. 

Please use this or at least try something. Everyone should be able to save some money even if all you can put away is $10 into this worksheet line. Do what you can and if you start a side hustle or get a raise add to it. I’ve done that for years and while it would have been fun to just blow the money we put most of it away each time and always had money when we needed it most including to eventually buy cars without loans.   Tell yourself yes sometimes but tell yourself no more!

Don’t get frustrated. Be patient. If you stay the course you will see it pay off. Remember it’s a marathon not a sprint.  Endurance matters.  I will cheer you on. Leave a comment if you want to try this. If you want to get your finances in order. I want to see everyone grow financially even if that just means not having credit card debt , a tiny savings and paying your bills on time. I call that successful. I’ve been there. 

Fun, bougie, lighting

 

These easy, magnetic motion lights and motion switches are the bomb!  We’ve had these switches in our home for awhile and they keep handprints off my walls from the kids and make sure lights get turned off!!  

The magnetic lights are rechargeable or if you have an outlet nearby you can leave it plugged in. The one in our medicine cabinet has made my husband very happy.  Very easy to just find a Tylenol or a cough drop late at night when you’re tired.  And the light sticks perfectly to the metal brackets under our pantry shelves.  That one gets a lot of traffic so we have to charge it about once a week. The one in the cabinet is triggered at least twice daily and is still going strong a month later. 

Both are very convenient and relatively inexpensive for a fun. ….and in my daughters words….bougie home. 

Go to my Pinterest link 🔜➡️🔜➡️Enjoy!!

Or click below

Rechargeable Cabinet lighting

Lutron motion light switch

#affiliate

Budgeting 101 for Beginners

 Run the race and then go the extra mile.

If all of your commitment bills are $2,000/month and your household brings home $2,300 then allow yourself a little cash, maybe $50 to $100 for eating out or some entertainment and then make that extra $200 per month a bill. Have your bank transfer it automatically from your checking to your savings so you can’t fail to do so. 

Now, keep in mind this is after, hopefully, things like health insurance and retirement savings is already taken out of your check. If not, you need to save a little for retirement. Again start small but start. Compounding interest at a young age is a beautiful thing but if you never start, even if you’re older, you will never get to witness those benefits. 

Each raise you get add a little to retirement and a little to your emergency savings account. Eventually, you’ll be able to start a fun account. 

And don’t rule out side gigs. We did them for years.  Extra jobs doing anything we were capable or doing. It really helped to pay for those emergency things like a broke down car or appliance while we were trying to get our emergency savings started. 

Don’t forget to coupon clip. Even Amazon items have coupons. Try coupons.com.  Great for everyday items, in store.  Use Rakuten to get money back on things you need. Always Google for discount codes when buying online. 

Don’t set a goal so big it makes you feel like you’ll never get there and then you quit. DON’T QUIT!

I promise you all of this hard work, sacrifice and being careful with your money will pay off and then you’ll be in such a habit you’ll continue and really get ahead. 

Almost 30 years of marriage, 5 kids, multiple medical emergencies and we are finally starting to see these benefits. We started with  nothing and refused to give up. 

Follow me in Instagram and here for how to save on things in life, how to budget and share.  I promise I’ll cheer you on!

 #makesavingsapriority #moneysavingtips #payyourselffirst #gettoretire #savingisabill #saveeffortlessly #moveforward #startnow #retirementplanning #moneygoals

Great kitchen drawer organization

 These inexpensive freezer bins are actually perfect for storing hot pads and dish rags.  I took two drawers and got all of the items into one.  This gave me more uncluttered space in my kitchen making things easier, more efficient and me a happy girl. 

Check out my Pinterest saves  and other affiliate faves  or click on Fridge organizer bins

Put yourself in your budget

 👀SERIOUSLY!!👀

💰💸Do you want to save some money or not?

You have to start somewhere, so why not start today?  

You have 11 months to get this started. 

If you’re struggling at all to pull any amount together by June, August, December for insurance, taxes, Christmas etc then this is for you.  I’ve been doing this for almost 30 years and it’s a great start to budgeting if you don’t already budget. 

You just have to have the bank set up a separate account (my credit union does this for free) and have them automatically deposit the amount you need by the end of the year divided by 12. So if you needed $10,500 to pay these bills then you would have them transfer $875/month to that savings on what we date you select.  This becomes a monthly bill. 

Can you pay insurance monthly?  Of course you can. But they charge you more. Did you know you can get a pretty steep discount to pay semi annually or annually?  This is HOW you do it!

You’re paying YOU first AND earning a little interest on the money AND not accidentally spending it and then accumulating credit card debt because you don’t have all this cash by these dates. 

Try it today. Call the bank today. You will never look back once you start. 

Lid drawer madness

 Our lid drawer is always a mess.  I think most people have one if you have leftovers. I, so often, have to toss every single lid out onto the floor to find one single, smaller, lid.  So when I saw this item on Amazon I had to try it. It’s now been a bit of time and our drawer still looks neat. The larger kids in the back and the smaller ones in the organizer where we can FIND them!  Success.  You can find this awesome, inexpensive, product here

#affiliate