Doing the same thing over & over never gets you anywhere. You can’t eat at Taco Bell every day for unch without noticing you might run out of notches on your belt… You can’t keep hoping a guy will suddenly love you after he’s treated you badly…You can’t go out every night and spend $20, $30, etc a night or day & expect to be able to save money…Basically you have to introduce the dreaded word CHANGE. I picked the photo above because the ladies up there in Mad Men didn’t know what to do when they got their first Xerox machine. It was a huge change & they of course were very stuck in the 50’s. You have to succumb to change because it will make your life better & easier. I’m slowing learning that wow that statement is ever so true.
In the past few weeks I’ve started Weekly goals so I don’t feel so overwhelmed with all the lil things I’ve wanted to change in my life. The big changes like a boyfriend & buying my own condo have taken a toll on me so I need to take it easy on the small ones so I don’t have that drowning feeling. I’ve made new friends & started a very flexible diet plan that I believe is working & so now what should be next? Hmmm Ah money. Saving money. I’ll take it for this week.
Weekly Goal #3: Save Money.
Yes I’ve been able to buy my own studio condo at an extremely affordable price, put 10% down with a 4% mortgage, BUT it does come with a very fine print things that I didn’t realize til way into the process. How they determine whether or not you can afford a place of your own is they look at your income. BEFORE TAXES. Pardon my French, but I think that is the most fucking stupidest thing ever. This is how people fall into debt. They didn’t account for taxes being taking out that amount & that fact that I pay my health insurance out of my check too. So my budget belt will be extremely tight. Actually that’s an understatement.
I don’t own any designer things but that’s okay. I am very happy with my lifestyle & I know one day I will own that Tiffany necklace, Michael Khor’s glasses, or those red-soled Louboutin’s but for right now I need to clip some coupons. Here are a few things I’m going to do to push off from:
1. 1. Bring lunch to work at least 3 times a week or keep my lunch spending to under $5.
2. 2. My best friend Erin can get movie tickets for $7 each. That’s hella better than $11.50. I will be calling her a lot.
3. 3. Dave N Busters has buy $10 of game play, get $10 free coupons in your info center at the mall. COOL!
4. 4. Actually going to the gym so I don’t feel I’m wasting my money.
5. 5. Using coupons for market items & if they are on sale your saving even more money!
6. 6. Enter your email address at stores. You will get coupons & notification of sales. Express, Nine West, Victoria Secret…etc…
7. 7. Home Goods & The Christmas Tree Shoppe…Way cheaper than Pier 1 or Pottery Barn. Sorry.
8. 8. Going to Happy Hour for drinks. Sometimes drinks are half-price. I like the sound of that.
9. 9. In NY you can bring plastic bottles, cans, & glass bottles to stores and get 5 cents per can. It adds up.
10. 10. Outdoor activities like going for a walk along the Hudson river pier costs nothing. I’ll take it!
What have you’ve been doing to save some money?
Tomorrow I start my cake decorating class. It was free to sign up because my mom is the teacher. Hopefully it will be a good class. I’ll make sure to take pictures & not eat all the icing! =) Til Tomorrow!
17 comments:
very good things to keep in mind. I personally must do some of this in order to at least keep some money on me as well.
great plan!
i've also started going back to gym to "save" money. also i put on lots of weight so it was really time! let me know how it all goes.
Not eating out as much is a big one. Not only will it help you get in better shape, but it saves a ton of money. When I finally bought a coffeemaker, I went from spending $14 a week on vendor coffee to $10 every 2 months for a bag of coffee. Within 2 weeks I had compensated for the price of the coffee maker too! Similarly, as hard as disciplining yourself to not order out can be (its easy, its delicious)that saves bucketloads of money and makes the occasional times you do eat out a treat.
I find that the best way to not spend money is to just not walk into stores. Hard to do but it works; if I can keep on walking past the tempting window displays, that is...
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Good weekly goal! My husband and I keep a budget for mortgages (we own two homes-oy!), utilities, food, entertainment....
...It's a great way to keep yourself on pace to lots of savings.
It's been my experience that while easy to SAY things like, "Well we'll stop eating take out as often" it's harder to actually do, and harder still to see the results.
I save money first. the moment we get paid, before I pay any bills or do anything else, I put a set amount into savings. It has thus far been the only way it works for us. Then we only have what we have left to play with. No wiggle room. More savings.
I love the idea of setting Weekly Goals for yourself - it seems a good way to stay on top of things and truly accomplish different tasks.
I have been saving money by taking complete inventory of my closet, and making sure not to buy duplicates of anything (even if it is on accident). :P
That is a great plan and some cool tips...I am always making sure to not buy too much in a food store...only what I really need so I dont have to bin stuff later.
Kisses,sweetie
Ps: I am hosting a great GIVEAWAY today :) Hope you will join in :)!!!
To respond to your comment to my last post: We don't have refunds on returned cans. We just try to recycle and hope it eventually gets back to us. I love your attempts to save. I've taken to NOT going to stores and NOT looking and then I DON'T BUY. It makes me kind of hermitish, but...I love taking my own lunch. I always feel fat and broke when I eat out too much.
really nice blog here :) like to read this post
Saving money is always a hard thing for me to do. When life is busy, it's the more expensive things that make it easier to get through. Your post has inspired me.
I think you have the right idea. Sometimes you gotta set a series of little goals to achieve your overall big-picture goal. I like your ideas on how to save money.
Myself, I canceled the gym membership a few months back in favor of running outdoors...even though its gonna get cold, it's still worth it.
haha. well I think it's f-ing stupid how much tax the government takes! They take like 40% of my income! Like no wonder rich continues to be rich and middle class people never move up! but yeah I don't understand how some people fall into debt when taxes, I always tell them to take off more than the should on my paycheques so I never see that money in the first place
It's a fabulous plan! I have times that I'm uber disciplined about saving money and other times that I'm a total spendthrift. J and I just spoke last nite about needing to reel it in a bit but now I went and bought hockey tix for tonite. Not a good start :) Good luck! xoxo
love this.. i try to be frugal whenever possible... like Forever21 instead of Urban. :) Does that count.
but really, i always opt for free... :)
Great tips. I do a lot of those as I LOVE saving money.
To save money, I usually only buy stuff on sale and I use coupons.
I'm glad you posted this because that's what I need to be doing. Thanks for the tips! :)
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