Day 95: So for the past two days I have brought lunch to work. I try to bring my lunch at least two times a week but I tend to eat out when I’m really busy at work. We usually eat out on Fridays and occasionally I’ll forget my lunch and have to go out. We never get anything too fancy so I’ll usually spend anywhere between $5 and $10. So since I have brought lunch the past two days and successfully not bought a cup of coffee on the way into work…I am putting $20 away into the fund (go me!). Let’s say for the next 95 days I bring lunch every day to work. Let’s say an average lunch costs $7 and I eat out about three times a week. For the next 14 weeks if I brought lunch every week I would save $294! (Here’s the math for those of you who need it 3*$7=21: $21*14=$294). That doesn’t seem like a lot but $300 will just about cover my flight to New Zealand while I’m there. Therefore I will be brown bagging my lunch until I leave for Australia. Couple tips I have learned since the switch: Make your lunch the night before otherwise you are just grabbing whatever you can reach in the fridge in the morning and it’s not always the best option. Make extra food at dinner so you can just wrap up the leftovers and take them for lunch. Bring in boxes of snacks and have a snack drawer at work. Also helps with those afternoon hunger strikes and chocolate cravings. Make a list before you go to the grocery store and never shop on an empty stomach. That way you will always buy just the right amount and be less likely to […]

As we approach that age where everyone is getting engaged and then naturally married our weekends become booked quite quickly. The save the date magnets start coming in the mail so that every day you are reminded about how much money you need to save to enjoy a weekend of fun. For the next couple of years we should all just bank on our vacation days, bonuses and any extra cash we have going towards our friends weddings. Now don’t get me wrong, I LOVE GOING TO WEDDINGS. Like love them. Just not so much the cost. So this past weekend one of my oldest friends got married. I had the honor of being in the wedding. This was my first experience of being in a wedding and let me tell you, I can’t wait to do it again. Being in a wedding is expensive though like let’s be honest from the hair to the nails to dress to the shoes and each time you’re in a wedding you have to get all the same stuff over and over again. It’s crazy! These are the things, however, that you can’t control unless you want to get attack by a scary creature also known as bridezilla. So if you have a lot of weddings coming up in the near future here are some things you can control and how to actually save some money at a wedding. The first thing I saved money on was my nails. I got them done at a place near work where they were running a special. Mani/Pedi for $35…can’t beat it. If I had gotten them done at the hotel spa I would have paid closer to $100. Overall savings- $65. If you are going to a wedding chances are you will know another couple […]

In the summer I rarely get a free weekend. From weddings to BBQs to vacations it’s rare I ever get a free moment to myself. This weekend was the best weekend of the summer so far. I woke up late, made some amazing meals and just hung out for once. Had no deadlines, no places to be the only thing I had to do was to relax. And that relaxation lasted for about twenty minutes. I needed to do something I couldn’t just lay on the couch for two days straight. I started thinking about Australia and panicking about how I was going to get there and how I needed to find more ways to find money. I have had a coin jar going for my trip and decided this would be the weekend I count and roll the coins. I wasn’t thinking there was a lot in there so I turned on the TV and aimlessly started rolling away. An hour went by and I looked down at my pile. I had $50 just from coins around the house. It might not seem like a lot and it’s definitely not enough to get to my goal of $2,500 but I was enjoying a lazy weekend watching TV and made $50 from it! I was so excited by this little accomplishment that I needed to make more. What else could I do this weekend to make some extra cash? Our house is full of beer drinkers and we don’t usually take our cans out on trash day, we just kinda leave them under the steps until someone decides to return them. So I cleaned out the garage cleaned under the steps and returned seven big bags of recyclables to the store. Spent a lovely Sunday afternoon with a homeless man […]

So I have a part time job coaching volleyball for one of our local club teams. The tryouts start in September and it is a highly competitive club. I was grocery shopping the other day and bumped into one of my player’s parent. We got to talking and I told her if her daughter ever needed a little extra help before the season started she should just give me a call and we could set something up. Well next thing I know I am giving her daughter private lessons. Every Tuesday I meet her at their gym; we set up a net and work on things that are specific to her needs. It is a great way for me to teach skills one on one and work on her weaknesses with her. Not to mention the family pays me buy the hour. It has been a great gig and a great extra income coming in. I get to go work out and play volleyball and help out one of my favorite players and get paid. Tuesdays are starting to become one of my favorite nights of the week. On top of coaching some private lessons, I also helped out with a soccer camp last week. For two nights I went to the field from 5:00-8:00pm. Working with the same age group I coach for volleyball, I was able to get back into my soccer grove and teach these kids the fundamentals of soccer, the game I loved playing growing up. These nights were also paid. Altogether I was able to put $480 into my Australia fund from coaching. With the season starting up again for my primary coaching job I will be receiving a small income from that each month. To be able to do what I love and coach and make […]

You never know what’s in your garage, basement, and attic. The thing is that you will move more between the ages of 20-30 than you ever will in your life. And moving doesn’t happen overnight. When you “move” into a new apartment or house it will take you about three months to unpack everything. Then there will be the boxes you have in the house that will never be unpacked. They will sit and collect dust over time and be forgotten about. This stuff is clearly not important to you or your new place. This stuff is your trash. This trash, however, could be someone else’s treasure. Garage sales are the best way to get rid of your old crap that you will never use again. If you add a “b” between the “r” and the second “a” in garage sale, you’ll see what a garage sale really is (garbage sale for those of you who are bit slow). Nonetheless there will be someone interested in your old stuff I promise. So this past weekend my roommates and I decided to have our own garbage, oh sorry I mean garage sale. I woke up at 7:00AM on a Saturday to start getting everything ready for the day. By 7:45 I had my first visitor. Clearly I had started too late. Without even having anything set up yet I made my first sale at 8:00AM. I was amazed at what they were buying. Literally our crap that was just going to go into the trash at the end of the day. Not only that but trying to negotiate with us on prices. I offered a lady $2 for an old dress of mine from Forever21 which I probably bought for $20. She was like you think I am going to pay […]