spending fast

$pending Fast: 90 Day Update

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In: Money Challenges, Saving Money

Whew, somehow it has already been 90 days since I started my spending fast. I should mention that in addition to clothes, I added all unnecessary purchases to the spending fast (no knick-knacks, books, fancy make-up, or 5k runs, etc.) because I was feeling so good about the clothes-buying aspect. So far so good, I haven’t cheated at all, with the exception of getting a haircut, which I’m counting as a necessity since I only get 2 a year.Read More →

food demons

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In: Saving Money

I’ve been putting off this post for a while. It’s embarrassing to have to confront my food issues, and this is the area where I have the least desire to change my habits because, let’s face it, food is tasty. But here we go… I spend way too much money on food – especially eating out. After completing my mini food challenge last week, I realized just how much of a problem it’s become. Thanks to my dutiful categorizing of purchases on Mint, I have this unfortunate graph to show me my faults in glorious, living color. As you can see, groceries make up aRead More →

axing monthly subscriptions

Cutting the Cord: Axing Those Unnecessary Monthly Subscriptions

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In: Saving Money

Throughout my money journey, I’ve done this thing where I justify unnecessary (and usually fairly costly) purchases in the name of some goal. Full disclosure: the goal is usually fitness/weight related. I’ve joined spin studios, barre studios, yoga studios, Weight Watchers, an infrared sauna spa (still amazing & will totally re-join once I’m debt free!), and a great-but-very-expensive group training gym to name a few. All of them were great, and obviously, I loved going to them for one reason or another. It’s not like they weren’t great workouts or great at lowering stress, it’s just that they were all a monthly bill for somethingRead More →

Mini Money Challenge #1: No Extra Food (& Definitely no Guac)

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In: Money Challenges

Hey folks, Part of my daily struggle with saving money is that I seem to keep spending it! A harmless Starbucks trip here, a post-workout Chipotle run…maybe buying not-totally-necessary extra tasty treats at the grocery store. At any rate, all these seemingly innocent extra food purchase add up. So, inspired by my ongoing clothing fast, I’m doing a mini challenge for food purchases this week.  Read More →

slow cooking

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In: Saving Money

***This post contains an affiliate link. <3 from the Dames*** ECD confession: I’ve reached the point in my life where I ask for, and truly covet, home appliances at major gift-receiving events. This past December, my main kitchen crush was on a slow cooker. Man, has it been a great present! So far, I’ve only made a couple things with it, but each one turned out super tasty and delicious, and made a minimum of 4 servings each. I already made chili, beef bourguignon, a pork roast with root veggies, Italian sausage and peppers, and an excellent chicken and rice dish, but I’m super pumpedRead More →

goals

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In: Personal Finance 101

SO, it’s March, the third month of the year, and we’re all well into maintaining our New Year’s Resolutions, right? Hahaha, yeah, me too. While my healthy eating goals are on hiatus (it is Girl Scout cookie season), my financial goals are doing pretty well. Here’s why: First, what are my financial goals for 2016? Pay down my credit card (goal is to have it paid off by July 2017) Build an emergency fund (goal is to have $2500 saved up by the end of the year) Save for retirement (no real goal here for the moment…just contribute something each month to my Roth IRA) Second, whatRead More →

Take Stock

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In: Personal Finance 101

Hola folks! This is an addition to a previous article, but sort of deserved it’s own space as well. If you haven’t read part one yet, check it out here. In the previous article we took stock of our finances and prioritized our debt, but we only really looked at the overall amounts of what we pay. Today let’s take a closer look. Exactly how much are you paying each month for recurring bills? We need to look at each of these things and do some research to see if we are paying more than we need to.  Things like: car insurance car payments phone plans student loansRead More →