slow cooking

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In: Money Challenges, Saving Money

As I mentioned in my 2017 financial goals post, I am planning to stay within budget for the whole year, which includes my notorious food budget. To help myself out on this fairly ambitious goal of mine, I’m going back to an old, money-saving favorite of mine: the slow cooker. As a mini-goal, I plan to make at least one slow cooking meal per week…for the whole year. -that’ll be 52 recipes for those of you playing at home. Before we get to the recipes, I wanted to share my machine of choice. In case anyone is in the market for a nice, decent, money-saving simpleton, thisRead More →

100 days challenge

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In: Money Challenges

Remember those resolutions you formed around January 1st? How’re you doing on them? I, for one, have failed hard at multiple of mine, and that’s what today’s post is all about. Today (September 22nd) marks 100 days until 2017! Crazy, right? This means you’ve still got 100 days to get yourself back on track with saving money, not spending money, eating better, and working out…or for me, all of the above. Here’s how it works: Consistency transforms behaviors into habits. Adopting good daily habits can only happen if you consistently engage in those habits every day. For the next 100 days, focus on engaging in oneRead More →

spending fast

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In: Money Challenges, Saving Money

It’s been six months since I started my spending fast journey. Honestly, it’s become pretty routine now. Not that I ever struggled to not shop, but I’ve realized how little I actually need. I’ve also realized my food budget (& not packing my lunch) is a far more pressing problem. Oh well, I’m a work in progress. Regardless, I’ve learned a lot in my six months of fasting. Here are six lessons for six months: Impulsive shopping is the worst kind of shopping. I haven’t broken my spending fast, and I’m pretty proud of that (though I did ask my boyfriend to buy me aRead More →

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In: Money Challenges

I spent money. I know, Jensen, I know. It wasn’t much but it was something I could have waited to buy and was not set forth in the law of my budget. But self-compassion and all that. I made a mistake, it happens. I had a moment of weakness and now I know I need to change my strategy. (And no, beating yourself up about things is not a good strategy.) New strategy: wait to buy. I got out of the habit of saving for purchases, and now it’s time to get back to it. If I see something I want (but don’t need) I willRead More →

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In: Money Challenges, Personal Finance 101

I like to think that I’ve always been good at handling my money. I’ve been tracking my spending and using a budget since undergrad. I opened a Roth IRA while still in law school, and I’ve been trying to save whatever possible for an emergency fund. Despite doing all these things though, I never really made progress on any of my financial goals: I was spending more than I earned, my credit card debt increased, and I had approx. $25.44 in my emergency fund. This year, I set my goals for my financial life like I usually do, but then, I decided to do somethingRead More →

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 →

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 →

spending fast

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In: Money Challenges, Saving Money

ECD here, and I’m going to talk to you about a personal mission of mine: saving money! I have quite a few financial goals I’m trying to achieve in the next two years (more about those later), and I need to seriously cut down on my frivolous spending in order to achieve them. And I don’t mean cutting down on my monthly Starbucks budget either, I mean taking a real, hard look at where I’ve been spending my money. That’s why I’m going on a clothes-buying fast.Read More →