We Tried It

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In: Budget Beauty & Living, Saving Money

***This post contains an affiliate link. <3 from the Dames*** Laundry, o laundry, I hate you. Clothes! Beautiful clothes! I love you. But you get dirty. Why hasn’t someone invented clothes that don’t have to be washed yet? How is this not a thing? Unluckily, we have no washer/dryer in the apartment 🙁 I’m ‘lucky’ enough to have a laundry room in the building, one of which always seems to be broken. There are three machines, for over 45 apartments…Somehow the math just doesn’t seem to add up. So, just to be clear, let me break that down for you: mountains of laundry > 3 machinesRead More →

affordable housing

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In: Personal Finance 101, Saving Money

Finding a new apartment can be daunting. I know, I’ve done it about 6 times way too many. So since I just got my new place (and hopefully won’t be moving again for awhile), I thought it would be a great time to share how I find affordable housing in LA for cheap. First, let’s talk about rent. Rent is way too expensive everywhere, but especially in LA. Thanks to record keeping in Mint, I can see how much I paid for rent, and in the last 12 months, I have spent over $12,000 on rent. Oof! And I had a decently priced apartment forRead More →

How to Spend $40/Week on Groceries

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In: Saving Money

As you heard last week, I’m seriously cutting down on my food expenditures. My total food spending for March was around $750…ouch, so you can see why this needs to happen. I started my 5 food budget steps this past week, and things are going pretty good, but let’s get down to the actual numbers. My new monthly food budget is $300. I get $40/month for my weekly lunch out, $20 /month for my weekly treat, and $80/month for my weekly date night. This leaves $160 for groceries, meaning I’ll be trying to stay under $40/week. Hopefully this new arrangement is reflected in my foodRead 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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →