slow cooking

By:
On:
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 →

We Tried It

By:
On:
In: Budget Beauty & Living

Us Dames work hard for our money, as I’m sure you do too. So when we come across an opportunity to bring in a little extra cash, we figure why not give it a try? Today’s money making opportunity? Sweepstakes. I first thought about giving sweepstakes a try when I saw one of those TV specials on TLC called Sweepers or some such. It was pretty much a neighbor of the extreme couponers show. In it they followed three people who made their livings by winning sweepstakes. They each had their own strategies but basically spent about 6-9ish hours a day sweeping. Then they wouldRead More →

frugal socialite

By:
On:
In: Budget Beauty & Living

I’ve gone six months without buying a single non-essential item (part of my $pending Fast), and I’m not going to lie, sometimes it’s tough. But over these last few months, I’ve realized why. Not spending makes me feel like I’m not participating. I miss hanging out with my friends at happy hours and dinners. I miss going to the movies or to the mall without worrying about my bank account. And sure – while you can always go on a walk with your friend – going to a rockin’ spin class or sauna just feels more fun. These *frugal* days you’ll find me less likely to suggestRead More →

We Tried It

By:
On:
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 →

budget basics

By:
On:
In: Personal Finance 101

Becoming  a millionaire is so passé these days, becoming a billionaire is the new goal. Or …maybe it’s being able to stop living paycheck-to-paycheck. If you are anything like me, you got pretty excited when you signed your first job offer letter. That yearly salary sounds like more money than you’ll ever need, until of course, you crunch the numbers and realize you have a discretionary budget of $12.50 per month. Now that you’ve figured out your debt and made smart money goals, it’s time to get down to brass tacks and tame your transactions. It’s time to make a budget. So, where to start? Many well-known, financialRead More →

affordable housing

By:
On:
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

By:
On:
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

By:
On:
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

By:
On:
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 →

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

By:
On:
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 →