Birthday on the Cheap!

I just spent an amazing birthday weekend with my sister and I'm pretty proud of how I kept my spending under control.

Here's the wrap-up

Food:
I mentioned in my last post about how cheap and easy home made birthday cake and ice cream is. But, most people don't like to live off of just cake and sweets so we had to pick up some food and drinks. If you've read this blog at all you know I fancy booze and my absolute favorite liquor store is Cost Co. You don't have to be a member to purchase liquor (at least at the one's in Texas, they have a separate room for the hard liquor and any one can buy from it). My sister and I picked up a giant bottle of Tequila for only $20 bucks and then went to HEB and got some regular house food (morning and lunch staples like bagels, bananas, eggs, and yogurt) as well as ingredients for quesadillas. My total bill was only $44 bucks which isn't the best but not too bad for food for a week.

Entertainment
My sister loves coming up to Austin and shopping at stores they don't have in her town. We entertained ourselves for hours on window shopping. We're also both pop culture shows so we watched a ton of TV and movies. She had purchased the tickets for the show earlier so that was a cost I didn't have to worry about.

Unnecessary but lovely purchase:
Bought my boyfriend lunch at a great gourmet burger joint (my sister insisted on paying for herself): $28 bucks
A new pair of Betsey Johnson sunglasses: $20 bucks
A new wall plug and 3 new scents from Bath and  Body Works:$20

Yes, it was unnecessary and not really apart of my budget to spend $68 dollars on these things. BUT I manage to live off of around $300 a month (covering my utility bill, gas, food, and social life) because I spend every other dime on student loans. I haven't purchased new sunglasses in more than 5 years. The one's I have been using were a pair of Betsey Johnson's my ex bought for me years ago.

Here are my new glasses:

They were originally around $70 so paying only $20 for them was a steal. Plus they came with an adorable bright pink sunglass case.

I feel pretty good about this weekend. I have around $70 in my checking account and around $100 on my credit card. I don't have any bills on my credit card due and when I get paid on the 15th I can pay off my credit card and add a little more to my savings. 

I've mentioned before how much I really enjoy And Then We Saved. Their big idea is a spending fast. Basically spending on only the absolute necessities (food, housing) and either saving the rest or paying off debt. I realized that even though I sometimes spend some cash on unnecessary things I'm pretty much on spending fast. 70% of my income goes towards student loans (literally, I did math to figure that out, that's not just a guess). And like I said above the rest is spent on rent, food, gas, and utilities. Yes, anything after that probably could go into savings but I'm glad it goes into fun things like Fun Run races (I did the color run this weekend and it was amazing!) or shoes or sunglasses or unnecessary scent thingies from Bath and Body Works. 

My Sister's Bday Weekend

My sister is coming up to celebrate her birthday weekend and I'm excited/nervous to host and entertain under a budget. We're going to go and see a show and then spend the rest of the weekend hanging out and enjoying quality time.

I'm hoping that I can keep track of my spending this week. Here's what's gone down so far:

Birthday Cake:
$1 on chocolate cake mix
$2 on 2 chobani yogurts
=
$3 cake!!!

Ice Cream and Cake Icing:
$1 on small container of whole milk
$3 on large container of heavy cream
=$4 birthday extras!

I have an ice cream machine and I'm a pro at making my own icings from my vegan days so whipping up the cake extras was a breeze. It's pretty incredible to spend $7 bucks for cake and ice cream.

Birthday Gift:
$1 on basket
$12 on two bags of specialty coffee
$2 for 2 cute dollar store mugs
=
$15 Bday present

Pinterest has been a great inspiration for cheap but great basket gifts. My sister loves coffee and presenting coffee plus mugs in a basket makes it seem like such a bigger gift. I really hope she enjoys it.

Once she gets here we're going to stop by the grocery store to pick up food (eating in is much cheaper than dining out constantly). I'm so incredible excited for this weekend :)

Day 4

It's Day 4 of my no sugar challenge and it's going surprisingly well. Last night was Girls Night and there were cookies and other sweets around but I managed to avoid the temptation. I'm still feeling slightly sluggish and off but I know it'll get easier in the next couple of days. I'm excited to see what changes might come in the next few weeks as my body adapts to life with out desserts.

I've also decided to make a change (already!) to my new years resolutions. After some research I've found that it's better to make more than one monthly payment instead of making a large chunk payment.

This is the plan:
Make my usual $745 payment on the first of every month
Make ANOTHER payment of $745 on the 15th of each month.
Put the remainder of the $1000 I had planned on saving (around $255) into saving for a future down payment on a house.

This way, instead of most of my money going towards interest I'm really working at slicing it every two weeks AND I can save for a house. My hope is that I'll have enough paid down and enough saved up that when I turn 30 I can start looking at buying a house. I've already pulled up mortgage calculates and a house valued around $160,000 with a 30 year repayment plan at 7% has a monthly payment of around $1100 a month which is something I could totally swing in 3 years.

I finally feel like I have a chance to pay off my loans and still save for a house of my very own.

Getting older is hard

Lots has changed and lots has stayed the same. I'll try to wrap up the last few weeks of my life concisely but I'm usually long winded and rambling so just deal.

Things to cover:

1. Thanksgiving

2. Boyfriend stuff

3. Birthday

Okay, Ready, Set, GO!

Thanksgiving:

It was lovely. Went home, I rarely get to see my family due to my schedule so hanging with them was awesome. It was the first Thanksgiving in 7 years that I ate meat so everything tasted extra delicious.

Everything tasted so delicious and my Mom sent me home with tons of left overs. I didn't have to buy food for a week. She also sent me home with around 9 giant bags of pasta. I think she worries that I don't eat.

Fudgy Pecan Pie a la mode.

I wish I could say that I was the genius that come up with a chocolate-pecan combo pie but alas that was (my hero) Bakerella. Woman is a genius with decadent desserts. Here is the recipe. Super easy and surprisingly cheap. Pecans can be a bit pricey but since half of the pie is taken up with brownie batter I only spent $4.00 on pecans.

Boyfriend and Birthday

I guess I can combine number 2 and 3. I broke up with my boyfriend on my birthday. Which sucked but sort of didn't. It's hard to describe. My ex is an amazing person who has honestly made me better in so many ways. But I was having a hard time dealing with some things that happened while we were still courting (is that term acceptable to use by someone under 60??). Of course he had to make it hard for me by buying me a bunch of sweet presents. He knew I wanted an ice cream maker but didn't have the money so he bought me a nice one. It has a candy crusher too :(

He also got me other sweet things: holiday themed flavored coffee creamer (my grocery store doesn't carry it), cute Halloween stickers, and a shot glass/measuring cup.

Breaking up with him sucked and I cried my eyes out but it had to be done. I couldn't keep picking the same fight. Being mad without any resolve was a terrible feeling and I care about him too much to constantly make him feel bad. He told me that he "closes the book" on exes which means he was never going to talk to me again. Apparently his resolve isn't that great because he texted me this morning. I had sent him an email last night with links to the shows we used to watch together so he wouldn't miss out. He texted me saying that he had the tub to my ice cream maker and wanted to make sure I got it. We're meeting for drinks tomorrow.

Other than that not much has changed. I did revamp my Ebay store because I was just having drama that I did not want to deal with. A few people weren't getting their packages and I don't have the time to deal with things like that. I'm trying to sell the rings whole sale and I haven't even listed the earrings again. Basically, my only desire in this whole world is to sit on my couch all day long and watch Netflix instant. Winter always brings me down and I have to make efforts not to be so slothful.

So if you're in the market for whole sale jewelry here's the link to my store.

Awesome Week Rap-Up

So Fun Fun Fun Fest was a blast. I wasn't able to attend Sunday but the shows on Friday and Saturday were amazing. The tickets were around $160 for the 3 day fest (purchased before my financial crisis....or sort of at the beginning....the line up was totally worth breaking out my credit cards).

Despite the hefty ticket price I didn't spend that much money. I transferred $50 from my Pay Pal account to fund whatever I might need. It was nice to know that I had earned enough money through re-selling to fund some fun. The fest was located downtown and I was worried about the parking situation. I found out that my job provides free parking at a garage downtown so for the two days that I went I didn't pay anything for parking and I only had to walk a block to the show. My tummy's been on the fritz all week so I wasn't craving a ton of alcohol which was good because booze was hella expensive. A 24 oz can of beer was $9 :(

So giant in my tiny, tiny hand.

The crowd was giant and the line up was amazing.

The crowd behind me at M83.

The crowd in front of me at M83.

Sno Cone heaven.

The Damned closing out the night on Saturday.

After Fun Fun Fun I didn't think my week could get any better or be topped in any way. Then my girlfriends surprised me with a sweet Dia de los Muertes themed birthday party.

Tres Leches cake.

The amazing spread.

So my week has been amazing. I have great friends and I'm eating left over cake for lunch. I still haven't heard anything about a second job which is upsetting but I'll figure it out. Jewelry sales have been steady and good, I'm not rich but I'm getting good reviews and that makes me happy. I'll probably order a few more pieces and really push hard for Christmas. Life is really good.

Birthdays and Booze Cupcakes

So it was my honey's birthday and I wanted to make him something special. He had seen this post on Bakerella a while back so I decided to surprise him with Bourbon Sweet Potato Cupcakes. The recipe was surprisingly easy and cheap. The only thing I had to go and buy was a sweet potato which was only a dollar or so.

Bourbon Sweet Potato Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup butter, room temperature
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup whole milk
1 cup cooked sweet potatoes
1/3 cup bourbon

I used Jack Daniels Whiskey instead of bourbon. Despite my love of booze I have a hard time remembering the differences in the whiskey family. Like, what makes Scotch, Whiskey, and Bourbon different? It either has to do with the main ingredient or where it's grown or both. Like, corn grown in Kentucky makes bourbon. I DON'T KNOW. The only thing that really matters is that whiskey is the best drink on this planet (tied with coffee and Dr. Pepper) and mixing my two loves (sweets and booze) together creates some new, incredibly amazing thing-that-I'm-crazy-about.

ANYWHOOOO

I didn't follow Bakerella's recipe for the icing. I like playing around with icing and the one I made was insane and really complimented the pumpkin pie spice and sweet potato in the cupcakes.

Buttercream Maple Frosting
2-3 cups Powdered Sugar
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp shortening
Maple syrup

I've been making homemade icing for so long that I don't even really measure anything anymore so I sort of guessed with the amounts. All homemade icing really requires is a ton of powdered sugar and some sort of liquid.

Oh Happy Day

1. Tomorrow is pay day
2. I got all my insurance stuff in the mail so I can finally get a check up
3. Tonight is my friends birthday party

This is how I feel: