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 :)

How to Cope with Spending Money

I recently had to drop close to $200 on car repairs. My monthly "take home" pay (after bills) ends up being around that much. It's very hard to live off of $200 a month and it's even harder to have to spend 100% of that on unexpected life hiccups.

I pushed off my car repairs for MONTHS. I really, really, really didn't want to do them. It was big-ish stuff; the usual oil change stuff plus new transmission fluid and coolant. Unfortunately my car started acting so funny and so off that I just had to go in. Luckily, I've been a pretty steady client of Jiffy Lube and I was able to use a 35% off coupon to help.

It's really hard to live on a budget. Paying off debt feels amazing but it also creates a lot of anxiety and guilt. The idea of spending un-budgeted money caused me great stress. The total bill was around $300 but I ended up spending less than $200 because of the coupon. Even though I saved a boat load and got the best deal that I could I still felt stress/sadness/guilt over it.

That's what I want to talk about today. Ways to cope with spending money

1. Recognize that you are not spending money on frivolous things.
I could have easily spent $200 on clothes or shoes or trips. On anything really. It's so sad because sometimes I honestly day dream about that. About taking half of my extra $1000 student loan payment and buying so many new clothes. But I don't. I work really hard and buy just what I need and unfortunately, at this time, my car needed some work.

2. You can't budget life
It pains me to say this but you simple can't plan for life. You can try and come really, really close but life just has too many bumps and turns. So yes, I budget as best I can and 90% of the time I'm right on track but I have to accept and EXPECT that life will throw me a curve ball every once in a while.

3. You will always be able to more later
My budget won't always be this tight. I will get raises and bonuses and unexpected windfalls in the future. So yes, I feel guilty now for spending money but I know that if I ever come into more money I will be responsible with it and budget accordingly. Reminding myself of how responsible I really am helped with the feelings of guilt.

4. Spending a little now prevents big spending in the future
Okay, spending $200 bucks sucks. Badly. BUT, spending $1000 + dollars because I ignored my car would realllllly suck. So I pay a little now and I prevent big catastrophes in the future. No break downs on the side of the roads, no towing fee, or rental car hassle. By keeping the things that I have now nice and in good condition I am preventing future unnecessarily spending.

Now this list isn't as comprehensive as I would like but I felt it was really important to get it down. It makes me feel better. I'm trying really hard to budget well and pay off my debts and set backs hurt. In the 4 months that I have been making extra student loan payments I have paid 400% more than I did my entire first year :) I am doing amazing and I sometimes have to remind myself of that.

RIP

They did it. They really, really, really did it.

I'll miss you forever Google Reader :'(

DIY: Pillow Fix

I have a junk back. Always have pretty much. I have slight scoliosis and the twist plus my usual routine of running/weight lifting don't help. I have an awesome back support pillow that I got from target years ago. It wraps around my body and has arm rests and even a cute little pocket for your remote. Over the years it has deflated from overuse and offered less and less support.

Instead of buying a new one I figured out that with a little love I could bring it back to life.

Pillow Before:

Pillow After:

Please excuse the light saturated photo :/

This was the easy DIY // up-do that I have ever done. I've been spring cleaning my house top to bottom and I have 3 assorted pillows that have come to the end of their little pillow lives. I cut a small hole in the bottom of my back support pillow and used the stuffing from my old bed pillow to fluff it up. It took 1 full bed pillow plus an Ikea couch pillow to re-stuff my back pillow but it feels amazing and looks so much better. The only cost of this project was around $2 for a little thread and needle kit. 

Helpful Links

Two posts in one day! Miraculous. I've been having great luck today finding really helpful sites for dealing with student loans and I thought I'd post them up for everyone :)

National Student Loan Data System: Monitors how much you have in student loans so you can accurately start figuring out how to cut it down.

Student Loan Calculator: Just plug in what you owe, how much you plan on paying monthly and at what percentage and it tells you how much time it'll take to pay it off. Awesome.

And Then We Saved: A really sweet blog that features tons of inspiring stories and helpful hints for leaving a debt free life.

Revisiting my thankful place...

First let's start this post with the required, "I'm terrible at updating this thing...blah blah blah...I swear to post more...blah blah blah".

The past few weeks I hit a bit of a rough spot. Just felt really bummed about my place in life. I'm 27 and I'm no where near these big life events that I think I should be. Luckily, I'm feeling so much better and happier and I realized that it's been far too long since I posted things that I'm thankful for. I spend so much time on this blog complaining about my debt and my bills and I should focus more on the riches I do have.

What I'm Thankful For:
1. Paying off my debt: in the past three months I have paid off THREE times as much of my principle debt than I have in the past year. The first year that I was paying off my college loan I only knocked off about $1200 in principle now I'm knocking off around that much each month. It's been incredible hard to see so much of my check go each month to bills but I know at the end of this year I'll be so much happier and that much closer to ultimately paying my debt off.

2. My friends and family: I have such supportive and amazing family. That really all there is to it. In this wild and crazy world I have so many people that I love that love me back and that's really very special.

3. My boyfriend: Yeah, he gets a number all his own. I seriously love this guy. I never thought I would live with someone again and now I can't imagine living without him. When he's not home I get so sad and when we're together it's the best part of my day. Our work schedules are completed jacked and we sometimes go days with only seeing each other briefly at night but last night we actually went to bed at the same time and it was so nice. Just to lay with him and laugh and fall asleep together.

4. My job: I really do love my job and even on days where it's hard I'm still so luckily to do what I love.  I was able to go from a job with low pay and terrible treatment to a job with amazing pay, great hours, and awesome co-workers. I'm really blessed.


There's a million more daily things I'm thankful for: great weather, good running trails, Dr Who on instant Netflix, insane genes that allow me to eat my weight in sugar and not get diabetes, sunshine, laughter, and so much more. Even though it's taking me a few months to save the extra cash I'm finally going to be able to buy a sewing machine and I'm so excited to start sewing again. I want to try my hand at DIY clothes/up cycling and quilting. I'm hoping to be able to post more about cheap DIY projects.