7 surprising things that have totally saved us money.

ok, i want to be completely honest here: my absolute #1 pet peeve with the majority of personal finance/frugality type bloggers is that they tend to make saving money into a neat little system and say that their way is the only way and as long as you do exactly what they say your money problems will disappear. well, i shouldnt have to tell you thats a huge load of bologna. there are as many different ways to save money as there are people on earth. and depending on the needs and preferences and even location of your family, some of the traditional "money saving tips" end up doing the exact opposite. 
it can be really frustrating, trying to figure out how to make your budget work, researching different ideas and having them not work at all. i cant even tell you how many times thats happened to us. so in the interest of showing the other side of things, and maybe help encourage anyone out there who is not having good luck with the typical frugal living tips, heres a list of a few of the more surprising ways weve saved (a lot) of money: 
quitting coupons. i used to be big on coupons, but theyre a lot of work for not a lot of savings, plus i had to buy newspapers/paper/ink and keep all of the coupons organized... one day i lost my coupon book at sprouts and never looked back. surprisingly, our grocery spending went down because i was just buying what we needed and not trying to work in the things i had coupons for. 
ditching the "normal" grocery store. about a year and a half ago i stopped shopping at vons and just bought groceries at sprouts. the grocery bill went down like $20 a week. i was like "wait what how is that possible because its vons that has the crazy sales", then i realized that everything else at the regular store is marked WAYYY up to compensate for that cheap cereal. 
avoiding thrift stores/yard sales, etc. one of the most important things that took me way too long to learn is this: if you dont need a thing, no matter how cheap it is, buying it is just a waste of money. now we only go to thrift stores if were dropping stuff off or my sister calls me frantic that theres a gorgeous vintage emmaljunga pram at salvation army that i have to buy RIGHT NOW. 
getting rid of as much as possible.  embracing minimalism and getting rid of as much as we possibly can (which were still in the process of, apparently this never ends) taught us that we dont actually need about 90% of the stuff we think we do. so we buy about 90% less than we used to, saving about 90% of the money we spent on clothes and miscellaneous house stuff (mostly at thrift stores). 
not shopping at dollar stores. this kind of goes along with the thrift store one, except that basically everything at dollar stores is either so crappy you just have to replace it with the more expensive version of the thing you were trying to save money on, or (in the case of food and cleaning supplies) its so small/watered down that you have to buy 10X the amount youd buy at target for like 50 cents more. 
my gluten free diet. being gluten free forced us to pay more attention to what we eat and basically only eat fresh, homemade food because gf packaged food is absurdly expensive. also, we have WAY less options for eating out so we eat out WAY less than we used to. 
moving back to california. southern california has a reputation for being the most expensive place on earth, and maybe it is (our one bedroom apartment costs literally twice as much as the much nicer one bedroom duplex we rented in northern arizona), BUT were in a MUCH better position financially, partly because james makes way more money here but mostly because we need way less stuff, utilities arent a million dollars, and we dont have to drive up and down a mountain to get anywhere. 
long story short, saving money isnt a one size fits all thing. just because something works for one person, does not mean it will work for you. you just might find savings in the most surprising of places. i know we have. 
have you had any surprising money saving decisions? id love to hear about them in the comments! 

nine great things to do when youre broke.

when i say that were broke, i dont mean it in the way that people tend to mean it (as in, that we made plenty of money but we spent it all so we cant buy some expensive thing we want), i mean that were broke. im going to be real here: its january (right when the slowest part of the year for jamess work starts), the spring semester is about to start (meaning, $$$ for childcare and supplies), we just came out of one of jamess work years at work ever (despite the fact that he makes over twice as much per hour as he did when he started), AND instead of using our tax refund to pay off our credit card and start saving for a house.... we need to shop for a new car. this is not a great time to be our bank account. but thats not the point of todays post. 

my point today is, that sometimes the money situation just sucks. it happens to the best of us (some of us more than others), and its not entirely under our control. but it doesnt have to be the end of the world. in fact, these times can be incredibly productive, and (dare i say it...) enjoyable(?), if you know how to spend them wisely. 

since ive got lots of esperience in this department, here are a few handy suggestions of ways to make the most of the broke times:

take a long, hard look at your bank statements. 

its easy to lose track of your money (especially if you never use cash), and its really helpful to take the time to take a serious look at exactly where your money is going and decide if youre happy with that. 

make a list of your hopes, dreams, and priorities (short term and long term).

even though it seems like an impractical or unrealistic thing to do, figuring out exactly the kind of life you want is a great thing to do when youre broke, so that you can start figuring out how to take steps to make that happen when you arent quite so broke anymore. 

look for expenses to drop. 

once you have a good idea of where youre money is going and whats really important to you, look really closely and see where you can cut back: first to help out in the short term until the money situation gets better, but also to help in the long term to free up money for the things you really want in life. 

break bad habits. 

maybe you have some habits that arent so great. maybe you buy lunch every day because you dont want to make it ahead of time, maybe you binge on netflix to avoid doing real work, maybe you go to starbucks twice a day. and maybe these habits are also costing you a lot of money. using the money as a motivation to break these habits can be a great way to kick them for good. 

declutter. 

decluttering is a great thing to do when youre broke for three reasons: 1. its totally free, 2. youll probably find some stuff worth selling (see my post about doing exactly that), and 3. theres nothing like confronting all the stuff you own (and spent money on) that you dont like/use to really change your perspective on spending. 

look for potential side hustles. 

obviously if moneys tight, it doesnt hurt (at all) to look into ways to make some more. maybe an actual second job is out of the question (like it is for james), but it doesnt take much research (ahem, pinterest) to find hundreds of ideas to try and get to the one thats right for you. 

go outside. 

not only is outside 100% totally free, but spending time out in nature is a perfect way to take a break and just think about things that arent money. 

use things up.  

one of my favorite things to do when moneys tight is to challenge myself to see how long we can go without buying anything: using up all the leftover bits of toiletries and cleaning products that accumulate and getting creative with recipes to use up as much groceries as possible. its a fun little game and a nice double whammy of saving a little money and also clearing out a little clutter. 

be thankful for what you have. 

seriously. money problems are stupid and they suck and its so, so easy to get stuck in a mopey black hole of self-pity but really, there are so many things to be thankful for. taking a few minutes to focus on those things can make things a lot easier. 

im not saying hard times have to be fun, but what i am saying is that they dont have to be all bad. 

what do you do to get through tough financial times? 

what the poverty luxe lifestyle is all about.

speaking of fresh starts, this year im going to finally do something that ive always said i was going to do but never did because i was afraid: 
im going to start writing about money. yeah, this is totally one of the main reasons i started blogging and for various reasons ive just never been able to commit to it. i mean, im not a professional, i have a different perspective on things, and people just get so weird and judgy about money. but you know what? this are totally all reasons i SHOULD be writing about money! there NEEDS to be a voice out there from a real regular person who has something to offer thats NOT the same old stuff on every other personal finance blog and whos NOT going to get all weird and judgy about things. 
so yeah, i write about money now. but before i get started, I'm going to steal an idea from one of my internet bestie raewyn and break down exactly what this whole poverty luxe thing is all about: 
knowing where your money goes. regardless of how much (or how little) money you have, if youre not in control of it, you will always feel like theres never enough. 
not waiting for "someday" to make a life you love. unless you literally win the lottery, your dream life is not just going to materialize one day, you have to work for it. but the good news is you can probably take steps to work toward it now. 
knowing your priorities and making things happen. whatever it is that you love (a big house, great food, travel, fancy clothes), know what is important to you so that you can spend less on whats not important to you. 
not worrying what everyone else is doing. keeping up with the joneses (or whoever) when youre not into it is just going to drain you mentally, emotionally, and especially financially. just because other people have something doesnt mean you do too. 
focusing on quality over quantity. just because youre broke, doesnt mean you have to only buy junk. you can totally buy nice things, just, a lot less of them. 
thinking about the long term. sometimes youve gotta spend more now to save money later, and sometimes you need a cheap, temporary fix. its all about whats going to cost the least in the long term. 
keeping things simple. saving money should not be a full time job. 
learning to be happy where you are. im not going to lie, being broke really sucks sometimes. but generally speaking, it only sucks as much as you make it suck. 
over these next few week, I'm going to be sharing all the different lessons weve learned over the years so that everyone can learn to love living the broke life. i mean, if we can do it...
what are your money questions? what do you want to learn about the poverty luxe lifestyle? im still planning posts, so ill be able to answer soon!

6 ways weve turned our clutter into cash (without having a yard sale).

one of the things that has surprised me most with this whole de-cluttering situation is how weve been able to turn quite a bit of our old junk into actual money, especially considering that we live in an apartment on a major boulevard and having a yard sale is completely impossible for us. its not just that we were able to bring in some money that surprised me (though that was a really nice side effect of this big purge), but also just now many yard sale alternatives there are out there. which is great, because, frankly, yard sales are basically the worst thing ever. i mean, theres all the prep work and the obscenely early mornings and the haggling and the still having to take 95% of that crap down to goodwill anyway... but i digress. 
my point here is that there are tons of ways you can make money from your old junk without having a yard sale. honestly, this may have been one of the most important things ive learned through this whole process. now, i do need to put a little disclaimer here and point out that we havent exactly been raking in the dough this way, and this is by no way implying that you (or anyone) is sitting on a fortune and can solve all your financial woes by selling junk (unfortunately ive seen this attitude a few too many times on personal finance blogs), and really letting go of the junk should be a reward in and of itself. the extra money is just icing on the cake.
so how exactly can one go about doing this? well... here are a few suggestions to get started (though, i feel like i should point out that this is nowhere near an exhaustive list, and some suggestions may not be available to you locally). 
1. craigslist. this one is the most obvious, but also my least favorite. if you live in a major city (like we do) you probably have access to a pretty large and active craigslist community ready and willing to snap up whatever it is you post for sale. provided that you manage to get it in the right category at the right time on the right day of the week so that it actually gets seen. craigslist seems to be the best way to get rid of big-ticket items like furniture and appliances (this is how we were able to FINALLY get rid of the old dressers), however, theres also the downside of dealing with crazy lowball offers and flaky people. 
2. local resale groups. this is something i JUST learned about, and i REALLY wish i had known about it sooner. these local groups usually exist on facebook, and are typically a closed group for a very specific area. because the pool of people is smaller, its a little easier for people to see what youre posting for sale, and (at least in my local group) there has been a LOT less haggling and flaky buyers than on craigslist. also, i have been very surprised at the things people are willing to come pick up that wouldnt have even gotten a second look on craigslist. 
3. book off. book off is a local (southern california) chain of used bookstores, that buys your old books (and video games, dvds, etc.) for cash on the spot. obviously theyre turning the books around to sell at a profit so they payout isnt great, BUT theyll take almost any book in decent condition with a valid ISBN number. if you have a lot of books (like we did, 4 or 5 large bags at one point) to get rid of, this is a great way to make a few bucks, AND hopefully get your old books into the hands of someone who will actually use them. 
4. thredup. thredup is basically a HUGE online consignment store, meaning, theyll buy your old clothes (as long as theyre in great condition and meet their strict brand guidelines), and pay you a portion of the selling price. but unlike typical brick and mortar consignment stores, they take womens, kids, AND baby clothes and you dont have to take anything anywhere. you just order a clean out bag, and send off your goods (its completely free!). whatever they decide to sell, they pay you for, and whatever you dont, they donate. also, if you order anything through my referral link, we both get $10 to spend. just saying. 
5. half.com. if you dont live in an area with a book off store, have a lot of texbooks or bestseller-type books to get rid of, or dont mind taking a bit of extra time to get rid of your old books, selling them on half.com is super easy and can bring in a surprising amount of money. you can search your books by isbn, price your books a little lower than what theyre currently selling for, and after you ship them off, half.com will pay you (the sale price, plus a shipping fee, minus a little commission) via direct deposit. 
6. instagram. recently, when we were having a hard time getting rid of the huge mirror from our bedroom set (no one on craigslist OR the local resale group was interested), i decided to put a post up on instagram to see if any local friends or followers could use it. i figured, what could it hurt, especially since i only have about 250 facebook friends (and nobody sees anything i post because of how choosy facebook is with what they show people), and about 700 IG followers (some of which HAVE to be local, right?). so i took a couple minutes to put up a post, and it turns out my cousin (who doesnt have a facebook) wanted the mirror and picked it up a couple days later. so, long story short, even if you DONT have the time/energy for a full blown instagram shop or closet sale, instagram can totally be a valuable way to sell things quickly. 
do you have a favorite way to sell things you no longer need? let me know in the comments! 

life lately + our may goal progress.

is it really june? are we really almost halfway through this year? it cant be, can it? the calendar says it is, so it must be true. it seems like i just wrote the last life lately post but here we are again, checking in on how things went in may. 

i have to be completely honest here: may was a rough month all around. im going to blame this mainly on pregnancy and that ive reached the point where everything is too hard. im tired, im hungry, im swollen, everything hurts, generally speaking i feel like crap and cant do much of anything. plus, you know, i still have a life and family to take care of. and well, there has been a lot to take care of this month: the semester ended and (of course) james was sent out of town the week of my finals. the following week james had school and no one to carpool with so alice and i spent five days waking up at 5 and spending way too much time in the car. i have a lot of doctor appointments to go to these days and alice has just about had it with going with me to doctor appointments. 

thats not to say may didnt have its moments, i mean, the semester is over, and (especially in the last week or so) weve had some great opportunities to have fun with all sorts of family and friends. may wasnt a bad month, it was just a hard month. a hard month that just didnt feel productive, especially where our long-term goals were concerned. actually, in a lot of ways, i felt like this month was really counterproductive in a lot of areas, but after looking over our main goals for the year (you know, the big goals revolving around my "word for the year", focus), we didnt really do so bad. we just had our struggles, but, i guess thats just how it goes when you make big long term goals rather then mile long to-do lists. and i mean, not every month can be april, can it? 

so how are things progressing? 

blog goals: 

aside from missing a few posts in the beginning of may due to finals/james working out of town, ive been doing much better with content, planning, and working in advance. ive also even been able to move beyond stronger branding in my content to working on stronger branding in my branding. so far ive done major updates on my social media pages (you can check them out on Facebook, twitter, and instagram), and if you havent noticed, the new site design is live (thanks chrissy!). so may was a good month for blogging. 

shop goals. 

unfortunately, may was not a good month for the shop. being exhausted and feeling poopy all the time (coupled with having a lot to take care of) resulted in: 1. missing the application dates for the two craft fairs i wanted to do in june, 2. not even touching my new serger to make new product of any kind. on the bright side though, i have a very nice list of projects to work on eventually. 

family goals. 

james and i actually got another date, two months in a row! and while our idea of "family time" has had to shift as my size/energy levels continue to get in the way, weve had some good times as we try to adjust to end of pregnancy/having a newborn type family activities, like ice cream dates and long afternoons at costco so i dont have to go to the grocery store every week. i havent had much energy to work on anything "formal" with alice at all, but weve been talking more about letter sounds and numbers and suddenly shes very curious about math and science, so, in a way, shes gotten a whole lot more serious about homeschooling herself as i find the answers to all her questions. 

home goals. 

i honestly wanted to mark this one up as a huge fail because were having some major trouble getting our old dressers sold so that we can get the new dressers/baby furniture in, but then i realized that wasnt even part of our original goal plan for the year. weve got the living room fixed up, the new bed all taken care of, AND were getting really close to running out of stuff to go through/get rid of (have i mentioned that there are entirely empty shelves in some parts of the apartment? its glorious). so home goals are actually going great. 

financial goals. 

ok, this is another spot where were struggling: not only is jamess income just not consistent enough right now to get on a good "budget plan", but were also in a weird transition of figuring this out with me not being able to do a lot of what i normally do to keep expenses down, as well as anticipating the changes well face as a family of four. also, while our savings account has been holding steady for a while, its about to take a hit as there are some bigger (totally necessary) baby-related expenses coming. on the bright side, we have tried a lot harder this month to break the bad spending habits wed fallen into, so the spending side of things is getting better. 

personal goals. 

ive already mentioned that the semester ended, but i didnt mention that the grades HAVE been posted and i did get a 4.0 again this semester! ive also been way more adventurous in the kitchen, and actually made a legitimate part-time income with jamberry in may (though, its permanence as my part-time job is still in question). 

so, long story short: may was hard. may was not a big exciting month for goal progress. but progress was made, and were ready to make more baby steps next month. 

did you make yearly goals for 2015? how are they going so far? 

february goal check-in.

happy first monday of march! ive been a big fan of mondays and the fresh start to a new week, and the first monday of every month is DEFINITELY my favorite, since its a new week AND a new month. SO many possibilities for new goals and plans! though this year, i did things differently and instead of focusing my time and energy on small, bite sized weekly and monthly goals, i made big, subtle, long term goals for 2015. and unfortunately, i quickly got discouraged. i didnt feel like i was making "enough" progress, and because i already had goals i was working on, i didnt want to distract myself by making new little goals every week/month. 

but just the other day i figured out a way to combine these two problems into a solution, that, for the rest of the year, should be a big help to keep me motivated and focused on my big goals for the year, as well as to help encourage any of my readers that might also find themselves in a season of slowly working through long term goals: 

at the beginning of every new month (tentatively scheduled for the first monday of the month), im going to check in on the progress we made on our goals for the year, however big or small, and take a minute to share any plans we have for the next baby steps. it may not always be big and exciting stuff, but it will at least be a way to keep an eye on what we have done and the progress we are making, as well as not letting those goals sit around getting ignored because they arent getting "done" fast enough. 

so where do we stand with our big goals? (you can read more about what they are here, here, and here)

blog goals: 

solidify brand and content: this one is actually done! ive been planning and brainstorming and picking over old stuff and i am happy to say: i know exactly where poverty luxe is going from here on out. 

consistently blog through the whole year: eh, i took an unplanned break in january/march, but for good reason as i was working on goal number one. the good news is that ive got plenty of motivation and inspiration to get things moving, the bad news is that i still need to work out finding the right rhythm with my current school schedule. 

plan and write posts in advance: though getting back into writing has been slow going, i am very proud to say that the vast majority of the posts ive posted lately have been planned, written, and scheduled in advance (though, not this one, of course). 

collaborate and connect with other bloggers more: unfortunately, i havent got much done with this one, BUT (another helpful thing about these monthly check ins) now that its on my mind again, im thinking of some new ways to do this. 

shop goals: 

apply for one of the spring patchwork shows: this one i actually changed my mind on, applications havent even opened for the spring patchwork shows and they might be out of my budget. so instead were going to try out the silverlake flea market this month. 

do 2-3 "big" craft fairs: well, this upcoming silverlake market would be #1...

launch kids line and ladies tops: this one is on hold indefinitely while i re-focus the shops branding and transition away from etsy, but hopefully things can get going again by years end. 

family goals: 

go on one "real date" every month: this one didnt go so well. its wintertime, james hasn't been working a ton, and we havent really had much extra date money. we didnt do anything at all in january, though last month we did go see my most favorite band ever (with my sister, so im not sure that counts as a date?). 

schedule family time into every week: lately we have been doing much better about getting out of the house together as a family, im not sure weve done something every week, but im happy to say that there has been much more disneyland days, ice cream dates, and taco tuesdays lately. 

be more consistent with homeschooling: this one has been really hard because while alice is very smart and totally needs more intellectual stimulation, shes also three and totally not ready for the more "traditional" school-type activities. so instead, weve been reading together a TON, and going on more field trips (last month we went to the zoo AND a new museum). next up ill be looking for ALL the free museum day schedules so we can get more trips in (and more family time too!). 

home goals: 

purge and declutter the entire apartment: ive made some serious progress on my closet, but otherwise weve been slacking. on the bright side, we made a big list of bite size pieces to tackle as we can get to them so that way we can get things moving without getting ourselves overwhelmed and just making a bigger mess. 

buy a new bed/mattress: weve researched options and it seems like the most practical option for both bed and mattress are at ikea, but obviously we need to go take a look/feel in person before we commit (so maybe thats our next family outing?). also, i want to get the bedroom completely purged before we bring anything new in, so...

replace the hi-fi with a more practical credenza: im actually having a hilarious problem with this one: theres one from west elm that i LOVE but obviously were not buying it because its $900. ive been looking for a similar (but less expensive, obviously) one and found a great alternative at target. for $300 MORE than the one at west elm. so far ikea doesnt have anything thats really doing it for me so i think a trip to some of the local antique stores is in order. 

financial goals: 

set a reasonable budget and stick to it: wintertime was a really bad time to do this since our income is especially erratic right now, but as things settle down well continue to discuss it. 

improve my credit score and get a better credit card: obviously this is a slow one and i have to wait to open a new card until an appropriate amount of time has passed since getting my first card, but on the bright side, i have found which travel rewards card would be the best fit for us!

get our emergency fund 1/2 way full: again, because wintertime, weve had to take a good chunk of money out, and the credit card has way more on it than im comfortable with, BUT with our tax refund and my pell grant i think we may be at least back to where we were at the end of last year, AND we've planned a no-spend month for march (more on that later) which, coupled with the big raise james just got, should help us jump start getting the credit card taken care of. 

personal goals: 

stay in school and keep getting straight As: this semester, while being much more expensive than last semester (which stressed me out to the point of almost quitting a few weeks in), has actually been much easier than last semester and things are going really nicely, though i am looking forward to spring break in a couple weeks...

maintain a part-time income with jamberry: despite doing basically nothing from november-january, im slowly getting back into booking parties and getting things going again. in other news, does anyone want to host a party? 

try some new recipes: this is the one goal where i really feel like im doing well. ive already tried a few new recipes that im really excited about, and am getting much more comfortable with branching out of our normal dinner rotation. you can expect to hear a LOT more about this soon!

so yeah, even though i dont have big things crossed off left and right, progress is being made, albeit slowly, all across the board. which feels pretty good since we still have ten more months to go this year!

did you make big goals for 2015? how are they going? 

10 stupid simple ways to save money on groceries.

ive been meaning to go deeper into the whole "saving money on groceries" business, but since its such a multifaceted, complex issue that i could probably talk about nonstop for a few days, i never got started. because, well, i didnt know where to start. but then i realized that it doesnt need to be that complicated. most budget-living type blogs make it way to complicated. 

and it doesnt have to be like that. 

in fact, it can be simple. stupid simple even. 

so today, im going to share a few stupid simple ways to shave a few bucks off your grocery budget. small things. easy things. things you might not even notice or miss. now, im going to have to disclaimer here that not all of these tips will necessarily work in every family/situation, and no one thing in particular will magically solve your grocery budget problems (not saying you have grocery budget problems, but i mean, you are reading this blog), BUT every small change adds up, and in my experience, several small changes can get you way farther than one big step. 

here we go: 

1. only buy what you need to get to your next shopping trip. whether you go to the store once a week, once a month, or every three days, do not buy more than you know you are going to use up between now and that next trip. i know what youre thinking "but what about sales? what about stocking up?". well, with very few exceptions, those are lies that stores tell you to get you to buy more things. you will save way more money by just buying what you need when you need it than trying to play the price-cycle game. (now, pardon me while the entire saving-money-on-groceries community on the internet starts throwing things at me)

2. eat your leftovers. wasted food = wasted money. if you find yourself with (a reasonable quantity of) leftovers, for crying out loud, eat them before the go bad. im not saying save the bag of chip crumbs or the three green beans nobody ate, but if youre regularly throwing away half a lasagna because you forgot to eat it in time, then maybe you need to get better at eating leftovers. 

3. if you dont actually eat it, stop buying it. whatever it is that you have crowding your pantry or freezer not getting eaten, or keeps going bad before you get to it, no matter how healthy it is or how much you should be eating it, just stop. there is absolutely no reason to buy food out of guilt or obligation. if youre not going to eat it this week, you dont need it. 

4. drink water. this was one that really hit home for us, see, i used to drink a ton of soda, and james would drink milk or juice all the livelong day if i let him. at some point i actually looked at how much money we spent each week on beverages, and it was a good 10-20% of our total grocery bill. ON BEVERAGES. you know how water is free? yeah...

5. cut back on snacks/processed/packaged foods. i dont know where this idea came from that poor people have to eat crap food out of boxes because thats whats most affordable. this is a lie. if you take a closer look, youll actually see that per ounce/per calorie, processed/packaged foods are actually some of the most expensive foods there are. now dont get me wrong, treats totally have their place, but as treats. 

6. plan your meals. im not saying you have to make a detailed, elaborate meal plan or spend your entire day making a month of freezer meals, but i am saying that if you go to the store knowing what youre going there to buy, youre going to have an easier time resisting the endcap sales and impulse purchases. 

7. pack your lunch. i shouldnt have to tell you that throwing together a quick lunch is way cheaper than buying a prepackaged (or takeout) meal. you might spend $4-5 on an individual salad, but for the same amount of money, you could buy enough lettuce, toppings, and dressing for a few salads. or even better, if your work/school situation allows for it bring leftovers for lunch. kill two birds with one stone. thats always cool. 

8. check prices on fresh vs. frozen produce. generally speaking, youre going to get significantly more produce for your money by choosing fresh over canned or frozen. but depending on the season, frozen might be way cheaper. this one is always worth a quick check (especially where berries are concerned). 

9. stick to your list. you know what the biggest grocery budget killer is? impulse purchases. you know, "lets get some chips!" "oooh! cake mix is on clearance!" or if youre shopping with my husband, "can we get bacon?". if you want your spending to get out of control fast, start adding some fun little extras as you shop. or just stick to your list and bask in the glory of not overspending. 

10. when in doubt, go without. almost every time im at the store, no matter how watertight i think my plan and list are, ill have these little doubts, like, "are we out of x? am i sure we have enough of y", with x or y being some kind of pantry staple, usually under $5, so it never seems like a big deal. but after about a million times of buying another dozen eggs "just in case" and coming home to find ten eggs in the fridge, ive learned to just go on with my list and keep shopping. if i indulge all of those little doubts, the grocery budget is blown on extra food we dont need, if i wait it out, nine times out of ten were just fine. (the rest of the time i can send james over to dollar tree...)

see, saving money on groceries is NOT complicated. its NOT hard. and you dont even have to change where or how you shop to see a difference. 

obviously, these little tricks just barely scratch the surface of how you can take control of your grocery spending and keep all that extra money in your pockets. hopefully this post has opened up a pandoras box for this topic.

now these are just my favorite grocery hacks, whats your go-to tip for saving money on groceries? 

2015: a year of focus (part three: financial and personal goals)

hip, hip, horray! weve made it to the last part of my 2015 goals series, and after today, we can jump back on the exciting new blog schedule that ive been working on!

today im talking about my personal and financial goals, which ive tacked on to the end here because while in past years financial and personal goals have consumed my whole life. but this year, things are different, and im really excited to start a year with way less pressure in these departments. 

but, of course, this doesnt mean that im not going to make financial and personal goals, because theyre still important. just not, as important as they used to be. and without further ado, here we go: 

financial goals: 

1. set a reasonable monthly budget and stick to it. after spending years in bare-bones survival mode, our recent (relative) financial stability has been a HUGE relief. but its also been a HUGE learning curve as weve had to adjust everything that we do as we figure out the balance of fitting what we need, what we want, and saving money for later (seriously, having leftover money for those last two things is completely foreign to me), within an income thats not quite predictable (construction has its ebb and flow over the course of the year). my goal for this year is to find that middle ground (frugal and intentional, but not austere and depriving), and consistently keep it month-to-month. 

2. keep improving my credit score and get a card with better rewards. over the summer i was finally able to get my first real credit card, and i have been using it very responsibly every month, both to improve my credit score (which was nothing) as well as to earn a tiny bit of cash back on all the money we spend anyway (might as well make the bills we pay anyway work for us, right?). now id really like to get a card with nicer rewards to maybe help us save up for a vacation and my credit score is almost to the point where i would qualify for one of the nicer cards (and not get dinged for having too many accounts in too short of a time), so while i wait til the right time, i also need to research my options. 

3. get at least 1/2 way to our emergency fund goal. james and i have been doing a lot of talking about our long-term financial goals. and while there are a lot of things that we just arent ready/able to do much work on (like buying a house, funding our retirement, possibly dabbling in investing), there is one thing we just need to get cracking on: a decent emergency fund that would actually be able to float us out of an actual emergency. we sat down to decide what that would entail (six months expenses plus all our insurance deductibles), and came up with the very, very scary number of $13,500. obviously, we are not going to be able to get there in just one year. but two? yeah, maybe we can. 

personal goals: 

1. stay in school and continue to get straight a's. maybe this seems really obvious and like it should be something i can just do and not something i have to make into a goal, but let me tell you something: im totally a quitter. it is really, really, really rare for me to finish a thing that i start. and well, this is one thing i really want to finish. to learn the skills i need to build my business, to be actually employable should the time come for me to need a real job, to prove to myself that i can finish big things. also, because i was such a crappy student the first time around, it would really be awesome to graduate with honors this time (though, given how few classes i have left, i dont know if that will be possible, even if i do get straight a's in my next eight classes). 

2. maintain a part-time income with jamberry. this is another area where im easily discouraged and prone to want to give up. lots of women are out there making jamberry a full time career, pulling six figures, and going on all-expense-paid incentive trips in cancun. but honestly, my goal isnt to advance in the company, turn this into my career and make the big bucks. i just need a part time job so that we can have some fun money/a little help in the slow months until i graduate/am actually bringing in money with PL. and with jamberry (and the super amazing team of thirteen ladies working with me), this is totally possible. but only if i keep with it. 

3. experiment in the kitchen more and learn some new recipes. im not a naturally adventurous person, and in general prefer to stick to what i know works. especially when it comes to cooking (much to the dismay of my husband). when it comes to the dinners we eat at home, we tend to stick on a pretty solid rotation of the same eight or nine favorites. and its kind of getting old. so this year is going to involve a lot more cook books, a lot more pinterest, and a lot more sucking it up and taking the risk with a new recipe. 

so with that, does anyone have any recommendations for rewards cards or food blogs? 

p.s. stay tuned for next time when i introduce 2015's first regular feature!

p.p.s. dont forget that ALL sponsorships are 50% off with the code JAN15! check my sponsor page for details!

5 money saving tips for already broke college students.

(note: this post was originally posted as a guest post on call me sassafras, but since i just started school this week and have a ton on my plate, i thought id use today to share this extremely relevant information)

spring is in full swing, which means time for college acceptance letters and time to start freaking out about how expensive EVERYTHING even remotely college related is. well lucky for you, i have LOTS of experience in being a broke college student (actually, i just started the fashion program at my local community college), and while i dont have any advice on how to make the college itself any cheaper,  i  do have a few (five, to be exact) tips to make all those little expenses a LOT more manageable. 

lets get started, shall we?

1. skip the school bookstore at the beginning of the semester. 

basically, your school bookstore is THE MOST EXPENSIVE PLACE ON EARTH to buy textbooks and you should avoid it at all costs. as SOON as you get your syllabi (yes, thats the proper plural of syllabus), head over to addall.com, and search the isbn numbers of the books you need to find the best price (actually, you may need to make a stop at the bookstore to get those numbers). the great thing about addall.com is that it not only gives you price comparisons on the book youre looking for, but it ALSO FIGURES IN SALES TAX AND SHIPPING so that you know that youre getting the absolute best price on all of the internet. 

2. talk to your professors about what books/supplies youre actually going to use. 

i know professors are sometimes scary (especially if youre at a new school), but if you really want to save yourself from buying a $100 textbook that wasnt even necessary (which, im pretty sure you do), ask them about the booklist. sometimes the book isnt very important and theres a reserve copy in the library, sometimes an old (and therefore MUCH cheaper) edition is ok, sometimes the book is on the syllabus but its not even really part of the class. any one of these things could end up saving you some money (and all of these have happened multiple times in my college career), but youll never know if you have other options book-wise unless you ask. 

3. bring your own lunch/snacks/water. 

i really shouldn't have to tell you that fast food/convenience food is way expensive (and way unhealthy) and that buying bottled water (or soda) every day adds up to a LOT of money. this gets even worse when you get onto a college campus. fun fact: i briefly attended usc (one of the most expensive colleges in america) and you know how much a bean burrito and small soda at the campus food court cost? $9. simple things like packing yourself a sandwich or an apple and investing in a reusable water bottle can save you TONS of money over the course of a semester, with the added bonus of helping you to eat healthier and avoid the dreaded freshman 15. 

4. actually, skip the school bookstore at the end of the semester, too. 

so, you know how at the end of the semester you can sell your books back to the school for about .5 percent of what you paid for them and it makes you want to cry? well, selling your books yourself on half.com (selling used books on amazon requires a merchant account, half.com doesnt) will get you a LOT more money (actually, there were times that i made a profit flipping my used textbooks). pro tip: look at the current selling price of your book and price yours one cent lower, chances are your book will be the first to sell. 

5. buy your supplies at office stores. 

at back-to-school time, the big office stores have ALL the basic supplies (pens, pencils, notebooks, index cards, etc) on sale for SO CHEAP (sometimes even just pennies). it may not be the cutest stuff, but hey, why spend $5 on a notebook when you could get one for 50 cents? 

i hope that youve found these tips useful, they helped me immensely while i was in school, so i can personally attest to their effectiveness (and i plan on using every. single. one. this time around). 

do you have any tips for saving money at school?