Hey everyone! Happy Monday. This weekend went by way too quickly. I have had 3 day weekends for the past 2 weeks (and then a week-long vacation the week before that), so this week will be a rough one! I haven’t worked a full week since the beginning of August.
Boardwalk Empire was on last night! Did anyone catch it? It’s definitely one of my favorite shows. Last night’s episode was kind of slow, so I’m not sure how this season will be.
My good friend got married on Friday, and I was a bridesmaid. It was a really fun day, and she looked beautiful! Definitely the prettiest wedding I have ever been to, and it was my first time being a bridesmaid.
The winner of my Swagbucks giveaway is Kristen B. (Swagname: kbon). Please email me if this is you!
Spending
I don’t think we have done much spending in the past week. We bought W a new tie and a new shirt for the wedding at H&M and spent around $40. And I had some spending for the wedding I was in also, but that was already known about. Hair and makeup was $102 altogether.
Food spending has been pretty low lately. We are really working on eating only at home. We haven’t gone out to eat for dinner in a while. Food is better at home, it’s usually healthier, and I don’t have to wait 30 minutes or more to actually eat it (and no driving is involved!). Win!
Extra Income (does not include income from our main jobs)
Extra income has been good so far this month. I’m hoping for a strong September, and I’m really wanting the rest of the year to be strong also.
I have my 100% self-employment switch date in mind. I’m keeping it a secret for now but I will let all of you know very soon. I am feeling much more confident and comfortable about switching to self-employment and I cannot wait!
We have been working on lowering our budget as much as we can. We really want to have this at a lower amount so that we are able to live off of a lower income and still be able to save a good amount. We still want to enjoy life as well. We are mainly just working on lowering our food spending, and also focusing on more outdoorsy activities, such as kayaking, biking, hiking and so on.
I have not really researched health insurance too much. I have been looking up prices but I really need to dive into this soon. Do you pay for your own health insurance? How much do you pay each month?
Posts from Making Sense of Cents:
What’s Stopping You From Living Your Dream? – I assume that most people have some sort of dream. What is your dream? How are you working on reaching your dream?
Minimalism: One Thing at a Time – This is a post written by my staff writer Jordann. Definitely read this one!
$9,554 in Extra Income – Last month was slower than recent months, but it was still a successful month.
August Goals and Life Update – I posted a picture of my wedding dress in this post.
Link love:
10 ways to make your 9-5 workday a little better The Joy of Simple – Do you enjoy the job that you have? There are little things that you can do in order to enjoy your job a little more. Or if you are like me, you have started making plans to switch things up and make life more enjoyable.
How to become a brand ambassador Dear Debt – Here is a side hustle that I haven’t really thought about. Have you ever wanted to be a brand ambassador?
Taking the Plunge: Is the Grass Always Greener? Frugal Rules – For those who have made the switch or are thinking about it, this is a great post to read. Frugal Rules has a great series about self-employment and I recommend reading all of the posts in this series that they have published.
Being healthy
I have not been the healthiest person in the past week. I have been eating kind of healthy though. I will blame this on being extremely busy, especially with having many wedding activities this past week. I wouldn’t change a thing though, as it was an enjoyable week!
We have been riding our bikes a lot lately. We have had a little bit of a heat wave lately though, so riding a bike in 100 degree heat along with the high humidity has made me not want to ride lately. Hopefully it cools down soon!
Wedding Planning
I haven’t done much wedding planning lately. However, by the end of October I do have a couple of things that I need to get done. We need to find a caterer, book the music, and send out the save the dates.
I also need to decide on the bridesmaids dresses. I really like the look of a different dress on each bridesmaid. And I like the look of short cream bridesmaid dresses. I know that a lot of people are against choosing this color because it “takes away from the bride,” but if anyone confuses a bridesmaid for me then they probably don’t know me at all (most of my friends are blonde, whereas I definitely am not 🙂 ). What do you think of cream bridesmaid dresses? What about blush or peach?
We have also been thinking about flowers and how we will save money. We really want a lot of flowers (I’m thinking rectangular shaped reception tables that are just completely covered in flowers and candles, so there will most likely be well over 100 vases/jars just full of flowers altogether), and I would really not want to spend thousands of dollars on flowers. We are thinking about planting and picking our own (we both want a lot wildflowers at our wedding) and also buying flowers in bulk and arranging them ourselves. Has anyone else ever done this? Another way to save money is that we will be printing our photos using HP ink jet cartridges on our HP printer. Tell me all about it in the comments, or any tips that you may have!
My wedding dress should be getting in soon. I can’t wait to see it! I’m really hoping that I don’t regret buying it before actually seeing it.
Have you been doing well with your extra income, spending and being healthy?
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