Starting the gauntlet thread because I need one. Who is with me?
The rules:
1 be mindful and careful with every dollar
2 spend less
3 don't let money make you miserable or stressed
Well, then - let the challenge begin - after a super expensive April-planned vacation and a visit from Germany plus spending half my annual clothes budget and paying off my (interest free) totally indulgent jewelry purchases. Yup - I binged and I'm feeling the pinch:)
Reigning it all in ... No extras of any kind for May
Dreaming up ways to save and make money
So far today - transferred money into my Holiday Club Account to take full advantage of the 2% interest up to $4000 - done.
- transferred roughly $80 (rewards points to my regular savings account:)
- made $35 on a photography sale - money sent to my savings account:)
- looking at finding a credit card and/or a bank account bonus - must be at least $200 or better
- found, yes found a scratch off ticket while cleaning - yeah, $2 win. Guessing it must have been a birthday gift to Mr. R. that he ignored like he does all the lottery related things - me, I love the idea of winning big or small:)
TONIGHT: Making homemade tomato sauce with tomatoes and basil, parsley, peppers and garlic chives and oregano. Everything harvested fresh from my garden.
Next week:I plan on updating my website in the hopes of generating more photography sales. This will most likely turn into a month long project.
Looking for BOGO Starbucks Espresso and a $1 or $2 off my other favorite coffee.
For the rest of the month:1. Will hover for coupons and deals to help with the food budget ...
Will let Mr. R. know - no more food purchases until we cleared out the freezer and half the pantry.
2. Will dedicate a couple of hours daily to earn a few bucks on mturk and on Prolific too while I'm at it - to add to my savings.
3. Will take full advantage of the peppers and tomatoes ripening in my garden.
4. Trying out a new tea mix this weekend - spearmint and lemon verbena. Keeping them separate for now, since I love both flavors on their own and I'm not certain how they will taste together.
5. The only good thing I managed to do in April was harvesting a lot of orange mint for tea. In my defense, we were on tour or out of town almost the entire month.
This weekend, I plan on harvesting a ton of different herbs and mints - including mojito mint (nothing like a Mojito to make Florida's heat bearable).
6. One of my favs - Orange mint for tea - drying in my kitchen/dining window right now.
7. Haven't tried the electric drying rack I picked up at Aldi last year - we'll see how it does with tomatoes, I'd love to grind some into tomato powder and see if I can use it for my own dried soup base....
Heck, I may even look into doing a mystery shop or two to bring in some extra dollars this month and/or next month, depending on what I find.
Above all, I will hang out on MMM a lot to keep me grounded in the saving mentality and maybe pick up a tip or two from all you talented people on MMM.
Will update to let you all know how it goes. Oh and wish me luck - I'm car shopping:) That's my plan and I'm sticking to it!
GOOD LUCK with all your May endeavors everyone!:)