Month: January 2017

Bullet Journals and Budgets

Hello Lovely Savers!

If you are like me, you need to revamp your schedule and life organization every few months. When I was younger my poor mother tried every planner system she could, trying to help me keep my school work in order… unfortunately for me (and my wallet) this led me to an obsession with getting new office supplies every time I drove by an OfficeMax. And if the Target dollar section had any office supplies, you can bet I HAD to have them. This is not budget friendly! In all honesty, this wouldn’t work for a lot of other reasons too, I would lose track of things trying to transfer information to the new system every time I switched.


That was until I discovered Bullet Journalling!


At first I thought Bullet Journalling would be just a creative way for me to have a calendar and schedule that I’d be able to change up to fit my needs as necessary, now I know I can put everything I would ever need in there!

Fun fact about me, I am no good at keeping my important stuff on my phone or a google calendar, I just don’t operate that way. I like to have everything written down, pen to paper. I know that is not the usual these days, so if you’re better at keeping an ongoing calendar and spreadsheet online, the more power to you! I now keep everything in my Leuchtturm1917 Notebook I got off of Amazon.

If you’d like to know more about Bullet Journaling itself, I recommend looking up BoHo Berry– she has a great Bullet Journal 101 section on her blog. Here, I am going to talk about keeping a budget specifically.

Here is my upcoming budget for February, I am a visual person and I like to color in the sections as I spend them. Right now this does not include my rent or utilities but that will change come March/April.

February Budget

Keeping my budget all in one place, in a notebook I carry everywhere, allows me to keep track of every dollar I spend. It is just too easy to nickel and dime yourself if you don’t!


I also make a point to write down my income every time I get paid (I work a lot of random jobs so it is nice to have it all in one place), and a place for what I’d like to save as well!

I mark the sections in increments I know they go in, for example, my Chiropractic appointments are $5 each time and I go once a week, vs. my gas is easier to keep track of $10 at a time.

My bullet journal is also used as a habit tracker, I keep track of the habits I want to do/encourage myself to do daily, like checking in on my finances. I also keep a “No Spend” area in there that I get to mark off when I go a whole day without spending money!

 

Habit Tracker

 

The bullet journal system is great for keep tabs on your goals and the time you spend in certain areas of your life. Next month my goal is to spend more time on my personal development!

Color coded!!!

And of course, my planner. Which is the best part because you can add whatever you like! For planner ideas, I suggest BoHo Berry again, or pinterest!

Thanks for tuning in this week Lovely Savers, next week I will be working on the 14-Day money finder by Rachel Cruze and keeping you updated on how it works out the first week!

 

Sugar and Savings,
Taylor

XOXO

Date Ideas- Winter/Spring Edition 2017

Hello Lovely Savers!


This post was a long time in the making, we started these dates last spring with the intention of publishing this post a lot sooner. However, with the hiatus, it got postponed to now. But what a better time than right before Valentine’s? I hope that this post is able to give you some inexpensive date ideas, whether to be used during the upcoming holiday or just as a way to change up the usual dinner and a movie idea!

 

Date 1: Museum Adventure
 Local museums, like our local Walker Art Museum, like to encourage many patrons with free family days! We had a great time just walking around, truthfully modern art is not our favorite subject, but we had fun anyway spending time together.

 

 

 

 

Date 2: Animal Shelter

Animal Shelters thrive on volunteer support, you could spend the afternoon volunteering or just stop in to give the animals some love! Fair warning though, those little puppy eyes are hard to resist. If you are going, make sure you put it into writing whether or not you intend to bring a new family member home.

Girlfriends make pretty good puppy eyes too.


Date 3: Pizza night!

 

Pizza a’la Handsome Man!

No no, we’re not talking Dominos. Spend the evening making dinner together, like your very own pizzas! Choosing ingredients, and possibly debating over the thickness of crust or variety of pre-made sauces, can make the meal even more fun!

 

So here they are, just three date ideas for while it is still cold outdoors or even later in the year when you need a change of pace.
Handsome Man and I will be sure to come up with some more cheap date ideas as it warms up here in Minnesota.
Don’t forget to keep an eye out for the recipe post on Thursday!
Until then, enjoy these adventures as a fun date or as a treat to yourself, you deserve it!

Sugar and Savings,
Taylor
XOXO

This entry was posted in Savings.

The Loneliest Cookbook – The Potato Bagel Sandwich

Hello Lovely Savers! Welcome to this week’s entry on The Loneliest Cookbook! Last week we served up Beans and Rice, a lonely and yummy take on a dish served by my favorite Chinese restaurant, if you’d like to see that recipe click here.

This week’s meal was inspired by some of my poorer days in college… because you know what’s cheap? Potatoes. Particularly mashed potatoes. Did I literally mash potatoes? No. I used box, because…poor (and lazy). Thankfully, it did turn out pretty well! It made for a nice breakfast…and lunch…and dinner…

Here it is, The Potato Bagel Sandwich.

 

The Potato Bagel Sandwich

Prep time: 20 min.

Total Cost:$4.00 or less

Number of Meals: As many as you can make out of your potatoes!

 

Ingredients:

Boxed Mashed Potatoes (Or reals potatoes if you want to be fancy, but we’re trying to keep it cheap over here.)

Plain Bagels (use another variety for some additional flavors!)

American Cheese slices

 

Directions:

  1. Prepare the mashed potatoes as directed. You can make as much as you want, each sandwich only requires a little bit.)
  2. Cut the bagel in half.
  3. Once they are done, spread the potatoes over the bagel.
  4. Add cheese to the top of the potatoes if you would like.
  5. Place other half of bagel on top like a sandwich and microwave until the cheese melts.
  6. It will be hot! Allow to cool slightly and then enjoy!

 

Easy, filling, and cheap. Also easy to add different flavors to the potatoes and such. Add slices of turkey or ham for more protein! 

Thank you guys, see you next Thursday on The Loneliest Cookbook! Join us Monday for our Inexpensive Date Night Ideas, ft. Handsome Man!

 

Sugar and Savings,

Taylor

XOXO

30 Days to $1000 Challenge- Review

Hello Lovely Savers!

Today I am breaking down my experience with Coffee and Mascara’s “30 Days to $1000” challenge. I highly encourage you all to read her blog post about how she came up with this idea, she also talks about how she made it less daunting for herself, because believe me- it’s daunting!

 

Credit- Coffee and Mascara

I first saw her challenge on pinterest, and after some financial set backs in 2016 I was looking for a way that would help me rebuild my $1000 emergency fund. $35 dollars a day? Doesn’t sound too hard! Yeah, well maybe I shouldn’t have tried this during the Holiday season… The first week started out GREAT, I saved $245 and I was feeling awesome. Then a few more days passed and some more gift shopping happened, and I skipped one or two days just to make sure I’d be able to cover- blah blah blah. Excuses.

I rallied and kept going but $245 was a lot of money per week, and I found that even after I tried to cut corners to save more toward it, it was still a lot of money. I was sitting here, thinking, “how much money did she start with?! WHAT DOES THIS LADY MAKE PER HOUR?!”. Then I decided to actually read her post and felt like an idiot, because she wrote her post only one week into starting this. Well of COURSE she felt great, week one was a cake walk! It was every week after that was so annoying!

 

Well slow and steady wins the race so I started again, now I had over $500 saved, which in truth was pretty great considering I’d started with nothing. However, once again I had to peter out, because I needed to watch the amount in my checking account while all the purchases for Christmas went through.

 

So to review, ‘30 days to $1,000 Challenge’ awesome in theory, not so achievable in practice unless you already have some excess in your checking account and just can’t bring yourself to dump it all at once into savings.

 

Next Monday post- Inexpensive Date Ideas! Wanted to make sure you have time to plan before Valentine’s!

 

Sugar and Savings,

XOXO

Taylor

The Loneliest Cookbook- Rice and Beans

Hello Lovely Savers! As promised, here is the first featured recipe on Sugar and Savings!

I love cooking and baking, I am the co-owner of MinneCakes Bakery, but when I was in college I found it hard to cook for just myself. I loved the idea of grocery shopping and getting healthy ingredients, but often they would go bad before I could even use them.
I had to get creative unless I wanted to eat take-out all the time. Don’t get me wrong, I love Chinese food, but did you know that eating out for two or more meals a day equates to around a minimum of $480 a month?!?! I may be a bit of a cheap finance nerd, but that’s ridiculous even to those not obsessed with balancing their checkbook.

This is what my beloved roommate did all the time, and she was just shocked when at the end of the month she couldn’t find where her money had all gone. $8 here and there for a meal doesn’t seem so bad… until you add it up. You can read my post on saving money at the grocery store here.

I came up with tons of cheap, delicious, (mostly) healthy, meals that I could make in my tiny apartment kitchen. I call this, The Loneliest Cookbook.

 

My first recipe I am going to share is actually one I find myself craving even today. Like I said, I love Chinese food, and while it’s usually a pretty cheap take-out option it does still have a price tag. This recipe was inspired by my family’s favorite restaurant, Great Mandarin, this is where all of my birthday dinners have been held for at least the last 10 years. This dish is served there as a side dish, but I think it is so good I eat it for my whole meal… or several.

 

Beans and Rice:

 

Hold on- what? Beans? Beans and rice? What kind of fancy meal-for-one is that? Just you wait, this baby is delicious.

 

Beans and Rice:

Prep time: 30 min.

Total Cost:$4.00 or less

Number of Meals: 2+

 

Ingredients

1 pound of green beans (buy fresh, no cans, no frozen, yuck. Also, a pound of green beans is usually under a dollar.)

Your choice of rice (I used minute rice in college- cheap and quick. You can also buy bags of frozen rice that take two minutes in the microwave, also cheap and quick but taste a little plasticky to me.)

Soy sauce

Vegetable Oil

Garlic salt and pepper to taste

 

Directions:

  1. Prepare the rice as indicated on the bag or box, make as much as you’d like. (I happen to love rice so I always make a ton)
  2. While the rice is on the stove, wash your beans and cut off the gross little nubbly parts.
  3. In a pan, place the cut beans and some vegetable oil.
  4. Heat the pan on medium or low, add soy sauce to taste.
  5. Sprinkle the beans with garlic salt and pepper.
  6. Fry in the pan until the beans start to darken.
  7. After the rice is done, fluff with a fork and serve up in bowls or on plates.
  8. Put the beans on top of the rice.
  9. Mix up the remaining oil and soy sauce in the pan and pour over the dish if you’d like more flavor.

 

Enjoy!

 

If you don’t have to share, this can last you up to three or four meals. Yay leftovers! Thank you so much for joining The Loneliest Cookbook’s first blog post! Next Monday I will be back with my review of the “30 Days to $1,000 Challenge”.

 

Sugar and Savings,

Taylor

XOXO

Make 2017 Your Year of “NO!”

Hello Lovely Savers!

I want to let you in on a little secret of mine… I am the WORST at saying “no”. I am always guilty of spreading myself too thin, running here and there to try to do everything for everyone- and let me tell you, it’s awful. Often times I’d get so stressed out by trying to do everything perfectly for everyone, that I’d miss out on things, get sick, and then disappoint people anyway. It is not a reasonable lifestyle to live for other people. Nice? Sure. Noble? Maybe. Crazy? Definitely.

And that extends into work. In 2016 I had to make the hardest choice I’d ever had to make career wise, I quit my job. And no, not just a job, a job I loved. Why on earth would I give up on a job I loved? Here’s the truth, and this is the first time I am coming clean about it, I was tired.

I was tired of working part-time, after years of being promised more and more hours.

I was tired of insubstantial pay, which I had agreed to, hoping that it would make my trek to full-time faster. I was tired of being underutilized and under-appreciated, I was tired of being treated like I was only 22. Even though, yes, I was only 22.

I wasn’t tired of the work! But as time went on, and more of my efforts were unnoticed or undermined by others in the organization, I had to decide. Once I realized that the organization had no interest in changing how I was used, I had to say “no”. And suddenly, I wasn’t just underutilized, I was selfish. I was selfish because I wanted “things handed to me”, and when I was made to feel selfish, I did. Not only did I believe it, I saw it.

I wasn’t doing my best work, why should I? If I wasn’t going to be their priority, why should they be mine? One day I looked at my computer, realized how messed up that mentality was, and sent in my two weeks.

I told everyone it was because I was going to run my own company, which I was doing on the side, and which was true in part. But that wasn’t why I left, and I still felt so selfish on the inside that I was too embarrassed to say “I wasn’t going anywhere where I was, and I had to think about myself”. It was as if by saying that, I would be admitting that they were right, that I WAS selfish. Now several months later, I am able (if only just barely) to say THAT IS NOT OK.

You have to take care of yourself! I’m sure you’ve heard the expression “you can’t pour from an empty cup”, and 2016 was my year to see how true that is. You should not feel selfish for saying “no”, and any organization or person who calls you selfish for that, should probably take a good long look in the mirror.

This year, in 2017, say “no”. Put your foot down! Do what you have to do so that you can be your best self, because when you feel like you are doing your best work- you are. Tired of credit card debt? Say NO to using that card. Tired of spending too much money out at restaurants with your friends? Say NO and suggest a night in, or god-forbid take some time for yourself (personally still working on that one). Tired of your job? SAY NO! Go find one that makes you feel like you matter and that your work makes an impact! In 2017, ‘No’ is NOT a bad word.

Sugar and Savings,

XOXO

Taylor

Hello 2017!

Hello 2017!

And hello to you again, Lovely Savers! Sugar and Savings kind of went MIA last year after being hacked and the momentum never really picked up again to restart. However, here I am today to tell you that we are back! 2016 was one rollercoaster of a year, through trial and error (ok, maybe a LOT of errors) I learned one heck of a lot. Sugar and Savings is taking on a new form this year, I am sure that the events of 2016 will be regaled for you in the blog posts which will be posted every Monday. THEN on Thursdays I will be posting a recipe that can be made for a cheap meal or snack, just as another way to help you all save!

As promised, we still have some of the older blog post ideas coming up- Inexpensive (or free!) Date Ideas! – along with a lot more of different savings plans I got off of the Pinterest universe and tried for you! I also came into bullet journaling last year and I can’t wait to share with you all how that has impacted my budgeting and time management!

Happy New Year, lovely savers! I will see you all Monday!

Happy New Years from us to you!