Month: March 2018

5 Ways to Save on Easter

Hello Lovely Savers!
Easter is right around the corner, this year on my birthday! Whether you celebrate the holiday or just need some inexpensive ideas for Spring, this post is for you! Here are my top 5 suggestions for saving money this Easter:

  1. Thrift those Easter Outfits! Shopping at places like Goodwill or other local thrift stores is a great way to save on the nice outfits you’ll want your family in this Easter. Let’s be honest, kids outgrow clothes faster than you can tie their shoelaces, so saving some money on some recycled clothing is totally acceptable. Especially clothing they will wear literally one time. That onesie that says “1st Easter” only works once and definitely would not fit them again even if you tried. I found a beautiful spring dress at my local Goodwill for $4.99 and I am so excited to wear it on my birthday! Check out my Youtube channel this Monday, for the first episode of “Dress to Impress- For Less!” for more tips on saving while shopping!
  2. Coloring Eggs to Serve Multiple Purposes. Growing up my mom would boil tons of eggs and my brothers and I would sit around the kitchen table and fight over who could color which eggs blue (for the record, my little brother was a total blue hog). Then the “Easter Bunny” would hide our works of art around the house and in the morning we would run around the house trying to collect the most (for another record, I always won). THEN we helped peel said beautiful colored eggs and my mom would make a giant plate of deviled eggs for the party later. Three activities, one purchase of eggs and a dye kit for $1.99 at Target. To save even more money, skip the sticker kits and use a white crayon to draw fun designs on the eggs before you dye them.
  3. Community Eggs Hunts. Many local churches and community centers will host free egg hunt events. Kids are divided into age groups and then race around an open yard to find a ton of plastic eggs with little candies or trinkets inside. You won’t have to buy your own, and it will be fun for the whole family!
  4. Buy Candy after Valentine’s Day. Buying candy after holidays is great because it’s all really inexpensive the day after. No one will notice if your jelly beans are red and pink instead of orange and green, and no one will care. If you really care, you could buy the Easter candy after Easter the year before and save it. I mean candy lasts awhile… who hasn’t eaten a piece of Halloween candy from some unknown previous year? #guilty
  5. Easter Coloring Pages. Coloring pages are really easy to print out at home, some libraries and grocery stores even send out themed coloring pages in the weekly newspaper. Check it out to see if there are some coloring page contests going on near you!

There you are, my top 5 ways to save on Easter fun! Subscribe to my Youtube channel to get notified when I post the first episode of “Dress to Impress- For Less!”.

Until next week, wishing you all Sugar and Savings,

Taylor

Tracking my Goals in my Bullet Journal

Hello Lovely Savers!

Today I thought I would share with you all how I keep track of my goals in my bullet journal. Previously I explained how I set goals and actually complete them, you can read about that here, but this is where I keep track of my progress!

Here are a few goals I set for myself for the beginning of 2018:

In 2018 I plan to -Buy a Home, -Get my Passport (check!), -Perform (check!), -Host a Money Seminar, -Pay off my Smallest Student Loan, – Save $5,000 for a wedding we are not actually planning yet, and – Relaunch Sugar and Savings (check!).

I am a visual person, so not only do I find that writing down my goals helps me keep track of them, but I like to be able to see my progress as I go. In the -Pay off my Smallest Student Loan area I made a little square maze that I can color in as I make additional payments toward that principle. I simply divided the total due by the payments I planned to make and then drew a box around that many squares. When I make a payment, I color another box in! (My colors of choice happen to be Tombow Dual Brush Markers, you can find a pack of them here! Tombow Dual Brush Pen Art Markers, Bright, 10-Pack)

As for the wedding I am not actually planning, I broke it down into smaller budgets. I decided that with a savings of $5,000 I would allocate $600 to a dress budget, $2,200 to catering budget, and $2,200 to a venue budget. Then I got a little creative, each box is worth $50 or $100 that I put away, and then I drew a design for each of those areas. The dress covered 12 squares and the others 22. As you can see, the dress is all colored in! With the savings plan that I have in place for this, I should have it all saved up by June. I’m sure I will share that savings plan with you all in another post soon.

When relaunching Sugar and Savings, I decided I needed to keep track of social media better. While Handsome Man would tell you that I spend way too much time on Facebook, I am not one for actually posting anything. I used this monthly tracker below to plan out what I would be doing to promote the blog and my coaching services.

So there you are! Just a couple of ways I use my bullet journal to keep track of my goal progress. I firmly believe that you need to be able to see results to stick to your goals. How do you keep track of your goals? Comment below!

Until next time, wishing you all Sugar and Savings,

Taylor

* This post contains affiliate links. This just means that I may receive a small commission (at no cost to you) if you purchase something through the links above. You will never see me post a link to a product or service that I haven’t used myself and love! Thank you for supporting Sugar and Savings!

Whole30 on a Budget

Spring is almost here, you may be planning for a spring break trip and want to be beach ready, or maybe you are just interested in cleaning up your eating habits. Whatever the reason, you probably have stumbled onto the Whole30 food craze and now you are motivated to try it.

In principle, the change should be easy, there are only a few rules: No dairy, grains, legumes, soy, alcohol, and definitely NO SUGAR. Ok, maybe not so easy…

There are tons of recipes online, and a thousand and one articles about how to succeed in this 30 day challenge. However, no one mentions the cost! Unless you are a wiz in the kitchen and can spiral-ize your own noodles out of a carrot, you will probably have to resort to store bought varieties and they do NOT come cheap.

Here are my tips for keeping the costs reasonable:

  1. Buy in Bulk- You may be afraid of produce going bad before you get to it, but if it’s all you’ll be eating for a month, you will likely eat more of it faster than you realize. Eggs are allowed during Whole30, as are potatoes, which last quite awhile (and can be bought in bulk) and those will be STAPLES of your Whole30.
  2. Spices are your Friend- While making each of those million recipes SOUNDS like a great idea (most of them sound delicious!) you are NOT going to want to make a different entree for each and every meal each and every day. Not only would that drive your costs way up, but you will not feel like it! Keep some easy recipes on hand and add different spices to keep yourself from getting bored.
  3. Do Not Buy Prepackaged Fruits and Veggies- you can buy a pint of cut cantaloupe for $4.99 or you can buy a whole cantaloupe for $2.99 and get way more fruit out of it. Same with lettuce or broccoli. A bag of salad lettuce is usually around $2.59, and it goes bad in like two days. A head of lettuce is $0.99 and because you just rip off what you want, it lasts much longer!
  4. Potatoes- Potatoes are so cheap. And you can make so many things with them. So many delicious, easy, and yummy things. I love me some tatoes.
  5. Rewards Programs- most grocery stores have their own rewards cards, some of those stores allow you to get coupon deals (without cutting coupons!) just for having this magical card. Not only can those save you some money, but those same cards filled with sorcery can also have other perks like saving money at certain gas stations.

There you have it! Good luck with your Whole30 Challenge, you may need luck to keep away from the sweets, but now you will not need it to stick to your budget while you do!

Have you tried the Whole30 diet? Let us know in the comments below!

Until next time, wishing you all sugar and savings,

Taylor

Review- “Adulting”(Plus 5 of my favorite tips from the book!)

Have you ever wanted a guide to becoming an adult? Or more of an adult? Or even just a few hints at how one might accomplish this idealized form of being? I used to think that it was just me, too. That was until I read a review on “Adulting: How to Become a Grown-Up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps” by Kelly Williams Brown. Apparently so many other people wanted this guide that the very brilliant and hilarious Kelly Williams Brown made an entire book just for them. I ran to BnN right away and picked up a copy (actually I brought a book my brother got me for Christmas and did an exchange because he and my sister got me the same novel, thanks G!).

The chapters are divided into easy to follow sections, with quick and effective tips on how to live your best adult version of you. Also they are extremely funny and entertaining. After reading the book, I can officially say that my favorite phrase is now “failure-flakes”, which describes the black flecks that fall below your eyes from cheap mascara. Never have I ever read anything so true.

Many chapters cover usual adult life, finding an apartment, learning to cook, love and family. However, what I loved most was that she also covered topics near and dear to this blog’s heart: mental health, budgeting, saving money, and starting a career. I love this book, and highly recommend it to everyone, whether they think they are already an adult or not. I also recommend getting a hard copy for yourself and keep notes along it’s margins, there is a lot to learn from it’s comedic pages!

Here are my top 5 favorite tips from this fabulous guide to “Adulting”.

1.”Accept that you are not special” and “Appreciate those who disagree with step 1”

This section covers how there are some people who love you and think you are the greatest thing since sliced bread, (ie: your parents, friends, significant others, etc.) but there is an entire rest of the world that doesn’t even notice when you have failure-flakes all over your face. This piece really reminded me to appreciate those around me and to always be ready to cheer them on, as they would do for me. Life might start out as disappointing, but that’s ok and it is temporary. You are not a failure.

2. “Remember that the outside world only sees your outermost layer”

I’ve read this book several times, and at the corner of this page I wrote “I feel like this will be an important chapter for me… -22 year old Me” Yes mam, several years later and I still have to remind myself! This section is all about faking it till you make it. Not to be deceitful, or untruthful, but more to just train yourself and maintain a professional appearance. If you fake being cheerful and customer-servicey, you are in-fact BEING cheerful and customer-servicey. If in your head you actually want to punch them, well, at least you didn’t.

3.  “Send a thank-you note”

What? What does something my mom forced us to do after every birthday party have to do with Sugar and Savings? In this chapter, Williams Brown talks about sending a thank you note after a party, or after someone has done something nice for you. She literally gives you a template on page 76. I will never forget the moment when my incredibly grown-up friend, Jamie, told me she writes thank you notes to everyone for anything. I looked at her in awe… and confusion. Why would you WANT to do that? Well because, Ms. Adult-in-training, it isn’t about YOU! As I said earlier, I need to remind myself to be a cheerleader to the ones I love, that includes showing them appreciation when they do something kind or just because they exist. Thank you lovely human, for existing.

ALSO, because I WILL tie it back to Sugar and Savings, you should write thank you notes to those who help you in your career life too. Whether after an interview or just coffee with a mentor, thank them for taking the time to meet with you, because they didn’t have to and it definitely helped. Which brings me to-

4. Steps 136- 138 or “How to Network”

No one knows how to effectively network these days. I’ll get random friend requests from people in my “women’s entrepreneurs group” on Facebook and that’s it! No talking, no follow up, just a request from a stranger. What a waste of energy! Williams Brown’s steps are as follows: “136: Ask for a business card when the conversation is winding to a close”, “137: Follow up with people you meet” (excellent place for a thank you note in my opinion!), and “138: Ask those people out for coffee”. People love to talk about themselves and you never know what you could learn from someone who is in the position you might like to have someday!

5. “Think of shopping like drinking”

And then there was the money chapter.  This is included in my top 5 tips because I had to come to terms with a terrible retail-therapy habit. Shopping with my mom or friends made me feel happy, and if I had a bad day a trip to Target was magical. It’s not always an easy habit to notice, you don’t run around drunk from shopping, but it can still pile up and be detrimental when trying to stick to a budget. Apps like Wish make it allllll too easy to just get “a few things”, and with their small price tags it makes a hard to notice problem even easier to ignore.

There you have it! If you haven’t already got it up on the tab next to this one, here is my personal link to the book on Amazon:*

* This post contains affiliate links. This just means that I may receive a small commission (at no cost to you) if you purchase something through the links below. You will never see me post a link to a product or service that I haven’t used myself and love! Thank you for supporting Sugar and Savings!

Thank you so much, I hope you enjoyed this review of “Adulting: How to Become a Grown-Up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps” by Kelly Williams Brown.

Until next time, wishing you all Sugar and Savings,

Taylor