Organization

Kitchen Update on a Budget

Hello Lovely Savers!

I have been meaning to write this article for so long, but now that we are officially done with our budget friendly kitchen update, I figured it was time!

As a little back story- we bought our house two years ago and have been updating it little by little, doing the work ourselves to save money (and also because it’s fun!). The house was built in 1946 and had really not been touched since, save for the horrible beige paint job. This was particularly true in the one and only bathroom that Handsome Man COMPLETELY overhauled, and it was also true for our small kitchen.

If we’re being honest we still have much bigger plans for our kitchen, including adding a dishwasher, new appliances, and new countertops. However we are currently in the process of planning our wedding and figured those bigger projects could wait, but it would still be nice to spruce the kitchen up in the meantime. (Also, #quarantine…. so what else did we have to do?)

The very first update to the kitchen was giving our ugly laminate countertops a makeover. This took a little convincing, Handsome Man was NOT sold on the idea when I showed him the contact paper I planned to use as essentially a STICKER on the counters.

And truth be told, it didn’t turn out that great. It was WAY harder to do than the YouTube videos suggested. And though we haven’t tried to remove it, it theoretically can be, just pulling it up to readjust what I was doing was SO DIFFICULT that I am not positive it was as “removable” as advertised.

My other annoyances are that it didn’t want to stick to the underside of the lip and the seams are more visible than I had hoped. BUT for a total of $36 it really did brighten up the kitchen and in the end it is usually covered by all of our crap. I got all the marble contact paper I needed on Amazon.

Running total: $36

The Walls! As I have mentioned many other times, the older woman who lived here before us must have LOVED the color beige. To modernize our kitchen with a quick and inexpensive project, we decided to paint. With “Kitchen and Bath” paint (a little bit glossy for easy cleaning) we did the first color as a light grey that we actually have in other rooms in the house. Unfortunately, because I don’t think they mixed it right, it turned out more of a light purple that blended into the marble contact paper. It wasn’t enough of a contrast for our taste, and we gave it a few months but in the end we went back over with a darker grey that we adore.

It looks a little green in this picture, but it is a warm grey, I swear.

At $25/gallon, and our change of color, our walls ran us around $50.

Running total: $86

My FAVORITE project we did- my cabinets! Our cabinets are incredibly dated, but they are also unique and high quality! I scoured Pinterest to help me decide what I might want to do to those old cedar doors.

Eventually I settled on a two-tone look, white on top and dark grey on bottom. Another of my ideas that involved convincing Handsome Man. To compromise, I let him pick the hardware. I would have gone for matte black, but polished nickel it is.

  • Ignore the mess, still in progress!

To save time and money (I had thought) I bought Milk Paint as my research told me I would not need to sand or prime. This was a lie. Again, those cabinets had not been touched since 1946, and after the first coats of the white Milk Paint the yellow tannins of the cedar wood were showing through! It looked like we had giant water stains all over.

I spent extra money on that Milk Paint specifically to avoid extra work, but it was not as I had planned. While I am still happy with the finish of the Milk Paint, we had to buy primer and take way more time- so with the $25 of primer in addition to the 4 pints of Milk Paint at $30 each, the paint was $155 and the hardware was around $50 all together. You can probably get all of these things at your local hardware store, but the Milk Paint is only sold at certain retailers so you just want to check before making a run to the store.

Running total: $291

Handsome Man was very intent on changing out the light fixture as well, he looked EVERYWHERE before choosing the winner.

He says he thinks he got it on Wayfair but he can’t remember anymore. I had luck with other lighting fixtures we have in our home at Cost World Market online as well.

Running total: $441

The final project in this current phase of kitchen renovation was adding our kitchen hutch. To get one we really liked, one that would add storage and counter space, we did spend a little more during a sale Target was having. It’s worth mentioning that while looking we did find more cost effective ones at places like Wayfair, but we had saved so much on the project overall that we decided to splurge. We got our hutch with a stainless steel countertop and glass doors for $625.

Kitchen Update Total: $1,066

We LOVE our “new” kitchen and it feels so much more welcoming than it did before. If you are looking for a quick and budget friendly update, a new coat of paint is always a good idea- and if you are looking for more kitchen projects I hope our small ones have inspired you! Learn from my mistakes and you’ll save yourself some time with the money you are saving.

If you are looking for MORE home projects on a budget visit my post about curb appeal here!

Thank you so much for all of your support, lovely savers, I love sharing my tips and tricks for money and how to deal with everything in between. Please join the Facebook Group: Sugar and Savings- Budgets and Saving Money to be a part of our community of other lovely savers. We share our thoughts, and plans with money, and we celebrate each other’s wins! And each month I go live to answer YOUR questions about personal finance!

Until next time, wishing you all Sugar and Savings!

Depression and the Workplace

This week I was going to blog about going back to school and saving big on school supplies. I was. Until I got a question that seemed way more important than something you can already Google.

“How do you stay successful at work when your depression hits?”

Well first, my depression does not hit, it is with me everyday. I have good days and I have bad days, and over time I have learned coping mechanisms that work for me. I can’t rightfully suggest any of those to anyone, as they are different for everyone and depression effects everyone differently. But I can share with you my strategies for how I can keep going at work when I really only want to be at home under a blanket.

  1. Know Your Limits. Before diagnosed, I believed that I didn’t have a depression disorder because I was able to get out the door and function everyday. I figured, if I am able to do that when others are not, that’s probably not what my issue is. Believing that whatever it was, I would push myself through it and just stack on the responsibilities to distract myself, was very harmful in the end. It worked, but eventually it felt like I was half-assing everything, and I made my depression worse. Knowing your limits, knowing that you need to set aside time to decompress or whatever it is you need to do, means saying no. It means saying no and not feeling guilty about it. Not feeling guilty, is of course, easier said then done. However, setting boundaries for yourself and others is healthy, and everyone who should mean anything to you, should respect them. Christy Wright, one of my personal idols, made a list for how to say no at work and in life. You can read her great ideas here.
  2. Dry Shampoo. Some days, I have only so much energy to give. If I use it to get dressed, and out the door, and to work on time, and to deal with customers, then I have very very VERY little left for much else. Because I am aware that those other things NEED to happen, I can decide what doesn’t. For me, sometimes getting in the shower seems like the worst thing ever, other times I just sleep in too late and can’t pull myself out of bed in time to wash my hair. NOBODY TOLD ME ABOUT DRY SHAMPOO. This stuff is a literal godsend for me. If I only have 3 F’s to give, you can bet I’m spending one on my hair. Spray it in and you look just fine. Fine enough to get to work and not feel gross about yourself. (or at least a little less gross.)
  3. Avoid Overstimulation. Sometimes this is inevitable, a busy day at work is a busy day at work. But I know that if things start to get hectic, especially if I’m having a not so great day with my depression, that I will suddenly become unable to focus and my work will suffer. If you feel yourself becoming overstimulated, find something to diffuse the situation. Take a walk, put head phones in (not too often or else you might seem anti-social!), or play some relaxing music at your desk. I find that it works for me to take a break (if possible) and go sit in my car and call my mom for a bit.
  4. Have a Notebook. I have my bullet journal with me everywhere, when I feel depressed or anxious I can use it to distract myself. I can look at some exciting events coming up that I am looking forward to, I can doodle in it, I can make a million and a half lists, whatever makes me feel better at that moment. If for nothing else, you can use your notebook to write down what you’d like to scream at your bosses face! Just make sure they don’t see it šŸ˜‰
  5. Buy Clothes Easy to Slip On. My depression is worst in the morning and at night. If I don’t even want to wash my hair, you can bet I don’t want to get dressed. I have adopted a wardrobe almost entirely made up of sheath dresses and jackets. I slip the dress on, throw on the jacket, and grab my flats. It looks simple and professional and required very little of my precious energy to figure out.

As you can see from above, dealing with depression is a lot like dealing with a budget. You budget for how much energy you have, not for how much energy you expend. You set your priorities and give your energy to those first, and then take the rest to use toward lesser important things.

Take care of yourself, the best way that you can. And remember that you are always doing your best, even if your best is a little different from what your best was yesterday.

Until next time, 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!Ā 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 containsĀ 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 havenā€™t used myself and love! Thank you for supporting Sugar and Savings!

Using My Bullet Journal for Time Management

Growing up, my poor mother tried every organization/trapper keeper/planner system to try to help me keep track of my life. Everything worked for a bit, maybe a couple of weeks at the most, but eventually I would lose motivation and stop using them. Fast forward to my college years, trying on my own (in vain, mostly), to find a system I could keep up with. Many, many, planners later and I still would double book myself and be scrambling at the end to make sure my assignments were being turning in.

However, it was after college when I was double booking myself between babysitting for friends and working and dates with Handsome Man that I finally said- ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! (Also, I’m very sorry Handsome Man, I know you had too many dates changed on you!)

Welcome to the Bullet Journal- a minimalist journaling system developed by Ryder Carroll, that has quickly swept the internet world and turned into it’s own art form. I was originally drawn to the idea of creating my own bullet journal because I could change up how I used it as I needed. I couldn’t get bored or demotivated, because I could just set it up a different way and start over. I use my bujo to track a billion things, my friend jokingly calls it “my diary” because I literally keep my life in it’s pages.Ā  I’ll share some links to my favorite bullet journal supplies! Below is how I use it to manage my time, it has forever changed my life.

I change my weeks to track what I need to, recently I have needed to be able to see exactly what time I have appointments, so you can see how my spreads from August 2017 look significantly different from my current week set up.

This current set up allows me to also see where I may have down time to work on things off of my To Do list.

My To Do list is a continuous list that moves from week to week. These are things that I either have to do or eventually have to do, I keep them going so that they stay on my mind and items don’t get forgotten. Once I check it off, it stops moving ahead to the next week. But if I didn’t get to it, it moves on to the next week until I can.

Having it all in one place also helps me decide on things I can work on when I do have that down time. If I try to think of what I should be doing, I’ll never remember, but if it is in one place I can just look!

Technology is not my friend. One of the reasons I double booked myself was that I would put things on my phone calendar and then NEVER LOOK AT THEM AGAIN. I’m terrible. But I need everything in one place to make sure things don’t fall through the cracks.

Future planning. I have set my bullet journal up a number of ways for future planning, the first and foremost being a future log as shown below. I have also used a calendex when my schedule was particularly busy but a future log has served my current needs just fine. You can read about how Kara from BoHo Berry (my bujo inspiration!) here.

I use my bullet journal to keep track of pretty much everything- habits, goals, notes from courses, and much more. Comment below about what else you might like to see from my bujo!

As promised, here are some of my favorite supplies.Ā * This post containsĀ 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 havenā€™t used myself and love! Thank you for supporting Sugar and Savings!

My Notebook– I LOVE my Leuchtturm1917 (A5 dot grid), this is the second one I have purchased and will for sure repurchase again.Ā Leuchtturm1917 Medium Size Hardcover A5 Notebook – Dotted Pages – Black

My Pens– I am a weirdo and INSIST on my pens being Ultra Micro Fine point. I have to buy them special on Amazon. The same friend from before says it is like writing with a thumbtack, but the lines stay SO pretty and they make it easy to write in small spaces.Ā Uni-Ball Signo 207 Retractable Gel Pen, 0.38mm Ultra-Micro Point, Black, Pack of 6

My Markers– My Tombows are so very dear to my heart that I literally will not let other people use them. I have bought them each one by one, hand picking the colors. I’m a weirdo. Each color is so beautiful. They all write so nice and don’t bleed through the pages. However, they do sell them in packs on Amazon!Ā Tombow Dual Brush Pen Art Markers, Bright, 10-Pack

Alright! That is it for this week, but like I said, comment below what else you’d like to see from my Bullet Journal!

Wishing you all success in time management, and of course,

Sugar and Savings,

Taylor

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 orderā€¦ 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 wouldnā€™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 Iā€™d be able to change up to fit myĀ 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 donā€™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 youā€™re better at keeping an ongoing calendar and spreadsheet online, the more power to you! I now keep everything in myĀ Leuchtturm1917Ā Notebook I got off of Amazon.

If youā€™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 Iā€™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 ā€œNo Spendā€ 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

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 canā€™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!

 

Budget!

Hello friends!

I must apologize for my absence, I was in the process of opening my latest show I directed. It was a Murder Mystery, but the real mystery was whether or not Iā€™d make it through the opening while dealing with someā€¦ letā€™s say Diva-ishā€¦ personalities. On top of all the drama that comes with- well, drama- I got the flu! Which is no fun to say the least!

We made it through the opening night and my cast was spectacular!

But I am back now, and ready for some more Sugar and Savings. Many people have been asking how I created my budgeting system. I did, and continue to, use Mint for tracking my bank activity and also my credit score. However, I felt that Mint never gave me enough options for how to really look at an overview of my month. Everyone looks at information differently and of all the programs I tried, I found Mint to be the easiest to navigate, easiest to categorize spending, and it syncs with your bank information for free! As a Dave Ramsey fan, I did try Everydollar.com but I found it hard to use, it was difficult to figure out how to add categories, and it does not sync with your bank information for free. You have to pay. Which I question, because if Mint can do it for freeā€¦ why canā€™t Everydollar? But I digress.

Even though I keep Mint for double checking purposes, I more regularly use my bankā€™s app and my own personal budget pages I created on Google Drive. By making my own, I can customize my categories, how much I may spend on something in a given month, and what my savings goals are for that month.SaS Blog 5 1

Here is what my overview sheet looks like: It isnā€™t a full picture of what I might spend money on in a given month but it serves as a basic starting point for each month.

SaS Blog 5 2

This is what each month starts to look like: I write my categories, what I budget for spending in that category, and make my little total calculations.

My categories are Home (home supplies: toilet paper, soap, toiletries, etc.), Food (groceries, restaurants, coffee shops, etc.), Medical (prescriptions, etc.), Fern (my puppy! Her food, treats, vet trips, grooming, etc.), Gas/Auto (Gas, car maintenance), Parking (I have to pay for parking at work, so this one gets itā€™s own category), Shopping (my downfallā€¦), School Loans.

SaS Blog 5 3

I like to break it down by categories because I have a variable income, and this allows me to see before the month starts whether or not I need to make changes.

Then I use my bankā€™s app to keep track of any spending I do, then I put it into itā€™s category, and list it by date. I also make a note on each purchase so I know where it was and what it was for. So if I over spent in the shopping category (whichā€¦ is oftenā€¦) then I can see what I was spending money on. One month I could spend a lot on gifts for others, and some months I fall into my retail therapy clothes shopping habit…

SaS Blog 5 4

I make totals at the bottom so I can see the whole picture and see how much I have left in each category.

Also, when my income is so varied, I keep track of that right next to everything. If Iā€™m making less than I thought, then I know I should be conservative in my spending.

So thatā€™s what I do! I really like my budgeting sheets, it took me a long time to get them to be just right. Everybody is bound to need something slightly different, so this is just an option when you find you donā€™t quite fit the mold of online systems.

Thanks so much for checking in with Sugar and Savings! Coming up soon I will be going over ā€œGrocery Shopping for Oneā€ and date night ideas for cheap!

Sugar and Savings,

Taylor

xoxo