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This year, Mark and I have made it our mission to be more mindful with our money. Our main goals are to pay down debt and start saving each month. If you're interested in a more detailed look at our financial goals, you can check out this post from a few weeks ago.
Throughout January, the main thing I've learned about saving money is that your attitude and mindset have a lot to do with it. Instead of thinking "I can't save" or "it's too hard to save right now" or "I'll just do it next month," I've tried to focus instead on what I can do, realizing that even small steps in the right direction are still good steps. An even bigger help has been focusing on gratitude. Instead of sighing over what I don't have or wishing for what I don't need, I've been trying to focus on all the amazing things we do have. Counting your blessings helps you realize that you already have enough, even if society tries to get you to shop, shop, shop.
So today, I decided to share a few helpful tips that have worked for me this month.
Plan out your meals.
On Sunday evenings, I take a few minutes to think out the upcoming week's meals. I plan for us to eat one lunch (or brunch) and one supper out, with the rest of our meals eaten at home. Usually, I also try to plan a 'leftover" night in the middle of the week. This night helps us cut down on food waste and has the side perk of being a night I don't have to cook. I try to make it fun by looking up yummy Pinterest recipes to try.
Invite people over rather than going out.
Eating out can really eat up your budget. But eating at home doesn't mean you have to eat alone. Host a game night or movie night for friends. You can split the cost of the meal and enjoy good company. You get the benefit of eating out without the cost.
Unsubscribe from those sale emails.
This tip has two benefits: you clean out your inbox while simultaneously reducing those daily temptations to shop. Because who hasn't been tempted by those "scintillating offers of 40% off on top of clearance"?? Although, I'll be honest: Loft and Anthropologie get me every time.
Budget for little splurges.
One way to make budgeting and saving a little less, well, boring is to budget for splurges. Set aside an amount of money for personal use. Sometimes it's okay to #treatyoself right? One of my favorite indulgences is grabbing a coffee. So, I use the Starbucks app to determine how much money I can spend each month on coffee. I load that money on my Starbucks card and when I get to that spending threshold, I wait until next month.
Just wait.
Which brings me to my next point. Just wait. If you see something online or in the store that you really want, just take a breath and wait a day or two. If you still really want the item, well then maybe you should go for it. If you've forgotten about it, congrats, you just avoided a spontaneous splurge. This month has taught me that saving is kind of like exercising. If you can keep up the practice for 30 days, it'll become habit. Go a few weeks without spending, and you'll feel the urge to buy start to dwindle. You'll start to focus more on what you need rather than just what you want.
What are some tips you have for saving money?
Over the past few weeks, I've repeated over and over again that I want to live intentionally in 2016. To achieve some of my creative goals, like finishing a draft of my book. To pay down debt and live within our means. To be more mindful of and less wasteful with my time. Of course, we can't be too strict or rigid with our lives. After all, we never know what's around the next corner. But that doesn't mean we can't set goals for ourselves.
Here are a few of our personal goals for the new year...
1. Eat at home more often
As I mentioned in our Financial Goals post, we've been trying to save money by eating out less often. The biggest help in this area is meal-planning. I've been meal planning for about a year, and I can't tell you how big of a help it is! It takes all of the guess-work out of cooking and makes grocery shopping a less haphazard process.
2. Eat cleaner and greener
I know I'm an adult, but I have the taste-buds of a little kid. Like seriously, why can't pizza be a vegetable? I will admit that I do not eat enough vegetables; so this year, I've been trying to fix veggie sides more often. So far, I've been eating a lot of salad and sweet potatoes. But this week I plan to experiment with roasted cabbage and cooked carrots. And, you might have noticed there are tomatoes up there in that picture. Do you have any yummy veggie recipes to share? I'm all ears! Yes, that was a sad attempt at a corn joke.
3. Reduce household waste
I've been trying to reduce our food waste by packing more lunches and actually eating our leftovers. Additionally, I've been aiming to do a better job recycling and using reusable grocery bags rather than piling up the plastic bags.
4. Exercise regularly
Mark and I usually exercise together at least four times a week. I have to say, I love it. It's a great way to unwind after a long day and is a healthy way to just connect as a couple. It's something we share together. Plus, it is a definite mood-booster.
5. Get outdoors more often
I sometimes turn into a hermit during winter. It's just so cold that I don't want to venture outdoors, but we all need our vitamin D, even in the winter! Over MLK weekend, Mark and I visited both the Monocacy and Gettysburg battlefields. It was so much fun in spite of the chilly weather.
6. Be more intentional with time
A.k.a., less pointless phone browsing. I can't lie-- I love Instagram and Snapchat. Maybe because I love photography? But I do tend to find myself pointlessly browsing on social media in the evenings. Lately, I've been trying to do things like read, write, or knit instead. Something that engages my mind rather than blurring and crossing my eyes instead.
7. Finish our final home renovations and touch ups
Owning a fixer-upper is not easy. There always seems to be a long list of to-do's. But lately, our list has seriously shortened. This year, I hope we can actually FINISH everything on that list and finally have no renovations looming ahead of us.
8. Finish a full first draft of my novel
THE BIG ONE... dun dun dun. I've got a whole year though, ya'll.... Surely I can do it! Wish me luck!
What are some of your goals for the new year?
This year, one of our main goals is to be more intentional with our time and our actions. That would include being more intentional with our lifestyle and our money.
Most newlyweds aren't exactly flush with cash. You're working to establish your own home, typically are working an entry level job, have student loan debt, and usually don't have much in savings. And all that is perfectly fine and normal -- after all, everyone has to start somewhere. But at what point do you start making efforts to establish some sort of "nest" or begin working toward financial viability?
Mark and I decided that this year, we really want to make an effort to budget and save. To be more mindful of how and where we spend our money. I was inspired by this post published by The EveryGirl which talks about seven steps to take to become "financially fit in 2016." Additionally, some of our close friends have been following the Dave Ramsey Plan, which focuses on budgeting, paying off debt, building an emergency fund, and starting college and retirement funds.
Here are some basic financial goals Mark and I hope to achieve in 2016:
1. Determine a reasonable household budget.
We sat down and listed our bills and expenses, rounding up slightly to provide for margin of error. Then, we calculated what percentage could go toward paying off debt and what would need to go to savings and "miscellaneous." The hard part? Actually accounting for all the cash flow. Bills are easy to record and keep, but little purchases like a "oh shoot we're almost out of toilet paper" are harder to keep track off. I've started saving receipts, arranging them in categories (gas, groceries, eating out, etc.) and tallying them all at the end of the week.
2. Pay down any debt.
Luckily, Mark and I don't have a ton of debt. That being said, last year was not our easiest year financially. We kept getting hit with random expenses that left us both feeling drained and disheartened. Plus, we've been renovating a 100 year old house for two years. Together, we listed our debts-- smallest to largest-- and determined how much $$ each month will go toward paying each bill off, from credit cards to car loans. I've always heard to go from smallest to largest, since doing so frees up more and more money and actually make you feel like you're making progress. Just formulating our plan made me feel so much more empowered and confident for the new year.
3. Live simply and within our means.
Mark and I have never been big spenders, but everyone can always simplify. Lately, I've been asking myself "Do I really need that sweater?" or "Do we really need to buy new when the old still works?" Asking myself questions like these has made me more mindful of little indulgent splurges and has had a visible effect on our bank accounts.
4. Start saving regularly, instead of sporadically.
Even if it's a small amount, you know what they say "a penny saved is a penny earned." My parents and grandparents-- all self-employed-- always stressed that you should pay yourself before you pay your bills. In other words, put a little aside into savings, even if all you can afford to save that month is $20 bucks. That's your $20 bucks, and no one touches it. This year, I really want to focus on making saving a regular, budgeted thing, not just something we do in one big chunk when "Oh hey, we have a little extra this month." Here's where paying down debt is nice, because the less debt you're paying off, the more money you can pay to yourself, aka save.
5. Don't be too hard on yourself.
I loved this oh-so-true reminder from The EveryGirl article. Emergencies come up, and spontaneous things happen. Every now and then, you just want to splurge on a nice dinner out or buy that perfect gift for yourself or your loved one. None of us are perfect. None of us are automatons wired to perfectly obey every nuance of our budget. Every. Single. Day. After all, life is meant to be lived! But we can always be more mindful of what we're doing, whether it's productive or not-- including being too hard on ourselves.
What are your financial goals for 2016?
Have any budgeting or financial tips to share?
A few days ago, I shared this post regarding my goals for the new year. Today, I thought I might share some of my creative goals for the new year. It seemed a good place to start. After all, the creative side of things is my favorite part!
This year, one of my main endeavors will be to live more intentionally. Perhaps this is more of an attitude than a goal. What I mean is this: I want to live each day with intention. To be more mindful of and purposeful with my time, to use it wisely and well. Obviously, every day will have some spontaneity in it, but I do want to be less wasteful. Not just wasting time scrolling mindlessly on my phone, for example.
I hope to apply this intention to my creative work as well. This year, I'd like to be more focused with my creative projects, specifically my Etsy shop. Here are a few of my creative goals, for the year
1. to work on my Etsy shop images: better lighting and photography
2. to utilize better shop strategies such as promoted listings, coupon codes, and giveaways.
I know that I haven't used all this tools as much as I could have in the past, but I'm working toward utilizing more in the coming months.
3. to grow the shop's social media following (of course-- isn't that always the case?)
I recently employed some of Hilary Rushford's strategies for growing your Instagram following and saw my followers increase by 100+. I defintely plan to continue using her tips and highly recommend her free classes!
4. to start marketing my murals and hopefully get a few clients
See my Birch Tree Statement Wall in this post. It was one of my most popular posts in 2015 and I hope to complete more like it!
5. to work on my photography skills and eventually begin offering photography sessions.
What are some of your creative goals for the new year?
One of my favorite things about a new year is that blank-slate feeling. Everything ahead is new, untold, unexpected. Anything is possible.
I've never really been one for making New Year resolutions. At least not simply for the sake of having a resolution just because everyone else does. We all know that adage "If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans." I guess I've always had the attitude of whatever comes, comes, but lately I've been thinking more about goals. Obviously, we can't see the future, and we don't know what lies ahead. We can only plan so much and so far. Yet, I do think it's important to have a goal or two: short-term and long-term. It gives us direction, let's us know what we're aiming for. It adds to our sense of purpose and direction.
Last year, I started working on a goal that has lived within me for years: the goal of writing a novel. Before I could even write, I would scribble squiggle-lines onto stacks of paper, staple the sheets together, and then proudly march the finished product around the house as my "book." At the end of last year, Mark and I decided that I should take a few months to actually work toward making this goal a reality. Now, I'm 12 chapters in and, although the process has been filled with ups and downs, I don't know that I've ever felt more fulfilled as an individual. Or more grateful to my husband who has been nothing but supportive as I work and write.
As the new year began, I debated whether to actually post any resolutions for 2016. But the reality exists that we need to have goals toward which we steer ourselves. After all, we will never accomplish something if we never aim for it, if we never even try. As Erin of the blog Reading My Tea Leaves stated, "You'll never accomplish what you don't attempt. Literally. And thinking of something to attempt, well, that's the first step."
Rather than present a long, meandering list of goals (which frankly would bore both you and me), I plan to share a short series of posts regarding the main goals I have forged for the new year. Each goal somehow relates to the main topics of this little space: living creatively and being more intentional with my life and time. The upcoming goals will fall under three categories: personal goals, financial goals, and creative goals.
Along the way, I'll share my progress, whether its forward or backward. I hope that my little efforts will somehow inspire you to lay out and aim for your own personal goals as well, come what may!
Thanks for following along thus far. And Happy New Year!
