While I am not required to start paying them until November of 2016, I do have the number that is due and it haunts me. Being as money conscious as possible, I have been very aware of these numbers and have an idea as to ways I can tackle them without accruing much interest. I'm looking forward to writing an ongoing post/journal in the future that highlights the ups, downs and progress made with paying these loans off. With so many very big expenses creeping up (house, car, etc.) I'm going to be working my butt off to save as much as possible and make these high interest loans disappear. With a little over 20k in the hole, I'm currently allocating $100 a month out of my income to help shrink that big number as much as possible before they start accruing interest in November.
The five tips below are what continue to work for me and could possibly work for you as well!
SELL YOUR STUFF ON EBAY - I've said it before, and I'll say it again, people will buy anything. I have an entire container filled with items that I have listed or would like to list on eBay. While I certainly find myself donating a majority of the items that we no longer have space for in our home, I do like to see how items that still hold monetary value will do on the eBay market. For the most part, everything sells! Using the eBay app on your phone is the EASIEST way to go about selling items. You can create the listing and take pictures all at once, as well as track the progress of your items that are for sale at the click of a button. I am constantly cleaning stuff out and making room, so eBay is essential... not to mention it really pays off!
OPEN AN ETSY SHOP - I live my life by planners/printables and have always created and referenced to different printables for different tasks. It hit me one day that since I enjoyed designing them so much and using them for myself, why not put them out there for others to utilize. I opened my Etsy shop, kaylieDESIGNS, back in October of 2015 with only a few printables in my shop and have been slowly growing since them. I'm still trying to figure it out, but thus far I can certainly say it has been nothing but positive! While the shop is still very small, it does pay for my monthly electric bill which I am more that pleased with. It's the small things! (:
SELL OLD TEXTBOOKS ON AMAZON - I have recently implemented a "15 minutes of cleaning" rule for myself where I set a timer and must clean as much as possible in that time frame every day. It has truly made a difference because it allows me to tackle the smaller cleaning tasks that I try to avoid. The other day, I found myself sorting through some old text books that I would NEVER use again. EVER. Think, Organic Chemistry. Why in the world am I taking up precious space in our tiny city apartment for unused items like large school books? What a waste! I always turn to Amazon to sell my books, however other sites like Chegg are great resources as well! All you have to do is punch in the ISBN number and they will tell you what they're willing to buy it off of you for. All you have to do it throw it in the mail with the prepaid mail label and you are golden. When they receive the books they will verify that you sent the correct item and then allocate the funds to you via an amazon gift card.
ONLINE SURVEYS - Surveys! I have searched long and hard for a survey site that works for me. There are so many out there, however I question the validity of many of them. Thus far, my favorite to date is, i-say. Once you sign up and they are able to match survey subjects to you, you can pick a survey to take. Be warned though, you may not qualify for some. For the most part, the surveys are pretty quick and they usually average at around 90 points which is equivalent to ~$0.90. Pennies, literally pennies. However, they do add up quickly and after you hit 500 points (~$5.00) you can start cashing them in for rewards. I currently have 2125 points (~$21) sitting in my rewards bank which I will probably continue to save up and cash in for paypal funds. I try to do around 3-5 surveys a day which in the long run is around $100 +/- a month. This is easy cash that helps to alleviate my student loans!
SHOPPING WEBSITES - Shop until you drop! I am a BIG online shopper. Nothing beats laying in my bed with my pajamas on, shopping the best deal and steals! The convenience is incomparable and some of the deals you can find are great! I have been using Swagbucks for awhile now to help get some extra money back. Similar to eBates, all you have to do is make sure you run your purchase through the swagbucks portal and they will give you a percentage back if your order qualifies. If you choose not to use them for their shop and earn program, you can also take surveys and other tasks for points. Similar to iSay, each swagbuck is worth a penny that you can redeem for rewards. I currently have 8,057 SB to redeem, but am waiting until I reach 10,000 SB so that I can trade it in for a $100 Paypal gift card. Easy, peasy, and mindless money all going towards my student loans... I love it! I want to kick myself every time I forget to use it. It's like throwing money away!
Do you have any financial goals? What do you do for extra cash here and there?
I have and always will be one to jump on the savings money train whenever it goes by. I did the 52 week money savings challenge for a couple years which was hugely successful and left me with an extra $1300+ stored away for when Christmas rolled around, and now I'm excited to share a different moneys saving project that I've been working on that is very similar to the 52 week challenge.
$20 A WEEK.
Every week I've been putting a $20 dollar bill into a jar that doesn't get touched.
As I jump into week 19, I'm proud to say that there are $380 beautiful dollars sitting pretty for me.
I have decided that L and I will be going somewhere very fun next June, and there's no way of doing that without the cold hard cash. I hate, HATE taking money out of savings, and refuse to fund our trip with money that we don't have. This seemed like one of the easier ways of putting money aside, as it is only $20 a week which is $1,040 a year. Since I started in January and will have a total of approximately 78 weeks to save, I should end up with around $1,560 total. This will definitely make a huge dent in our vacation expenses. In fact, I'm almost a quarter of the way through already! It's so easy to put cash away and forget about it!
If you don't consider yourself a cash carrying person, no problem! Every time you swipe your debit card, you usually have the option to get cash back. Take $20 from there each month and you'll barely notice.
Why don't I just put it into savings where it can gain interest and not get lost or spent? Any money that goes into savings doesn't come out. ever. In fact, the only reason that I will be taking money out of my savings within the next five years will be to either buy a house, buy a car, or an emergency. So if I put it in there, I would become attached to the fact that it was there, and would never, ever take it out. That wouldn't be the worse thing in the world, however I am specifically setting these doll hairs aside to spend on L and I, and I want us to reap the rewards of 78 weeks of diligent savings. I used to have a coin jar with over $1000 dollars in quarters that was going to take me to Bermuda. Then, my smart, financial boyfriend talked me into investing it into my retirement... so there went that trip ;) More on that later!
What's the easiest way for you to save up for something?
Update 12/30/2014: I just posted pictures of each of the charts for you to download if Google Docs does not work. Hope this helps! -Kaylie Update 04/24/2015: I have been receiving a handful of inquiries as to where to find a jar similar to the one I used. This one found on amazon is very similar!
Looking for an easy way to have an extra $1,378 in your pocket next Christmas for all those December expenses!!?
I invite you to try the 52 week money savings challenge!
I completed this challenge this past year and was able to have plenty of money in the bank for Christmas and then some… I'm talking over $700 left over to do with what I please.
It's very quite simple and extremely basic.
Here's the name of the game!
Each week of the year, you save that much in dollars!
Week ONE: You save $1
Week TWO: You save $2
Week THREE: You save $3
Voila! By the third week in January you have already saved $6!
You keep doing that all the way through the end of the year so that come December you have cash in hand and are ready to shop!
…ORRR… maybe you're saving for a HOUSE, a TRIP, a WEDDING, or a CAR… ANYTHING!
Come and join the money savings fun with me and let me know how you do!
Want to make your kids save to? Have them save in quarters, either in 25 cent or 50 cent increments!
Print out these templates and paste them onto a jar!
In this and this post, I talk about the 52 week money challenge that I am currently working on.
Every week of the year I put away that much in dollars.
I just completed week 35, so I put away $35.
So far with the 52 week money challenge I have saved $630.
Give it a try! It's an easy and fun way to save pocket change each week!
Happy Savings!!
EDIT: I have provided a link to Google Docs with the template here!
If you're looking to help your kids save an extra $344.50, you can find the template that uses quarters here!
MORE TEMPLATES FOR THE 52 WEEK CHALLENGE CAN BE FOUND HERE!
Thanks to this beautiful weather we've been having lately, I've been in the spring cleaning mode and have been plowing through my room and closet and getting rid of stuff left and right! I've been packing up a lot of my winter clothes, and organizing everything that I can.... which is where the point of this post comes in!
I love to save my money, and am constantly thinking up different ideas to do with my spare jingle and dollars. In the past, I have put away $10 a week, so that when Christmas time rolled around, I would not be over stressed by all the expensive costs of gifts, decorations, dinners and traveling. I was recently inspired by the Stuck at Home Mom blog to try the "52 Week Money Challenge". It's really simple.. all you do is...
For every week of the year, you save that much in dollars.
So for Week 1, you save $1... Week 17, you save $17... and so on...
Get it? So by Week 52, you will have around $1,378.00 if you stick with it!
However, since I am using this for Christmas expenses, I will obviously have to dip into mine earlier, however I will continue to contribute the weekly amount! (I also realize it's May, so this may not be very helpful to you right now - unless you jump on board now, or take $171.00 and start from this week)
I made these spreadsheets in Excel to help me keep track of everything.
Right on track! $153.00 saved so far!
Time to take on WEEK 18, $18.00!
EDIT: I have provided a link to Google Docs with the template here!
If you're looking to help your kid earn an extra $344.50, you can upload the template that uses quarters here!
MORE TEMPLATE FOR THE 52 WEEK MONEY CHALLENGE CAN BE FOUND HERE!
Now obviously if I actually do complete this challenge, I'm not going to be needing all $1,378.00 for Christmas (I better not be!). I will put the excess money in either savings, charity, a jar of change, or maybe go on a little spending binge for myself ;)
I will try to keep you updated on my savings efforts!! (:
and NOW.. for a fun savings story.
I currently use, own and operate an ancient 2007/08 Macbook. Yes, yes... the big old white brick that they don't even make anymore! I've had this thing since I was a sophomore in high school, and it has never ever let me down! I've never had a virus, it still runs relatively fast and it's never blown up or crashed on me! I was really hoping that this antique would last me another two years... however I think it's past it's prime. The ONLY problem that I have had with it (other than it weighing a bajillion pounds) didn't start occurring until last October. The problem? It ran out of memory on its hard drive. I know, I know... that can barely be considered a problem and all you computer savvy readers out there are probably like "Kaylie, just buy an external hard drive thing". Yea, nope. I'm using this silly "problem" as an excuse to upgrade. Currently, I have all my documents stored on jump drives because my computer literally won't let me save one more thing on it... and if it were to crash, all of my photos and music would be goners =/
So my reasons from upgrading from this...
to this...
are...
1) New, clean, fresh hard drive
2) A more updated system
3) Lighter computer
4) A teeny, tiny bit faster
I realize those are the most pathetic reasons you have probably ever heard as to why someone would want to update their computer, but I've been looking for a reason to upgrade for awhile now... so when the opportunity presents itself... snatch it! ;)
Anyways... now that I'm done boring you concerning a day in the life of my computer, I will continue with the point of my story...
In October, when my computer started yelling at me for saving stuff, I decided I was going to buy a new one! I didn't want to dip into my savings because I'm keeping that money for more important emergencies like "I need a new car", "I need a house", or "I need to pay off some student loans"! My goal was to save $50.00 a week until mid May, and by then I would have enough to upgrade!
WELL... ladies and gentlemen... it is almost mid May, and so far I have $1,350.00 saved up! That's only three weeks away from my goal! Sometime this summer, I will be able to treat myself to some new technology! My sisters both have them, and they love them... and my current Macbaby has been awesome for the past 5 years, so I'm pretty confident with the purchase.
Feel free to share any of your own ambitious, accomplished or proud "saving money" stories!!
If you're like me, you like to document and organize pretty much every aspect of your life in order to live a more simpler lifestyle. I have everything stored and organized into different documents, that are organized into different files. One document that I use frequently (and will use much more next year), is a budget chart that I created in a computer class that I had to take once upon a time. It helps me organize my projected income and expenses month by month.
I inserted codes so that when you change a number (like your monthly income during the school months or summer months), it will change that data too and make it more accurate. It will calculate your monthly and yearly total income, along with your monthly expenses.
For this chart, I randomly filled out the first month, but you can insert your own numbers. It will calculate all of your expenses (rent, food, utilities, etc.), and then subtract that from the total income that you insert. It will also calculate your total 'Net Cash Flow' and show you how much you have left to spend (or save)! It also keeps track of your savings too, and will calculate what you start with, how much you deposit, withdrawal, and the ending balance.
This is a 'Home Savings Projection', and calculates the amount you can save if you deposit X amount of money per month.
AND, last but not least, if you are a homeowner, this here will calculate monthly mortgage payments for you. All you have to do is insert your annual interest rate, payments per year, interest rate per periods, number of years, number of payments and the loan amount! I randomly filled in some numbers to show you how it works! (:
If you are interested in using any of these documents to help organize your lifestyle and budget it a little... here is the link to download them! They are all in one Excel document, and organized in three different sheets. Budget Chart (I do give credit to the Microsoft Applications class at NWSCC for giving me the outline and instructions to work with to create the document)
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