Balancing Money: Final Monthly Update
Lets not beat around the bush here, I have totally flopped on the Balancing Money plan I made for myself. Its not that I totally threw the concept out the window, its that my relationship with money is different now.
When I first started this journey, I had an overwhelming fear of my first ever student loan. I never owed anyone such a large sum of money before and it scared the shit out of me. So many what if’s whirred in my brain . . .
What if I cant pay it?
What if I’m late on my bills?
What if we cant pay rent and get kicked out of the house?
What if I have to ask for help?
Well one thing did change about this fear . . . IT’S WORSE!
In case you don’t know, I plan to start my own business right out of school and this adds so much weight to my fear and a whole bunch more what ifs.
But its not been all bad lately. I’ve dug deep about this tumultuous relationship found that I was treating this whole saving plan like an obsessive diet that was all too familiar to me. I would starve and binge (save and splurge) and I wouldn’t really LIVE until I was at a certain weight (or I had enough money saved). I tied my worth to my weight (money) and so goes the cycle.
I explained in a previous post that I would only spend money on what I believe in which has made a huge difference. It has allowed me to open up a whole other journey that has allowed me to live and have fun and also stay savvy.
My fear of money is something I’m working on but in order to do that I must stop doing these monthly updates. Having to track all of this and stay accountable to these rules that I set just isn’t in line with what I feel anymore and I hope you all understand.
I still will be posting in this series because I still have a lot of tips, tricks and random musings about money that I would love to share.
In the meantime, I am eyeing up this book . . .
Anyone ever read it? Do you share my fears about money? How did you handle your first big loan?
Balancing Money: Traveling Budget Tips
At the beginning of the month, Chris and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary in the Poconos. Before our trip, I wrote a post about our traveling budget for that trip where I came up with a plan of how much money we needed and where it likely would be spent.
I also promised an update to see if we met our goal and the answer . . .
We were both under budget by $97!
Here’s some tips about how we ended up that way.
1.) Make a plan. Click HERE to read the post detailing how I came up with how much we needed. Doing this helps us think about how many meals we will be eating, how many activities we will be doing and a rough idea of what they will cost.
2.) Research the area. Having an iPad made this super easy but you can also do it before you leave. We were able to find places to eat and things to do as well as the prices of each. We used the Yelp App quite a bit which did end up helping us choose places to go based on customer reviews.
3.) Go off season/peak. We are famous for doing things when big crowds of people are not. This way we were able to get a great room cheap and also get off season prices on things like golf.
4.) Pack Yo’ Snack. This Balancing Money rule applies to your trips too! Before we left, I hit up Trader Joes for a plethora of drinks and snacks to keep in the room. This helped us when we weren’t hungry for a meal but could go for something light that we didn’t have to go out and buy. Which leads me to my next tip . . .
5.) Consult your hunger. Intuitive Eating played a big role in saving money this trip. Because we knew we were saving, we checked in with our hunger and figured out what we REALLY wanted. Often when we are in a new place, we like going to restaurants for the hell of it. We had 2 instances where we wanted to go out but settled for hotel snacks (or Indian food leftovers) because we werent truly hungry.
6.)Take advantage of amenities. Our hotel offered a mini fridge and a continental breakfast.
We were able to bring our leftovers back to the room for later eats and not have to worry about going out for breakfast. Also, we were each given $20 in free slot money at the casino which ended up turning into ~$300! That was a very lucky night and please not that I didn’t include those winnings into the budget.
The important thing is that we never felt deprived of doing anything we wanted to do! In fact, it worked out so well for us that we are very excited to plan out our budget for our next trip. This ones got our work cut out for us. A good challenge but completely possible!
What are your best travel tips?
