Tuesday, December 31, 2013

End of the Year Wrap Up in Three Parts

Part 1: Things we learned this year:

  1. No spend months are a GREAT way to save money.
  2. Hubby now makes his own coffee with a drip coffeemaker--it saves a lot of money over instant and/or Starbucks and/or a Keurig.
  3. Living in Las Vegas means we don't need to travel--everyone comes to visit us!
  4. Living debt-free and frugally opens up A LOT of possibilities. 
  5. Thanks to Dave Ramsey we are living like no one else these days.
  6. It is a really good thing to have multiple sources of income.
  7. I NEED to cut back on my Baskin Robbins Blast/Starbucks frappuccino habit!  Eliminating it all together would be even better.
  8. Look for work-arounds to save money (ie: my $30 TMobile cell plan plus Skype instead of a more expensive unlimited calling plan)
  9. You can have credit cards instead of living cash only, unless you find that they are detrimental to your finances (mine are frozen in a block of ice in the freezer now...I'm back to cash only)
  10. The best things in life are free (or free-ish): a good relationship with your SO, long walks outside, free community events that entertain and enlighten you, the library, etc.

Part 2: Useful links

  1. Save $1378 this year (hint: do the savings in reverse!)
  2. Simple, visual, fill in the block savings trackers (the girl who makes these will even make customs ones for you if you ask)
  3. Don't break the chain calendars (another visual way to track your goals)
  4. I LOVE this tiny house (and the fact that the lady made it herself)
  5. Inspiring health stories
  6. Inspiring financial stories
  7. Some good sub-reddits to check out: frugal, personal finance, financial independence, DTBB 
  8. How retirement systems vary country by country (interesting!)
  9. And I have to add something from Imgur
  10. Woodie Guthrie's New Years Resolutions

Part 3: 10 Things I'm Going to Do Tomorrow (I've learned that making a daily "to do" list makes me much more productive)

  1. Walk a 10k volksmarch
  2. Eat paleo/no junk food
  3. Rearrange my genealogy work
  4. Make a weekly schedule for my money-making efforts (blogging, client work, etc)
  5. Add to my savings (I want to do this daily, even if it is just quarters)
  6. Do an activity with hubby (we will see what is happening that is free in LV tomorrow)
  7. Take a photo and post it on Instagram (I want to do this every day of next year)
  8. Organize my computer and financial files for 2014
  9. Spend NO money (it is no-spend January!)
  10. Write (ie: get back to work on my book)

3 comments:

  1. We started drinking instant coffee in order to save counter space that a coffee maker would take up, but hubby wasn't crazy about it. We found a small 2 cup drip coffee maker for him at a garage sale, but I continue to make the instant coffee. I seemed to have developed a taste for it. Now I'm adding the flavor syrup to it that I found at the dollar store and it's really yummy!
    Happy new year to you and your hubby!

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    Replies
    1. Hubby did the same--he keeps the instant for when he really wants some but mostly uses the coffee maker with the flavored creamers from the $1 store on a daily basis. A great way to save oney!

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  2. Those sound like some fabulous goals! Wishing you much success in 2014!

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