Wasn’t sure if you all enjoy these new missions or not, but figured I’d throw out another one and see what happens ;) I’ll probably run out of ideas soon anyways, haha…
Okay, so last week’s mission was to either wear, or get rid of, all the clothes you’ve never worn before. Or accessories, shoes, etc – like the half dozen stuff I was workin’ on. For those who gave it a shot – how’d you do?? To be honest, it took me a while to get in the right mindset. I didn’t even TRY until 3 days in ;) BUT, I’ll have you know that I succeeded in at least the wearing part! Even though the wifey thought I was weird for donning sunglasses & chains in my pajamas! Haha… But I didn’t leave the house much last week, so I had to take what I could.
Here’s how it turned out:
- Shoes — I wore both of them, two days each actually, and I’ve decided that I a) Love ’em! and b) really glad I forced myself to give them a shot because they pimped out my wardrobe a bit. My favorite dirty white shoes aren’t gonna be happy though.
- Clothes — Turned out my vest that I really liked to LOOK at didn’t fit so great anymore :( Seems I put on a few pounds over the 2 years it sat in my closet! Hadn’t considered that one… So unfort. I’ll have to put it up for sale here shortly. And then out of the two pairs of jeans in question, one will def. be kept around for longer, but the other was just way too baggy for my taste anymore. Which is interesting considering I had GAINED WEIGHT! Haha…
- Glasses & necklaces — First, something funny I realized – I have TWO PAIRS of those exact same glasses! Haha… I had picked them both up from the same store, but had forgotten I had the original pair in my car for whenever it was needed. And since they only cost like $2.99 I must not have really registered it. Guess it shows that I know what I like though ;) So I’ll for sure be getting rid of one, but I think I’ll keep the other in the car since it was kinda fun to wear – even if it wasn’t my fave. As for the silver chains I got over the years – one of those we’ll keep too, but the other just didn’t cut it. Felt like one of those girly “chokers”… in fact, it probably WAS one!
How’d you all fare?
Your mission this week: Figure out a way to save $50 bucks! Or, if you’re already cut back like crazy, do what you can to EARN $50.
I can’t tell if this is a hard mission or not (doesn’t seem like it? In 7 days?) but figured it was more challenging than $20 which DEF seems do-able, so let’s run with it ;) And you can do whatever it takes to get it/save it! No rules here really. You wanna stop eating out for a week? Great! Sell a few things off the walls? Okay! Whatever gets you to *stop* and think of new ways to get some cash flow going. Maybe you can start mowing a few lawns now that Summer’s here? That would work :)
Personally, I’m gonna try to either donate a crap ton more stuff to The Salvation Army (and get the write offs), or even better, come up with new ways to make money from all my sites/projects. I can probably save $50 by doing a bunch of 1-time things, but it would be much MUCH smarter to figure a way to keep this money flowing more continually. It’s the whole “passive income” treasure hunt we all want so bad. Just easier dreamed than DONE ;) But if I can spend a few hours coming up with a new method/idea to start trying out, I’d be damn happy about it (or maybe a way to SAVE money every week going forward?). Even if it means an extra hour of work a week – would be totally worth it, esp if you can make it scale. Worst case, I learn a lot and use my brain! And then I report back that I made $0.00 next week, haha… but it’s worth the chance.
Good luck everyone! If you come across any GREAT ideas, let us know so everyone can benefit from them. Maybe by next week we’ll all be a little richer?
—————
(Photo by Dan4th)
Get blog posts automatically emailed to you!
We should include this past weekend as part of this week…cause I totally subbed two extra classes over the weekend which sits me right at an extra $50 for this week!!
Yay for bootcamp! I have the best part time job ever :)
Done! :) Sold my marketing textbook back on Amazon for $54!!! :)
@Brandi – Haha, well that does count, but for LAST week ;) You can totally do it again though! I believe in you!!
@Trinnie – Well that was fast! haha… have any other books laying around you can unload?
Not sure how I’ll do it yet – but I’ll give it a shot! Maybe I’ll follow Trinnie’s lead and sell some books.
In addition to the work I do at BeamaLife, I have several side jobs (writing for Web sites, singing in choirs for money, etc.). Most of the money I make from those side gigs instantly goes into savings, which equals out to about $50/week. The lesson? If you have a talent, see if you can find a way to get paid for it. You may have to sacrifice some of your free time, but having a savings account you can rely upon is worth the extra effort.
I’m hoping the $50 I earn, I can set aside to save as well. I’m going to be writing for sites, and just go until I can’t go anymore!
I already have a pile of about a dozen scrub sets waiting for me to take pics of and post on eBay. I’ll look around at what else I can find :)
I guess I saved $17 this week because yesterday I was going to buy an item that I had my eye on for a while. It originally cost $44 but was on sale for $22 and I had 25% off coupon. I eyed that item for three weeks and got ready to buy it yesterday then I changed my mind.
Woohoo mission accomplished! sold one of my Coach purses on Craigslist :) always sad to see them go but love seeing the money come in.
I can definitely do this one. I’m trying to sell a whole bunch of old sports gear from my mom’s house. My apartment looks like Play It Again Sports right now. Hopefully I’ll make $400 so I can buy a new bike since mine was stolen two weeks ago :(
I love this mission! Challenge accepted! (How I Met Your Mother, anyone?) Hopefully I can tutor one of my clients this week ($20/hr) and maybe sell some stuff on eBay. I’ll keep you updated!
Look at the money in your wallet (or the credit card) you’d use to buy lunches or dinners out this week. Then carry yourself a sandwich and/or come home and fix some dinner, even if it’s only some scrambled eggs or a can of soup. That’s got to be $50 in savings.
Do this once a month and you’ll have an extra $600 a year. Just sayin’.
But…remember that it isn’t savings unless you save it, so transfer that money into a separate fund.
Okay, we are not eating out any this week. Last week was just too busy and we ended up eating out a number of times. Although we were frugal about it, it was definitely still expensive & unhealthy.
This week I am cooking at home every night if it kills me, lol!
It just takes some planning really. But last week my head was spinning so much I couldn’t even think that far ahead.
Now that I had a nice, relaxing Mother’s Day to recouperate I am going to much better…
That is at least $70 (probably more) saved!
I sold 3 of my old personal finance books on eBay! It might have grossed a little less than $50, but at least I gave it a try! I need to keep active in selling some of my old stuff, because it really does just sit around accumulating dust.
Does just taking $50 out of the checking account and transferring it to savings count? Heh! Easy way out….
I sure hope the grocery store has some good sales this week so I can save $50!
Like many of the others here I will probably try to sell stuff online. I have loaded all my textbooks onto half.com and maybe try to cut some spending this week.
Update! Sold back 2 more textbooks to Amazon for a total of $167.47! WOOHOO!!!
I switched my VISA card to a rewards card and got 4 free movie tickets. I saved 4 x $12.50 for a total of $50. That will come in handy with all of the summer blockbuster movies coming out soon :-)
@No Debt MBA – Go for it!
@Candice – “If you have a talent, see if you can find a way to get paid for it.” — YES!! Perfectly said my friend, Love it.
@20 and Engaged – Thata girl! And then maybe you can work your way up and get paid $50 for just 1 article and then really increase your returns ;)
@Ms. Erika – Haha nice. Not even gonna ask what “scrub sets” are either.
@Lulu – Oooh awesome! Love it when that happens!!!
@MommaStar – Dang, that is awesome! Wait a sec…. did my wife buy it?? :)
@Jenna, Adaptu Community Manager – Oh no! Sorry to hear that Jenna :( I hate a$$hole people.
@Sarah – YES! Do it do it doooo iiiiiiit!
@Donna Freedman – Haha, good point. I can’t do the food thing cuz I like eating out when I want to, but I can certainly apply that to other areas of my spending!
@aj – Sweet! I hope you can do it!
@Jacob @ My Personal Finance Journey – Nicely done, sir. I def. find it helpful taking a 10 min. tour around my house once a month to see what else I can get rid of ;) I think it’s pretty fun, but the mrs. not so much. Haha…
@katie – Haha, sure! As long as you don’t go back and then xfer it out again later ;) I think you won the “smart” prize of the day!
@BruceBucks – Go for it and let us know how it went next week :)
@Trinnie – WHAT THE??? Are those books lined in gold??
@Kristina – Haha, clever clever my friend ;)
No! Amazon gives back TONS in ‘buy back.’ The only caveat is that its in Amazon credit, which is fine, because you can get like everything on Amazon now! :)
Well, I’m halfway to the $50 … cancelled a $25 hosting package for a long-dead project.
By the way, it physically pains me to see people with so much knowledge about something (a) giving it away and (b) suffering financially. AAAHHHHHH!
@Trinnie – Ahhhh very cool! Yeah, I have a lot of credit stored up myself actually. But every month there’s something I need and/or don’t want to spend my “own” money on so I just dip right in! :) It’s great if you have the patience to wait for it in the mail.
@mbhunter – Yeah, me too :( Especially when that person is super warm hearted and just a overall NICE person. Sending positive thoughts over to whomever you’re thinking about! (and good work on canceling hosting package – that’s a tough one, just like domains!)
I did it. I sold a book $15, returned some make up I bought but didn’t really need $78.25, and am listing more stuff to sell now.
Also stretching out our groceries instead of doing them today, we are seeing how long we can go. We have plenty of food, it just all needs to be cooked first, so no easy grab stuff, except a little fruit. If we get to next Wed, thats another $150 we can save. A one off, but still good.
I got $50 for my birthday from my dmil. Does it count if I put in my savings account?! lol
Goal completed! Sold old inline skates for $100 (1/4 of the way to my new bike now!)
@Aspiring Millionaire – Damn!!! Yeah that’s good, let me know how long you end up going for! Would make for an excellent blog post too ;) hint hint…
@Maggie@SquarePennies – Haha, YES! But I always recommend people spending their bday or xmas money on something they normally wouldn’t buy themselves :) Can’t be a hardcore saver all the time!
@Jenna, Adaptu Community Manager – Woop!
Hmm, this is a good reminder that I have some dresses I’ve been meaning to post on eBay! Won’t earn that $50 this week, but I’ll at least try to get that plan in motion for the near future!
Yeah! Go for it :)
Done! I have 4 more hours to go with my garage sale, but I’ve already made $56. Woo Hoo!
WOO!!!! A woman on a mission, I love it ;) Way to go my friend!!
I totally failed last week…so now I need to save $100 this week!
haha, well – you tried!! you can totally hit $100 this week – I have faith ;) and I *almost* failed if it weren’t for us refinancing on Friday! haha… that one is gonna save us a few hundred a month once we make up for the closing costs.
I just came across your website – got it from Aspiring Millionaire’s site – and LOVE it! I won free tickets to an event and just posted them on Craigslist for sale. I’m volunteering at the event as a way to get in for free, so I don’t need them. Between volunteering and winning contests, I’m going to three events in as many weeks for free. When I get home tonight, I’m going to go through my house and see what else I can sell. Last week, I took advantage of work functions and volunteer dinners for free lunches and dinners. There was even leftovers!
Boom! I worked a couple more hours on Friday ($20) and tutored a girl this morning for an hour and a half ($30). I also listed some stuff on eBay yesterday, so hopefully I’ll get some bites by the end of this week. Thanks for the motivational kick in the pants!
@Amy Lou – Awesome!!! Thanks so much for the kind words too, if you’re trying to make me blush it’s working ;) That’s incredible you win so many tickets and contests too, dang girl. You should write up an article on how you pull it all off! Maybe get others to do the same :)
@Sarah – Rock on!!! That is wonderful, great job Sarah :)