Saving Mooolah

Look at this guy.  He just wants you to save money and live within your means, thats not too much to ask is it?? It's not. So do it.

Whoa, sorry, I still had my bossy pants on.  Let me change real quick.


Ok, were good.  Let's talk saving money.
Turns out, saving money is less saving, and more not spending.  And that's precisely why its so darn difficult.  I have recently gotten much better at it, so I will share my small discoveries with you, so maybe you can get this adorable cow off your case.

A) Get on Mint.com.  I'm all about using your resources, and this guy, he is your best friend.  My brother-in-law brought mint into my life, and let me tell you, it will never be the same.  Mint connects with your bank account (super safe, pinky promise) and analyzes your spending in a way us normal people can understand.  It pulls up a pie-chart so you can see where your money is going.  Fancy!
Next, set some budgets based on past purchases.  And actually pay attention to them.  As of right now, I have $9 left for groceries, and I still have a week left of this month.  PEANUT BUTTER IT IS THEN!
That may seem rough, but having a fast-food budget really helped this college kid.  Download the app on your smart phone and keep an even closer eye on your budget.  And if you are goal-oriented, you will freaking pee your pants with excitement when you stay in the green each month.

This is Future Sarah.  Nice teeth.

B) Get motivated. Go take a look at the debts in your life. Scare yourself into obedience.  Or if you are debt-free (you lucky-ducky you) find something you want, then start working towards it.  I am planning on purchasing my car from my parents when I graduate in a year, and I would like to be able to not work like a dog during the school year.  This has lead me to saving all my money to take some of the worry off future Sarah.  In my head, future Sarah never has enough money and is really stressed out, so I try to give her a break as often as possible.

If you aren't someone who is motivated by easing future worries, you need to take a good look at what motivates you.  In my case, it's avoiding living on the streets, but that may not freak you out.  Just take a moment, find a motivational tool, try it out, and find a new one if it didn't work very well.  If at first you don't succeed.....

C) Say this with me, "I don't need that."  Because you really really don't.  When you are looking for food or shopping for clothes, really ask yourself if you can live without.  Chances are, you can make do without it.  Wanna know some ways I save money while still staying pretty? Of course you do!!

I use this actual stuff.  Smells awesome.

• I use baby shampoo as eye-makeup remover.  It cost me $2, is suupper gentle, and gets the gunk off better than most removers.  Try it, you wont regret it.
• I was apprehensive at first, but washing your face wtih Oatmeal is a stinking brilliant idea.  My little sister was the one to encourage putting food on my face, and I thought she was crazy.  Crazy smart maybe.  I wash my face with oats every single night and have beautiful soft skin to prove it.  And it costs me close to nothing, which is much cheaper than the $10 face was I was buying.  Compromise!!
• Stop washing your hair every day.  You don't need to.  It's actually bad for your hair.  Give it two weeks of washing your hair every other day, and your scalp will stop producing so much oil.  I get mucho compliments on my mane, and I go 3-4 days without washing it.  And you will get creative with those locks out of necessity.  Doubly positive!  If you want extra hipster points, trying washing your hair with Baking-Soda.  Double dog dare you.
• Minimizing how much makeup I wear reaaaally helps with the ol' budget.  I stick to foundation (bareminerals), a little eyeshadow, eyeliner, and mascara as I run out the door.  And only buy what you KNOW looks good, and for everything else, try it at the store, do research, and talk to friends before you buy.  Hint: if you buy makeup at Wal-Mart, and you don't like it, RETURN IT.  Even opened hair products and mascara.  They have always given me my money back, so give it a try!

D) Next time you are about to buy something, calculate how many hours you had to work to pay for it. Would you be ok with working 2 hours in exchange for that cute dress?  If so, go for it dude! Otherwise, find a better use for your hard-earned money.

E) Pack a lunch homeboy. Sandwhiches  are cheap, easy, and relatively healthy.  Stash em' in gladware in the fridge so you can grab them in a hurry.  Maybe grab some fruit or yogurt to go with it.  Maybe.  Depends on how risky you are feeling.  

I will most likely be adding more to this list of ways I save money, but for now, thats all she wrote.

This isn't even kind of relevant.  You're welcome.

Keep on keepin' on!

Focusing

Focusing at work. Sheesh it can get difficult.  If you think you struggle with staying off facebook during office hours, try actually working  on facebook.

I spend most of my day working on Google +, Twitter, and Pinterest.  While Google+ is an elephant grave yard, Twitter and Pinterest can be extremely distracting.  One minute I'm organizing boards and doing some keyword searches and the next thing I know I'm reading an awesome tutorial on braided up-dos. Shoot.

It never helps when people I work with are sending me funny videos they found while searching for content (thats their job too).

So what do I do when my job is the distraction?

A) Wunderkit.com saves lives people.  If you don't have one, you should really look into the amazing world of task management.  You create tasks, monitor them, even create workspaces with others to keep your projects on point.  Genius I tell you.  And you can make the background pink and sparkly, so even better.

Cool right? See all those tasks I completed? Baller.

B) Get rid of all your friends.  Dump those suckers. Really, working with people you like makes being productive really difficult.  Or just maybe sign off IM ever so often.  Whichever is easier.

C)  Create a playlist on Spotify.  Wiggity what? How could that help you ask?  Well, how much time could you waste trying to find music? 2 hours is the correct answer! Good job! But for realz yo, by creating a bomb diggity playlist in advance you can get plugged in and buzzing on your work without wasting time searching for good tunes.  Even better, make a playlist that keeps you trucking along.  Something up-beat and energetic.  

This is how I look at work.  True story.

D) Get your google-reader going.  That way your only reading new blogs, instead of perusing the blogosphere.  And if you didn't know, the blogosphere is actually a black hole that sucks all motivation into its black abyss.  So I think its best if we all steer clear of that scary image.  

E) Stop creating open-ended tasks.  Work on blog could mean 30 minutes or like, 2 years.  So, lets stick with Write one blog post to be edited later, or even better, write 2 paragraphs for new blog.  Oh, small tasks, freaking love those.  So much less threatening when divided into little bite-size tasks.  

F) Eat that Frog. I once read a book (or skimmed. whatever) and it was about how if you ate a Frog in the morning, the rest of your day would inevtiably be better.  Thats a strong truth for sure.  So this translates into doing your least favorite, sucky task, first thing.  Gross, I know, but apparently it makes your day easier (hint, it does). Suck it up cupcake, and eat that frog.

Ribbit.

Well there you go, those are the ways I try to stay on task.  Still haven't completely mastered it yet, but I'm sure I will get there.

Update on my life: I move in 8 days, and don't have boxes or man power.   That will be fun.

Also, I visited my bestest friend in the whole wide world this past weekend.  She is a doll and a half.  We didn't get a picture, so check out this 2 year old picture of some adorable youngins...

Ah-dorable.  

Have a great Monday!

Just a Little Baby

First blog! How exciting!

Just another reminder of how I am just a little baby.  New to the world, smaller than all the big kids.
I feel like if someone were to ask me my age I should hold up a certain numbers of fingers and say "This many!" with a smile that's missing too many teeth (or in my case, a smile that is in serious need of braces.)  But for real, I still feel young.  I turn 21 in 44 days.  Definitely still feel like I am 7. I take that back, I feel like I am 7 on a good day.  On a bad day, I feel like I'm 14.

Let me explain.

On any given day I feel I am, on average, 3 different ages.

Normally, these ages are 7, 14, and 35.
Very rarely do I feel 20, so that's an outlier, so we leave it out of the calculation (Stats joke anyone?)
Let's break this down......

Moments I feel 7

• When I am near large trees I could potentially climb.
• When its 7:00 am on a Saturday morning.
• When I'm sick with some life-threatening illness, like the cold.
• When someone offers me a baked good or ice-cream. Offer those two at the same time..Boom. Happiness explosion.  Watch out.  Might get some of my happiness on your shirt.  Might wanna wash that cause I heard it stains. 
• Road Trips.  IT'S JUST SO EXCITING TO BE IN THIS TINY CAR FOR 22 HOURS!!! YAY!
• When I am in a bath tub with the water up to my chin. *splash splash*
• When I hear the theme song for The Rugrats. REPTARRRRR!!
• When all the furniture has been removed from a room and there is just so much room to mooove arrrouunnnd then there used to be.

Don't judge me.  You all feel silly when your in a bathtub too. 

Moments I feel 14

• When someone tells me I can't do something. 
• When I don't want to get out of my warm bed for work. Waaahhhhh.
• When I'm having a bad hair day. Waaaahhh.
• When someone is speaking poorly of me to someone else.  Giiirrrl say that to my face!
• When my younger sisters wears an article of clothing that belongs to me.  Let's be real, you'd get pissed too.  
• When someone references a recent world event.  News is boooorrring.

So to summarize, I feel 14 when I am being a moody brat.  Huzzah self-reflection!

Moments I feel 35

• When I feel pure joy from checking Mint.com and seeing I am under budget. Score!
• When I deny myself nice things. So like, 95% of the time.
• When I'm talking finances with any one else my age.  (I'm noticing a trend....)
• When I think comforting thoughts and all that comes to mind is my student loans being paid off
• When I stretch in the morning and my shoulder cracks like an ice-cube in hot coffee (am I the only one that does that? I just don't want to burn my mouth....)
• When its 10:00 pm and I am genuinely concerned that it is past my bed time. 

Apparently, being 35 means you are a decrepit finance geek.  So much to look forward to!

Well, none of that explains why I feel like a little baby all the time.  

I think the general feeling of being an infant derives from my constant drive to be more mature.  Save more, exercise more, learn more, work more, clean more.....gosh that's exhausting.  So when I talk with someone else dealing with similar issues and they are 3 or 4 years my senior, I'm all like "Whoa, I'm still a little baby.  I got time" until I remember the mass of debt over my head and that no one will ever want to marry a poor girl.  And I snap back into being my age-confused, finance obsessed, tree climbing, self.