Hey everyone! Happy Monday. This weekend went by way too quickly. I have had 3 day weekends for the past 2 weeks (and then a week-long vacation the week before that), so this week will be a rough one! I haven’t worked a full week since the beginning of August.
Boardwalk Empire was on last night! Did anyone catch it? It’s definitely one of my favorite shows. Last night’s episode was kind of slow, so I’m not sure how this season will be.
My good friend got married on Friday, and I was a bridesmaid. It was a really fun day, and she looked beautiful! Definitely the prettiest wedding I have ever been to, and it was my first time being a bridesmaid.
The winner of my Swagbucks giveaway is Kristen B. (Swagname: kbon). Please email me if this is you!
Spending
I don’t think we have done much spending in the past week. We bought W a new tie and a new shirt for the wedding at H&M and spent around $40. And I had some spending for the wedding I was in also, but that was already known about. Hair and makeup was $102 altogether.
Food spending has been pretty low lately. We are really working on eating only at home. We haven’t gone out to eat for dinner in a while. Food is better at home, it’s usually healthier, and I don’t have to wait 30 minutes or more to actually eat it (and no driving is involved!). Win!
Extra Income (does not include income from our main jobs)
Extra income has been good so far this month. I’m hoping for a strong September, and I’m really wanting the rest of the year to be strong also.
I have my 100% self-employment switch date in mind. I’m keeping it a secret for now but I will let all of you know very soon. I am feeling much more confident and comfortable about switching to self-employment and I cannot wait!
We have been working on lowering our budget as much as we can. We really want to have this at a lower amount so that we are able to live off of a lower income and still be able to save a good amount. We still want to enjoy life as well. We are mainly just working on lowering our food spending, and also focusing on more outdoorsy activities, such as kayaking, biking, hiking and so on.
I have not really researched health insurance too much. I have been looking up prices but I really need to dive into this soon. Do you pay for your own health insurance? How much do you pay each month?
Being healthy
I have not been the healthiest person in the past week. I have been eating kind of healthy though. I will blame this on being extremely busy, especially with having many wedding activities this past week. I wouldn’t change a thing though, as it was an enjoyable week!
We have been riding our bikes a lot lately. We have had a little bit of a heat wave lately though, so riding a bike in 100 degree heat along with the high humidity has made me not want to ride lately. Hopefully it cools down soon!
Wedding Planning
I haven’t done much wedding planning lately. However, by the end of October I do have a couple of things that I need to get done. We need to find a caterer, book the music, and send out the save the dates.
I also need to decide on the bridesmaids dresses. I really like the look of a different dress on each bridesmaid. And I like the look of short cream bridesmaid dresses. I know that a lot of people are against choosing this color because it “takes away from the bride,” but if anyone confuses a bridesmaid for me then they probably don’t know me at all (most of my friends are blonde, whereas I definitely am not 🙂 ). What do you think of cream bridesmaid dresses? What about blush or peach?
We have also been thinking about flowers and how we will save money. We really want a lot of flowers (I’m thinking rectangular shaped reception tables that are just completely covered in flowers and candles, so there will most likely be well over 100 vases/jars just full of flowers altogether), and I would really not want to spend thousands of dollars on flowers. We are thinking about planting and picking our own (we both want a lot wildflowers at our wedding) and also buying flowers in bulk and arranging them ourselves. Has anyone else ever done this? Another way to save money is that we will be printing our photos using HP ink jet cartridges on our HP printer. Tell me all about it in the comments, or any tips that you may have!
My wedding dress should be getting in soon. I can’t wait to see it! I’m really hoping that I don’t regret buying it before actually seeing it.
Have you been doing well with your extra income, spending and being healthy?
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great idea about planting the flowers. A couple of friends also had fruits and vegetables at their wedding, the party favors were small pots of basil or mint, and a whole transparent vase filled with oranges looks much nicer than it sounds when I try to write about it!
Interesting! I might have to look into that also.
Sounds like you had a great experience being a bridesmaid, which will come in handy during the planning of your own wedding! Leslie and I are finally seeing a lot of the rewards from the activities we’ve been putting in to make more of a side income. The income itself isn’t up yet, but the results we are seeing activity-wise show us that the income is right around the corner!
That is great that you are seeing results! 🙂
It’s your wedding. If you want rainbow dresses, the bridesmaids have to wear them and like it! Insurance for you should be pretty cheap. One of the ladies I work with is 28 and just got a policy with a $1500 deductible with dental for $180 per month.
Haha, oh I know that I can do whatever I want. I’m just wondering what looks good and wanted suggestions 🙂
You ladies look amazing 😀 I think either cream or peach would work as long as the color isn’t too saturated. I don’t have private life insurance myself but something you could look into is participating life insurance where the premium you pay has an investment component which you can take out and spend once you retire. It works like an IRA so it’s tax efficient. And nice job on the extra income 🙂
Hmmm that is interesting! I will have to look into that.
Thanks so much for the link love, Michelle! That means so much to me, really. Sounds like you are doing great with the side income! Love the pic from the wedding too. I am doing ok this month with side income, but want to ramp it up! My student loans can’t be gone soon enough.
You are welcome 🙂
That wedding looks really nice in the photo and clearly all the ladies were looking great! And despite your three day weekends, you are still rocking in extra income. I really don’t know how you do it, but it sure must feel great!
Thank you C!
My health is better than ever. A flu tried to enter my body over the weekend, but I nixed that.
Business is a bit lacking though. That’s pissing me off. If I sell my condo I will be in the winning column though.
Any tips for increasing business income?
That’s a whole lot of beautiful in that pic!
Glad you nixed the flu 🙂
And haha thanks for the compliment on the photo. My friends are all gorgeous!
Tips for increasing income? hmm diversify? Market yourself like crazy?
Good job on the side income!
I would recommend if you’re looking for something different than what David’s Bridal offers bridesmaids to look at Lightinthebox.com. I had my bridesmaids use them and even after shipping, the dress was still cheaper than what you could get at David’s Bridal and had better quality. All my bridesmaids were thrilled with their dresses. I would recommend ordering their color swatch book before doing this (it was around $40 with shipping) so you know exactly what the fabric looks like in each color so you can narrow down the fabric type and color for your bridesmaids. I think cream is very elegant!
As far as flowers go, I was really out of luck regarding getting cheap cut flowers in NYC but my step-sister in Dallas, TX had access to bulk flowers for cheap which she used for the bouquets. She then got the corsages and boutonnieres for cheap at Krogers! For my own wedding I ordered corsages, boutonnieres, and the bouquets from bridesign.com (turned out fabulous!) but I used home-made paper flowers for table centerpieces. If you can find a bulk flower warehouse that is open to the public, you’d be surprised how much you can save that way. As far as vases go, I got all of mine at a thrift store on sale day so it was a cheap way to fulfill that need.
If you have any questions about other wedding things, I’d love to share more info! Good luck. 🙂
Thanks for the tips Tara! I think I’m going to just let the girls pick out the dresses that they want (from anywhere that they want), and just make sure that they stick to a similar shade.
Great tips about flowers, thanks!
Income this month we are way over budget already. We decided to have a tree removed in out front yard because it was causing lots of trouble with our plumbing pipes. That was a big chunk that will take a few months to recover from. My sister’s wedding this past summer was fun, We got to pick our dresses that we wanted as long as they were the right color. It made it nice because we actually liked the dresses 🙂
Oh no, that stinks about the tree!
I noticed that you did not include the cost of the bridesmaid dress in the wedding costs? I have never been a bridesmaid, but when I got married the gown were expensive! Hopefully that didn’t do you in, even though you had to order it months ago 😉
The dresses were bought around 6 months ago, so that is why I didn’t include it in the costs for the past week 🙂
Thank you Laura!
Yes, you definitely need to watch Boardwalk Empire!
Thank you Anna! 🙂
I’m the best man in the wedding coming up this weekend. So there will be an expense for the gift…and we went to the bachelor party 2 weeks back. The wedding will have 300 people! And I’m giving a toast!
Good luck with your toast!
Great job this past week. I can’t WAIT until I start bringing in substantial numbers. The “want” to work from home is becoming stronger and stronger, like a young lion learning how to rawr, wanting desperately to be heard!
I hope you make substantial numbers soon! 🙂