A Wedding and $2,715 in Extra Income

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…

Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Last Updated: May 26, 2023

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A Wedding and $2,715 in Extra Income

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!

 

A Wedding and $2,715 in Extra Income

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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Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Author: Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Hey! I’m Michelle Schroeder-Gardner and I am the founder of Making Sense of Cents. I’m passionate about all things personal finance, side hustles, making extra money, and online businesses. I have been featured in major publications such as Forbes, CNBC, Time, and Business Insider. Learn more here.

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  1. Brian

    My wife was out of town so I have to wait to watch Boardwalk. It is one of those shows that is usually such a slow burn and then it explodes, so I guess I am not shocked the first episode of the season would be a little slow.

    I have paid for my own health insurance for a few years and it has gone up each year a decent amount. At this point I can still get better health care on my own than from my employer (and their plan isn’t bad) because I am in the group with the lowest rates for individual coverage. This of course is going to change when all the healthcare reform laws go into place since insurers will have to spread the risk around and my group will take the biggest hit

    1. Michelle

      This is what I’m nervous about. I hope I can get something at a decent price.

  2. moneystepper

    Thanks for the update. Great start to September.

    When August’s “extra” income is almost $10k and is “not the best month” you certainly must be doing something right!! 🙂

    1. Michelle

      Thank you!

  3. The Norwegian Girl

    I´ve been trying my best at being healthy, by exercising and not eating sugary stuff nor alcohol.
    I love it when the bridesmaids dresses have different looks, mostly because I think it´s important for the bridesmaids to feel comfortable, and not being forced to wear a certain shape or look that doesn´t suit the bridesmaid at all.

    1. Michelle

      I agree! I also think it looks better when the dresses are different

  4. Lyle @ The Joy of Simple

    WOW!! Very pretty post to be featured in 🙂

    Thank you so much Michelle for adding The Joy of Simple to your link love section! The support and encouragement is greatly appreciated!

    Take care and all the best.

    Lyle

    1. Michelle

      Welcome 🙂

  5. Michelle

    Thank you!

  6. Michelle

    Thanks Tanner!

  7. Matt Becker

    Wow, way to crush the first week! Very cool idea with the flowers. I don’t have any advice (unless you want a bunch of dead plants), but I like the initiative. I think it would make a cool memory to have grown your own wedding flowers.

    1. Michelle

      Thanks!

  8. Michelle

    Thanks!