Ashley The Millennial

ALDI Haul (sort of keto)

So… I went grocery shopping today. I don’t usually shop because it helps me save money if I just have my boyfriend do it for me. He’s better at sticking to a list than I am. I actually didn’t do too bad though…. I went to ALDI. Now I want to kind of preface this by mentioning that my boyfriend is on the keto diet. I’m not but I do make meals that he can eat and I generally do not miss the carbs.

I did go over my February grocery budget with this shopping trip but I think a lot of what I got will be used in March too. I’ll divide it out and see. I purposely got some things for March.

I love watching haul videos but I’m not sure how much I’d like to read something like this. Whatever; I’m gonna do it anyway. So this is my sorta keto ALDI haul. I don’t have a table to post a picture of everything I got so I’m gonna post some pictures at the end. I will leave some things out that I didn’t take pictures of like canned goods that I stocked up on and some toothpaste I got. I spent $86.68 total. I’ll caption the pictures with my commentary. Here we go..

Did not realize that this is not keto. It’s lower carb which should be ok for us but I’ve always wanted to try one of these so I got it

This is a terrible picture (sorry) but this will probably be for March

I accidentally asked my boyfriend to buy a cabbage the other day when I meant to say cauliflower so…

These were on sale and berries are keto friendly

I got lettuce and carrots but didn’t feel like posting an individual pic of the lettuce.

3 kinds of cheese; 2 are for recipes. The Parmesan is actually for next month

The price on that roast 👀
I was going to get pork but changed my mind.

That’s it! Well, sort of. Like I said, I did get some canned goods and toothpaste that I’m not taking pictures but the pictures reflect most of what I got. My pictures aren’t really the greatest but I’m not sure how to take a good picture of everything. I didn’t have the counter space for that today and I was just kind of excited to put this up as silly as it sounds.

Usually I say this at the begin but… Happy Saturday!

-Ashley

Renting Rant

Can I just rant for a second..? I hate how unpredictable things are sometimes. I am specifically talking about unpredictability when renting a home/apartment.

I saw how much they want for a new person to move into the apartments where I live today. It’s a $300+ increase from what I pay. I don’t think they’ll raise my rent that much but I don’t know this until they tell me. It’s maddening.

I am someone who kind of likes routine or predictability to an extent. I like it when it comes to financial things, anyway.

I am also someone who panics easily when seeing things like that. It won’t affect me for a while but I’m already freaking out… I know I’ll get through it but I can’t help but worry anyway.

It’s hard to set and stick with goals when you’re experiencing things like this. It is for me, anyway.

I’m hoping Friday will bring better things than today did. All I did today was be stressed.

-Ashley

A Few Plans I Have

Happy Thursday! I just wanted to hop on and quickly post about a few plans I have with my tax return from this year. I just got my federal return back. I haven’t totally planned it all out yet so this is just a few things.

With my state return, I got some pants but that’s it so far and that didn’t take up my whole return. I just wanted to wait to get anything else. I need some other select clothing items so I will be shopping for those soon and that will probably be about $100 or so.

My biggest planned thing I’ll spend my return on is my smallest debt. It is one of those credit cards that is 0% interest for x amount of months. It was a 12 month period that I started in September in order to buy my phone. It currently has a $331.92 balance on it so I’d like to pay that off when I get the next statement for it which should be soon.

I plan to save around $250-$300 for my car insurance. That is my biggest sinking fund that I will need the soonest (June).

I do have plans to buy some smaller things like the caffeinated drinks I have in the morning (it’s a powder) but those are my two main plans right now. I got $962 back in total so I don’t have a plan for every single dollar just yet but I was excited to get the rest of it and just wanted to put some of my plans out there lol.

Edit: I may also get a large container of shampoo to stock up. Also, possibly some earrings. I know earrings aren’t a need but I haven’t worn any for years so I’d like my holes to not close up on me. I have 2 piercings in each ear so I’d like to have 3 pairs but we’ll see. I’m kind of undecided at this point. My birthday is coming up so maybe I can mention them as a gift idea…

-Ashley

What I Spent Money on from February 10-17

Happy Tuesday! I knew I’d get around to doing this eventually. Let’s just jump right in.

I spent $111.73 on food and consumables. About $35 of that was toiletries.

I spent $21.22 on gas for my car.

I spent $17.06 on birthday gifts for my brother. I feel like I should have spent more but I got him exactly what he asked for..

Finally, I spent $40.51 on a new pair of work pants I ordered online. That was the price with shipping and tax added on. They seem like nice pants so I look forward to trying them out. I got them from LOFT on sale. If I end up liking them I may get another pair.

I got my state tax refund but haven’t received my federal one yet so I am still unsure of what I’ll end up spending this month. There are some things I’d like to buy with my federal refund and I’d like to pay my smallest debt off with it also. I hope it comes in soon; I’m really looking forward to paying off that debt….

-Ashley

Future Savings Goals of Mine

Happy Sunday/Monday! I plan on doing a post on what I spent this week but I’m feeling sort of unmotivated lately so I think this post is going to help me out. I’m gonna talk about some savings goals that I know I will have in the future but that I don’t think I will be having this coming year. I think talking about my goals will make me feel better. I get stuck in a rut sometimes and I feel like that’s where I am right now.

So, the first savings goal I will have other than moving expenses when I start planning to move eventually is a new couch and a recliner. I currently have a couch and a chair. We have a board under the cushions of the couch right now because it is breaking down and I feared we were gonna fall through it at some point. We got this couch and chair from a work colleague of my boyfriend’s and it was only $200 for both and that included moving them here. I think it was a good deal but I don’t want to take this furniture with us if we ever move. It works for now though.

The next goal I wanna talk about is the biggest one. I wanna save for a house. Home ownership is my ultimate goal in life. I’m not 100% set on location for a home so I’m ok with waiting on it for a while.

Next, I want to save up for a nicer work bag. I might be able to swing that this year. Mine is from Target and it’s just kinda sad looking because some of the exterior of the bag is peeling off. I work in the corporate world so appearance does kind of matter, particularly for interviews and stuff. The bag I use now wasn’t supposed to be my work bag; it’s just a medium sized crossbody bag. However, the bag I was using (that was also from Target and starting to fall apart) had water spilled in it so it’s really gross in there. I’d like to clean it out and possibly use it again but I want a newer one that is better quality either way. Maybe I can do that soon. I don’t know.

Another thing I’d really like to save for in the future is certification(s). I’m at a point in my life where I’m a little uncertain about my career path. I do know that no matter what I choose to do, I’d like to be educated and have any certifications I choose/need. I’m not at the point where I’m willing to do that yet but I’ll get there I’m sure.

I know I said a house was my biggest savings goal but I have an equally big one. I really want to save up enough to adopt a dog. We have a cat already and I’m not sure that I’d want to have a dog right now while living in an apartment. I’d like to have a fenced in yard for my dog. That’s probably the savings goal that excites me the most…

I think another thing I might save up for are some end tables and nightstands. We currently have some old kitchen chairs by our couch and tv in our living room and I’d like to replace those with some end tables when we move. We don’t have a kitchen table so the chairs aren’t really being used for anything else. We have meals at our coffee table on the couch so we don’t really need the chairs but they work well as tables. As far as nightstands, we currently each have a folding table on each side of the bed. They work out perfectly fine but we have knocked them over a few times (so has our cat) and they’re right by floor lamps so…. kinda scared we might damage walls with that at some point.

The nightstands thing reminds me that I’d also like to save up for a dresser or just a cheap set of drawers for myself. I use part of my boyfriend’s dresser for some of my stuff and the rest of it is just set on top of totes on my closet or on hangers. It’s inconvenient to have to dig through a pile of clothes and I miss having a dresser. Someday, I’ll get one though.

I probably have a few more things I could name but this is getting a bit long so I’m going to end it here. Maybe, I’ll continue this at some point when I feel uninspired again. This was nice. I don’t always feel like I can open up and talk about these things in real life so it’s good to have an outlet like this…

-Ashley

What I Spent Money On from February 1-9

Happy Sunday evening! I didn’t get to post much this weekend but I’ll at least do this post. I filed my taxes recently and am expecting to get my return at some point so I decided not to post a beginning of the month budget for February. I know my budget is going to change a bit since I have a little extra money coming in.

I just haven’t had much to post about lately. I haven’t spent money on much either so this is going to be a shorter post. Just wanted to stay accountable for stuff though.

So to start, I spent $885 on my rent. Nothing shocking there. Gotta keep a roof over my head and stuff.

The next expense I had did shock me a bit and that was what I paid to file my taxes. I spent about $75 for that. This is the first time I’ve paid to do it and I can confidently say that I don’t like it. I used to be able to do it for free with the website I like to use and now I just can’t do that. Oh well; all part of growing up I guess.

I spent $24.07 on gas. Not too bad so far.

Lastly, I spent $38.88 on food. I bought a lot at the end of last month so I didn’t need to get a ton of things.

On an unrelated to finance note, I made some soup and frittata muffins with fresh broccoli today and both things were so good. I’ve never used fresh broccoli in a recipe and it was fun to do. I’m starting to like cooking a few nice meals every weekend if I have the time. It gets me up and doing stuff. I’m the type of person who can just sit and watch tv all weekend so cooking is a nice way to break that up.

-Ashley

End of the Month Budget Overview – January 2020

So, January was my first month of blogging out my expenses while trying to track things with my budgeting apps. I think that overall I had a good month. I made some good decisions and was more conscious of what is happening with my money. I’m including a picture the expenses portion of my google sheets budget in this post since it’s easier to see a general overview on that than it is on EveryDollar. I just wish I didn’t round everything…

So, as you can see, I did go over my budget. The only reason for that is because I lent money to someone from my emergency fund. If I hadn’t done that, I would have been a little under budget. I was going to take the extra money and put it into my savings but instead I’m going to leave it in the bank to be part of my mini emergency fund there since I took from that. I think the lonely little plus sign by my utilities is there because I have some change left in that category rather than a full dollar amount.

One thing I changed since I first posted my budget is that I took $20 from my transportation category and put it into my other category. I did that to purchase Valentine’s Day gifts. I opted to put them into my other category rather than gifts because I like having as few categories as possible in my budget. Since I’m still new to this, I like to make it as easy on myself as possible. Creating your budget is a very personal thing and you should do whatever works for you.

I hope to post my February budget soon. I might wait until after I file my taxes to do it… I have my grocery amount set and whatnot but some variable stuff might need put in before I get everything all finalized.

-Ashley

What I Spent Money on from January 22-31

Happy almost Saturday! I am finally getting around to posting what I spent for the rest of the month of January. Some of this is going to include February expenses, so it’ll be over my budget for sure but I wanted to just include everything. I got food and household supplies for the beginning February this past week. I plan on doing a separate budget post to see how I did in January.

The first thing I did during this timeframe is I paid my phone bill. That was $47.68 so it was actually a little less than I was expecting. I can’t be mad about that.

I spent $27.99 on transportation. $17.99 of that was gas for my car and the other $10 was me taking public transportation a couple times.

Next, I paid my monthly debts. That totaled to $357. I paid $53 to my small credit card, $129 to my big credit card, and $175 toward my student loans.

I put $10 on my Starbucks gift card and spent $23 on Valentines Day stuff so I put that into my misc category. I opted to include Valentine’s Day in this months budget rather than next months.

Unlike Valentine’s Day stuff, my groceries are separated out by month. I spent $60 on January groceries and $128.71 on groceries for February. Since I didn’t use any of the February food in January, I just decided to budget it accordingly.

The last thing on my list of things I did this month was I lent someone money. It came from my emergency fund but I did put it on my budget sheet. It was $436.

I plan on posting one or two more things this weekend but for now it’s time to sleep.

-Ashley

Saturday Thoughts & Insecurities

Happy Saturday! I’ve debated whether or not I should post about this for a little while but there is such a stigma attached to not having money. Or looking like you don’t have money. Part of why I started doing this in the first place was because so many of the personal finance people I saw online were working with a larger income than I am. They’re in better places financially or they don’t have as much debt (or any debt). It was always something that made me feel like I couldn’t exactly relate to them… I know there are more people out there like me and maybe I’m not looking in the right places. It just seems like the bulk of people who are into personal finance are just better off, I guess.

I sort of went off on a rant there.. I mainly watch personal finance things; you won’t find me reading about it as often as I am watching someone. I haven’t been into this for so long that I have scoured the internet for every personal finance YouTube channel out there. Maybe I just got impatient and wanted to add my own narrative to everything that is already out there…

Back to the intended topic of the blog though: I can’t help but feel shame or embarrassment when I think about how little money I have… I am not poor by any means but I understand that there is this stigma attached to looking like you don’t have money. I drive a car that is rusty and older and it doesn’t bother me too much now but I had to really do some soul searching to figure out how to let go of the embarrassment I was feeling about it… I feel the same way with my clothes a lot. I don’t have fancy clothes or anything and I often feel like I look frumpy and not well put together. I work in a nice office and I have imposter syndrome the entire time I’m there… I can’t help but feel out of place when I see how nice everyone else looks. And if I hear them talking about their lives sometimes I wish I had that. A house, a nice car, vacations, nice things…. Oh well. Most of the people there are older than me and more established in their careers so it shouldn’t bother me… I know appearances aren’t everything.

I am glad I have chosen to not put a picture of myself up for now. I don’t think I could be this frank if I knew someone from my life could find this and immediately know it was me. I feel insecure about things like this every day. I’m actually really happy to get this off my chest….

-Ashley

What I Spent Money on from January 13-21

Happy Wednesday! I finally have this ready. I’ll jump right into it, I guess.

To start, I “spent” $115.60 on food and consumables during this period. I have spent in quotes because I didn’t actually spend all of that; let me explain. I know it’s not really wise necessarily, but I tend to use a credit card to pay for virtually all my food/consumables. That just makes it easy for me to budget and I pay it off right away. On the 13th though, I took $60 cash out for food specifically. There is money leftover from that but I just put all $60 as being spent in my budget. I’ve been doing that because I know that the remaining money will also be spent on food. Part of it is that I give the money to my boyfriend who does virtually all the shopping and it’s easier for me to track what I gave him rather than what he spent (he doesn’t keep receipts). I might change the way I do that in the future, but for now it works.

I spent $44.39 on gas for my car. That’s with me getting it twice.

I reloaded $10 onto my Starbucks gift card. I got a $4 drink but the whole $10 is gone from my account so I technically spent the $10. I try not to do this often anymore. I used to do it weekly but now I’m trying to keep it at once a month or less.

I spent $2.74 on a sharing size bag of M&Ms for my mom. It was her birthday yesterday, so I just wanted to give her something small since I already took her out. That went into my “other” category in my budget.

Finally, I spent $2.99 on my monthly iCloud subscription. I got this when I switched phones and I’m kind of torn on whether I want to keep it or not. For now, I like the idea of keeping it because I do have a lot of photos I want saved. I don’t like that it costs money but oh well. This goes into the “other” category of my budget but I meant to make it its own category so I’ll try to do that next month.

I think my next one of these I do will be posted at the end of the month. I pay all my debt-related bills as soon as I get them and they’re all coming up within the next week or so. Then, I plan to make a post to kind of see how I did. I’ll have to figure out how I’m gonna do that.

-Ashley