So I was browsing a forum I visit sometimes and there was a thread dedicated to frugality. Since I'm a cheapo at heart, I wanted to jot some of these down so I can learn some things as well as share some of my own frugal tips with you all...

I rarely eat at fast food places (although my parents have been treating me to some fast food now that I live with them) but I sometimes take extra ketchup and other sauce packets home with me. I don't use a lot of mustard but it's always good to have some on hand when I make hot dogs. And it's free!

I used to have a subcription to Netflix. I did the 2 at a time unlimited deal. I believe it was around $15 a month. What I DIDN'T like is the turn around time. I would get a movie in the mail and watch it that day. Then I would put the movie in the mailbox the next morning. The mailman would collect the movie but it wouldn't be sent out until the next day. Then, once Netflix received the movie, they would send another movie to me but it would take about 2 days for me to get it. Yes, Netflix saves more money than going to an actual theater to watch a movie. HOWEVER, there are even cheaper ways to watch movies. First, there are Blockbuster and Red Box rental machines all over the city I live in. They are $1 per day per movie. Super cheap! Even better, there are sometimes codes that allow you to rent the movie for free. I like to do this when I have a bunch of friends coming over because the quality is great and it's inexpensive. However, when I'm at home and want to watch a movie by myself, I just watch them for free on my computer. There are many websites that host streaming movies for free. The quality isn't 100% but you can't beat free.

I like to keep things as cheap as possible when it comes to food. I love food but I don't like spending money on it. To me, food is what I need to live. There is no way I'm going to spend $20 on a steak when I'm perfectly content eating a $5 salad. For example, I remember one year for New Year's Eve, my parents wanted to make an excellent dinner with prime rib and lobster. Yes, it tasted good. However, it wasn't THAT great considering the prices. I notice my coworkers spending $10-15 on their breaks. And there I am, munching on a couple of granola bars, snack mix, and some cherry flavored water. Mind you, I bought all of these things on sale and I used coupons so it literally cost me a few cents for everything.

Let me give another example of eating frugally when it comes to going out to eat. Recently, I spent the day in Tampa with a few friends. It was dinner time so we went out to a popular restaurant. I ordered water and some chicken and fries. My friends ordered sodas, appetizers, and burgers. My bill came out to $8.xx including tip. Their's came out to $20. And I just want to point out that we ate at Hooters, not some amazing Italian restaurant or something like that. So they each spent roughly $12 more than I did and I was perfectly content with what I ate. I've also been to Disney a handful of times and everyone complains about the price of the food. This last time I went, I bought a box of cereal and milk for breakfast. This alone saved me quite a few dollars. Then, for lunch, we went outside of the parks to get food at the grocery store or at a cheap restaurant. The one time we did have dinner inside Disney, I ordered the cheapest thing on the menu. It was around $15 and it wasn't even that good.

Chicken breasts-"Butterfly" each breast to make 2 pieces of meat.

Freeze pretty much everything-When I was still living with my roommates, I would buy an onion or sour cream and it would go bad before I could use the rest of it. Now, whenever I don't completely use a vegetable or something perishable, I just put the item in a freezer bag, label it, and it still tastes as good the next time I use it.

Anyone have some frugal tips to share?

I know I haven't posted in a while. Not much has been going on really. I'm still living with my parents. My hours at work are right around 22-23 a week (although next week I have 30). I know I need to find another job. I'm still doing some research on ebay selling. I think I can at least make enough on there every month so that I can still keep my part time job but not have to work too many hours. Ideally, I'd like to leave my part time job and just "work" on ebay but that might take some time.

I have a friend/coworker who is looking for a house to buy with her boyfriend. She told me that her real estate agent said that if you buy a foreclosure, you don't have to put down 20%. Not only that, but if I qualify for a mortgage with a certain bank, they will take your down payment, multiply it by 5, and give you that money to fix up the house. So if I put down $2000, they would give me $10,000 to fix the house. I just have to stay in the house for 5 years. I know another friend of mine did this exact program so I know it exists. I just don't know all of the details yet. If I qualify for this program, that would mean that I wouldn't have to spend $6000 that I was planning on spending. Woot!

I'll keep you guys updated on ebay and things like that. Within the next week I'll have a better idea of how much I can make. I really want this to work. My cousin once told me that I'm too smart to work for other people. We had briefly talked about starting our own business. One thing that he mentioned that really stuck with me is that he hates waking up in the morning on a beautiful sunny day knowing that he has to be inside a building all day, working for hardly anything. Wouldn't it be nice to make a decent amount of money and being able to wake up on those beautiful mornings and say "Instead of working, let's go to the beach today!". Sounds good, doesn't it?

It has been a while since my last post. Quite a lot has happened since then.

First, I sold some things on ebay and made about $160 on it all.

I left the house I was renting and moved in with my parents.

My hours at my current job have dropped. A LOT.

I need a new plan. Here's what I'm thinking.

I need to get my license first (obviously). Then, I need a better job. All I need is a job where I net $300 a week which is really doable. If I can do that, I'll be able to pay all of my bills and still have some fun money leftover AS WELL AS about $100 to put into my savings account every month. I'll also be doing some selling on ebay and I think I can safely net $250 a month from that. I need to stay in my parent's house at least until November because that is when my lease ends. I plan on saving as much money as I can. Once I get a better job, I'm going to look at houses. If I can find a house in the price range that I want, I will buy it. It will probably need some work. Soooo I will be staying with my parents and using the money I saved up to fix the house while I'm living with my parents to save some money. Once everything is fixed, I will move into the house.

I think all of this is doable and I'm soooo excited! What do you guys think about my savings though? My bills (sans entertainment money) come out to $970 a month. I know you're supposed to have 6 months worth of savings in your account but I'd like to stay at right around $5000. If I don't go under that amount, I'd feel comfortable. I'm going to need some money for a down payment (I'm thinking about $5000 even though I might qualify for that program that pays the down payment for you... anyone know what I'm talking about?), maybe a couple thousand for closing costs, and a few thousand for fixing up the house as well as a few pieces of furniture I'm going to need (which will be right around $1000). I think I'll have enough to cover it all and I still won't go under the $5000 amount. Do you think putting $350 away a month into savings is too little?

Wow. What a hectic day I had yesterday.

First, I began my week of dogsitting. She's a really great dog and I see no worries for the rest of the week. The muscles in my body are just killing me so I can't really play with her all that much. I feel like an old lady. :/

THEN I get a message from my future roomie. She got kicked out of her parent's house. She wants to get a place with me ASAP. I tell her to come over. We talk and figure out her money situation. She needs to get another job to cover some of her bills. And she needs her own car insurance and cell phone plan because her dad was charging her way too much. So she got on her own insurance with Geico. MUUUUCH cheaper rate. We then went to 2 places to see if they were hiring. She'll be getting a phone call within the next couple of days from both places so that's really great news.

We then went to her house to gather some of her things and print out the temporary car insurance card. The current plan is she is going to stay here for a week until we figure everything out. Once I feel secure with how things are going, I might be leaving this house a little early to get an apartment with her. I'm excited but nervous at the same time!

ANNNNND I got an offer on one of my Xboxes on ebay. It's $45 lower than I wanted but at this point, I really don't care. I just want it out of my house. So that's the current update. I'll let you guys know how things go.

Ugh. So I came across a couple of problems yesterday. And I'm just irritated today.

First, the person who bought my broken Xbox wants a refund because it wasn't broken the way he expected it to be. Grrrr!!!

Second, my future roomie has been hinting a lot lately that she wants to move back to Alabama. I can't depend on her for anything!! Looks like I'm going to have to find someone else.

I picked up a shift today and Thursday so I went from 15 hours to around 26. Yay! I'm going to talk to my boss about an idea I have. We changed the hours of a certain position we have and it's messing things up. So I have an idea about how to fix it. Doubt he'll listen but I'm going to try anyway.

So I'm a little frustrated right now. Ebay is giving me headaches. And I don't know where I'll be living in a couple of months. Yay.

I looooove going on vacation!! I have 3 planned so far for this year. I'm going on Saturday to Animal Kingdom for the day. I'm going to a concert in June in Jacksonville and staying for a couple of days. In October, I'm planning on going on a 4 day cruise to the Bahamas!!

And next year, I'm going on a 2 week cruise to Europe!! So excited! I really want to buy a camera to take pictures but I already have one. The problem with my camera is that it eats through batteries like crazy. Even the camera specific batteries and the rechargeable batteries don't work that long on my camera. I'm going to have to do some research...

Started thinking more about staying in this house. I think I'm leaning towards no. I'd like to leave in June, get my stuff together, and get my roommate's stuff together, and then move out.

I only worked 4 hours yesterday but felt like crying the entire time. I really don't like my job. The good thing is that they are creating some positions and one of my managers said he wants to get rid of a stock clerk so I want to stay a little longer to see if they have any opportunities for me. We'll see. I work 5:30-10:30 tonight and then I'm off the next two days. AND I have to dogsit my friend's dog for a week. Exciting lol. She's making me food though so I can't complain. Ok that's the current update. Toodles!

I was off again yesterday. In the morning I went grocery shopping with my roommate. I spent $2.08 and saved $23+ using coupons and sales. Here's what I bought:

2 John Frieda Conditioners (I have a lot of shampoo, just not a lot of conditioner)
4 Chow Mein Noodle Bowls (LOVE these and they're so easy to make... I don't care if their unhealthy lol)
2 boxes of Pop Tarts (for breakfast)
1 box of CapriSun

Then I went grocery shopping with my older sister. We spent a couple of hours going from store to store. I love going shopping with her . Then we went back to her house where she went swimming and I sat by the pool, reading a book.

From there, we went to my mom's house to pick her up for dinner. My sister was going to pay for my mom's dinner for her mother's day gift. We ended up going to Chili's. With tip, I spent $10.80. I HATE spending money but I was hungry and it was a special occassion.

I came home and my roommate wanted to talk to me. Long story short, he asked me if I'd consider staying in the house we're at now if we kick out my other roommate. This other roommate has always been the problem from the beginning. I can't STAND him. It's ackward when we're both home and when he tries to talk to me, I cringe. He asked if my future roommate would just want to move in with us. Now, we sat down and did some math and it would cost right around the same amount to stay here as it would if we rented the apartment I wanted. I definitely have some thinking to do...

So I had today off. Woohoo! It was a fun-filled day with a little bit of spending.

First of all, I mentioned yesterday that I went out to lunch with some friends. I actually ate at home so I didn't spend any money. I also mentioned that I had work 4-8:30 but I was asked to stay until 10 and I didn't take my half hour break so I actually gained 2 hours.

Today, I went out to lunch with my mom and sister. My mom paid. We went to Panera. I could eat there everyday, I swear. Then we went to buy my mom her mother's day gift. She really wanted a (expensive) bottle of perfume so my sister and I split the cost and I ended up paying $40. We also went to several other stores but I didn't spend anything at the other stores. AND my mom bought me a cute pair of flip flops!

As for ebay, I finally sold one of my Xboxes last night. It was a broken one so I profited about $17 on it but at least it's something and it's one less thing I need to get rid of.

I'm also off tomorrow so the plan is to go grocery shopping with my older sister in the morning (I may or may not buy a few things) and then out with my older sister and mom for lunch. I have been spending more money this week going out to eat than I have spent this whole year (although that's not saying much)! I'm going to try to eat at home or if I do order something, it's going to be cheap. Ugh. I hate spending money!

I've also been asking my coworkers if they want to give up their shifts next week. My goal is to get at least 26 hours a week. I was only scheduled 15 (grrr) so I need 11 more to get to 26. Doubt that will happen but I will try.

I talked to my store manager yesterday. He basically told me what I thought he would-that I need to talk to the manager that does my schedule. At this point, I really don't care anymore. He told me that they are changing the way some positions are going to be. I'm going to stick it out for a little while longer and then see if I can eventually get something more permanent.

I have 3 Xboxes listed on ebay. None of them have sold yet. Grrr!! According to the message boards on ebay, the new changes at the end of March have meant less sales for a lot of people. This is not good.

I decided to stick with Verizon and I signed a 2 year contract (and got a brand new phone for free!). I could go with Boost but I would have to buy a new phone and it would only be like $5 cheaper per month. Not to mention that Boost's service isn't all that great.

Mother's Day is coming up!! I'm not sure if I should take my mom out for lunch or just buy her some flowers and a card. The flowers and card thing would be cheaper but I'm sure she'd appreciate the lunch thing much more. I'm going to see her later so I'll ask if she has any plans on Saturday.

I'm going out to lunch with a couple of friends today. Then I work 4-8:30. And I'm off the next 2 days!

Oh and I forgot! I'm going to Orlando on May 15th for the day. A few friends and I are probably going to go to Animal Kingdom. I've never been there before. Can't wait! The ticket is around $80 and I have to pay a few bucks for gas and lunch and dinner. Hopefully I won't spend too much. I'm aiming for around $100.

So I talked to 2 of my managers today. Basically, they told me that they don't have extra hours to give me. I figured. I changed my availability so that I'm off on Saturdays and Wednesdays. I'd like to get it so that I'm off Saturdays, Sundays, and Wednesdays but I need to make sure I can get my hours first. I don't want to give up on my job because I get paid better than I would if I worked at another retail job. There's something I've been thinking about. Instead of relying on my managers to give me more hours, I can always count on my coworkers. Just today my shift was 12-7:30 and I had 3 people asking me to stay a couple of hours to cover their shifts. Almost everyday you get even one person who wants to go home early. My current roommate used to be scheduled 25 or so hours a week and he'd end up with almost 35 every week because of call outs and such. I don't like the idea of depending on others for my hours but it just might work. Starting next week I'm going to test it out to see how many extra hours I get per week just from call outs and covering shifts for a couple of hours for my coworkers.

If things don't work out, I'm probably just going to end up getting a second job. I'm planning still on applying at at least 2 places next to where my apartment will be.

As for ebay, I filed a nonpaying buyer claim today and I've been getting more views and questions on my other item. I'm hoping to make some extra money this month. And I'm going to have to start making a spreadsheet to record all my income and expenses so I can see where my money goes.

So yesterday I worked 12-4:30. Really easy shift. Roommate brought me to work and I had mentioned that I'd pay him but he never asked about it so I'm going to keep my mouth shut lol. I had every intention of talking to my manager about getting more hours but it was way too busy so I couldn't get off of my register.

However, I did talk to another manager last night. After work, I came home and ate dinner. Then I went out with my future roommate. We went to another grocery store where she used to work to see if they were hiring. Talked to the assistant store manager and she said to come back on Sunday to talk to the store manager. Then, we went to my store and I talked to my assistant grocery manager about bcoming a stock clerk. He told me to talk to his boss so I'm planning on talking to him today. I'm going to ask him if he has enough hours to schedule me 2 days a week. If not, I'm going to talk to my other manager about demoting myself to a bagger so I can do something we call "jobs". Jobs is like janitorial work. But it's super easy and no one bothers you. A coworker does it 2 days a week where she comes in at 2:30, bags for a few hours, and then does jobs. And she closes. If I could do that 4 days a week, I'd get my hours and I'd be extremely happy.

We then went to Walgreens where my roommate filled out an application. She is planning on either getting 3 jobs or getting 2 jobs and going to school. She likes being busy like that. I, on the other hand, would rather play then work all the time lol. I'm trying to help her out with jobs because I know she has more bills than I do. We're going to have to sit down to figure out her bills and everything. And I told her I would not move into the apartments until we both figured things out. I like stability.

After that, we were both hungry and ate at Steak N Shake. Spent $7 there. I hate spending money but I haven't done it in a while so I figured I'd treat myself. I also bought my mom a coffee cake for $5 because she's my main ride to work and sometimes I feel bad about it. I also pay for her gas sometimes. Well, that's it for now. Adios!

I mentioned in my last post that I was supposed to go apartment hunting with my potenial roommate today. Well, today did not go as planned. I had texted her yesterday. No answer. Texted her and called today. No answer. I started to get really worried. I spent the morning cleaning around the house and reading a book outside. I also talked to my roommate about giving me a ride to work tomorrow. I'm going to have to pay him like $5 but I'd rather do that than give my shift away. I'm trying to get more hours at work and I don't want my manager to look down on me. In fact, I'm probably going to talk to my manager tomorrow about switching positions. If I get my way, I'd get the amount of hours I want, the days I want off, and an easier job.

Getting back to my roommate... I finally got a call from her at around 12. Turns out, I had a reason to be worried. She had been drinking on Tuesday night (which was the last time I heard from her) and when she (or anyone, really) gets drunk, her mood changes. She was on the phone with her boyfriend and she threatened to kill herself. Her boyfriend called the police and the police came to take her to a rehab center. As I mentioned in my other post, she does have issues. My mom is so set against me moving in with her. I can see why she's concerned. However, she is also in the process of possibly getting a fulltime job an hour away from where I live so I know she wouldn't be home all the time.

I have a friend/coworker who is having problems with her children's father and she needs babysitters. At first, she was going to pay but she couldn't afford it and she became desperate so I offered to watch the kids once or twice a week. I'll be watching them from 10-7 on Tuesday. I don't like the idea of babysitting on my day off but I want to help her out and it's only temporary anyway.

The person who bought something from me on ebay hasn't paid yet. I'm definitely going to have to file a nonpaying buyer claim. Grrr!! Next time, when I list my items, I'll put it so that immediate payment is required. I'm going to have to relist that one in a few days. The other Xbox has one watcher which is great because I was afraid no one would buy it.

I am in a program called Amazon Vine where I get sent items every month for free that I test out and review. I usually get books because the other items sell out fast. I'm trying to get through some of the books I have. I'd like to read more for entertainment rather than go online all day. I read through one book today. I'd like to have a mini library in my new place with really cool books.

I also cashed in $20.50 from a survey site. I got an Amazon gift card. I bought 3 books and ended up paying $1.86 out of pocket. I could have bought stuff for my new place but I wanted to treat myself. I bought a self help book, a book about making extra money, and The Year of Living Biblically. Can't wait to read those.

I'm trying to figure out my money situation. If I get the hours I'd like at my part time job, I'd get around $840 a month. I calculated my bills and food and spending money and my total would come out to $802 which would leave me with around $35-40 leftover every month. This will be a little cushion if, say, a bill is a little higher than expected or I spent more than I budgeted on groceries. My paychecks from my part time job will be deposited into my checking account. Any bonuses will be added to my savings account. I get bonuses every 4 months and they are usually around $100. In addition, because I don't want to live paycheck to paycheck, I'm also selling on ebay. I'd like to make at least $500 every month however, if all my items sell at the price I'd like them to, it could be closer to $1600 a month.

I did end up going to see apartments with my potential roommate. I really liked the first ones we saw. The price is great and it is literally down the street from my job. Also, there's a pool, a park, and other amenities. I just love the atmosphere. And the actual apartments are super cute too! We went to go see another apartment but they were closed. Those apartments were close to the cemetary where our coworker recently was buried. We stopped by the store to get some flowers (I paid with change so it didn't really cost me anything) and then we spent an hour or so walking around the cemetary. My coworker was 24 when he died. He was born with a disease that effected his liver. He died sometime last year and he still does't have a tombstone. His parents can't afford one. Too sad.

I got home not too long ago. I'm about to eat dinner and then I might go out with my potential rooommate to Target to look around for house stuff. Sorry this was so long. I just had a lot to talk about lol.

I was talking to my twin sister yesterday about renting vs. buying. It's amazing how quickly my views changed after I realized how much more money I could save if I were to rent. I used to be dead set on buying a house. Now? Not so much. Even looking at houses in the $1000/month range I'm AMAZED at how nice these houses are! Hardwood floors, NICE kitchens, HUGE bathrooms, and a pool. All for $1000! It's tempting, man. I know I could never in my lifetime (because I don't have a college degree) afford to buy a house like this. But renting? If I could get a better job, I so could afford it.

So my sister and I were talking and I was telling her that if I could save at least $500 a month (which is actually extremely doable) and still rent, I could take all that money I have and actually live a really comfortable life. Imagine me. A 22 year old who works in a grocery store part time. Living on my own (well, with a roommate). Paying all of my own bills. And I'm going on a 15 day cruise to Europe next summer. Paid for all by myself. That's what I want. I want to be able to live in a house that I really like, have a job that I don't mind doing, and have extra money to just enjoy life. And by renting (at least for a few more years), I can do that. If I were to buy a house, I couldn't.

I want to enjoy life. That's all. Some people spend too much time working or worrying about money. I don't want to be like that. I know to many of you it might sound like I'm living in a dream world. But I believe 100% that if you have the right mindset, and the right knowledge, and the right resources, it's not so hard to live comfortably. I hope I can do it.

This is the first post in a series I'm calling "The little things add up..." where I talk about little frugal things I do.

I'm a cashier at my job. If a customer's total is, say, $5.90 and they hand me $6, it's not uncommon for people to tell me to "keep the change". And keep the change I do. If you see me picking up a penny off the floor, laugh at me if you wish. I don't know if not so frugal people understand the value of a penny. Every month or so, the newspapers put out coupons for $1 off a roll of Marcal paper towel. One grocery store in my city carries this brand. So every month, I take my coupons and buy a few rolls of paper towel. After the coupon is subtracted and taxes are added, I pay 19 cents per roll. I then pull out my change and pay my bill. So those rolls of paper towel end up being free for me.

I just looked in my wallet and I have $1.19 in change. That would get me 6 rolls of paper towel for free!

Let me give another example of why I love change. I bring my own lunch/dinner to work with me. When I'm not scheduled a break, I don't bring anything with me and I'll just wait to eat when I get home. Sometimes, my manager asks me to stay a few hours longer and then I end up getting a break. Of course, longer hours means I'm hungry and then I have to buy something to eat. I can buy a 30 cent bottle of water and a banana for 25 cents using my spare change and I am content.

The best part? At the end of every month, I go to all 9 registers my store has and lift the printer where people seem to accidentally drop coins. I can easily make $1 this way. I'm cheap, I know. But I can get a lot of free things out of it.

...is that they live at or above their means.

I make just around $860 every month at my part time job. I also make at least $500 every month on ebay (although if I have a particularly amazing month, it's closer to $1600 ). The paychecks from my part time job go to bills and I always have a little left over (around $160 but I allot $100 for spending money). The income from ebay goes directly into savings.

I have a roommate who makes $500 a week. He also blows through his paycheck in one week. The rent and a couple of other bills are due and he doesn't have the money for it. I said to him yesterday "Do you know what I could do with $2000 every month?! I'd be rich!". It's true. I'd be able to put more than $1000 in savings every month! The problem with people who make more money is that they also spend more. People who make $50,000+ a year also will buy a bigger and more expensive house than they really need. They buy more extravagant things. It is way too easy to spend your entire $2000 biweekly paycheck on things that you don't need.

This is all coming back to what my older sister said about me not being able to afford a house. Her and her husband live comfortably. For a Valentine's Day gift for her husband, my sister bought a $1300 TV. They easily spend $200 EVERY WEEK on groceries for just the two of them. I don't even spend $100 every MONTH! They go out to eat and order soda and steak. I go out to eat and order water and one of the cheapest things on the menu. And the thing is, I'm still happy.

The problem with "rich" people is that they don't know how to manage their money. With the way the job market is right now, it is way too common to hear about people losing their jobs and not being able to pay $1000 or $2000 worth of bills every month. The problem with "rich" people is that if they lived below their means, they would have been able to save thousands of dollars a month that could be put towards the bills if someone in their household were to lose their job. The problem with "rich" people is that many of them have trouble paying their bills even though they make 4 times more than I do. I know a grocery store manager who tells me all the time that she wishes she could manage her money the way I do.

If I made just $2000 every month, I'd be rich, man.

My Easter was good. I went over to my older sister's house where we made turkey with a ton of side dishes. I had a strawberry daquiri and sipped it by the pool. It was a nice day out. Man, I love the summer.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've had some problems with ebay lately. I've had 3 disputes and 2 of them ended in my favor and the other is still ongoing. I have 5 Xboxes to sell, an old cell phone, and a couple of random things around the house. I'm going to be selling them slowly though so I don't get too frustrated and overwhelmed.

In terms of making extra money, I think I've found something that just might work. It's going to take some time and some research but I think I can make a good amount of money off of it. I won't say what it is for now but if it fails, I'll let you guys know. Btw, the last thing I tried, I failed at. I was trying to buy broken Xboxes that needed replacement dvd drives. The time it took to receive all the parts I needed was too much so I had to put a stop to that business venture. I'm crossing fingers that my new plan works out.

So about that trip to Europe... I'm thinking a 14 day cruise. I have one picked out. It'll cost about $3500 for everything if I plan it right. Is that too much, you think? I still have to talk about the details with the friend I'll be going with.

So that's my brief update. I haven't been spending a lot lately. My friend's 21st birthday is tomorrow. I'm probably going to get her a card, a balloon, and some flowers. I also need to go grocery shopping soon but it should be no more than $20 spent. I'm also going to a friend's house tomorrow. She is redoing her house and she has some kitchen items she wants to get rid of so she's giving them to me! Yay for free stuff!

Last week I was talking to my older sister about how I wanted to buy my own house. She basically told me that it was a bad idea because I don't have a high income. I was furious that she would think I'd fail. She was furious because she thinks I have no idea what I'm doing. My sister and her husband have a household income of about $100,000. Last year I made $12,000 (not including bonuses which I get 4 times a year and my income tax return which I count as income since it goes straight into my savings account). Although money isn't tight for them, they are not rolling around in riches either. I can totally see why my sister doesn't think I could do it.

Here's the thing though. It's not about how much money you make. It's about how you spend it. My older sister bought her house for $2xx,000. The house I want is about 1/3rd of that price and it is actually a really, really nice house. Sometimes I read blogs on here and some people's monthly mortgage payments are higher than my monthly income! I'm like, man, I wish I had that amount of money. But that's the thing. I don't NEED a $2xx,000 house. My sister spends about $150 per week on groceries. I can easily spend less than $20 per week because I can make nutritious meals without buying expensive meats and I like to shop sales and use coupons. I can't remember the last time I bought something for myself that wasn't a necessity. My sister bought her husband a $1300 TV for Valentine's Day. They don't live paycheck to paycheck but if they lived as frugally as I did, they'd have thousands and thousands of dollars in savings! I went on a short vacation last month. I set a budget for myself. I bought a $2 box of cereal and a $1.59 quart of milk and that was my breakfast. I set a limit on how much I could spend eating out. I always got one of the cheapest things on the menu. Water to drink. If my sister and her husband had gone on the same vacation as I did, they would have spent 3 times what I spent on food alone.

I do know that unexpected expenses come up. But that's life. I'm not against using credit cards if I don't have the cash because I'm absolutely responsible. Am I not going to ever buy a house just because there is a chance an unexpected expense might come up? I have a friend who owes nearly $500,000 in medical expenses. She will be paying that off for the rest of her life. Should she never buy a house of her own because she has a serious illness? I'm going to take it day by day. I'll make some smart decisions. Dental insurance. Medical insurance. Hazard insurance on the house. If any other expenses come up, so be it. I'm not a millionaire and I never will be. I'm going to do the best I can.

I've never been like other people my age. I got my first job at age 14. I worked in a small coffee shop 2 days a week. I would spend my tip money (which was a measly $10-15 a week) usually on school lunches. I never let my parents buy anything for me. My parents were certainly not poor. But I never did understand kids who expected so much from their parents. Luckily for my parents, my sisters and I were appreciative of every little thing they did for us. I have friends and coworkers who depend on mommy and daddy for so much when it comes to money. I have a friend whose parents have put a certain amount of money in her bank account every week since she was born so that she could buy her own house. I have multiple friends whose parents bought them their first car. What?! I saved every single dollar from my $60 paycheck when I had my first job. And up until a few months ago, I saved probably 75% of my paychecks.

In November, I moved out of my parent's house and in with 2 friends and my sister. Long story short, it's really not working out with my roommates and they have agreed to let me and my sister off of the lease on June 1st. I want my own house. Not to rent. To buy. I have enough money for a down payment and then some. I really want to do this on my own however I'm hoping to rent out one room to a carefully chosen friend so that I will be able to save some money every month.

I also really, really love to travel. I'm currently planning a European vacation with a friend next summer. It's going to be expensive but it'll be well worth it.

I am on a quest to make more money. I tried college for two semesters and I didn't like it. Truthfully, I couldn't qualify for financial help and I don't feel like paying school debt for the next few years of my life in hopes of getting an extra $10,000 a year. So I work in a grocery store. I don't get paid much but I am able to currently save half of my paychecks and even when I get my own place, I'll be able to save about $100. I'm not OK with living paycheck to paycheck. So to add to my income, I'm trying my hand on ebay. I've been selling some things around the house and I've made about $300 over the past couple weeks. When I've run out of things to sell, I have an idea of a couple things I can sell to make at least $200 extra per week. Adding that to my paychecks from my regular job, I'll be able to save at least $500 a month. I'll have to decide what to do with that extra money. I'd like to build up my emergency fund because the deposit will take up a lot of it. And then I'd like to add to my vacation fund. I'd like to have about $3500 in there by next summer.

We'll see how things go. Wish me luck!