(Closed) Money saving tips + work-from-home jobs…

• leftcoastleisure
• 5 years ago

• Wedding: June 2014

stevielee:  Not a direct answer but one of my top resources for saving tips, side hustle ideas, etc.  http://www.thefinancialdiet.com 

• penny2015
• 5 years ago

• Wedding: March 2017

Other than content writing as someone suggested above, I tutor- I can do a session or two after work.

It keeps the weekends for leisure/study.

I have a couple of degrees so I take school students in their final year or two and uni students and can make a lot more in an hour or two than I would in a night of waitressing and it’s less tiring.

You can boost how much you make by tutoring in their home for an extra fee- I meet them first in a public place, check in with my partner. You can also charge more if you edit their work outside of sessions.

You can also just provide an editing service- advertise on uni websites etc- it pays well, particularly on longer essays and dissertations. 

Depending on your confidence/level of education you can tutor younger students- it takes less prep and you can still charge more than you would babysitting. I did that when I was early in my degree. 

• LilliV
• 5 years ago

SLOBee:  I’ll check that out! Although if I’m honest I probably trust him more than myself lol. 

• cbgg
• 5 years ago

• Wedding: April 2013

stevielee:  From what you’ve said, I think one big money saving tip for you would be to start tracking your spending, then set a budget.

You mentioned that you “seem” to be living paycheck to paycheck and you always “feel” as if you need the extra money you manage to set aside.  The first thing to to is to get clear on what exactly is happening with your money.

There are a lot of ways to do this, but one really good, straight forward way is to go right now and download all of the transactions from Jan 1 to March 31, 2016 for each of your credit cards, bank accounts, and any other financial accounts you may have.  Put it all in a spreadsheet, then simply put a category next to every line item (ex “groceries” “restaurant” “gas” “clothes shopping” “credit card fees/interest” “morgage” “car payment” “cash withdrawl”).  You can make up the categories based on what works best for you.  Next, add it all up!  If you run a simple pivot table you should be able to see the total for each month broken down by category.

This will give you a strong sense for where all your money is actually going.  Compare this to all money recieved during the month and see if you are actually running at a surplus or deficit.

Just doing this exercise may open your eyes to where in your budget there is extra fat that needs to be cut out.  Maybe you are spending WAY more than you thought on shopping or restaurants – that’s an easy fix.  Maybe you’ve got re-occurring bills like cabel and a gym membership that are bleeding you dry.  Also an easy fix.  Maybe the big ticket items like your car or housing are way too expensive.  That’s a bigger problem, but at least once you know you can start taking steps to fix it.

Based on what you learn, you can set a budget.  There are lots of aps that can help with this, or some people like to use a cash envelope system.  But I think the first step is to really analyze where that money has been going in the past.

• cbgg
• 5 years ago

• Wedding: April 2013

Alpine1994:  I’d love to do something like that on the side.  How did you break into it?

• MrsLucky91735
• 5 years ago

• Wedding: February 2016

cbgg:  Hi! I just did a little research on the best/most useful spin certifications. There was a certification class going on near me so I signed up. About a week after I got certified I went to spin class and there was supposed to be a sub who didn’t show up. Someone in my class was like “hey! didn’t you just get certified?! Can you please teach our class?” and of course I didn’t have anything planned so I was like uhhhhhhh crap haha. The gym staff let me do it (and were very thankful to avoid angry members) so I played shuffle on my latest running playlist and winged it. The group fitness director contacted me the next day to say that the members gave great feedback and he’d like me to audition since they had a spot just open up. I got SUPER lucky! My plan was to go around to gyms near me and see if they needed any extra subs and then work my way up to getting my own class.

Edited to add: I got certified through Mad Dogg Athletics as a Spinning(R) Instructor. There’s tons of other certs but this was the method I was most interested in teaching. Also note that you can’t teach at gyms that are “Spinning” facilities unless you’re certified with MDA. If the name of the class is “Indoor Cycling” or something then it’s not a spinning facility and they’ll take just about any certification.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by  MrsLucky91735.

• cbgg
• 5 years ago

• Wedding: April 2013

Alpine1994:  Nice, that worked out well!

• torontobeach
• 5 years ago

• Wedding: October 2016

I do makeup on the side.  I started out small working at department store events on weekends and grew that into a freelance business doing tv work and bridal.  I don’t do as much any more, but every year I still do a few weddings or tv jobs that add up to at least another 2-3k per year.

Another recommendation is picking up seasonal work that fits in with your regular job.  You can work over the holidays in a retail store or restaurant to help get ahead of the bills and build some savings.