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5 Ways to Save Money // Five on Friday

Scrounging all of my money to buy a house = spending less money. Sadly, this means less trips to Starbucks and the mall, two things that really break my heart. When I get that house in a few months, it’ll all be worth it! Here are 5 ways I’ve been saving my pennies (and nickels, dimes, quarters, dollars…)

  1. Order water at restaurants. If you still want a coke after the first glass, then you can order it. You usually will be fine with the water and will save yourself a couple of bucks.
  2. Start in the clearance section when you go shopping. You can usually find what you’re looking for at a much lower price that you would spend otherwise.
  3. Bring your lunch to work. This not only saves money, it’s usually much healthier for you, too! It also gives a chance to get to know your coworkers better.
  4. Find cheaper entertainment. Pablo and I used to go see movies all the time and go out to eat multiple times every week. Know what we do now? Watch Netflix and go to the gym. Much cheaper!
  5. Buy a filtered water bottle. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – filtered water bottles save you so much money! From work to travel to the gym, I can’t tell you how much I’ve saved by using my filtered water bottle instead of buying bottled water.

How do you save money?

20 Life Lessons Learned in 25 Years

I celebrated my 25th birthday over the weekend. In the days and weeks leading up to it and the days since, I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on my wonderful first 25 years of life. I wanted to share some of the lessons I’ve learned thus far with you. (They’re in no particular order.)

  1. Money matters! Keep a budget, save for retirement, and live within your means (if not below them).
  2. Get active and stay active. Your current health impacts your future quality of life.
  3. You can never go wrong with being nice.
  4. Eliminate toxic people from your life. Don’t let them drain you.
  5. Family isn’t always biological.
  6. Focus on the people who do, not the people who don’t. It’s the ones who are present who care the most.
  7. Go with your gut instinct. It’s usually right.
  8. It’s okay to say no and not have a reason.
  9. Spend more time with your elders. You’ll learn valuable lessons and will gain precious memories.
  10. Things really don’t matter. You don’t have to have the newest/best every time.
  11. If it’s important to your significant other/close family and friends, it should be important to you. (Along that same line – what’s important to you is important, too.)
  12. It’s just as important to have negative role models as it is to have positive ones. There are certain people you want to emulate and others whose lives you don’t want to replicate. Choose both wisely.
  13. Your relationships are more important than your career.
  14. When you’re interacting with others, don’t fiddle around on your cell phone. It makes them feel unimportant and prevents you from truly engaging.
  15. People change. Don’t hold on to grudges.
  16. Not everyone wants advice when they vent to you. Sometimes, you just need to listen.
  17. Don’t wait for someone else to make plans or initiate a friendship. Make the first move.
  18. No matter how impossible your situation seems or how dismal you’re feeling, it will pass. Day by day, things will get better.
  19. Everything happens for a reason, even if you don’t realize it now. Every person you meet, every experience you have, every choice you make serves a purpose in your life that you’ll understand when you look back someday.
  20. Don’t hold onto things you don’t need. Pass them along when you’re through with them so someone else can enjoy them and you can have more space.

What would you add to this list?

Focus

I have a really bad habit of paying attention to what other people are doing. I don’t mean that in an annoying sticking-my-nose-in-other-people’s-business way, but in more of a how-do-I-measure-up-to-what-they’re-doing manner. I’ve done this with with blogging, my personal life, my relationship, and my career. And you know what? It never does me any good.

It actually reminds me of a story in the Bible - when Peter walked on water. When he stayed focused on Jesus, he stayed afloat. But when he looked around him and considered the conditions, he quickly began to sink. As soon as he regained focus on Jesus, he was fine.

I get so frustrated when I’m not at the same “level” as someone else with where I am in life. There are so many things I would just like to fast forward and achieve, but I have to remind myself to stay calm, stay grounded, and stay focused. What everyone else is doing really has no bearing on me at all. I’ll achieve things in my own time and they will be glorious.

It took me 3 and a half months, but I’ve finally realized that my word of the year this year is FOCUS.

Not Your Mother’s She’s a Tease Volumizing Hairspray // Product Review

My hair is naturally straight and flat. I use a volumizing spray from Tressemme to give me some lift when I’m wearing it down and it never fails me. I don’t style my hair with hairspray often, so I was a little disappointed to see Not Your Mother’s She’s a Tease Volumizing Hairspray in my Influenster Sweetheart Box instead of Not Your Mother’s Beach Babe Texturizing Sea Salt Spray. (Maybe they didn’t send it to me because I live less than 10 minutes away from the beach? I digress…) I kept waiting for the opportunity to use this hairspray in my daily routine, but that opportunity never came. I decided to spend this Saturday morning with my curling iron just so I could use it.

This hairspray touts an apple blossom & bamboo infusion. I was REALLY not fond of this scent – it smelled like a baby’s diaper to me. I told my mom of my disdain, but she actually liked it – it reminded her of a spa. So… now you have two perspectives on the smell factor.

As for the volumizing part, it did a good job… for the first hour. I had a lion’s mane, for real. And then it just disappeared. I’m pretty used to that happening since Florida is so humid, but this hair spray says it’s humidity proof. So… I’m not really sure what the excuse would be for this.

Now let’s talk about hold. Quite frankly, I can deal with a crappy smell and I can supplement for the volumizing aspects of this spray if it will keep my curls. It didn’t. I think they lasted 3-4 hours and then my hair just looked really bad. Completely deflated and tangled. Thanks for that, hair spray. I debated taking an after picture, but I decided I didn’t want any photos of myself looking like that floating around the internet. So… here’s a before picture where I’m looking all cute.

A full size bottle of Not Your Mother’s She’s a Tease Volumizing Hairspray is $6.00. DO NOT BUY IT. I’m going to give some of their other products a try because I like the name of the brand and their packaging, but their hair spray is a major fail in my book.

[I received Not Your Mother's She's a Tease Volumizing Hairspray complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes.]

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