Buy Nothing Challenge Updates:: Temptations & Exceptions



Tutorial on this coming up next month on my creative blog.



Happy Friday rich people! I come with updates on my Buy Nothing Challenge!

J*Davey's coming to NYC on the 28th, so I had to buy a ticket. Lol. I made it clear to myself that they were my exception to the Buy Nothing rules I set. The ticket ended up only costing about $15 so I’m happy with that and excited to see them. They are one of my favorite groups in life and I wish there was a way for me to meet them and tell them so in person on the 28th. I’d love that, Universe, if you want to work on that for me. ;) #imjustsayin


Now let's talk about temptations while on this challenge because there have been some!:

I Zeroed Bank of America Visa!

As of today, March 16th, 2012; the Bank of America Visa balance has been ZEROED ! Boo yow!


Zeroing this is very significant and symbolic for me. Like, I'm seriously crying happy tears. Today, I paid the remaining $276.16 balance.  This debt was my oldest debt, from my college days of financial irresponsibility, so this symbolizes the “end of an era” to me and learning from my mistakes with money back then. At its peak, this balance was just over 3K. It’s amazing what you can charge up when you think you have “free money” or will have no problem paying it all back without a moment’s notice “when you graduate and get a real job”. Oh our naiveté when it comes to how “easy” it would be to pay it off later when we’re making more money…. This debt represented me trying to find myself and I thought I could do that by buying tons of things with money that I didn’t have. I had a general understanding of personal finance but still didn’t know nearly as much as I know now about money, credit and how your thoughts about these things manifest themselves. Closing this chapter, in a way, symbolizes a fresh start for me because I've (literally) "paid" for my mistakes and have “graduated” again in a sense and can move onto to the chapter, WEALTH!

So You Want a Copy of My Excel Budgeting Sheet, Eh?

In my previous post and I shared a pic of my Excel budgeting sheet and some of you showed an interest in it. For those of you that would like copy of it, shoot me an email at creatividualworkshops@gmail.com with "Budgeting Sheet Please!" as the subject. I am going to start working on cleaning it up and making it user friendly. You will have to give me till the first week of April at the latest because I have a lot of projects on deck right now and due to my recent move, I have to wait til the 31st for my internet to get set up. Boo.... Eventually I'll figure out how to make it so it can be downloaded from here.

I've got some great news coming up by the end of this week. Have a great week all!

Spend smart, Give generously, & Grow wealthy

It's March and I'm Buying Nothing

Playing with numbers on my monthly Excel budgeting sheet!

Hey wealth builders. I've been busy getting settled into my new place and getting back on track financially pre-moving and moving related expenses. I was playing around w my budgeting sheet, pictured above, to devise my plan for zeroing the rest of my consumer debt. I plan to be consumer debt free, which makes me wealthier (!), by May so I can have more fun money and savings money (I want to beef up my savings from its $25 a month to $100 a month!) this summer and onward. I'm excited to live a consumer debt free life and be even wealthier from here on out.

So the Buy Nothing Challenge is on and I'm doing well. I left my eating out funds ($30) in the budget bc I didn't want to totally deprive myself but any other unnecessary or entertainment funds were not included in this month's budget. I've decided to carry this over into April as well. Let's stack these chips fast boys n girls.

My mom is forgiving me of my last two car note payments (yay!) and I get paid three times this month so I'm excited that I get to recoup most, if not all, of my moving expenses. I plan to leave the extra check alone. So no shopping sprees although I do need some furniture. I want to focus on getting my credit affairs in order just a tad more first.

For those that are joining me, how's the challenge going for you so far? More posts coming soon, still have to get the Internet set up here. Until then it's blogging via my phone. ��

Spend smart, Give generously & Grow wealthy

Buy Nothing Challenge Time

Hey Wealth Builders! How have you all been? I’ve been going crazy moving (and am long overdue to balance my budget from last month and this one that’s fast leaving us). Next move I make, I’m so allocating money to hire movers. Sometimes you don’t want to DIY and don't mind someone DIFY. Lol.  

Any who, let’s get back on the topic at hand. I smell a Buy Nothing Challenge brewing for March. And possibly for April too. I moved into a super cute, new place (hooray!) that I’m excited to decorate and make it into a cozy and chic refuge. I have taken on a higher rent that I can comfortably afford but with moving comes extra expenses and my reserves quite naturally took a small hit. I want to up my frugality for a spell so I can stack more paper faster, surpass what my reserve amount was before the move and finish paying off my consumer balances by May. I want more money to save and play with by this summer, ya dig?

Now when I say Buy Nothing, I mean that I wouldn’t be buying anything that’s not a necessity. For me, I would be cutting out any money usually allocated for: eating out, music, crafts, clothing, any type of entertainment etc. I may even attempt to decrease my funds allocated for gas (especially since the prices have tipped over $4!). My only exception is if J*Davey starts their New Designer Drug tour and comes to NYC in this window. Sorry, I gotta buy tix for that! Other than that, BUY NOTHING that isn't needed. Lol.

Make the Most of What You Got

Hey there money makers!

Sorry I've been away so long. Life and my other blog whisked me away temporarily. Wanted to do a post to encourage you guys to not focus on how much money you DON'T have but to make the most out of what you do have. Because if you are creative and have a plan for your spending, you can live a great life no matter what kind of salary you have.

Some of you know and some of you don't: I was unemployed for almost 2 years a little while back. I was laid off in November 2008 and didn't find another job until August of 2010. In that year and some change of no working and living on unemployment, I had the time of my life. I did more unemployed than I do now working full time again! How you might ask?

My Dream Car

A navy blue Range Rover (with tan interior and seats), isn't she beautiful? I'm not even a car person but this is my dream car and I WILL have it eventually. I just love the way that they look. Every time I see one on the road, I smile because I know I will be the proud owner of one eventually. I can see myself opening the drivers' side front door, easing into the lush, tan seat; inserting the key and turning the ignition and wrapping my hands around the steering wheel to drive it wherever I please. I can smell the new car smell right now and I hear Eric Roberson crooning in the background on the stereo. The LOA is working on it already.

Part of attracting what you want into your life is visualizing it and everything about; tastes, touch, smell, sight. Visualize using all your senses. This gets you excited about what you want and feeling like it's really within your reach. Rather what you want is yours in a week or a couple years, it WILL be yours. All you have to do is visualize it and get excited about it now. I will be too thrilled when I will report back to this space that I got my dream car.

What are some of dream, material wants? Maybe you care nothing about cars and it's a house, sewing machine, a studio, hair appliance, etc. What do you want and visualize about?

Spend smart, Give generously, & Grow wealthy

Weekend Adventures

Hey Money Makers.

Hope you all had fabulous weekends. Remember how I was saying I was going to do a little challenge with my cousin? Well, the weather and an exhausting Friday changed my plans. Friday was a long day at work and I was exhausted so we stayed in, talked and watched all the Jurassic Park movies on tv. It snowed overnight and good ol NY was slow about clearing stuff up so my plans for most of Saturday were derailed.

Gotta roll with the punches.... We did go to the movies that evening to see Red Tails , an all Black (main) cast movie/story on the Tuskegee Airmen who fought in WWII. It was really good and had both of our full attention. Please go out and support it. Sometimes less is more, ya know? We still had fun in spite of it all.

What's funny is I spent over half of the amount ($60) I budgeted for our weekend adventures just on our movie excursion. Parking was $5 at the parking garage, tickets were $10.75 each and then nachos and two Icees cost me roughtly $18. Add that altogether and I spent about $45 for our movie outing. Sheesh! So much for movies being a "cheap date". Not anymore! As always, I'm thankful that I had the money to spend regardless if it was highway robbery or not. :D She's a good kid and growing into a beautiful young lady so I was more than happy to treat her. I can't say enough how much fun we had. There's always next time to present her with the challenge.

What did you spend money on this weekend?

16 Years Olds & Money:: The Challenge

Check out my creative lifestyle blog if it tickles your fancy.

Hey money makers!

Happy Friday! Rather you'll be in hermit mode or doing fun things with friends and family, I hope you will enjoy your weekend. My teenage, 16 year old, cousin will be hanging out with me from this evening til Saturday evening. I've got some fun things planned for us to do and also want to see how good she is with money. The younger we are armed with the tools for successful money management and building wealth, the better. I've budgeted $60 for our 24 hours spent together and I'm going to challenge her to figure out how she wants us to spend it. If we come in under budget, I will give her cash for the balance. I haven't decided if I will tell her this or not. I'm leaning towards not to see what she does; will she still try to spend all $60 or will she try to come in under budget? I'm excited to spend time with her and see how she will decide for us to spend it.

I'm not sure what her parents teach her about money but I think this will be a good exercise to get her used to and reinforcing the importance of having a plan for how to make money work for you: having full knowledge of  where your money is going and being satisfied with your decisions. It's important that we feel good about money and make the most out of what we have. So here are the options that I will give her:

It's Ok to be Money Hungry????

Two things I enjoy: cooking and making my money grow

It's OKAY to focus on building wealth and how to attract more stacks of money into your life.

It's NOT okay to harm or negatively influence others in the process to get it. Example: selling drugs, being dishonest or mean to "get ahead", etc.

People do ugly things for money; money doesn't do ugly things. Keep your thoughts on building wealth positively and you won't have to hurt anybody to get it nor will karma come later to bite you in the ass for your negative actions.


Spend smart, Give generously, & Grow wealthy