Month: May 2016

• Get a Piggy Bank! Make it something fun, big or small.

We all had piggy banks growing up, and they are so fun! There are so many different types out there, from ones that look like actual pigs, to cupcakes and beyond! This is also one of the easiest ways to save up your money. All you have to do is set your change aside when you purchase something, and put it into your piggy bank. Once it is full, empty it out, roll your change, and start filling it up again!

 

• Save Up All Your Dimes, 2L = $700

Personally, I haven’t tried this one out yet, but I have seen it pop up on Pinterest a lot. I also have some friends who have done this when trying to save some money and they love the idea. This is another simple thing to do… in fact you could do this along with the filing up of a piggy bank.  Just separate your dimes so that you have two things going for you to save money. From what I have read and been told, filling up one 2L bottle with dimes will net you about $700.00. That is a lot of money saved doing something is so simple.

• Save All Your 5’s

This is another idea that I have come across on Pinterest. I never really thought much of this one until I had a customer come in the other day. We started talking, and somehow came onto the subject of saving money. She told me how in 2015 she saved up all of her $5.00 bills, and ended up with $1505.00 at the end of the year. Saving $5.00 every time you get a bill back is easy enough, and it adds up very quickly. Just put it in a jar, and don’t touch it until the end of the year.

• 52 Week Money Challenge

My roommate and I did this challenge 2 years ago. We printed out papers with how much money we needed to add every week and taped them onto a big mason jar. We held each other accountable with saving the money, and by the end of the year we had saved up $1,378.00. When you’re in college, that is a lot of money, and you can really put it towards something nice! Below is a picture of when I was doing the challenge.  Seriously, try it! You will be surprised with how easy and fun it is.

 

*Bonus Tip: You don’t have to do the weeks in order. If you have an extra $52.00 in any of the weeks, put that amount in when you have it, you don’t have to wait until the last week to do that. Just mark what you are putting in as you put it in, and you will be good to go!

• Only Use Cash

This is probably something you have heard time and time again; use cash, not plastic. Nowadays it is so easy to just pull out your card and spend money, you don’t have to count anything, and it’s just there on your card for you to swipe. What we should all be doing is taking out a set amount of cash each week, and make that all that we are allowed to spend. This is all about budgeting, and when you go shopping it will really help you stick to that budget when you realize that your cash flow is almost gone. Just try it for one week, and you will see yourself saving money and thinking twice about buying that new pair of shoes that you probably don’t need.

 

 

Saving money is something we all want to do, but a lot of people are lost on where they should start, but I’ve just given 5 ways for you to start! If you try any of these, have tried them before, or have another suggestion, please leave a comment with your experience!  I would love to hear what you have to say!

One thing about me is I love making lists! I make them for everything that I can! On a daily basis I will make to-do lists, I have lists that consist of things to buy, and goals, but my favorite list of all to make and add to is my bucket list. I love this one because it will be a forever growing list. You can always find something new that you would like to do, and the day that stops happening is the day that I would not like to be here anymore.

I actually wrote down my bucket list 4 years ago right before my freshman year of college started. At that time it only had about 10 items; today I am proud to say there are a total of 57 items on my bucket list! I have crossed off a few of the items in the last four years, but I still have a lot of ground to cover when it comes to completing my bucket list. I won’t be sharing all of the items on my bucket list today, but I will be sharing some of my favorites to show you what I want to do in my lifetime, and hopefully inspire you to make a bucket list of your own! So, here we go!

• Watch the Olympics

I love the Olympics so much. The Olympic Games might be one of my favorite events ever, no matter if it is the Summer or Winter Games. I always try to watch every event, and seeing an event or two live would be a dream come true.

• Attend a ball in Vienna

There is actually a season in Vienna called ball season from November to February. During the season, Vienna hosts over 450 balls! I don’t know about you, but when I think of attending a ball, it takes me back in time and seems like it would be magical. One day I will attend one of these balls, and I can’t wait!

• Go Skydiving

This one is a little more adventurous. And honestly, I definitely go back and forth on actually wanting to do this at times when looking over my bucket list. I can only imagine the thrill you would feel jumping out of   a plane, but I also always think “what if”. What if something were to go wrong? But at the same time, life wouldn’t be fun if we didn’t take risks, so for now it is staying.

• Pass all Ice Dance Tests

This one might throw some people off. In the world of figure skating, there are different disciplines, and within those disciplines are different levels. To get to the next level you have to take tests, where you do certain sequences/patterns/steps in front of a panel of judges and they decide whether you pass or fail. I only have six dance test left until I would have passed all of the tests, and it is on my bucket list to do so!

• Go scuba diving

Scuba diving has always been an interest of mine. Unfortunately, I have not had the chance to ever do it. But one day I will be unda’ the sea like Sebastian sang so perfectly. I would be happy to go scuba diving anywhere, but if given the chance to choose where to go, I would love for my first time to be at the Great Barrier Reef.

• Watch the ball drop in Times Square

This is one of the more cliché items on a bucket list, but it is still something that I want to experience one day. I love New York City, and watching the ball drop is an American tradition that I watch every year on tv, so seeing it is person would be so much fun!

• Visit Halloweentown in October (St. Helens, Oregon)

I am a 90’s baby, and grew up watching the Disney Channel movies, such as Halloweentown. Well, here’s a fun fact for you, St. Helens, Oregon was the filming location for this movie, and every year they have The Spirit of Halloweentown, and celebrate all October! Personally, I still make a point to watch Halloweentown every year when Disney does a rerun of it, so seeing the movie come to life in the town it was filmed in is definitely something that is on my bucket list. Check out the link below for more information on this fun event!

https://www.travelportland.com/article/the-spirit-of-halloweentown/

 

 

 

There you have it! I just went over a few of the items that are on my bucket list, but there is so much more out there. Like I said earlier, my bucket list is forever growing, which means there will always be something for me to discover. I hope you also have a bucket list, and that you will share some of your ideas with me! Please leave a comment, and maybe it will inspire me to add it to my bucket list as well!

How to Make a Monthly Money Plan

 

I would like to think of myself as a pretty organized person, and one of the areas that I actually look forward to organizing is my money. I work hard for my money, and I like to know where it will be going, and exactly how much I will have left over once all of my bills are paid. The way I do this really doesn’t take up much time at all. You just need to put in about 1hour of time, and then you will have your money planned out for the next year!

How exactly do I do this? First, I will write down all of my monthly bills, what they are for, and when they are due. For instance, my BofA credit card bill is due on the 7^th of every month, no matter what. Then I will make a list of all of the dates that I will be getting a paycheck. From there, I make a little chart of each paycheck. Personally, I like to handwrite everything, but you can also do a document on the computer if that is what you prefer to do. Here is an example for what you should have so far:

Bills                                                                      Paychecks

• Gym Membership – 2nd                                    May 20^th
• Rent – 5th                                                                                 June 3rd
• B of A Credit Card – 7^th                                      June 17th
• Trip – 24^th                                                                                July 1^st
• Spending Money – each paycheck                  July 15th

 

 

 

You will have different bills to pay, and also different paycheck dates, but this should at least give you an idea of how to organize your money so far. From here, we get into the good stuff. We will now be writing out what needs to be paid with each paycheck, and then we can add any extra expenses you think may be needed for that month (like maybe a gift for father’s day). Let’s get started with the May 20^th paycheck!

Start by looking at your paycheck date, and then what needs to be paid between that date, and the next paycheck you will be receiving. In this case, we need to make sure that we set aside money to pay for the gym membership, the trip, and spending money.

 

May 20^th

• Gym Membership – $40
• Trip – $310
• Spending Money – $100

          Total – $450

 

 

So now we know that for the paycheck on May 20^th, we will need to set aside $450.00 to make sure all of the bills are paid. If you have a job like mine in retail, the paycheck will vary, so that is why I do my money planning this way. Once I am able to see how much my actual paycheck will be I can deduct $450.00, and know exactly how much I will have left over.

I love planning out my paychecks, because I like to be in control, especially when it is over something as important as money. Now there might be some months when you know that you will have to put money out for something that doesn’t occur monthly, like a gift for dad on father’s day (June 19^th). All you have to do is add that into your budget when writing it out.

Let me write out a few more months’ worth of budget planning to show exactly what I mean!

 

June 3^rd

• Rent – $400
• B of A – $100
• Spending Money – $100
• Gift for Dad – $100

          Total – $700

                           

 June 17^th

• Gym Membership – $40
• Trip – $310
• Spending Money – $100

          Total – $450

 

  July 1^st

• Rent – $400
• B of A – $100
• Spending Money – $100

     Total – $600

 

 July 15^th

• Gym Membership – $40
• Trip – $310
• Spending Money – $100

       Total – $450

 

 

          As you can see, this is a simple way to plan out what you will need to pay each month to make sure your bills are covered. From my example, the June 3^rd paycheck total comes out to be quite a bit more than the rest of the paychecks. If you write your monthly expenses out, it will help you plan if you need to save up any money from other paychecks in order to help with the bigger monthly expenses that may be coming up.

I promise, I write out and plan my monthly expenses for every month in advance using this system! Sometimes things change, and all you need to do is either add or take away that expense, and it only takes a couple of minutes! You can truly plan out an entire year of finances in under an hour if you sit down and do it all at once. I hope that you do give this a try, and if you do, please leave comments on how it worked for you!

 

This is only my second post, but it will be a bit of a personal one. Tomorrow, May 9^th, I will be turning 22 years old. While I know that I am still young, and there is so much to look forward to, I feel as though I am having a midlife crisis… or maybe a quarter life crisis. I feel like I am just stuck in the same place, and that I am not where I should be by now.  

My career of choice is Pharmacy, and unlike most programs where you come out with a doctorate degree, pharmacy school does not require you to have a degree before being accepted. This has its pros, but it also has its cons. The pros are obviously, school is only 6 – 7 years instead of a minimum of 8, but the main con is I don’t get to walk and attend graduation when all of my friends do. 2016 was my year to graduate, but instead of decorating my cap, and having the celebrations like I did four years ago, I still have three more years of school to go. This is honestly the main reason I have been having my quarter life crisis, and I know that I am doing what I need to be doing with school, but it is still really hard to sit back and watch the people I graduated with four years ago graduating this year.

So what am I doing to fix the way I feel about this? Easy! I am focusing on two very important things; myself and my future. Whenever I am feeling down about something when I know I shouldn’t be I do something that I know will cheer me up. Of course what you do will depend on what you like, but some of the things I like to do are:

• Go Ice Skating
• Get a pedicure
• Take a mini vacation (a weekend road trip is great!)
• Check something off my bucket list
• Spend time with my friends
• Watch a movie that I love ( my go to is always Just Go With It)
• Call someone who makes me happy
• Take a bath
• And if all else fails, take a nap

 

There are more options out there but these are a few of my favorites. Whenever I am feeling down, I will make sure to take the time out of my day, and just do something for myself. Everybody deserves to do this every now and then, and nobody should feel bad for doing something that will cheer you up and make you happy!

Now to get to the second item, focus on your future! No matter what your situation may be, the future will always be brighter. You could feel that your life is unraveling, and that everything is going wrong, but focusing on your future will cheer you up, I promise. There are so many aspects to your future that you could be focusing on such as graduating, taking a vacation, starting a new job, moving to a new place, the possibilities are truly endless. Once you think of what you want to focus on, just write down some things you are excited for about your future, and maybe make a plan on how you are going to get there. Personally, I am going on a pretty exciting vacation in 8 months (I will write about that in a future post!), and when I feel down, I will make a list of things I need for my trip before I go, and what I want to do while I am there. It really helps calm me down to know that I will be doing something so exciting and wonderful soon, and that I just have to  wait a little longer before I go.

We all get into a funk sometimes, but what matters is how you handle the situation. You can either choose to do something that will make you happy, or you can let it grow out of control and take over your life.

 

I would love to hear what you guys do to help feel better when you just seem to be in a funk! Please comment below with your ideas!

Hello! Welcome to A Blonde Perspective! This will be my first blog post. I am so extremely excited to get this started and see where it goes!

 

Let’s get things started by telling you a little about myself. I’m Briana, blonde, and 22. I live in Tucson, Az, and I am currently in school to become a pharmacist. Why pharmacy you ask? Well, for one, people will always be in need of medication, but more than that, it is amazing to me that we can be doing research on a medication or disease one day, and within a small amount of time, can have something that helps with the disease, or even a cure for it. The technology is always changing, and I will forever be learning when it comes to my career.

As far as my hobbies, I love to travel, learn new things, watch hockey and baseball (Let’s go Bruins and Red Sox!), hang out with my friends, and overall just have a good time. Another hobby of mine is figure skating. My parents signed me up for the Learn To Skate program when I was just 18 months old, and it has been a part of my life ever since. Nowadays, we don’t have a rink in Tucson, so I have to settle with skating whenever I have time to go to Phoenix, but I could never imagine skating not being part of my life, so I don’t mind the sacrifice.

Now, to get to the reason why we are all here! What exactly is A Blonde Perspective? My vision for this website is to be a lifestyle blog, where I will talk about anything and everything! Nothing will be off limits, and if I see a lot of people are requesting a certain topic, I will do my research in the real world, and get back to you with my experience and opinion. I also want to make this website a space where people can ask questions, and be able to get feedback from other readers and even myself! Along with my blog posts, I will have a forum set up, and everyone will be able to state their own opinions on situations for other readers. I will also have a Top 10 Weekly section which will be where I personally will pick 10 of the questions I have received from that week, and feature them, along with my advice, which of course will be from A Blonde Perspective.

My first blog post is out of the way, and I am so excited to see what comes of this! It is the first time that I have ever done something like this, and I know that I will probably make A LOT of mistakes, but what would life be like if you didn’t try anything new right? So here is to trying out new things, and not being afraid to make mistakes in the process.

 

 

XOXO