How Im Easily saving HUNDREDS of dollars (Plus- a Trader Joe's Fave')

Happy Saturday! September is here and it brought some cool breezes with it. I don't mind this "cool" weather so I gotta' say "welcome fall, I've missed you". I am literally sitting here with a sweater on. And no I am not outside.

I actually just got home. Had quite a productive Saturday over at Barnes and Noble. Did some school work (yes semester has begun again for better or for worst), finished some writing assignments and did a whole lot of reading. I then proceeded to check out my local library which I had never been to in the nearly 2 years I have been living in this neighborhood and all I gotta' say is: I found my new favorite spot!!!

Ok disclaimer: I am obviously a  HUGE geek/nerd, whatever u wanna' call it, when it comes to reading books and magazines (I say obviously because a library is now on the list of my favorite places). My geek percentage increases exponentially when I find reading material in relation to my two passions: Health/Fitness and personal finance. And so, after spending my entire morning at Barnes and Noble I then spent nearly an hour at my local New York Public Library. My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I found this morning's Wall Street Journal just sitting in one of the tables. Free newspapers! Yes I am so cool!

 

So, this brings me to the title of this post: How exactly do I plan to save "HUNDREDS" of dollars from now on? Well, by taking FULL advantage of my library card. Something many of us take for granted without realizing that it can save sooooooo much money!!

 

Confessions of a cheap person: I owed about $69 in late fees from about 2 years ago which I refused to pay. Well, I decided it was time to eliminate that "debt" when I realized that it wouldn't magically disappear. Also, as cheap frugal as I am, I no longer wanted to shell out cash for books or magazines, which is what I had been doing since I was "banned" from borrowing anything from the library. So, I finally paid my fines in full and found my library card stashed away in some random purse in my apartment. Win! and win! Although $69 is a whole lot of money, I decided to change my perspective and look at it as follows:

1. A nice "donation" to my local library

2. An "investment" which will pay for itself as I will no longer be buying books, magazines, newspapers, CDs, audio books, eBooks or absolutely anything that I can possibly find at a library. Wish I could get a free meal or two there but that's probably pushing it.

So there you have it!!! And just to let you know-- the library has come a long way from the old days and they pretty much have everything you can think of. I was even able to find a book required for one of my classes this semester! The only thing that can be annoying (and I have to be honest, is not my cup of tea) is having to renew the items you borrow and keeping track of their due dates--specially me as I somehow accumulated nearly $70 in late fees; but I learned my lesson. However, aside from that, the perks of having the card really outweighs anything else (you can even renew your items online!!).

Ok this is not a public service announcement but I encourage you to take full advantage of the resources available to you. You'll be glad you did! And if you lost your card, the fee to get a new one is only $1 (I am talking about NYC but is probably similar country wide).
I left the library with all these gems. Now just gotta' find the time to squeeze in some reading. I am contemplating quitting my job:

 

After I got home I was STARVING and in serious need of grocery shopping (not a good combination). I then remembered I took a trip to trader Joes a couple of weeks ago and stocked up on one of my favorite frozen items from there:

 

 

I had this for the first time during a friend's beach outing this past summer. My friend had brought it in to share and I fell in love after the first bite. I immediately added it to my list of "things to get while at Trader Joes" (yes I have a list which also includes popular items such as almond butter and Ezequiel bread). And so, I enjoyed my veggie burger with avocado on a whole wheat tortilla with a strawberry-banana smoothie on the side:

 

I also had some yogurt with granola& flax seeds + green tea right after:

 

And now I have to get ready to leave my apartment again and run some additional errands, visit family, etc. etc. Always on the run!

As always, thanks for reading!

Tell me, do you have a library card? do you use it often? Any money-saving tips you can share? comment below!

Money Monday$!

Hello everyone! So, if you have been following my blog for a while you may know I am in to finance-- specifically personal finance and money management.

I have to say that I've always been pretty good with money. Sometimes I call myself a "money hoarder" because I go through times where ALL I do is save (after my "fixed expenses" are taken care of).

Whatever you may want to call it--- cheap, frugal--- Saving is something that I consider to be very extremely important.

I want to start a series entitled “Money Mondays” on the blog where I’ll share tips and tricks on personal finance. Sometimes the topic may seem like common sense—or friendly reminders on stuff you may have already heard before. Other times, I’ll share something new all of which you can start to implement in your daily lives for a more financially secured future.

I shall start off by sharing with you guys a simple adjustment I made to my routine since the beginning of the year and which has been saving me quite a bit of change so far.

I present you with this:

 

 

My dear mother gifted me the above pictured thermo/ insulated coffee mug sometime in mid-January. This was so perfect as I was getting kinda’ tired of handing over my money to the corner coffee guy every.single.day. So far this “investment” (as per mother, she paid $5 for it) has saved me over $100 since the beginning of the year. Talk about a nice chunk of change! I suppose I could subtract how much I’ve paid for my supermarket coffee and milk from said 'savings' but, you get the idea! *I am sure you can find a fancier or ‘nicer’ mug somewhere in the cyber world. After all, this will be an investment but for now this little thing has been perfect for me.

When I first started working in downtown Manhattan (November of 2011) I got in to this habit of buying coffee every morning. I have never been the type to buy fancy $5 coffees at Starbucks but something warm and with a bit (or a lot) of caffeine has been necessary to start my day. I would usually stick with the plain and regular cafe with milk which would cost me $1.95 per day (imagine how much YOU would save if you have a Starbucks habit).

Eliminating coffee from my daily routine was not an option so, I simply decided to find an alternative by bringing it from home and I’ve been able to make it work!

Let’s look at some numbers:

*Started: January 15

Today's date: April 8

Approximate amount of work days so far: 60

Total I would have spent of coffee per day: $1.95

Total Saved: $107 (and counting)

 

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*The 'Starbucks' or 'Fancy Coffee' habit edition

Average Starbucks cup of Joe: $4.05

Work days: 60

Total Saved: $243!!

*Try it yourself! Insert how much you've spent on a cup of coffee (tea, breakfast?)  Since January 2013 instead of bringing that from home!!

Now, I am not going to tell you to go buy a new purse or new shoes with the money you are saving. I am going to advise you to put that in your savings account (or preferably investment account) and see it grow. Maybe start funding a Roth IRA?

 

Anyway, I’m excited about this new series! Hope you liked this post! My goal is to share some good tips in relation to personal finance either every Monday or every other Monday depending on whether I have something new to share. Thanks for reading!

 

Question: In which ways do you try to save money? Any personal finance questions/topics you’d like to see featured on the blog? Let me know. I am here to serve!