Fortunate Fridays {If you believe in something, never give up- Edition}

Hello Loves!

Can you believe is Friday again?! Not only that but April is half way through. Ugh! lets not even think about that.

This week was busy. Super busy. So busy I wasn't even able to post my MWM (Mid Week Motivation) post this past Wednesday so please accept my apologies for that. I will do my best so that it doesn't happen again, at least for next week.

Regardless of how busy we may get, there is always time to express gratitude. So, without further ado, I leave you with some of the many things I felt fortunate for this week:

1. Having access to a Library card and being able to read pretty much any book I can think of, for free. Below are a couple of books i've been meaning to read for quite some time and I finally got a hold of them! 

2. Family time with the kiddos at Chucky Cheese! I may or may not have been hanging out at my local CC's with family this past Friday. I also may or may not have eaten a piece of the chocolate cake that was served which was pretty delicious.

3. Hanging out with the two kids that bring the most joy to my heart

4. Quality time with one of my favorite cousins from the Dominican Republic. I grew up with him and although we haven't lived in the same country for years, our strong bond remains.

5. The feeling, internal confirmation, and manifestation of my dreams being possible. I'll talk more about this in the future. Just know one thing: never, ever, ever give up on your dreams. Ever. 

6. Bonus: The inspiration, energy, and motivation to make myself some pretty delicious dinners a few times this week. Sometimes I impress myself.

Oh! and by the way-- I had the privilege of going to the NYC International auto show this past Saturday. Fun times. Fancy cars. And everything in between. I even randomly signed myself up for a Mercedes Benz test drive. A girl can dream ;)

And that's all folks. Wishing you a phenomenal weekend!

Its supposed to be nice and sunny here in NYC on Saturday. Looking forward to that.

Tell me, have you ever attended the NYC auto show? are cars your thing? 

Love,
Mabelle

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!