Looking for quick cash? check the garbage

I feel like I’ve been here [ cash strapped ] too many times to count. It’s degrading to have to turn down every social opportunity and ‘sorry, i can’t afford _____’ gets old really fast when you have to say it over and over. But I think I’m also tired of waiting until I get here to look for opportunities to find quick cash [ extremely qualified 34 year old babysitter anyone? ], when I could be looking for quick ways to save cash before I crash and burn.

I’ve been finding myself repeatedly mind-blown lately when I think about the things we spend money on so we can throw them away. I know – that can’t be you right? But I’m 90% sure it is! If you think that’s BS, check out my list below : the things we pay to throw away, and the alternatives we could be using instead

• Kleenex / Paper Towels

Look, sad happens, sick happens, messy happens. Those are universal truths that you can’t argue against. But there is no royal decree saying that all noses must be wiped with disposable tissue from a box or that all spills must be cleaned with a cloth you toss when you’re done. In the olden days, grannie had a hankie in her sleeve [ kinda gross ], and you don’t have to go that far, but there are some incredibly fun alternatives you can consider if you’re interested in shaking it up. I have no idea why you WOULDN’T consider using reusable napkins / cleaning cloths now …

I am IN LOVE with these witty printed napkins from HeapsHandworks on Etsy

 

With Less Is Always More, you can buy as many or as few as you need starting around $4 each

• Feminine Hygiene [ oh god – i know ]

One cycle, one bag of garbage – easy. That’s a big environmental burden to put on the shoulders of every menstruating woman of the world which is why I’m willing to talk a bit about the gross stuff [ just a little bit – bear with me ]. Think about all the wrappings first : A tampon comes in a box, with instructions, and each one has its own wrapper, and applicator, and then gets tossed when you’re done with it. Plus, they aren’t foolproof so you need a liner as well, with it’s own set of wrapping, and it’s own life cycle of maximum one day. If you use pads, you’re taking on the eco-cost of all its innards [ i dont’ know what those gel beads are made of but they’re not organic cotton, i can tell you that for sure ].

If you haven’t yet, meet menstrual cup : it’s soft, warm, squishy, and is non-absorbent so it will not cause dryness, and its silicone edges seal against your flesh making it next to impossible for it to leak. Where you have to dispose of and insert a new tampon every 4 or 5 hours, this baby can work for twice as long. Changing the cup only requires you to remove it, dump the contents, give it a wash, and put it back in. Can you say freedom?

On light days, you may still be looking for a liner, and in that case, I’d like to suggest that you consider washable / reusable.

How cute are these liners from Country Cloth Creations?!

• Dryer Sheets

Sure they smell good, they keep your clothing soft and eat static, but at around $7 for a box of 80 you’re tossing about $.10 per load. I haven’t figured out an amazing solution for this one yet.

1. Hang dry your clothes when you can. No dryer, no dryer sheet needed.
2. I’ve heard rumblings of spritzing a piece of fabric with fabric softener and tossing it in the load – Have you tried it? Is this even a thing?
3. If your clothes are made of natural fibres, I hear that dryer balls work. They definitely cut down on dryer time and soften your clothes with their not-so-mysterious fluffing action.

Checkit these spunky and adorable dryer balls from Splat & Co

Whatever the alternative, think twice before buying them. They’re quickly making their way to the trash and I’m sure you have better uses for your hard earned money than that.

• Magazines

Sure you’re buying them to catch up on news, be inspired, learn, relax … but all of that information can be found online [ usually free ] and the internet doesn’t require cutting down trees, and doesn’t get tossed in the recycling when you’re done with it.

• Food & Food Wrap

Open your garbage. Tell me there’s no food in there. If that’s honest, I applaud you. But it’s really difficult to keep the food out; Whether you are

1. Buying the food you think you should eat which isn’t the same as the food you end up eating
2. Buying very little food and lots and lots of packaging
3. Trying to cook your own good for you food, but still ending up with tons of waste in the form of leftovers, peels, or bits that were spoiled and couldn’t be used in your masterpiece.

Nevermind the food packaging you purchased to use and throw away [ ahem, saran wrap and tin foil ]. Have you heard of the bees wax wraps yet? I haven’t gotten my hot little hands on any yet but they work just as well as any other food wrap, they are washable and reusable, and many are also biodegradable. Plus, the patterns [ oh my heart ]!

I just want to wrap EVERYTHING in this lovely organic bees wax wrap from Remarkably Reusable

• Draino

I know, ‘come on!’ right? But I had to finish off with a bang. You literally buy this sludge to pour down the drain. Do the water system and your pipes a favor and buy a plumbers snake instead.

*This is not a sponsored post and I did not benefit from highlighting any of these items. I really do believe they are cool as heck and you needed to know about them.

How Andthenwesaved.com inspired me to crush my debt

Anna Newell Jones is the creator of ANDTHENWESAVED.com. On her site, through her blog, and in her book The Spender’s Guide to Debt-Free Living, Anna inspired me through brutal honesty about how she stopped being someone who ‘kept spending even after the money was gone’ and got her sh*t together with a spending diet, foolproof debt repayment plan and a side of side-hustle, helping her ‘get from Broke to Badass. I didn’t follow every step she took on her journey, but the steps I did take helped me crush my debt way faster than I’d thought possible. A few of her brilliant tips:

Spending Fast – Cutting out non-essential spending and putting all savings on debt.

I committed to doing a Spending Fast for as long as it would take to pay off my credit card, student loans and car. I didn’t have a ton of money left owing on either of them [ Under $5000 each on my student loans and car, and under $1000 on my credit card ] but they were dragging me down, annoying me, and I was just so done with them.

What I loved so much about the Spending Fast was that I started to be creative again. I was going to have to if I didn’t want to go nuts. I had to figure out how to make the clothes I already owned work, how to get around without using my car so much, how to cook and eat good food with less money, and got back into arts and crafts using materials I already had. While I bought less, I realized I was meeting another goal I had of living greener by accident and I started to compete with myself to see how minimalist I could get.

Side Hustle – Making extra cash doing whatever finds you

Andthenwesaved.com often highlights the fact that if you can make extra cash [ cash you weren’t counting on and don’t need ] you can put it straight on debt and get ahead faster. Anna lists all the random ways she’d done it which was the boost I needed to overcome any shame at being a MA graduate with a full time job who was ready to babysit, dog walk, and rake leaves for cash. I looked for part time jobs, writing jobs, ads for yard or farm work, cleaning jobs …

Before I got too far into the abyss of random tasks for cash I found a family who needed some one-on-one support for their 28 year old son. I got to start making an extra $30 – $40 each weekend for playing with someone, taking him out and having adventures. That $120 went straight to debt each month and I had found a way to get paid to have fun.

At the same time I was still making projects at home – sewing little doodads, and painting dishes, doing paper crafts. My friend Robin started a small local market outside a grocery store in town and I gathered my 5 seconds of bravery asking her if I could put in a table. Every second Friday I would go to sell [ not very many ] items and come home with $20 – $150 that I would take straight to the bank and put on my debt.

One of the vendors, Yolanda [ who is the mastermind children’s fashion genius behind  Nest and Nurture ] and I quickly became two weirdos who were meant to be friends and she approached me asking if I could help her out with sewing. Thus birthing side hustle #3.

Debt Snowball – Paying your debts down in order of highest interest rate to lowest; continuing to include each debt’s minimum payment in your repayment plan [ along with all the extra money you’ve saved & earned ] to snowball your impact

I’d read a few ways to try to snowball debt and pay it down quickly:

• Starting with the debt that has the smallest amount owing
• Starting with the opposite and putting all payments into the debt with the highest amount owing
• Consolidate it into a line of credit with a low interest rate and put all your money into paying it off

But I decided to try Anna Newell Jones’ suggestion from The Spender’s Guide to Debt Free Living and within 6 months of starting the journey, I’d gotten myself free and clear!

Disclaimer: I know I sound like a total groupie in this post and no, it is not sponsored. I’d read The Wealthy Barber and tried to follow the advice that some other gurus have, and I didn’t feel as jazzed or familiar as when I followed Andthenwesaved.com and Anna Newell Jones. So I guess I AM a groupie. A financially healthy one.

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