Thriftism

It's time for another monthly budget update!! We missed doing a YouTube video on this so far, but we made it happen this month. For a quick reminder, we run our budget solely on my income of $2,400/ month or $1,200 every other week. This would be a gross income of $31,200. We do not include health insurance costs on here as we are currently covered by our jobs, but we also don't include potential costs as if you were a married couple making $31,200/ year, you would qualify for free or nearly free health insurance. This budget also doesn't include most of our discretionary spending such as travel and home renovations, but does include all of our entertainment and eating out costs. It is our essentials budget that we could live on without any additional spending. The Budget Our goal budget is balanced with total income minus expenses equal to zero. Numbers in red are spending, while black is income. The green background indicates under on within the budget. Red fil...

Falafel is a wonderful middle eastern recipe that offers bold flavors and class while providing a budget friendly alternative to meat. We combined our falafel in place of the chicken in our Halal Cart style Chicken and Rice. See Recipe here or watch the video below. We also switched out frying the falafel to cooking in the air fryer to cut out the greasiness and make the recipe even easier to make. Ingredients 2 Cup Chickpeas (Aldi) 2 Cup Onions (Aldi) 4 Cloves Garlic (Sams Club) 2 Tbsp Cilantro (Home Grown) 2 Tbsp Parsley (Aldi) 1 tsp Salt (Sams Club) 2 tsp Crushed Red Pepper 1 tsp Cumin 1 tsp Baking Powder 3 Tbsp Flour  CONNECT WITH US! FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/thriftism/ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/Thriftism Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thriftism_lifestyle/ How to Make Begin by rinsing your dried chickpeas/garbanzo beans before combining with your onion in a food processor or blender. Process until finely chopped, but not puree...

As we mentioned at the beginning of January, we are going to post monthly budget updates- So here we are! For a quick reminder, we run our budget off of solely my income of $1200 every two weeks, however this is after insurance is taken out. If this was your total household income, you would gross around $34,000/year and be in the 15% tax bracket. If you were in this tax bracket as a married couple, you would likely qualify for free or nearly free insurance so we won't need to up our budget in that area at this point. This budget also does not include much of our discretionary spending such as travel and home renovations, but it is our essentials budget that we could live on without anything else. The Budget As you can see from the table above, our goal budget is balanced with total income minus expenses equal to zero. Number in red are spending, while black is income. WINS ✔ If you compare this post to the one we did in January, you might notice we added two...

**Please excuse the formatting - blogger is not cooperating and for some reason will not let me use default colors for this post. This will be fixed for next month's goals post** Every year we set goals to improve ourselves, our situations, or to help those around us. While setting goals is the first step (as Tony Robbins said in the quote above), accountability is what holds us to these goals and pushes us to achieve them.  This is our February Goals Report. Financial Goals Gain employment (Race) 🗹 Race signed a job offer in mid January and had his first day of work January 31.  Save 50% of our income For the first two months of the year, we saved 72% of our income if you include the mortgage, but only 36% not including the mortgage. So either we are not quite there, or really overachieving depending on how you look at it. We have been counting the mortgage as saving since it is increasing our net worth, but will continue to provide both numbers. Our bu...

Located one block north of the Malecon on Venezuela, this quaint restaurant will blow you away. Enjoy outdoor seating to watch the passersby or step inside and watch the bartender at work on your drinks. The location is very convenient, nearby several attractions, but offers more budget friendly options than places located on the Malecon. A variety of options are available for lunch and supper ranging from snack style food to a full plate of fajitas. Our favorite was the shrimp ceviche which we would highly recommend. Be careful of the extra spicy hot sauce - it is in fact EXTRA SPICY!  $1 drink specials are available every day, but it will be well worth while to spring for the margaritas at $2.50 or 45 pesos. We have stopped quite a few places during our travels to Mexico and have yet to find a place to rival these margaritas.  Plus the margaritas are muy grande and well worth your $2.50 by sheer size alone, not to mention the flavor.  ...

Ingredients 1 Cup Sugar (Sam's Club) 1 Can Sweetened Condensed Milk (Aldi) 1 Can Evaporated Milk (Aldi or make your own, see video below) 3 Eggs (Target) 1-2 Tbsp Vanilla Extract Preheat oven to 350. Melt sugar in sauce pan over low-medium heat stirring constantly.  Pour into 9" baking pan and swirl caramelized sugar to cover bottom and sides of dish. Beat eggs, add evaporated milk, condensed milk, and vanilla extract and mix thoroughly. Pour into baking dish. Bake at 350 for ~45-60 minutes or until set (toothpick comes out clean). Chill minimum 2 hours, but ideally 6-24 hours before serving. Serve cold.  Makes 8 Servings Per Serving: 349 calories, 9.7g fat, 56.7g carbohydrates, 9.5g protein, 100mg cholesterol, 139mg sodium. We halved the servings (to make 16 servings) since the dessert was very rich and we had eaten a huge meal. This was a hit with everyone from young (2) to older (not at liberty to say 🙊) and we will be making this one ...

Investing can seem scary and out of reach for the average person. It doesn't have to be this way! Commission fees and minimum investing amounts have dropped significantly over the last several years. In fact, with Robin Hood (free app) you can start buying stocks for free (no commission fees). While this may not take the scariness out of investing, it might minimize it due to the small dollar amounts you are working with. Scroll to the heading FREE STOCK to find out how to get an absolutely free stock right now. Really, really. I included a picture of the free stock I got when signing up! No Minimums There is no minimum when working with Robin Hood. Unlike larger companies or investment firms that require anywhere from $500 - $10,000 to open an account, Robin Hood had no requirements besides having funds available for the stocks you wish to purchase. Start with $10 or $20 to get comfortable with the idea of investing. If you don't like the idea of buying single stocks, use ...