Wow! We are officially halfway through the first month of the year! One of my goals for this year was to share how I live below my means and hold myself accountable. If you missed my first financial post – take a second to read it here so you can understand my approach to “Adulting on an Allowance”.

I started off this month with an Adulting Allowance of $600 – the goal being not to spend beyond that amount. Anytime I have swiped my card for lunch, gas, or picked up a random item – I have quickly keyed the amount into my Simple Budget App. I love this because I can see trends over time and understand my personal spending habits.

As of January 16th – I have an Adulting Allowance balance of $354! Not bad at all!!!

The majority of my money has gone to – gas. In second place is the date category – I spent $66 for an April date with my husband  – I am taking us to a concert. In third place is eating out  – basically my lunches and random we hungry, don’t feel like cooking family fast food meals. 🙂

Typically food would be my #1 or #2 highest category. At work – I had a blessing come up at the start of the year! I received $90 meal dollars on my work badge as we have lots of working lunches. I have been using this “free” badge money on days where I have not brought my left overs. Next month – I am going to have to get my life together and diligently bring my lunch – because that $90 has dwindled.

For the remainder of the month – I know I will have to spend the remainder of my Adulting Allowance on:

• Birthday gift & dinner to celebrate my husband (estimated $200) – maybe less 🙂
• Gas (estimated $60) – currently my tank is full and should last a week
• Eating Out (estimated $50) – maybe less 🙂

These estimates show me that I really only have about $40 dollars of play money available for myself. I am cutting it very very close! I am not going to let myself go over without putting in some effort to increase my coins.

Soooo, I have gotten back into:

Market Research Studies

I highly suggest looking up ones that are in your area. Basically the company will email me surveys – I take them and pray really hard that I will be scheduled to come to the facility 20 mins away from me. I will usually taste & review food (yummy) and get paid $40 dollars for 45 minutes of my on site time . I don’t side-eye $40 dollars – that is a lot to me – because that is more than a tank of gas! There have been times where I have participated in a 3 day wine tasting study (held in the evenings) – I received $175 and my required designated driver $75. Shoot, one time I showed up to a study late and they no longer required my participation – I still walked out with $200! Paid for being late & not adding value to a focus a group! Umm yea this is real life! Look into it 🙂

There are so many ways to put yourself in a position to get some extra cash. I will let you guys know if I get called in for a study (fingers crossed) and share I how I use the funds.

I hope that your Adulting on an Allowance journey is going well! If you feel that you are already over – do not beat yourself up. Understand your situation and look for ways to help yourself out by either securing some extra funds or reducing personal spend (where possible). 

I’d love to hear how you are doing and knowledge share!

Peace & Blessings,

Lonisa