Living on a Prayer and $1200.00

Every week presents new and sometimes exciting challenges as a single individual who only makes $1200.00 a month. This is an AmeriCorps stipend that we receive and will never be more or less than 1200....even if I work 60 hours a week at the high school. Since AmeriCorps is meant to include the challenge of living on less and with less, a good amount of our stipend goes to rent and utilities. Here is a quick breakdown of my tracked average monthly expenses :

Rent: $450.00

Utilities: $130.00

Cell Phone Bill: $60.00

Groceries $150.00

"fun money" and/or Amazon $50.00

Soooooo if you fine people do not want to do that math.......after taking in 1200 dollars, I end up spending about 800-900 dollars that I spend on living expenses and money that I spend going out for a drink, paying to go on trips and general extra expenses...ladies you know what I'm talking about. And this number some months can be higher(for example I bought a 400 plane ticket to go to Anchorage in March) and sometimes if the lord is looking out for me....lower. Coming out of college, I was living with a meal plan, hosing paid for, and I was still on a line of my family cell phone plan. I tend to think about slowly becoming financially independent like a series of podcasts, all with their own title and story.

Ep 1: AT&T and Me

It was a long day from what I remember. They say people try to block the dramatic memories out of their heads. Well that it what I have done with my mind not wanting to remember negotiating and driving all over Long Island for the AT&T store that world honor the deal that the COMMERCIALS ON TV were offering. It was a simple 55 dollar a month for unlimited talk, text and data. which is what your girl needed as moving to Alaska meant that having wifi was a gamble. Finally after visiting several stores, the one in the mall(once again the mall pulling through) was so straight forward and even gave me a student discount on the plan. The only bump was having to buy an AT&T phone. So after having the 6..it was back to the 5SE since that phone was only 100 dollars after them giving me a student discount on it. Really god bless these people who definitely bought onto my struggles of the day. So after 9 years of having my cellphone paid for and never having a care in the world about never going over texting limits...I finally had to negotiate for unlimited texting. So now I pay about 60 dollars a month for unlimited everything. Adulthood here I come.

Ep. 2:The Backpack Method

Some of you may be a little concerned that I refuse to spend more than $150.00 dollars total on groceries each month. How do I accomplish that you ask? First, I ride a bike or walk EVERYWHERE. So it is just me and my north face backpack that some may think I spent a little too much money on in college... Well, jokes on you. As my mom would say I got my "fun per dollar" out of the backpack. Using it everyday fro the past 1,460 days. This means that the 85 dollars I spent on a back pack has given me its worth and more. So, back to the supermarket…I only buy what fits in my backpack. This means that I buy one bag of potatoes, a bag of rice, one package of chicken, 2 bell peppers, one onion, a small bottle of coffee creamer, a small container of milk and any other vegetables on sale that I know will fit in the bag. So typically I will not spend more than 65 dollars each grocery tip and with the busy schedule that I have I only go food sopping about 2 times a month. My rule is also to eat until the shelf I have in the fridge is empty. In all, the method that I started using has not only helped me to eat on a budget and meal prep but also really focus on the things that are healthy and I want to eat and are the most versatile in cooking. Also, I am human who definitely likes a treat and will most definitely spend some extra on ice pops or something special that I want of dinner like burgers, granola bars for school or a cookie. But this method I have found to be the most foolproof way to not spend a million dollars in a supermarket where OJ is 9 dollars and Cheerios is 12 dollars. Which is another reason that amazon pantry is awesome where I can order shampoo/conditioner bathroom products, face wash, and cereal. In all...food in Sitka is extremely expensive so if anyone would like so send me snacks, please and thank you. Many of the AmeriCoprs members are on food stamps...but it was my goal to not be on them and learn how to properly budget.

Ep3. Golden Rule #1 Only Bring 10 dollars to the bar and you can ONLY go out 2x a month(if you are lucky).

It is the age old issue the fear of missing out commonly known as FOMO. You have it, I have it, we all have a case of the FOMO every now and then when there is a super cool jonas brothers concert that we all want to go to or when all of you friends are living lavish life in post grad and there you are in South East Alaska solving the problems of angsty teens and your idea of a night out is boxed wine, a movie and maybe...just maybe food you did not meal prep. However in Sitka, FOMO can be a real thing when sometimes all you have to do on the weekend is plan a party surrounded by the fact that for the first time in their apartment your friends are turning the heat on. Yes, this was a real thing. But with that party comes having to supply your own booze, as any adult should. So it is FOMO while you are sitting in your room surfing the newest Netflix special or pay to have fun if you chose to want alcohol. But price wise, going halfsies on a box of wine, means 10 per person and you are set for the gathering. So thus the golden rule of NEVER bringing a credit or debit card to the bars and only bringing 10 dollars in cash not only keeps your saving in the positives, but also limited the amount of tipsy bike rides you have to do.

Ep4. We shall live in darkness until morale and bank funds improve

If you guys have not noticed the general theme about living in Sitka..is that everything from the food we eat, the actives that we do and general living expenses are expensive. This also means that the house bills can also be a tad bit high to combat us seeing our breath. Typically we all pay 130 each between splitting internet and utilities. Our internet is around 150.00 but one roommate pays more since he has a TV and video games. My other roommate and I pay 30 each for internet and the other 100 goes to utilities. In the spirit of not going over 100 per person, we chose to live in the darkness most of the time, which is not as bad as it sounds when I discovered battery operated string lights. The heat is the real thing that we will sometimes give each other the side eye about...but "just go put a jacket on" is definitely something that is used on more than one occasion so we do not have to turn the heat on. We keep telling ourselves that it has helped keep the bill under 100 per person but who really knows.

Through this process and the past 6 moths I have learned that you could read 100+ blogs and posts on Pinterest about the best budgeting method. But everyone is different so it definitely took time to figure out what worked and what did not in order to save about 200 a month.

Have a lit day fam,

Ashley

Weather update, still cold, still wet, Xtra Tuff if you would like to sponsor me...please do so.