Hello! It still hasn't completely sunk in that this is 2016! How crazy! Now to get through the winter doldrums that always seem to follow the holidays.
I'm not big on New Year's Resolutions, but the start of the new year seemed like as good a time as any to make some major changes to Megan Saving Money. In the last year, I've posted a couple couponing haul posts, but I've decided that I want to redirect this blog to be more about personal finance instead of couponing. Couponing will remain part of my personal finance plan, but I don't think I will be making full posts about it anyway.
So what will I be posting? Well, starting this month, I will be tracking my spending, so I plan on posting about that monthly. Beyond that, I'll be posting about ways I will be saving more money (and making more money to then also save).
How am I planning to earn/save money this year?
1. Coupons and rebates - The savings from this are not as large as shows like Extreme Couponing would have you believe, especially if you don't want to live on junk food, but I truly believe it makes a difference to my grocery bill.
2. Sweepstakes - There are so many giveaways on various blogs across the internet, not to mention giveaways directly from companies. This is a bit tougher for me as a Canadian, since many giveaways are US only. I don't think this is the most effient way to make money, but it's worth a try. I'm going to focus on Paypal cash giveaways (which are more competitive) and giveaways on smaller blogs (which are less competitive). Be careful on this that you don't end up a lot of clutter Megan!
3. Online surveys - I read about people making some decent money on this. It has always seemed to me to be more time consuming than it's worth, but I've been doing them on a new website/app called Caddle along with rebates and it's motivated me to try them again.
4. Investing - I consider myself a quite frugal person, but investing is definitely an area of finance that I don't know enough about.
Why am I saving? Well, the ultimate goal would be to retire from working for The Man. A more short-term goal is to save up enough for a down payment on a house. Houses are pretty expensive in my area (something I'm reminded of whenever I watch House Hunters), so this isn't an insignificant amount. But I can't wait to be paying my own mortgage instead of paying rent into someone else's pocket.
