motivation Archives - the frugal millionaire

Tips on Streamlining Your Life and Business

Mamas!

Do you feel overwhelmed at times? Whether you work or stay home, having kids while maintaining a house, cooking, cleaning, running errands, keeping up with school functions and more can take its toll. Add in working full-time or working for yourself, and you’ve most certainly got your hands full.

I’m a working mom of two toddlers (and one on the way!). While I’m incredibly thankful that my schedule is flexible and allows me to mostly work from home, I do still put in a good 40 hours per week at the ‘ol office job. I also try my best to keep up with this blog, make sure my kids have clean laundry and get food on the table each night. If I were to be completely honest, the dinner part is my biggest struggle. We always eat, of course, but I don’t always have a plan and we sometimes have eggs, chicken nuggets, yogurt, or a combination of the aforementioned.

Eventually, I would like my blog to become my full-time business. With a baby on the way, this probably won’t happen for a few years, but I’m hopeful nonetheless. I wanted to provide anyone who might be in the same situation with some tips on how I am currently streamlining my life and my business for future (and current) success.

How to Stay Motivated When You First Start Blogging

When you first start out blogging, you probably have a few weeks or months worth of material that you want to write about. It’s hard to start out at first, but once you get into a groove, creating content becomes second-nature. However, it’s very normal after a few months of blogging to wonder, “Why did I start this blog again?” “I feel like no one is reading it except my mom,” and “I don’t know if this was worth it.”

I am here to tell you that it IS worth it!!!

As my regular readers know, I did not start my blog as a hobby. While I’ve made some wonderful friends and love the blogging community more than ever, my primary reason for starting a blog was to earn an income. (Do you want to do the same? Read my tutorial here on how to start a profitable blog. You’ll receive a discount by using my link!) And, I am happy to report (2 1/2 years in!), that I finally was able to quit my full-time job to focus more on my blog! Woot! If I can do this, so you can!! Just give it time! 🙂

Here are five ways you can keep up the momentum when you first start blogging.

How to Make Time for Side Hustles

I tend to have a lot on my plate, just like all of us. I’m a wife, mom to two little girls, I work full-time, I keep my house clean regularly, I cook dinner most nights of the week and more, yet I still have time to freelance write and blog. I have a goal of making $10K per month within one year (so, by October 2016) through freelancing and blogging. That’s a l.o.t. of money, which equates to a l.o.t. of work.

One of the things I get asked is how I am able to balance all of it. Interesting fact- but I don’t feel like I work all the time. I bake something usually once a week, John and I watch TV every night before bed, I go to bed early (like I’m asleep by 9:30 early), and I never work when my girls are awake and with me. Every once in a while, John will watch them for an hour or so on a weekend morning, but for the most part I like to be with them and fully engaged when they’re up.

Here’s Why We Upsized Our House

We recently purchased a house – a big, beautiful home in an awesome neighborhood with an incredible lot. We by no means maxed out our budget, but this was at the very high end of what we wanted to spend. We’ve been here roughly two weeks now, and I can honestly say that this was a great decision for our family.

When we first moved to Charlotte, our goal was to downsize and simplify our lives. All the talk nowadays seems to be on downsizing and living simply. Trust me, I can get on board with that and understand why people want less bills, less stuff and less to take care of. In just our two weekends here, we’ve been swamped with errands and chores. But honestly? I like that! I still relax, but I kind of enjoy the fast-paced lifestyle of working FT, freelancing on the side, being a mom and wife, taking care of the house and more. I’m never bored, and that is a huge blessing!

Review: Make Over Your Mornings

Well guys, I’ve completed Crystal Paine’s Make Over Your Mornings course as of today. The course is NOT just about getting up earlier, though I will say that I AM waking up earlier than normal (by choice). The course is about prioritizing your day, allowing yourself time to relax, setting goals for yourself and accomplishing them bit by bit, creating an effective to-do list and more!

First of all, I loved the course. But, I’m a long-time reader of Money Saving Mom and I love Crystal Paine! One of the main reasons I bought the course was because you get a peak into her life! The course is 14 days, and all 14 days include a chapter to read, a task out of a workbook and a video from Crystal (my favorite part!).Continue Reading

Let’s talk resolutions…

Being completely honest, I’m big on setting New Year’s resolutions but not that big on keeping them. Normally, our goals are huge – get married, buy a house, save $10K, get pregnant, etc. I can happily say that we normally accomplish these goals, but gosh – I don’t want anything big to happen in 2015! I want to be content and lay low this next year.

Starting with 2011, here’s how our past four years have looked in a nutshell:

2011: Got engaged, got married, got pregnant, started living off one income, bought a house

2012: Moved into house, had a baby, got pregnant again

2013: John started a new job, we had another baby, I had my best year yet freelancing

2014: Moved across the country from AZ to NC

My dream home

One of the reasons we moved to North Carolina was for more affordable housing prices. If you compare a $200K house in Arizona to a $200K house here, you do get more for your money in the sense that you get more land and probably more square footage, but other than that it’s basically the same. The neighborhoods aren’t the nicest in both places, but they’re also not the worst. Where we live, I feel like there are sooo many more “nice” neighborhoods than average ones. I used to think I would be really happy in a small, very inexpensive little home on a lot of land. While that is still true, I’m not going to lie…I kind of want one of those really nice houses in my dream neighborhood (!!).

5 Ways to stay motivated when working from home

Working from home definitely comes with it’s fair share of challenges. I have two little kids (read a typical day in my life here) and I recently wrote a post on how to be productive when working from home with kids. I stay productive in a number of ways – I try to wake up early so I can get a jump-start on my day, I tire the girls out in the morning with an activity that way they’re (more likely) to take a solid, very necessary, afternoon nap, I always work ahead of time and I work every single day. Yup, even weekends (I’m trying to give myself one “rest” day, though).