How to Live Large on an Entry Level Budget

How to Live Large on an Entry Level BudgetYouve finally landed an entry level job and everything has been going well.Youve gotten your first pay stub and youre excited and ready to go out and spend that money on extravagant items. BUT WAIT, theres one thing you forgotyouve got bills to pay Now you find yourself in a position where you have to create a budgetso that you dont spend yourmoney carelessly. Being an adult is tough work, but if you follow these 6 steps, you can develop an effective budget that will leave money in your pocket while still living large googletag.cmd.push(function() googletag.display(div-gpt-ad-1467144145037-0) ) 1.Plan your budgetThe first, fruchtwein obvious, step, is to make a budget. Mint is a great app that helps you track what you have coming in and where it goes where you spend it. It nudges you to remember to save some money for fun things like entertainment, but also helps you save for large purchases or even retirement investments.2. Rent cheaper apa rtmentsYou have to live somewhere and it can be tempting to plattl the coolest neighborhood or the shortest commute, near where your friends live or right by your favorite music venue. But casting your net a bit wider, geographically speaking, may help you maximize your floor plan while minimizing your monthly rent expenses.3.Cook your own foodReal Talk My first year of employment and New York living, the Chinese takeout near me knew my out-of-state area code and order so well theyd answer the phone with, Yes, Virginia, steamed dumplings and? It was not a good look. As a newly fledged adult Ive learned to cook the basicsproteins, pasta, roasted vegetables. Salt and pepper. Cooking even the simplest things is better for you than living on leftoversand making smart (cheap) choices for breakfast and lunch lets you save a few bucks for a nice meal out now and then.4. Work on your bargain hunting skillsGet to know the stores that take consignment or accept trades. Sell back old textbooks . Build up your eBay skills so your listings are polished and professional, and see how your collectible former fads fare on the resale market.5.Enjoy the FREE festivitiesMuseums and libraries are your new best friends outdoor concerts are your bread and butter. Gallery openings, tourist offerings, offseason events with discounted fees, and of course apps like Groupon can all help you make the most out of that limited entertainment budget Mint helped you set aside6. Take advantage of company perksThis will all depend on where youre working, but often corporate employers have partnerships with entertainment venues, fitness centers, or educational organizations. They may even offer public transit rebates Figure out how to make the most out of your employers strategic alliances to secure experiences or goods and services that make your life betterAnd finally, remember that this too shall passevery annual review is a chance for a cost of living increase or a title bump. Eventually you w ill look back and wonder how you saved up all this moneyand itll be because you developed responsible habits when you didnt have much to spend.

Why Working Moms Should Take Care Of Themselves

Why Working Moms Should Take Care Of Themselves Lately my daughter, who is two and a half, has been telling me she is going to grow up into a mommy. Shes pumped. She alternates between cramming zu sich favorite baby doll into her shirt a.k.a. tummy, and tying it onto her body with a blanket fashioned into a carrier. She knows the origin story of each one of her fifty stuffed animals, and attends to them at every opportunity. She naps them, sings to them, feeds and bathes them. She cuddles them. She loves them.We have the biology to nurture. Modern parenthood, though, is about so much mora than that. What my daughter doesnt do is try to juggle a pretend household, career, or partnership while attending to her pretend children. She doesnt ponder her shifting identity or body image. She doesnt feel guilty. For all we learn about growing up, the reinvention of urselves when we become mothers isnt something we are prepared for.We are not born knowing how to be a mom in a society that reli es on two incomes per household, or requires a return to a full time job within weeks of giving birth, or a career as an essential part of ones identity, or simply moving at the pace that many of us move at, while alsobeing a mom. And we have no one to learn from, because no other generation has done it yet in a way that truly works.What gets lost is that the evolution of motherhood that we face involves an outside job and an inside job.Communally, we focus on the outside job. Its a biggie. The logistics and policies surrounding motherhood parenthood are mammoth. Even writing from the maternity leave haven of Canada, where twelve months of government supported leave is the law (with a revolutionary eighteen months in the works), paid parental leave and job security is a game changer. Jessica Shortalls powerful We talk about career pivots, workplace culture, and the labyrinth of life hacks that go into being a working mother. We even, finally, thankfully, talk about the systemic un dervaluing of motherhood as a fabric of our lives.Changes to the way we mother in the verfallen world are underfoot, but there is also an inside job, and it has been getting the short end of the stick. This inside job is the silent, powerful landslide of change that each woman faces in her own way as she catapults into motherhood. It could manifest as not recognizing yourself in the mirror one day, or feeling more pulled in multiple directions than you could envision in your pre-child days, or wading through the heaviness of post-partum anxiety and depression, or just not having time to tackle that beloved mummy tummy.The inside job is a big fat focus on self-care, as if your life depended on it.Ive wondered aloud more than once (and privately more than that) why we dont collectively value motherhood more. As I put together New Mom Dream Team the first resource committed entirely to maternal wellbeing I saw how the systemic issues we are trying to overcome are connected to the way we treat ourselves when we become mothers. Its hard to get moms to take good care of themselves. The best hook I know to convince a new mother to increase her self-care is that her wellbeing is the best indicator of the wellbeing of her child, both physical and mental. Its never about her.I could tell you that an even ounce of self-care will have an astounding ripple effect in all aspects of your life. Some of you would believe me, or be intrigued, but many of you will be pessimistic or too busy. I believe in you but I am also floored again and again at the resistance moms have to focusing on themselves.I could tell you what you already know that trying to have it all (code for be it all) is impossible, even miserable, if you are functioning from an empty tank.But what strikes me today more than ever is that battling for the outside shifts without mirroring those changes internally will never get us where we want to be. Its like trying to fill a bucket with a big hole in the botto m. If we dont value our role as mothers enough to care for ourselves, how can we expect others to value motherhood at workWhen my girl tells me shes growing up to become a mommy, its because she thinks its the most amazing thing she could do. I hope that when she grows up, we have evolved so that she feels the same way.Rachel Schipper is the Founder of New Mom Dream Team and a former Wall Street lawyer.Fairygodboss is committed to improving the workplace and lives of women.Join us by reviewing your employer