$ money money money $

I've really liked reading some of the posts I've come across of things different bloggers I read are doing to save money. I thought I'd share a few of the things I've been doing lately to save myself some $.

Some of these changes are super recent, as in since I've gotten an apartment alone and no longer have a roommate to split 1/2 the bills w/, and some have been changes I've made over the past few years. I made better $ at my first job out of college, but we lost our funding {it was devestating} so that left me pretty much scrambling to take what I could get job wise, so I took a pay cut when I came to my current job in 2009. Yes, it was HARD to take a pay cut, but plenty of people have had to in this economy. Luckily, I've found some ways to make my $ stretch!

1. One of the first changes I made when I took a pay cut was starting to buy makeup at WalMart and CVS. When I was in college I discovered Benefit and it was ALL I bought from then on out. Of course in college I worked for disposable income and NOT to pay bills (hello student loan, I hate you). I had to discontinue that (although sometimes I will still splurge on Hoola bronzer or Erase Paste-loove Erase Paste for undereye circles/darkness) and go drugstore on my makeup. Overall it has not been bad at all and I think most drugstore makeup works just as well! I think this bronzer from e.l.f. is about as good as Benefit's Hoola. And the best part is it's $3!! Can't beat that. My verdict is that department store makeup is just not worth it.

2. My biggest change of late has been letting an extended digital cable package with onDemand go. To me saving $ was worth letting channels go (although I miss being about to watch The Young and the Restless after work). I feel like I'm at work for most of the day anyways, not at home watching TV, so why have a million channels? Plus, most of the shows I want to watch are on regular old channels, such as The Bachelor and American Idol.

3. The other change of late was that I decided to sell a lot of my old pageant stuff. I realized as much as fashion and fads change and come and go, I have to part with it now or it will become dated. No time like the present, right? There was a lot of pageant stuff I was hanging onto for absolutely no reason. I've aged out of pageants and it won't be getting used again. There are a few dresses I have that I will never ever part with because of the sentimental value, but lots of other stuff can go! I've already sold a pageant swimsuit on eBay and it felt good to earn some $!! In the coming weeks I'm going to list more of my pageant stuff on eBay and hopefully get some new clothes and spending $ for my trip to the Virgin Islands.

Hopefully someone found this helpful!! If so I might try to do it again in a few weeks. Let me know what money saving tips you all have!

Be thrifty!