I attempted No Spend April a few years ago and it wasn’t the most successful thing ever? I like the sound of No Spend November and genuinely think I can make this happen. My weddings are officially done for the year but I do have some general spending to do for next year’s weddings and Christmas. This November I am aiming to not spend money on myself at all and limit my spending on other people, food, etc. I just developed a monthly calendar that shows all of my expenses, so I’ll include that here. Here’s my plan of attack. Budget / Expenses I didn’t disclose the dollar amounts here but I put them in order from most to least expensive. Yes, my student loan costs more than my half of our monthly rent. I otherwise have various payments for my car, streaming services, and more. Student loan Rent for the house Car loan Car insurance Credit card monthly payments Internet Sling TV and Netflix Blog hosting Wrestling-related streaming services Dropbox Premium Weight Watchers Rules (1) Only spend money I have on hand – nothing goes on a credit card I actually don’t have many credit cards in general: one store card, one regular one, and a Paypal Credit account that I use mostly for airline tickets and other expensive items like that. I hope to not use any of my credit accounts and focus on using my savings from the month on paying them down. (2) Dining out is […]

As you know, I’ve spent the last 11+ months living in Portland, Maine with my boyfriend. We’re from Connecticut originally and I spent 4 years living outside of Providence, Rhode Island for college. Chris never got away for school so we wanted to have a little adventure for a year, really soaking in a new place. Our time in Portland is coming to an end and I’m so incredibly grateful that we were given this opportunity. I say this because my boss let me work remotely for a full year and didn’t even blink; she’s kind of the best. Anyways! The point of this post isn’t to reminisce on what we’ve done so far, but to think ahead to when we move home in a couple of weeks (eeeek!). We’ll have a house instead of an apartment and TBH I am most excited to not share walls or floors with other people for the first time since basically high school when I lived at home with my parents. We’re moving to a very suburban (almost rural with all the farming around, I guess) area that’s a bit farther from our hometown, so there will be a lot to get used to. We’re actually going to be living 15 minutes from UConn and all of the great restaurants in that area, so I’m pumped. I started to think of all the lifestyle moves and changes I want to make that I just haven’t been able to pull off since we moved here. Everything […]

If you remember my 101 in 1001 list, I had a few book and movie-related goals. One of them was to get 15 book and movie recommendations from friends, then read/watch them all. It seems like an easy enough task to complete in order to get me out of my comfort zone and see what some of my favorite people would recommend. Here’s what I shared in my post: Ask 15 friends to suggest one book and movie; read and watch them all | I’ve seen this goal on the project’s website in a different flavor, but I brought it down to 15 people and wanted to also do movies. I know I can head right into the blogosphere for these recommendations 😉 I know that there are some friends I’ll be targeting directly for recommendations, but there’s a huge chance that people suggest books I’ve already read or movies I’ve already seen. I don’t want to say “nope I’ve read it” or “sorry I’ve seen it” to every person I ask, so I figured I would just collect as many recommendations as possible and pick out 15. I’ll make it easier on myself and allow picking one book from someone and not their movie, if I’ve already seen it, and vise versa. The recs don’t have to all come from the same person for both. (So ignore the phrasing in the initial goal, okay?) If you could recommend ONE BOOK and ONE MOVIE to me (or your go-to recommendation for everyone), what would […]

The Day Zero Project made it on my radar a few years ago when I started following Stephanie’s blog, Not Entirely Perfect. This project is where you make a list of 101 goals to complete in 1001 days, which is just under 3 years (2¾ years). It’s fun to plan out the goals you think you may have over that time frame because you can mix in easy one with more difficult long-term ones. So, I did make a list at the time and did… somewhat okay… with a lot of the goals. I ended up quitting because the goals weren’t related to my life anymore, with the move and other priorities shifting. When Stephanie posted how to make a 101 in 1001 list, I decided it was time to do it again. I think I’m ready to do it again now that my life is going to be somewhat settled in the near future lol. I started the list on December 1, 2018 so it will end on August 28, 2020. I decided to share my list here with you. Here’s my list on the website if you want to follow me or check in on my progress! Blog Make a decision for or against blog rebrand (and execute) | You know I’ve been considering this for a while. I want to make a choice and either go for it or officially decide to keep Bookmark Lit as is. Post challenge updates each calendar year during it | I want to include progress updates throughout […]

One of the things I’ve struggled with, especially since starting the blog but definitely BEFORE I had one too, is finding and successfully using a planner for an entire year. I’ve tried soooo many brands, methods, and styles, but essentially none of them stick. I’ve tried separating my three lives (blog, work, and personal) into separate ones, as well as combining them all together. Seriously… nothing works. Here’s list of posts about planners of yesteryear, in case you think any of my misery may help you. Planner-Related Struggle Bus My Planners/Organizational Series Lauren Lately ft. Do It All Planner Five on Fridays ft. Day Designer Five on Fridays ft. Happy Planner and Reading Notebook Book Bag with my Erin Condren and Foxy Dori Planners Reading Notebooks/Foxy Dori After all this trial and error, I’m here yet again to share my newest planner acquisitions that started in December of last year. So far so good and my fingers are crossed! Personal, blog, and work: Plum Paper Planner Details: Base model is $32, plus you can include extra page add-ons for around $2+ (this is for the 7×9 size) Attraction: I wanted to make sure the cover really suited me and they had plenty of options! They also had a million ways to customize it through choosing the layout and adding sooo many extra pages/sections to the planner. I like to-do lists and bill trackers, plus having the morning/afternoon/night layout. They’re incredibly similar to the Erin Condren planners and cost about $20 less. Cute […]