How I Saved 30k in 6 Months

I wanted monies to get started investing in real estate.

I made the decision to save over $30,000 in 6 months to help me get the ball rolling on increasing my real estate holdings.

Disclosure: There are some affiliate links below and I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post at no additional cost to you.

This decision was a part of my path to financial freedom and I would need a tidy sum of money saved up to get me started.

It became known as my $30k Goal Fund.

I figured that amount would help me in purchasing a property or towards building an ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit) on my existing property.

An ADU is also commonly known as a Granny Flat or Mother in law suite and can be a great source of side income.

Above is an example of an ADU.

My first goal was to create a budget and track my spending.

Over the years, I have half-heartedly attempted budgeting but always found myself eventually letting my tracking fall by the wayside.

Then it would be months later before I thought about it again.

This time around I vowed to be different and made a firm commitment with myself to review my budget daily.

Ultimately, I did miss tracking some days, but I immediately got back ‘on track’.

After reading through financial guru Dave Ramsey’s website, I chose to use the free version of his budget tool, EveryDollar, to create my budget.

The EveryDollar.com budget tool is simple, easy to use, and most important, it was FREE.

My next step was to go through a year’s worth of my online banking statements, credit card statements, and PayPal purchases to find additional categories of spending to add in my budget.

This was an eye-opening experience to where a good portion of my monies had gone.

I concluded that I shop as a form of entertainment (not easy to admit that) after seeing multiple purchases with substantial amounts from shopping sprees at Ross Department Store, Macy’s, and online retailers.

To get to my $30k, I knew I needed to kick those bad shopping habits to the curb and cut out SWB — Shopping While Bored.

Going through a year’s worth of statements also helped me to budget for those once a year expenses such as organization membership dues and rarities like new car tires or maintenance.

During this process, I also closed a couple of bank accounts as a way of organizing and keeping up with my monies easier and to aid in my other personal journey: minimalism.

I filed my income tax returns and had my refunds go directly into my checking account.

That was a nice feeling to log into my account and see ‘Bonus’ money pop up.

Yes, I know that I gave the government a tax-free loan for the entire year (i.e., a refund of my own money) but this time around, I felt GOLDEN receiving it.

Then, lo and behold, I received another check from the State for over $400 for a previous year…with interest.

Cha-ching! More money towards my $30k Goal Fund.

I have a couple of side hustles and knew that I needed to be more aggressive with them to bring in additional monies. Side hustles are a great way to make some extra money.

My most lucrative side hustle is my Airbnb business (short term rentals within my home).

I am an experienced Superhost, which means I’ve provided extraordinary experiences for my guests.

Being designated as a Superhost comes along with a Superhost status badge attached to my Airbnb listing.

When I ask my guests why they chose my Airbnb, the response I hear most often is because I’m a Superhost and that I have great reviews from prior guests.

To bring in more Airbnb funds, I rarely ever blocked my calendar for bookings and I increased my nightly base rate slightly.

Some of my other side hustles include sales of my books (all on Amazon and I participate in author platform vending shows).

I also sell my own custom-designed t-shirts on Amazon through their Amazon Merch program.

Some of my additional side hustles include working celebrity events here in Los Angeles and paid speaking engagements (I’m working to get more paid speaking gigs).

If I’m asked to speak, I ask if a stipend is included, and I always ask to be able to sell my books at the back of the room.

I went full throttle on my side gigs to add to my $30K Goal.

It has helped a great deal in tracking my side hustle income by creating an excel spreadsheet that I update each time I earn money from a side gig. Get your free copy of my spreadsheet here and go here to see a list of side hustle ideas.

I decided to lower the amount going into my 401k (TSP — Thrift Savings Plan) at work to increase the amount of money showing up in my paycheck.

I’m not leaving money on the table, so my contribution amount is still above the amount needed to get the matching amount from my employer.

I haven’t decided whether or not this is a temporary or permanent change.

Here’s an example of the earnings power in percentage points: $10,000 with an annual percentage yield (APY) of 0.28% is only $28, while that same $10,000 at a 1.85% APY is $185. (Note: You would be pressed to find 1.85% rate at this time).

That’s a no-brainer. I should have moved that money months ago.

I enjoy cooking, so making sure I pack my lunch at least 4 out of 5 workdays is a given.

The one change I made to make it smoother and much easier is to cook up my lunch for the week on Sunday afternoon and package it up in individual containers.

If you need lunch and dinner ideas at a great price, check out $5Meals.

A typical lunch might be a piece of salmon, shrimp, brown rice, and broccoli. Totally yummy, a third of the restaurant lunch prices, and very healthy.

In the mornings, I merely open my fridge, grab a pre-packed lunch container, and go!

I love doing paid focus group surveys and I’ve always treated the payments like ‘found money’ for a shopping spree. No more!

Those monies now went to my $30K Goal Fund. The last focus group I participated in was a cool $150 for two hours of giving my opinion on different yogurt brands.

There are even focus groups where you can get paid to watch TV.

At the end, the company shared there was a new Japanese style yogurt in the US market, and we got to taste test and give our opinion on it.

We were also gifted with a couple of yogurts to take home with us.

Have you ever heard of the ALove yogurt brand? It has tiny chunky pieces of aloe vera gel in it.

I went through my house and found a multitude of unused items to list on eBay to generate some income.

Among the items listed were a black Harley leather jacket, a new James LaBron Laker’s t-shirt, (not the one shown below) shoes with their tags still on, and more.

Not only did I get to bring in cash from the sale of these items, but I also minimized items cluttering my home.

Lastly, and I would say the most effective thing I’ve done towards reaching my $30k goal and beyond, is to learn how to live off of one paycheck and bank the other.

Reaching my goal was exhilarating and It was so exciting to see my savings increase each month.

Now I’m setting my sites on adding to my $30k and looking for real estate deals and then tackling that student debt.

To recap, here’s how I was able to save $30,000 in 6 months:

(1) I went through 1 year of online bank and credit card statements, and PayPal to find my spending habits for categories.

(2) Created a budget.

(3) Saved my federal and state income tax refunds.

(4) Increased monies from my side hustles (Airbnb, book sales, t-shirts, working celebrity events, speaking engagement).

(5) Packed my lunch at least 4 out of 5 days most weeks.

(6) Decreased the amount of money going into my 401k.

(7) Moved my money from bank savings to a higher yield online savings account.

(8) Made money from focus group surveys.

(9) Sold items on eBay.

(10) Learned to live off of one paycheck and save the other.

Not it’s your turn. What different things have you done to save up for a certain goal?