If you follow my goal update posts, you have seen my reading list for every month. I love expanding my knowledge and sharing books that I love with my readers! Therefore, I thought that I would share with you some of my favorite resources from financial, blogging, to time management books along with some of my favorite money-saving resources. I hope you enjoy these as much as I have!
MONEY-SAVING RESOURCES
Ebates
I’m a huge fan of being debt-free. In fact, we don’t have any credit cards and haven’t for three years. It’s been such a blessing to us. But I also understand that folks love the cashback options with their credit cards. That’s why I love Ebates – I get cashback on my online purchases without having to use a credit card! So I earn cashback at my favorite stores (like Walmart, Amazon, and Target) without going into debt! The screenshot below shows how much I’ve earned and been paid since I started using Ebates years ago! Click here to check them out – it’s completely FREE!
Swagbucks
Swagbucks is my favorite way to stretch our budget. In fact, the last four Christmases have all been bought and paid for using my earnings from Swagbucks. This post here explains how I earn so much with Swagbucks.
Republic Wireless
I LOVE Republic Wireless! I switched to Republic Wireless in October of 2015, and I haven’t regretted it not once. Okay, so the only thing that I regret is that I had to give up my iPhone. Android’s cameras just aren’t the same, but I haven’t regretted taking my $80 phone and turning it into a $25 phone bill!! Yes, I’m serious. My plan is only $25 a month and that’s unlimited talk and text and 1 G data. And many months my phone is close to free with Republic’s rollover plan. Check them out here and switch today and start saving your family some serious money!
$5 Dinners
These meal plans are amazing! If you’re short on time and need to stretch your grocery budget, these meal plans are for you! Click here to see all the details.
BLOG-RELATED RESOURCES
BigScoots – this is my hosting company. My amazing tech guy recommended them to me after I out-grew Black Chicken.
ConvertKit – This is the email provider that I use to send all my emails through to my email list. I HIGHLY recommend them! If you’re curious on how they work, this is a tutorial that I created where I walk you through how I use ConvertKit. Check them out here.
Social Warfare – this is the plugin that I now use for my blog. I was using Sumome which is free, but it was dragging down my blog’s site speed along with messing up how my site looked on mobile. So I switched to Social Warfare and love all the simplicity of it! Check it out here.
My favorite blogging resource! >>> Elite Blog Academy. EBA helped me take my blog from hobby to business and the best part is, I still get to be a stay-at-home mom while earning an income. I highly recommend this course as it helped me more than double my pageviews and increased my earnings. However, if it is out of the budget, read the above resources as they will help you improve your blog without breaking your budget. Click here to join the waiting list for EBA.
Building a Framework. Abby is one of my bloggy buddies, and her book is AHHHHHmazing! Seriously, she breaks down this whole blogging thing in manageable chunks, sharing her knowledge of making money through blogging. She also includes her blogging binder printables! ***UPDATE: Abby has actually changed this eBook into a full-fledge course and it’s incredible! If you’re a beginner blogger (or don’t even have a blog yet, but want to start one), this is the perfect course for you! Get all the details about the course here.
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing – This course is perfect for those that are struggling to figure out affiliate marketing. I will warn you though, that you really need to have a basic knowledge of blogging before you take this course. I suggest taking Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing after you’ve taken EBA or Building a Framework as I think you’ll seen the best results that way. To get all the details on Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing, head here.
Pinterest Strategy – the Pinning strategy I use was created by Rosemarie of The Busy Budgeter. You can check out the strategy here.
Teachable – this is the platform that I use to host my eCourse, Real Life Money Plan. It’s super easy and simple to use. They have a free and paid options. Right now, I’m on the basic plan. Check it out here.
Financial Must Reads
The Total Money Makeover. * BEST financial book I have ever read. This book is what finally convinced the hubs and I that we needed to get out of debt, not just talk about it.
Financially Fearless. * I love Alexa’s no nonsense approach to showcasing the 50/20/30 budget formula. You can read my How to Calculate Your Cost per Happy post to get a glimpse of the awesome material in this resource.
The One-Page Financial Plan. * This is a quick read but totally worth it. Carl will walk you through everything you need to do in order to set up a financial plan that is in line with your financial goals.
Finding Your Purpose Must Reads
Say Goodbye to Survival Mode. If you follow Crystal from Money Saving Mom, you know that Crystal is the queen of time management. Her book will help you find your purpose in this life and help you figure out a way to stop surviving and to start living.
Make Over Your Mornings eCourse I LOVE LOVE LOVE this course from Crystal Paine of Money Saving Mom. This course helped me get back on track with my getting up early habit when I fell off the wagon during the first trimester of my third pregnancy. I cannot recommend this course enough to all you mamas out there in need of finding your purpose or finding a better way to manage your time. Head here to find out more about this life-changing course!
Marriage Must Reads
To Love, Honor, and Vacuum. If you have struggled with the vision of the Proverbs 31 woman, you should read this book. This book is incredible and life-changing!
The Husband Project. I revisit this project every year because my hubs is so worth it and so is yours. This project does not take a lot of money and can easily be done on a budget.
Creating an Intimate Marriage. This book so far has been the best read on marriage! If you need to find a way to get that spark back in your marriage, read this book.
Time Management Must Reads
Tell Your Time. This is my FAVORITE time management book! It contains practical advice along with workbook pages that will help you tell your time.
Time Management Mama. This book was written by the amazing sisters of Brilliant Business Moms and packs a lot of amazing advice for moms that trying to manage it all – house, family, business, dinner, you-name-its.
A Mother’s Rule of Life. This book was a game-changer for me as a mom. I was actually introduced to this book through the ladies Bible Study at our church and it has been such a blessing to our family. This was written by a Catholic so if you’re not Catholic, you may not appreciate it as much as I did but it’s still an incredible time management resource for the completely overwhelmed mom. It helps you develop a realistic schedule for your entire family.
Favorite Bible Studies/Devotionals
Blessed Is She – this is my favorite free devotional site for Catholic women. Also, I have loved and enjoyed each Bible study that they’ve done.
Beauty and The Broken – Oh this is such an amazing devotional written by my wonderful friend Lauren. I love that this devotional isn’t all “sunshine and rainbows” and is very real. Because I don’t know about you, but my Jesus is real and life is real so I don’t need a “prettied-up” version. And this devotional delivers the real – the hard stuff which I think we all need from time-to-time.
She Reads Truth – I’ve loved every single Bible Study that I’ve ordered from She Reads Truth. And I’ve even ordered ones for my husband who is slowly getting more comfortable with reading the Bible. (In case you never heard our story, I married an Atheist in full trust that the Lord would use me and others to lead my husband to Christ. You can read that story here.) I love that we can do the studies together – when my husband feels comfortable with it – or that my husband can ask some of his trusted guy friends questions about what he’s learning and can go deeper on his time.
Sirach. Women’s Bible Study & Journal – Sirach is one of my favorite books of the Old Testament and I love how this Bible study, follows each chapter of Sirach. One of my favorite verses from Sirach is “Do not be so confident of forgiveness that you add sin to sin”. Sirach 5:5 <— how true is that? I know that I’ve found myself guilty of committing sin without really thinking about it, because I know that I can seek forgiveness later. I loved that this Bible study challenged me in very deep and meaningful ways.
JOIN THE CHALLENGE!
Money controlling you? I know the feeling. My family has been living this real life on a budget for a long time and I can tell you that there's never a perfect season, but with a few changes you can start to reign in your money issues.
Join the 5-Day Challenge today and start getting your money life in order this week!