#I spend hours scouring the web for a good shop for this... and for pictures to use
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warm up no.1
Michael Kaiser x gn!reader | wc: 406 | fluff/crack| suggestive (nothing happens... but...read cw)
cw: kaiser says "cock" once , poor attempts at humor, author wants the shirt they describe, no use of y/n or pronouns, author is self indulgent (he always is), suggestive (kaiser again)
It was a joke at the beginning; but the shirt is so comfortable that you can’t help but wear it. The shirt itself is dark grey, with bright pink text which reads: “I ♡ my girlfriend” and in the heart, is a picture of Kaiser in his kit.
Kaiser is busy, so you can’t go ask him for permission, but you presume he wouldn’t mind too much as he likes when you carry around reminders that he’s yours (and vice versa).
You’re doing some chores in it, wearing nothing but some cinnamoroll shorts and the tshirt.
‘“What. the hell are you wearing?” He’s only been gone for a month. An away game and some tour and interviews… and—
you get over the surprise visit of your boyfriend quite fast, and switch gears.
“you don’t like it?” You feel insulted, but the face Kaiser makes is enough for you to start cackling.
“sh–shouldn’t you find this flattering? Look, I’m parading around with your face on my torso." You spin around, letting the slightly oversized shirt flutter around you. “I mayyyy have overestimated the size.”
“Yeah, I love it as much as I love people asking about you in my interviews,” Michael scoffs, and takes his shoes off, “But girlfriend? seriously?”
You gape “that's the part that bothers you? Not the neon pink or the way the text is off center?”
“Of course that's what you’re worried about. And this photo isn’t even the best one you have of me—”
He reaches for your phone, and ignores your sputtering protests in order to pull up a picture of himself.
“see? this is what should be there.” A photo of Kaiser, shirt unbuttoned and fabric sticking to his skin.
“Hey— that photo is for my eyes only.” You clutch your phone to your chest, eyes beading with faux tears. “To think you want to flaunt one of my prized possessions—”
Michael is flabbergasted “you have WAY more scandalous, and frankly more attractive photos of me and my cock lying around—”
Pointing is objectively rude, but you do it anyway: “That was vulgar, and this," you point at your chest, "is my favorite picture of you anyway.”
He sighs and puts a hand on your waist, not because he missed you or anything. But he is a liar.
“You look cute anyway. My face is right where it should be. In your chest—”
someone slept on the couch that night.
a/n: debated posting this but. I gave into the urge anyway. this man!!!! ohhh I hate him >:x... I love him very dearly.
#listen. I saw lore post smth about having a shirt like that and. my world? my eyes ? all have been opened.#I spend hours scouring the web for a good shop for this... and for pictures to use#considering designing my own shirt bc#my library does cricut shirt classes...#anyway! I thought it was funny lowkey.#bllk crack#blue lock crack#blue lock x reader#bllk x reader#michael kaiser x reader#koi writes#michael kaiser
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A Girl’s Best Friend (Peter Parker x OC) - Part 18
Synopsis: Diamonds are man’s best friend- or dogs are girls’ best friends, wait… how does the saying go again?
Warnings: Family issues; Peter has a crush and it’s complicated; mention of assault; good dogs; College AU; aged up! characters; TONY STARK IS ALIVE AND WE ALL LIVE IN A HAPPY PLACE CALLED DENIAL
A/N: This story has turned into a game called “how much longer can I drag this romance out?” and the answer is: very long.
Word count: 3.7k (chapters getting longer....)
Part 17 <<< >>> Part 19
MASTERLIST
Peter and her agreed to take things slow, to first build back the trust they had before diving into a relationship.
That being said, neither of them had accounted for the ever-present longing they felt when they stood right next to each other yet couldn’t take the last step separating them. They never expected it to feel so wrong to sit on opposite ends of a couch, or to give up the nearly systematic physical contact they maintained before.
Emmeline used to surprise him by jumping up from behind him and wrapping her arms around his shoulders, they walked with their arms linked, Peter poked her left side while he stood to her right to throw her off, and little things like that. Why did they miss those so much? It was always the little things.
A month later, they both expected to have grown used to their new status quo, but then Valentine Day rolled around, and Peter found every cell in his body urging him to throw aside caution and ask Emmeline out again. If not then, when? How much longer until they had rebuilt the foundations of a solid relationship? How much longer until his double life wasn’t constantly standing between them? And more importantly: how much longer would he be able to bear it?
Unbeknownst to Peter, Emmeline struggled with the same issues, and she wasn’t doing much better when the entire city suddenly turned into a big splash of red and pink, with chocolate advertisement everywhere. Emmeline avoided Time Square altogether and declared she was on a sugar cleanse, not even looking at a piece of chocolate.
She was the one to give in to temptation first. Slowly, day after day, she started getting touchy again. Certain moments she genuinely felt as though she would lose her mind if she kept this security distance with him.
It started small. It started innocent. She squeezed his shoulder when she walked behind him – in class, at the Tower, it didn’t matter. She bumped into his shoulder to get his attention when his focus wavered. She looped a hand around his elbow when they walked together again.
Peter didn’t think much of it except that he enjoyed it very much and was relieved to feel her warm touch again. The gentle grasp of her fingers around his elbow didn’t seem that much of a big deal until he was deprived of it. He knew she could walk on her own regardless of the height of her heels, but he sometimes doubted of his ability to walk without her support.
Then it wasn’t so innocent anymore. It was desperate, though Peter himself was so acutely aware of her touches and moved by them that he never filed them as such. Why just lean over his shoulder when she could wrap her arms around him and rest her chin on his shoulder to see what he was working on? Why go get a chair when Peter’s lap was available? Why hold his elbow when she could wrap her arm around his waist?
It was getting out of hand, she knew that. Could she stop? No, but she knew, at the very least, that she was playing with fire. The best instance of this was the day she asked to see his powers.
“Alright, show me,” she had told him, gesturing him to bring it on.
They had been working in Peter’s dorm room, quizzing each other for an upcoming exam, but any studying had stopped a while ago and they now simply talked the day away while lying on his bed in various relatively uncomfortable positions.
“Show you what?” Peter asked, head perking up to look at her.
He had been lying on his bed, feet up on the wall, while Emmeline had been dangling hers off the mattress. She had stood up.
“A Spider-Man thing! I don’t know! I mean, I’ve known you’re Spider-Man for over a month now, but I have yet to see it for myself,” she said, crossing her arms and shrugging her shoulders. “The people demand proof, Parker.”
“You’ve seen me use my powers,” he objected, sitting Indian style on his bed now and shaking his head. “You’ve seen me lie in a hammock made of my own webs.”
“No, no, no, that doesn’t count. You wore your mask, it doesn’t prove shit,” she argued. She was already holding out her hands to help him off the bed. “I can’t reconcile the picture of you and him. You’re so… different… but also the same? And I don’t know, I guess I’m a little confused sometimes, and I think it would help tremendously if I coul- “
Peter picked up a web shooter from his backpack so fast Emmeline didn’t process what he was doing until it was too late. She never got to finish her sentence because he shot a web at her. Suddenly, she was pulled forward when Peter yanked on it, making her fall straight into his open arms.
The least she could say was that she hadn’t expected this to happen when she made her request. What had she expected? That was a good question. Certainly not to land against Peter’s chest, palms open on his collarbones, her deer-in-the-headlights look making him smirk in this boyish way that never failed to make her blush. She tried to look away but there was nothing she could do to hide it from him when they were so close.
Hadn’t she yearned for a proximity like this?
Come March, they were both holding their breath, waiting for something to happen – anything at all would do, just as long as this sweet mutual torture came to an end.
Life went on as per usual, Winter slowly melted away to make way for Spring, and the slow mending of their relationship seemed long over with. The broken trust felt like an old injury, leaving only a thin, pale scar they barely noticed anymore. Then why couldn’t they act on their feelings?
Virtually nothing stood between them anymore – Emmeline had reclaimed her independence, Peter’s secret was out, she was part of his everyday life and his superhero life now that she interned at Stark Industry. What else were they waiting for?
It was a recurring question that plagued both their minds. Unbeknownst to each other, they had both reached the same conclusion: it wasn’t about waiting the right time, or overcoming obstacles, or even exterior factors keeping them apart.
There was fear – a fear of ruining something so delicate and fragile, yet so precious, as the bond they had developed. It was new for both of them, albeit in different ways. Peter had never met a girl like her, someone who accepted both sides of him and didn’t treat him differently even after finding out the truth about him. Emmeline had never realized she didn’t have to go through life all alone until he walked into her life and showed her.
Somehow, it felt a little wrong to disturb the carefully set balance they established. They stood in precarious equilibrium, the slightest disturbance would throw them off balance, and who knew what would happen then?
It was a matter of estimating the risk-reward ratio, and deciding whether or not they wanted to go into the unknown.
But such downcast thoughts didn’t cloud their minds during the day – they were reserved for lonely evenings spent apart or sleepless nights. The latter were particularly tough on them, they made it hard not to give in to that late night haze that pushed most people to do or say things they would never do or say in broad daylight.
Peter had lost track of how many times he swung by her new place, thinking he could push his fear aside and swipe her off her feet right then and there, before finally coming to his senses and going home. Emmeline couldn’t count how many times she had to turn off her phone completely, lest she make that midnight call that would change everything.
*
“You didn’t have to come here with me,” Peter repeated for the million’s time as he grabbed the glass door and held it open for Emmeline.
“I really don’t mind,” she told him again. How many more times until he believed her? Did he think spending time with him was a chore to her. “Besides, who were you going to ask for a second opinion if not me?”
“Ned?” Peter said with a funny face.
“Is it a question or an answer?” Emmeline laughed.
The bell rang, signaling their presence to the store’s sole employee.
“I don’t even know. But when I asked you to help me find a birthday gift for May, I expected to have a few ideas thrown at me, not a full shopping day.”
Emmeline unwrapped the scarf hanging around her neck, letting her hair fall down her left shoulder.
“We’ve been at it for an hour, Peter. That’s hardly a ‘shopping day’,” she snorted lightly, tugging at the sleeve of his jacket so he would follow her. “What does she normally wear?”
Peter wasn’t too sure about this, but after ruling out the usual mundane gifts that were more practical than fancy, Emmeline had insisted on going to a jewelry store.
He thought about it for a second, until his eyes set on a glass window.
“Earrings,” he said. “She wears earrings every day.”
With all the expertise of a young girl brought up in wealth, Emmeline began to scour the rows and rows of jewelry, pointing out several to Peter who hummed in appreciation whenever he liked something.
This went on for a while, until the store manager was finished with the previous customers and came to see them.
“Miss, sir,” he began. “How may I be of help? Are you looking for something in particular?” He looked at the window display in front of Peter and Emmeline before adding, “a ring, perhaps?”
Peter stiffened and his faced burnt up faster than he thought possible while Emmeline blushed lightly and turned towards him, a sideways smirk on her lips. She edged on embarrassment and laughter, not knowing what to say.
“Oh, no,” she eventually told the men in his fifties that stood before them. “We are here for a birthday gift. We thought earrings would be nice. Maybe gold – what do you think, Peter? I think your aunt is a gold perso-“
A sudden shriek coming from other customers who had wandered in the store cut her off. Peter’s hair stood on end the second the shrill sound interrupted his train of thoughts. Before anyone knew what was going on, the front door had been blocked from the inside by a man dressed in black, while two others stood each side of their partner, AK 47 in hands.
How could he have missed that? Peter felt his heart drop at the realization of what just happened. Within a handful of seconds, they had been taken hostage and locked into a small hole-in-the-wall store. Had the old man’s assumption thrown him off to the point of missing something so big? It wasn’t good.
Coming back to his senses, Peter pulled Emmeline to his chest and turned around to shield her with his body the second they began to fire their guns, earning another round of screams from the other customers and the store manager.
“I want everybody on the floor right now!” One of the men shouted, firing his weapon again to scare everybody into obedience.
Peter dragged Emmeline with him to the floor, making sure she was safely hidden behind one of the display windows that would act as a shied if bullets came their way.
“Fuck,” she whispered to herself, pressing her eyes shut. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she sang like a litany, taking the full measure of their circumstances. “This is bad.”
“Be quiet,” Peter told her, resting a hand on her shoulder as he slowly sat up on his heels to look through the window and have a peek at what the burglars were doing. One of them held his gun against the manager’s head.
“Can you…?” Emmeline asked him, her voice barely above a whisper so no one else could hear her.
He knew what she meant, but the answer was no. Peter hadn’t brought his suit, and even if he had, he wouldn’t be able to change.
To their right, in the corner of the store, were the other customers, the ones that had screamed to alert them of the robbers’ presence. They could see everything.
Peter looked down, then towards Emmeline, a grave expression on his face as he shook his head. She closed her eyes again and clasped her hand over the one he put on her shoulder.
Emmeline was holding his hand so tight it hurt and her chest rose quickly as her breathing got erratic although she made a visible effort to stay calm and put up a brave face – too bad Peter knew the signs of panic all too well.
“Em,” Peter called her to make her look at him. Her eyes plunge into his and he sees the fear behind her irises. “It’s going to be okay. I won’t let anything happen to you, alright? Do you trust me?”
She nodded energetically and exhaled slowly, letting her head drop on his shoulder to show that she did, indeed, trust him with her life. However, as soon as she felt him move, she tensed up.
“Don’t do anything stupid, Peter. You don’t have your suit,” she reminded him.
“What do we have here?” a gruff voice asked, interrupting their hushed conversation.
A tall man dressed in black and wearing a mask that hid the entire lower part of his face emerged from behind the piece of furniture they hid behind. Peter tried to hold her back but she had let him go when her assailant pulled on her hair. Emmeline was dragged back harshly without any caution, letting out a terrified cry. Her hands flew to her scalp and she screamed in pain as the man dragged her on the floor, holding her by the hair.
“Look at this,” he told one of the others.
“What am I supposed to look at? A pretty girl?” he asked, clearly uninterested.
The man who was still holding Emmeline, now crouched down beside her, meeting her tearful and angry eyes. She struggled in his grasp, trying to make him let go and preventing him from taking a good look at her. He only tightened his hold and used his other hand to grab her chin, squeezing harder than necessary, his ugly, grinning face too close for Emmeline’s liking.
“Don’t you recognize her? Her face was all over TV after that poorly executed shooting on Christmas Eve,” he explained, suddenly gaining the attention of his partners.
It was true. Because her parents ran as soon as the situation took a turn left, leaving Emmeline behind, the media deduced the worst had happened. It didn’t help that she walked away from the shooting without telling a soul and headed straight for her apartment and then Peter’s place in Queens. In the end, it was Dexter who told everybody he had seen her well and alive – a good opportunity to appear on live TV.
“Oh, yeah, I know that face now that you mention it! It’s that girl!”
“Mister mayor’s love child, what a coincidence! Not really a child anymore,” the man who held Emmeline drawled out unpleasantly, making her turn her face away from his stinking breath. He allowed her to, having made his point. “Would be a shame if something unfortunate happened to you, don’t you agree princess?”
Peter watched on in horror as Emmeline spat in the man’s face, a scowl on her face, and yelled at him.
“You don’ get to call me ‘princess’, you disgusting piece of shit!”
One had to admire her bravado, although it nearly gave Peter a heart attack when she deliberately provoked the man who so clearly physically overpowered her – and he wasn’t even alone!
He gave her a back-handed slap that echoed in the now mostly empty shop. There were three robbers, Emmeline, Peter, and five other people – four customers, and the store manager who was asked to put all the jewelry in a bag. All four of the other hostages were directly in Peter’s line of sight, which meant they could also see him. He couldn’t simply open his bag and take out his web-shooters for everyone to see.
But when Emmeline landed heavily on the floor in a pained grunt after having been hit by this man, he didn’t think twice and jumped on his feet.
“Stop!” he shouted, getting everyone’s attention. Three guns were now pointed at him, but all he saw was Emmeline looking up at him, faintly shaking her head no to tell him to stop whatever he was doing. Abort mission.
“Get the fuck down!” One of the men told him, taking a step forward without lowering his gun. “Now’s not the time to play hero to impress the girl!”
The one who had dragged Emmeline away from Peter in the first place now grabbed her by the arm to pull her up and onto her feet, holding her at gunpoint.
“If you move, she dies,” he warned Peter.
Peter held his hands up in surrender to show that he wasn’t going to attempt anything. He tried not to linger on Emmeline’s insistent stare and the way she tried to communicate with his through eye contact only. Stop your nonsense, Peter! This is madness! You don’t have your suit, you’ll get hurt or worse!
He could almost hear her voice in the back of his head, urging him to stay put, but he couldn’t stand sitting behind that counter while she was being manhandled for being the mayor’s daughter. Truly, Peter’s mild dislike of the man turned into something of a stronger nature every time he was mentioned.
“I won’t do anything,” he told them, keeping his hands up. “Just let her go, please. If you want to threaten someone, take me instead.”
“No, Pet-!” Emmeline shouted before being silenced with a blow to the back of her head and falling on her knees.
“Don’t hurt her!” Peter asked them, his own panic rising steadily. He couldn’t do much apart from buying the police some extra time to arrive.
He didn’t wait for their green light and simply walked around the counter, hands up, to stand between them and Emmeline’s crouched figure on the floor. One wrong movement and he would be littered with too many bullets to count – or to recover from.
The manager was almost done bagging all of the jewelry, but he was obviously dragging it out to buy some more time, having picked up on what Peter was trying to do. From afar, they could already hear the sirens.
“Fuck, the cops are coming,” one of the men swore, lowering his gun and turning to the manager. “Hurry up if you don’t want a bullet between the eyes!”
He didn’t have much choice but to do as he was being told. Behind Peter, the four other customers whispered between themselves, their voices rising slowly as panic grew. One of them, a man in his thirties, seemed to be particularly shaken up and ready to snap.
Following Peter’s example, probably thinking it was a show of bravery, he stood up, hands in the air, although they were shaking rather badly and he had a frantic look in his eyes.
“Sit down! Sit the fuck down!”
“Don’t play hero, dude! Get on your fucking knees!”
The robbers began to shout at him, not giving him a second to say anything at all. Still on wobbly legs, the man slowly inched towards the front doors, as if he wasn’t being aimed at with deadly weapons.
“I just wanna leave,” he stuttered out when the three men stopped barking orders at him. “You have her, what use am I? Just let me go, please.”
Peter’s sympathy for the man wavered just a bit when he glanced at Emmeline’s crouched figure on the floor as he mentioned ‘her’. He was ready to let them have her if it meant he could get out of a scary situation. He was ten years older than her, trembling in fear while she remained calm and alert. Of course, there had been the initial terror and panic, but being recognized seemed to have helped her to ground herself.
“Sir, stay calm,” she tried to stop him from making a big mistake. “Everything will be fine.”
“How do you know that?! Ugh?!” the man began to lose it and started to freak out properly. “I don’t wanna die here! I just came to turn a bracelet my ex bought me! I don’t wanna die!”
“No one is going to die,” Emmeline stated as slowly and reassuringly as she could. “Return with the other customers.”
The situation was escalating too quickly, Peter didn’t like where it was heading. Emmeline was still on the floor, trying to appease – in vain – a selfish man whose own survival clearly took precedence over everyone else’s. His erratic behavior might even prompt the others to do the same and try to escape.
If this turned into a shooting, Peter wouldn’t have any other choice than to act, at the risk of outing himself.
“Listen to the lady, man. Sit the fuck down, I won’t repeat it another time!” the man who had manhandled Emmeline said, his cutting voice leaving no doubt as to his seriousness.
“You can get away with a robbery, but if you kill a man, your face will be everywhere on the news!” the panicky customer smart mouthed, unaware that he was digging his own grave. “I haven’t seen your faces, I’ll just leave and you’ll never hear of me again!”
Everything happened really quickly then, and it was only thanks to Peter’s supernatural speed that it didn’t turn into a proper disaster. Peter jumped into action when he saw the robber’s hand tighten on his gun, and took the bullet that was meant for the other guy.
.
.
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Reblog to save a writer
Taglist: @of-virtuoso @justanothergenzkid @complete-trash-101 @the-freefeather @yarkmydude
#peter parker#tom holland#peter parker imagine#peter parker fanfic#spider-man#mcu spider-man#peter parker oneshot#peter parker x oc#aged up!peter parker#peter parker fanfiction#fanfic#spider-man fanfiction#mcu#marvel#marvel imagine#spider-man: homecoming#spider-man: far from home#spiderman#spider-man: ffh#aged up! characters#aged up!characters#tony stark is alive#post endgame#post ffh#canon divergent#slow burn#peter parker fluff#soft peter parker#peter parker needs a hug
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“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”
Ever read one of those quotes and get that mixed feeling of adventure but also defeat? I can’t be the only one to log into my Facebook or Instagram only to be bombarded by beautiful holiday photos taken on a picturesque beach somewhere hot and sunny, or in an exotic city I’ve never heard of. I also cannot be the only one who’s seen those almost gag-worthy inspirational quotes for maybe the hundredth time – I may even be guilty of sharing a few of them myself.
Its a double edged sword – part of you feels this massive sense of adventure, the need for more and the want to get off of your a** and do those things too.
But at the same time you also get that feeling of deflation as you look around your room, maybe you even packed your bag for this adventure, but then check your bank balance just to realize you only have enough money to get you to work the next day.
That is what these quotes and pictures lack – the know-how on what to do to achieve these weird and wonderful things. How does Sarah that you went to elementary with afford all of these trips, and how does your mom’s friend Susan’s son manage to go on thirty holidays a year?
For years I felt like this, and sometimes I still do, but I found a way to work and travel.
Even tho I am in a different country doing a job it is still a 9-7 job. It’s not full-time travel and that’s where I wanna be in the next few years. But i made it possible to be in a new country trying new things daily.
MAKE TRAVEL YOUR PRIORITY.
Sounds simple, right? Except I tried to do this for years to no avail. I’ve been trying to save on and off since I was fourteen, I’m now I’m in my twenties. And before this year do you know how much I’d saved? Absolutely nothing. Something more important always seemed to come up or I would order takeaway when I couldn’t be bothered to cook, to get a brand new phone, to getting tequila shot number seven on a night out, to get those new boots I really wanted.
Me this time two years ago was spending stupid amounts of money on alcohol and nights out. The second I got paid I saw every penny of it as disposable and somehow always seemed to find the money for more alcohol or stupid things I did not need. I was living pay cheque to pay cheque with no opportunities to move up in work. If I ever did get any extra money it would just be spent on new shoes or new jeans.
Thankfully now my priorities have changed into something that’s a lot better – TRAVEL.
Believe it or not, people who go traveling and travel the world do not have a magic money tree – or at least if they do they haven’t told me about it. We just change our spending habits to accommodate our travel ambitions.
But of course, this information is absolutely useless if you don’t even know how to save money if you feel you don’t do anything extraordinary and yet still can’t save. The following are simple, realistic tips on how to save money to travel plus how to spend less while traveling.
FOOD
Food. Everybody needs it, its usually more expensive than we’d like, and it eats up more of your money than you usually intend.
So how do you reduce spending on such a necessity without starving yourself? It can be pretty simple really when you get into the habit.
Step one: keep track of what you buy over a week or a month and when. It may seem boring and a pain in the a** to write it all down but it can be very eye-opening. Record how much you spend on coffees, take out, meals, at the grocery store, etc. Then look at how you can halve it. Seems impossible, right?
Wrong. This is what I spent in a week sometime last year when I first started keeping a record:
Take away – $40.00-$50.00
Food shop – $50.00-$200.00
Alcohol – $40.00
And now:
Food shop – $100.00
Take away – $30.00
You need to look at what you’re spending and realize where you’re money is going – what’s the point in buying a meal every day for lunch and coffee on your way to work when you can invest $5.00 for a lunch box, $10.00 for a travel flask and save hundreds?
The organization is key when saving money – plan your meals, make your lunch the night before, wake up early enough to have breakfast and coffee at home, even bulk cook on the weekend if you’re pushed for time during the week. A shopping list is also always invaluable – I’ve been shopping before with no list and somehow spent $50.00 unable to make a single full meal out of the products so ended up caving and getting takeaway.
There is also the option for couponing and cash back apps on your phone. I must admit this is not something I do all too often when grocery shopping. I have known people to get groceries for virtually nothing just by cutting coupons out of magazines and newspapers, buying certain products with cash-back codes, and scouring online before leaving the house. If you do this, however, please do remember that just because it’s cheap it does not mean is a bargain. You do not need stacks of food ‘just in case’ – still only buy what you’ll eat.
TREAT YO SELF
Now nobody can be expected to live their life with absolutely no treats or happiness, even if that is just between adventures.
However, you also don’t need to spend $100.00 a week on date night or a ladies night.
Instead of going out to the bar we would have people over to the house, buy a few drinks or maybe even a bottle of vodka between us and spend the nights having drinks and playing cards while listening to great music. We’ve even done the same but taken some drinks to the bush where we can simply sit with a drink and watch the sunset with friends and have a fire.
Some of my best memories have been huddled under a blanket with some friends, pleasantly tipsy with some country tunes playing from a speaker, just staring at the endless stars in the sky and having a laugh.
If you still want to actually go out on proper dates there is a way – you will find most places will have offers when you have a look for them. You just need a patient and the mindset to save money, so look for the deals!
DOWNSIZE
This one is slightly more difficult to achieve, and admittedly not achievable to everyone – however it is also a great way to save money. Downsizing is a great way to cut costs and increase savings.
You only have to do what you’re comfortable with – either lose a spare bedroom, move to a cheaper area of the city or a little further out, look for live in work, live in a shared house with two other roommates, or live in a shared house with eleven other roommates. Maybe even rent out a spare room on Airbnb!
Downsizing is also a fantastic excuse to get rid of what you don’t want – there are so many apps you can use to depart with what you don’t want anymore which can earn you a tiny little profit. I used Facebook to sell plenty of things I no longer wanted.
BUDGETS
I touched on this previously with the food but honestly, it is so important. I have always been the sort of person to spend the second money hits my bank account, and only save money back that I hadn’t spent by the end of the month. Quite often that amount was nothing. The biggest thing to do is budgets – if you only use one bit of advice from this, use budgets.
What helps to do a budget is keeping track of everything you spend for a month so you can look at what you can alter, where you can cut back, and go from there. A budget isn’t finite either – you can go back and alter it to your requirements.
You can use any means you want to help you organize your own budget: I use a budgeting app on my MacBook but I know people who use Microsoft Excel or other phone apps.
MONEY POT
Another great bit of advice is saving the pennies.
If you don’t use cash very often there are apps out there for spending on your card. For every purchase you make it puts the odd pennies into your savings account. So if you spend $3.99 it’ll put a penny across, if you spend $4.65 it’ll transfer the 35 pennies. It may seem small and it’s hardly the amount of money you’ll miss, but if it’s used it every transaction you’ll start to see it add up in no time.
A SECOND JOB
This isn’t for everyone but it can help massively. Another income is always going to help people save.
Three hours an evening is neither backbreaking or unbearable, even an extra six hours a week would add up to a lot over the course of a year.
Another option is a ‘side hustle’- if you’re good with business, skilled in any way or have something people are looking for this may be for you!
There are thousands of options out there for someone looking to create a small business or start freelancing. Just a few options would be tutoring, teaching English or another language, proofreading, copywriting, web design and more. Business ideas couple be drop shipping on eBay or Facebook market place, to creating a new product. There are even more complex/risky options of laying bets or online poker.
I do see some people even start selling for different multi-level marketing companies but this is not something I can happily recommend – the majority of people who start these end up losing money or take years to start making money back on their original investment. Instead of buying into one, even if you’re passionate about it, I’d instead recommend doing your own thing within that passion. Just remember that not everything you see online is true so even if it looks like everyone who sells MLM is making thousands it doesn’t necessarily mean its true.
With the internet at your fingertips, there is just so much you can do and so many great resources to find out exactly how! These things can be hard work and take a certain amount of time and risk, but the possibilities are endless.
From a lot of these, you can also start working towards what you want to do for remote work. I see far too many people only try to start this while they’re already traveling but this simply does not work – you need to start beforehand and work on building it up before you take off. It takes a lot of time and effort to start them so for this you’d probably rather be at home where you don’t have the thousands of distractions from the bustling cities to the crystal clear waters to take you away from your work.
Some people don’t want to work remotely at all which is fair enough, for them work and travel are two separate things that should not be mixed together. But for those who do there is:
– Online tutoring in anything from maths to languages to science to history at all learning levels and abilities.
– Web design if you’re tech-savvy – people will pay good money to have their website designed and even run for them.
-A virtual assistant or virtual chat support – this one doesn’t require as many skills as some of the others. If you love speaking to people and helping them this could be for you and is something a few places employ for now.
-Writing/blogging – For those of you with excellent writing skills you may be able to make money from blogging, publishing books, or even as a freelance journalist. This is a competitive game but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth trying.
– Translating – if you can fluently speak or write in multiple languages why not show this off and use it to your advantage? I know I certainly would be! This is a very skilled position but it is something that can be done remotely.
-Proofreading/ copy writing – Again for those who are very skilled, there are people crying out for help doing these sorts of things.
Most of these skills can be advertised on websites as well as your own personal websites and social media accounts.
If you feel you lack certain skills for these jobs there is no need to worry. A lot of universities from around the world offer free online courses, or if you’re really dedicated you can even do an online degree with an Open University.
SET TARGETS
The best way to keep you on track whilst saving to travel is setting goals. Make these achievable and realistic. There is no way you can save 95% of your wages and get a job that pays $150 an hour right off the bat unless you’re very lucky. By setting goals that you can actually achieve it will keep you on track and it feels amazing when you actually hit these goals and targets, if you set ones you can’t achieve it will make you feel worse.
By setting goals you make improvements without even realizing it and it gives you a sense of purpose in life.
THAT’S IT, THAT’S ALL
How you save your money is up to you and you only. How much you can afford to put away is also something only you can know or decide – maybe its more than me, maybe it’s less. What I do know is that the tips and advice on here can be used by everyone to whatever extent they choose to use.
Make Travel Your Priority “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” Ever read one of those quotes and get that mixed feeling of adventure but also defeat? 2,362 more words
#backpacking#comfortzone#englishteacher#esl#femaletravel#maketravelapriority#moneysavingtips#saveyourmoney#saving#SoloTravel#solotraveltips solotravel travel#stuggle#teacher#travel#traveltips#yougotthis
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9 Things I No Longer Do With My Money
9 years ago I blogged about how people who like to “split the check” aren’t my friends anymore. I had totally forgotten about it, but the memories flooded back when I received the following comment on it just this week :)
I know it’s not entirely fair. BUT COME ON, it was only 3 bucks dude. After reading your article, it seems like you are the cheap person there. You had a good time, then just let it go! Chill out dude.
Haha… Fortunately these days I do just “chill out” whenever stuff like this happens (though I’ll still ask for separate checks w/ larger parties! Takes forever trying to pay those bills!) but it was a great reminder of how far I’ve come since first starting this blog all those years ago… Now I’m more likely to “split the check” myself, or pay for the other person’s meal entirely because it’s just a nice thing to do!
But in honor of hitting my 9 year Blogiversary last month which I accidentally skipped (oops), I thought I’d share 9 other things I no longer do either since my early days of paying attention to money.
Hope it helps in some way!
#1. I no longer obsess about money anymore
It helps having more money than I used to, of course, but somewhere along the line I’ve moved way from dreaming about millions, to dreaming about having a great LIFE instead. Which, big shocker, you can actually have with or without gobs of money! Now unfortunately it takes just as much time and energy to figure out how to set this up as it does your finances, but hey – it’s a valiant pursuit :)
#2. I no longer track every last penny
Someone on Twitter just asked me if I thought I’d be where I am today without tracking my money every month, and the answer would be an affirmative NO. I’ve tracked my net worth for over 110 months in a row now, but it was really those first couple of years that were most transformative. Paying attention to where all your money is coming and going is HUGE when you’ve never done it before – it totally opens up your eyes! But once you get a good grasp of it, tracking every last penny isn’t *as* game changing as it is in the beginning.
Now it’ll certainly save you more cash than not tracking it, I guarantee that, but once you’ve got your rhythm down you get the beautiful decision of whether or not it’s worth the trade off of time anymore. If it is, great! You’ll be saving more than me! But after a few years and seeing the same rough expenses over and over again I decided to just stick w/ my net worth which gives me that overall picture I need without driving myself too crazy. Then I’ll just pop my head into the nitty gritty anytime something major happens, like moving or new kids popping up ;) Another big difference between now and 9 years ago – I’m now a daddy, crazy!
#3. I no longer hustle 24/7
In my efforts to improve upon #1 up there, I realized that in fact working more does NOT make me that much happier despite our culture (and entrepreneur friends) telling us it does. In the last 4 years I’ve gone from priding myself in working 20 hour days down to working about 9-10 ones depending on how efficient I am or not. It’s still a lot more than I want – my target is to stop working nights and weekends! – but you know, one step at a time… And it was again those babies that really put all this into perspective because I was on the train straight towards Workaholicsville and couldn’t get off!
#4. I no longer chase credit card deals or the best interest rates or even the hottest stocks
I’ve since learned that I value simplicity far more than I do an extra percentage point on one of my accounts – so long as I have “good enough” (or, 80% for any of you Pareto Principle lovers out there). It means not having every last one of my dollars maximized, but it also means feeling more at peace with myself/wallet and not being so frantic all the time scouring the web for the next hottest deal, or worse – stock. And believe me, even if people can tell you the latest trending stock, they sure as hell can’t tell you when to cash out of it in time!
So there’s no more chasing the markets or looking for the best savings/credit card accounts for me anymore… I keep almost all my banking under one main roof I’m happy with (USAA), and then all my investments under another happy roof (Vanguard). I then keep my sanity and go about my business from there :)
#5. I no longer go shopping for the fun of it
This was one of the first epiphanies I had in my early stage of blogging. I had tried my first “No Spend” challenge where I couldn’t spend any money on stuff that weren’t essentials (bills, groceries, etc), and WOW did I realize I had gotten into a bad habit! I’d literally catch myself pulling into the mall or other random stores anytime I was simply *bored*. And the crazy part was that I had no idea I was doing it!
From that point forward I literally just stopped walking into stores and have saved myself approximately $200/mo ever since… (Now if only there was a way to not stroll into Amazon! ;))
#6. I no longer require new jobs or locations to be happy
This is probably the biggest shocker of them all to me. Having grown up moving around every 2 years in a military family, *change* played a major, and rather exciting!, role in my life. It didn’t matter where I was or what I was doing, as soon as that two year mark hit I was ready to move onto the next glorious adventure awaiting me.
It wasn’t until I went off to college and started working “real” jobs that I realized my normal wasn’t going to be normal anymore… Even so, I struggled with not being able to stay put, whether in location or employment (or relationships!), until finally this blog and my wife were found. Both of which showed that stability can be sexy too :) And coincidentally enough, both found in the same year as well, making it super easy for me to remember the more important anniversary! Haha… And thankfully the entrepreneurial life brings enough change and adventure to keep anyone on their toes.
#7. I no longer care what others think of me
This is also a big turnaround for me over the last handful of years. I still have my weaknesses and seek approval from certain people out of habit, but for the most part I try my best to just be me and do my own thing whether others seem to approve of it or not. Even my beautiful mother – gasp. (As evidence of me still rocking a mohawk at 30-something years old and “looking like a vagabond” with my ragged clothes, per this same mother ;))
Another perk of running a blog, however, is that you also learn how to grow some thick skin as there’s never a shortage of people who find it necessary to tell you how they really feel. Here are a few of these kinds words I’ve saved from only the past handful of months:
“The content is good, but I’m unsubscribing because I have a difficult time with the grammar style of this blog. I feel like I’m reading text messages, not trying to save for retirement.”
“I don’t really care to read about your life for the few nuggets of financial advice you give. My time is too valuable.”
“Oh, and I listen to your podcast with Paula. Love her, but you sound like a clueless 16 year old valley girl.”
“Not the most professional blog.. way too many smiley faces on everything. I also cannot believe you rent! You did introduce me to Rockstar Finance though, so thanks!”
And my all-time favorite:
“He says really nice things but looks like a weirdo. But i guess thats why people like him. Hes like the Miley Cyrus of Finance”
#8. I no longer watch the news/Facebook/media
Want a great way to feel worse about your life? Go scrolling through the news or your Facebook feed :) I used to be obsessed with keeping on top of everything, as well as what all my friends were doing/ buying/flying, and then I realized I never left any of those places actually feeling *better* than when I got there. I’d either feel depressed, jealous, anxious, or just plain scared.
So I stopped reading everything and deactivated all of my personal social media accounts except those relating to this blog. I’ve been in bliss ever since! Now it also means I don’t always know what the hell is going on in the world, but again – trade offs. And my wife is quick to tell me anything she thinks I better know :)
#9. I no longer buy bottled water or lottery tickets!
If you were around this blog in 2011 you might remember the hate storm that occurred when I proudly exclaimed that I drink bottled water and wasn’t ashamed to admit it ;) I was mainly targeting the financial aspect of it and how I don’t mind spending the $$ there since bottled was the only way that got me to actually DRINK water (thus, the money spent was = the health benefits), however, I underestimated the environment part of it and was called out pretty good about it.
6 years later though, I’m proud to exclaim that I very much still drink loads of water, but no longer need to use a new bottle every time in doing so :) Finding this bad boy has helped immensely with that, along with purifying the tap more.
And lottery tickets? Well, my experimenting there is over too as I no longer have as much fun playing them as I used to (nor the time to keep going out and buying them each week). I still enjoy giving, and receiving them, for Christmas as they make excellent (and cheap) stocking stuffers!, but now a days I get my cheap thrills off hanging with my kids or chatting with you all here on the blog ;) I’ll never get rich off of it, but hey – LIFE!
And that’s really the point of everything I’ve learned over the past 9 years. Money is great and severely needed up to a certain point, but once you’ve hit the minimum amount for survival/happiness, the rest just feels like extra. The trick then becomes incrementally improving your *lifestyle*, which is just as challenging, if not more, than figuring out your money.
My dream for everyone here is to be able to master BOTH sides of this equation, and then appreciate the progress we’ve all made so far as well. I don’t know what comes after that, but I’d imagine it’s one helluva place to be at :)
What have you learned over the past 9 years?
*****
PS: As far as I’ve come over the years, I still mess up alllllllll the freakin’ time. Check out last year’s 8 fails over 8 years of blogging for some good ways to feel better about yourself ;)
9 Things I No Longer Do With My Money posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnwIdQ
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Text
9 Things I No Longer Do With My Money
9 years ago I blogged about how people who like to “split the check” aren’t my friends anymore. I had totally forgotten about it, but the memories flooded back when I received the following comment on it just this week :)
I know it’s not entirely fair. BUT COME ON, it was only 3 bucks dude. After reading your article, it seems like you are the cheap person there. You had a good time, then just let it go! Chill out dude.
Haha… Fortunately these days I do just “chill out” whenever stuff like this happens (though I’ll still ask for separate checks w/ larger parties! Takes forever trying to pay those bills!) but it was a great reminder of how far I’ve come since first starting this blog all those years ago… Now I’m more likely to “split the check” myself, or pay for the other person’s meal entirely because it’s just a nice thing to do!
But in honor of hitting my 9 year Blogiversary last month which I accidentally skipped (oops), I thought I’d share 9 other things I no longer do either since my early days of paying attention to money.
Hope it helps in some way!
#1. I no longer obsess about money anymore
It helps having more money than I used to, of course, but somewhere along the line I’ve moved way from dreaming about millions, to dreaming about having a great LIFE instead. Which, big shocker, you can actually have with or without gobs of money! Now unfortunately it takes just as much time and energy to figure out how to set this up as it does your finances, but hey – it’s a valiant pursuit :)
#2. I no longer track every last penny
Someone on Twitter just asked me if I thought I’d be where I am today without tracking my money every month, and the answer would be an affirmative NO. I’ve tracked my net worth for over 110 months in a row now, but it was really those first couple of years that were most transformative. Paying attention to where all your money is coming and going is HUGE when you’ve never done it before – it totally opens up your eyes! But once you get a good grasp of it, tracking every last penny isn’t *as* game changing as it is in the beginning.
Now it’ll certainly save you more cash than not tracking it, I guarantee that, but once you’ve got your rhythm down you get the beautiful decision of whether or not it’s worth the trade off of time anymore. If it is, great! You’ll be saving more than me! But after a few years and seeing the same rough expenses over and over again I decided to just stick w/ my net worth which gives me that overall picture I need without driving myself too crazy. Then I’ll just pop my head into the nitty gritty anytime something major happens, like moving or new kids popping up ;) Another big difference between now and 9 years ago – I’m now a daddy, crazy!
#3. I no longer hustle 24/7
In my efforts to improve upon #1 up there, I realized that in fact working more does NOT make me that much happier despite our culture (and entrepreneur friends) telling us it does. In the last 4 years I’ve gone from priding myself in working 20 hour days down to working about 9-10 ones depending on how efficient I am or not. It’s still a lot more than I want – my target is to stop working nights and weekends! – but you know, one step at a time… And it was again those babies that really put all this into perspective because I was on the train straight towards Workaholicsville and couldn’t get off!
#4. I no longer chase credit card deals or the best interest rates or even the hottest stocks
I’ve since learned that I value simplicity far more than I do an extra percentage point on one of my accounts – so long as I have “good enough” (or, 80% for any of you Pareto Principle lovers out there). It means not having every last one of my dollars maximized, but it also means feeling more at peace with myself/wallet and not being so frantic all the time scouring the web for the next hottest deal, or worse – stock. And believe me, even if people can tell you the latest trending stock, they sure as hell can’t tell you when to cash out of it in time!
So there’s no more chasing the markets or looking for the best savings/credit card accounts for me anymore… I keep almost all my banking under one main roof I’m happy with (USAA), and then all my investments under another happy roof (Vanguard). I then keep my sanity and go about my business from there :)
#5. I no longer go shopping for the fun of it
This was one of the first epiphanies I had in my early stage of blogging. I had tried my first “No Spend” challenge where I couldn’t spend any money on stuff that weren’t essentials (bills, groceries, etc), and WOW did I realize I had gotten into a bad habit! I’d literally catch myself pulling into the mall or other random stores anytime I was simply *bored*. And the crazy part was that I had no idea I was doing it!
From that point forward I literally just stopped walking into stores and have saved myself approximately $200/mo ever since… (Now if only there was a way to not stroll into Amazon! ;))
#6. I no longer require new jobs or locations to be happy
This is probably the biggest shocker of them all to me. Having grown up moving around every 2 years in a military family, *change* played a major, and rather exciting!, role in my life. It didn’t matter where I was or what I was doing, as soon as that two year mark hit I was ready to move onto the next glorious adventure awaiting me.
It wasn’t until I went off to college and started working “real” jobs that I realized my normal wasn’t going to be normal anymore… Even so, I struggled with not being able to stay put, whether in location or employment (or relationships!), until finally this blog and my wife were found. Both of which showed that stability can be sexy too :) And coincidentally enough, both found in the same year as well, making it super easy for me to remember the more important anniversary! Haha… And thankfully the entrepreneurial life brings enough change and adventure to keep anyone on their toes.
#7. I no longer care what others think of me
This is also a big turnaround for me over the last handful of years. I still have my weaknesses and seek approval from certain people out of habit, but for the most part I try my best to just be me and do my own thing whether others seem to approve of it or not. Even my beautiful mother – gasp. (As evidence of me still rocking a mohawk at 30-something years old and “looking like a vagabond” with my ragged clothes, per this same mother ;))
Another perk of running a blog, however, is that you also learn how to grow some thick skin as there’s never a shortage of people who find it necessary to tell you how they really feel. Here are a few of these kinds words I’ve saved from only the past handful of months:
“The content is good, but I’m unsubscribing because I have a difficult time with the grammar style of this blog. I feel like I’m reading text messages, not trying to save for retirement.”
“I don’t really care to read about your life for the few nuggets of financial advice you give. My time is too valuable.”
“Oh, and I listen to your podcast with Paula. Love her, but you sound like a clueless 16 year old valley girl.”
“Not the most professional blog.. way too many smiley faces on everything. I also cannot believe you rent! You did introduce me to Rockstar Finance though, so thanks!”
And my all-time favorite:
“He says really nice things but looks like a weirdo. But i guess thats why people like him. Hes like the Miley Cyrus of Finance”
#8. I no longer watch the news/Facebook/media
Want a great way to feel worse about your life? Go scrolling through the news or your Facebook feed :) I used to be obsessed with keeping on top of everything, as well as what all my friends were doing/ buying/flying, and then I realized I never left any of those places actually feeling *better* than when I got there. I’d either feel depressed, jealous, anxious, or just plain scared.
So I stopped reading everything and deactivated all of my personal social media accounts except those relating to this blog. I’ve been in bliss ever since! Now it also means I don’t always know what the hell is going on in the world, but again – trade offs. And my wife is quick to tell me anything she thinks I better know :)
#9. I no longer buy bottled water or lottery tickets!
If you were around this blog in 2011 you might remember the hate storm that occurred when I proudly exclaimed that I drink bottled water and wasn’t ashamed to admit it ;) I was mainly targeting the financial aspect of it and how I don’t mind spending the $$ there since bottled was the only way that got me to actually DRINK water (thus, the money spent was = the health benefits), however, I underestimated the environment part of it and was called out pretty good about it.
6 years later though, I’m proud to exclaim that I very much still drink loads of water, but no longer need to use a new bottle every time in doing so :) Finding this bad boy has helped immensely with that, along with purifying the tap more.
And lottery tickets? Well, my experimenting there is over too as I no longer have as much fun playing them as I used to (nor the time to keep going out and buying them each week). I still enjoy giving, and receiving them, for Christmas as they make excellent (and cheap) stocking stuffers!, but now a days I get my cheap thrills off hanging with my kids or chatting with you all here on the blog ;) I’ll never get rich off of it, but hey – LIFE!
And that’s really the point of everything I’ve learned over the past 9 years. Money is great and severely needed up to a certain point, but once you’ve hit the minimum amount for survival/happiness, the rest just feels like extra. The trick then becomes incrementally improving your *lifestyle*, which is just as challenging, if not more, than figuring out your money.
My dream for everyone here is to be able to master BOTH sides of this equation, and then appreciate the progress we’ve all made so far as well. I don’t know what comes after that, but I’d imagine it’s one helluva place to be at :)
What have you learned over the past 9 years?
*****
PS: As far as I’ve come over the years, I still mess up alllllllll the freakin’ time. Check out last year’s 8 fails over 8 years of blogging for some good ways to feel better about yourself ;)
9 Things I No Longer Do With My Money published first on http://ift.tt/2ljLF4B
0 notes