Welcome to the Weekly Quick Hits Roundup!
If you’re new here, every week I write a weekly wrap-up of things that were going on here at Young Adult Money, a few personal updates/thoughts, and finally a few posts I read this week that I thought were worth sharing.
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Friday. Even when I used to work on the weekends there was always something nice about Friday. A symbolic end to the grind that is the work week. Gotta love Fridays!
I have a couple of updates to share with you:
- Freelance Writing Job – I finally took on a freelance writing job. I’ll be writing once a week for another site and I can’t wait to get started. Because I pay to have writers on my site I held off taking on freelance writing because it didn’t quite make sense to pay for writers unless it was a great deal.
- Retaining Wall – Raquel at Practical Cents mentioned that she is getting a new retaining wall put in. I also need to put in a retaining wall and I wasn’t excited to see the quote she got – though honestly I’m not surprised.
I am considering going the DIY route. If anyone has gone through replacing a retaining wall, now’s the time to talk me out of it ;) I’ve been reading up on it and doing some research and, despite it being back-breaking work I think if I take off enough work and plan properly I should be able to do it. If I can do it right, it means saving upwards of $5,000, so I think it would be worth it.
This weekend I have one project I hope to tackle: removing wallpaper from our third bedroom 0_o Fingers crossed it won’t take as long as I think it will take.
Below are the posts we published this week:
- Monday I gave 5 Steps to Turning Your Skills into Money.
- On Tuesday Sally shared My Little Bathroom DIY
- On Wednesday Cat askedHow Much Money Should You Save Before You Have a Baby?.
- On Thursday I shared 4 Tips for Applying to Jobs you aren’t Qualified For.
Posts of the Week:
As usual, here are five posts from around the blogosphere that I enjoyed:
- Travis from Enemy of Debt talked about the debt-free life in First Budget Post Debt Management Plan: How Did Our Spending Change?
- Kim from Eyes on the Dollar asked Do We Have to Have a Birthday Party?
- Stefanie from The Broke and the Beautiful Life talked about long distance relationships in Love and Money: Long Distance Expenses
- Mitchell from Club Thrifty had a great post on stock valuation in Valuing Stocks and the Efficient Market Hypothesis
- John from Frugal Rules asked MyRA: Should the Government Force Us to Save for Retirement?
- Heather from 20 Something Syndrome shared Tropical Green Smoothie Recipe
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Anything exciting planned for the weekend? Any tips on removing wallpaper?
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Photo by Illya Kondratyuk
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Congrats on the freelance writing job! Have a great weekend :)
Congrats on the new gig. Thanks for the shout out! Have a great weekend!
You are a brave person to tackle a retaining wall project. A few years back, hubby and I put in stone pavers and the process required a lot of earth removal and “back breaking” is the perfect word for it. But you are young and active, so if you were ever going to tackle such a project, I would say do it sooner than later.
SenseofCents Thanks Michelle! I had a few other offers in the past but had been holding out for the “right” one. Hope you have a great weekend as well!
brokeandbeau Thanks and no problem! Hope you have a great weekend as well, Stefanie.
blonde_finance Yeah I think now is the time for me to do it if I’m ever going to do it. No kids, a decent amount of PTO, relatively ‘fit’. I might add a patio as well but I think I might be doubling my work load haha, so we’ll see. Hope you have a great weekend as well!
Congrats on the writing gig! I wish I had some tips for you on removing wallpaper, but I hate doing it. ;) My exciting plans for the weekend is deciding on a new redesigner for the site and a bit of work – fun I know. :) Thanks for the mention DC, have a great weekend!
Thanks for the shoutout and good luck on your wallpaper project. I’ve done it before in a bathroom and what a hassle -_-
Congrats on your new gig! Sounds exciting. Oh man, that was a painful quote that I got on my retaining wall. It took me about 3 weeks to recover from that one. Ha! I hope you get some good tips on DIYing it. It would be nice to save the cash. I’ve always seen people use a steamer to remove wall paper. Thanks for the mention and enjoy your weekend.
FrugalRules I’m crossing my fingers that the wallpaper won’t be as bad as I think it will be, but it very well could be. Finding a designer is stressful! I found one and we are working through the process now but I’m incredibly picky so it could take a while. Best of luck picking one!
20 Something Syndrome No problem! Haha I certainly am expecting it to not be fun at all, but the room will look so much better when the wallpaper is gone.
Raquel@Practical Cents It definitely would be nice to save the cash on the retaining wall, though I have to go into it fully well knowing that if I screw it up the wall could shift and I’d be stuck hiring someone. I figure it’s worth a shot. Hope you enjoy your weekend as well!
When I was a teenager, we put up a retaining wall using these huge wooden railroad ties in our backyard: drilling a hole with a huge bit, then driving in a metal nail that was about a foot long, into the end of each one. It sucked. I don’t know if your wall would involve any of the same things, but I would strongly look towards outsourcing that kind of job if I had to do it again.
Still, I was paid $0 for the work since, you know, my parents figured I was free labor…
Congrats on the new writing gig. You’re the hardest working man in blogging.
DonebyFortyWell I can tell you one thing: I don’t plan on doing it that way! The interlocking retaining wall blocks they have now seem a lot easier than what you’re describing. Still will be back-breaking work because of all the dirt I have to move and all the leveling and whatnot that goes into it, but I think it’ll be worth saving a few thousand dollars.
Charles@gettingarichlifethanks, but I don’t know about hardest working haha. I think you have to be hard-working just to be in the blogopshere in the first place.
Thanks so much for the mention! Also, great job on getting the freelance work!
Good luck with the wall and wall paper. Fun parts of home ownership! Thanks for the mention.
Holly at ClubThrifty No problem Holly, and thanks!
Eyesonthedollar Thanks Kim! It’s coming along…slowly.
Looking forward to seeing where you’re freelancing writing is ending up……are you going to tell us? :) Thanks for including my post from EOD!
DebtChronicles No problem! I will definitely tell everyone just wanted to wait until my first post was up : )