motivation & success — The Life She Wanders

Social media is going nowhere fast and if you aren’t careful it can easily consume every waking moment of your life. Whether it’s staying up-to-date on the latest news or getting lost in the endless scroll because you don’t know what else to do with your time, creating boundaries is key. If you’ve fallowed me for any length of time you know that I am not afraid to take time away from social media if I need it. I like to call them "no tech zones” but ultimately it is a social media detox. It can be a day, a couple of days or even a couple of months, but the important factor here is to do what works for YOU and your needs…and mental health.

Finding Balance Between Spending vs Investing on Yourself

This topic has been one I’ve wanted to write about for quite some time now and something I’ve really valued more and more recently. In the world of personal finances, so many times the topics of discussion are don’t spend money, cut these things to save, how to be a better saver, and so on. These are all highly important topics but there is also the reality that we all spend money and we all need to treat ourselves from time to time. Today for Money Monday, we’re taking a look at the difference between and finding balance between spending vs investing on yourself. Both are forms of spending money but one has a bit more depth and meaning to it.

Finances, Money Monday, motivation & success, selfStepfanie McCaffreyFebruary 10, 2020money monday, spending vs investing, finding balanceComment

3 Steps to Easily Improve Your Savings Strategy

Another installment of Money Monday is here and today we’re diving into one of my favorite financial topics…savings! I don’t know about you but I have some major life goals and the reality of it is that without a substantial savings strategy in place, those goals truly will not be attainable. As growing my savings substantially becomes more and more of a priority, I’ve really dived into ways that help make the process not only more meaningful, but successful. This 3-step process is easy for anyone to implement no matter their financial situation or what their goals are.

How To Detox Your Life in the New Year: Schedule & Routine

It’s the last post in the detoxing your life in the New Year mini series and today we’re diving into your schedule and routine. These two things are basically our life and over time we can either overflow them or leave them high and dry. Being such a prominent part in our daily lives, I think it is crucial to take that step back and really analyze everything involved in your schedule and daily routine from almost an outside perspective to make you the most productive, joyful and sane!

How I Plan My Monthly Budget and Track Expenses

Recently for Money Monday we talked about detoxing your finances in the New Year and I received some follow-up questions from you guys after that post. It makes my heart happy to see that so many of you are focused on your personal finances just like me! Money and budgeting has become such a priority in my life over the past year and even more so since starting this Money Monday series. So today I thought it would be beneficial to share with y’all just exactly how I plan my monthly budget and track my expenses.

How To Detox Your Life in the New Year: Home

The 4th week of our mini series on detoxing your life in the New Year has arrived and today we’re looking at detoxing every and all aspects of your home. It can certainly be overwhelming with so many areas to focus on and this sense of not really knowing where to start or what exactly to do. Well, that’s where I come in! I have a fool-proof method I use all of the time that works like a charm. It breaks down the organizing, cleaning and detoxing into digestible pieces so you don’t get overwhelmed and stay focused on the task at hand.

Why I Budget For a Weekly Coffee Shop Visit

Today’s Money Monday post is a little different from topics we’ve previously discussed. From starting a budget to detoxing your finances, money saving challenges, paying off college loans and more, we’ve focused on a lot of the basics. Now don’t get me wrong, all of these topics we’ve covered are extremely important but today we’re taking a different perspective. If you’ve noticed recently from my Instagram stories each week, I typically go to my favorite coffee shop in Denver, Aviano Coffee, on Sundays. There is something about spending Sundays at Aviano that I love so much, and because of that, I now budget for that weekly coffee shop visit. Let me explain.

How To Detox Your Life in the New Year: Social Media

The detox your life in the new year series continues and today we’re talking all things social media. For many of us, social media is a big part of our lives whether it is for business, blogging or personal use for fun. Because of that, it can become overwhelming and cause unnecessary and unwanted stress, comparison and more. The start of the new year got me thinking about how I can take steps to detox the social media I’m involved with without taking a full cut and break. These are extremely tangible ways that you can clean up your social media to make it work best for you and avoid that terrible comparison trap and endless scroll.

How To Successfully Work from a Coffee Shop

If there is one thing I’ve come to love more and more over the past couple of years it’s working from a coffee shop. There is just something about the change of scenery, the social energy, enjoying a fresh cup of your favorite coffee, and the opportunity to meet new people that I truly enjoy. I’ve previously shared tips on how to successfully work from home and thought it would be a fun spin-off and extension, especially in today’s work age, to share tips & tricks from my own experience to help you successfully work from a coffee shop.

motivation & success, organization, workStepfanie McCaffreyJanuary 16, 2020coffee shop, work from coffee shop, how toComment

How To Detox Your Life in the New Year: Finances

Money Monday and my mini series on how to detox your life in the New Year collide today as we take a look at detoxing your personal finances. The beginning of the year is a great time to re-evaluate your expenses, budget, income and beyond in order to set yourself up for financial success this year. I’ve put together 6 simple steps that you can easily implement whether you are a budgeting vet or newbie that will help get your personal finances in tip top shape!

How To Detox Your Life in the New Year: Tech

There’s something special about the start of a new year. It’s a blank slate, a fresh start, and the motivation is flowing like lattes at Starbucks. If you’re like me, this sense of it being a blank slate brings about feelings of organization and de-cluttering galore. With that said, I thought it would be fun to do a 5-post mini series on how to detox various aspects of your life at the start of the year! The first area we’re going to dive into is detoxing all things tech in your life. From your laptop to your cell phone, photos and Word Docs, I have some great tips & tricks for helping you de-clutter and organize all things tech in your life.

5 Money Saving Challenges to Try in the New Year

Money Monday is back my friends! Y’all loved this series last fall and it took a bit of a back seat during the winter holiday season and I am beyond excited to be starting it back up. Money and personal finances are one of those extremely important life things that unfortunately becomes this taboo topic nobody talks about. I’m here to break down that barrier and make it an accessible topic to help you feel comfortable and be successful with your finances. With it being the start of a new year and a new decade, I wanted to kick off Money Monday with some fun ways you can challenge yourself to save money all year long. Because who doesn’t love a good challenge AND saving money?!

The Best of 2019

Just like that, another year has come to an end. Not only is it the end of a year, it’s the end of a decade. As crazy of a roller coaster ride as 2019 was, it truly was such a dynamic and empowering year. Aside from any life changes and growth, it was an absolute tremendous year for The Life She Wanders! From the bottom of my heart I want to thank each and every single one of you for your outpouring support of all things TLSW. Now it’s time to take a look at some of the best blog posts, best sellers and Instagram posts from this past year.

motivation & successStepfanie McCaffreyDecember 30, 2019best of 2019, best blog posts, best sellers, best instagram postsComment

How to Recover After a Month of Overspending

After a few weeks hiatus and a social detox to be in the moment, we are back with another post in the Money Monday series! This week’s topic is one that all of us have dealt with at some point in our lives. Sometimes emergency situations come up, our social calendar is more full than normal, or we just unintentionally go over budget for the month. Thankfully there are a few key steps that can easily get your monthly budget back on track.

Money Monday, motivation & success, Finances, budgetStepfanie McCaffreyOctober 14, 2019overspending, money monday, finance tipsComment

Habits That Drain Your Time and Energy

Earlier this year I shared a post with tips for making a better use of your time and I thought this topic of habits that drain your time [and energy] would be a great extension of that. We are all guilty of it whether we realize it or not, but every single day we do things that inevitably drain our time and/or energy. These habits can be task specific things like always checking your email, to more emotional things like overthinking all the things

motivation & successStepfanie McCaffreySeptember 26, 2019habits, time and energy, draining habitsComment

How To Financially Prep for the Holidays

I can’t believe I’m saying this but the holidays are going to be here before we know it! The holiday season brings about joyous celebrations and making memories with friends & family. Unfortunately, it can also be quite an expensive time of year that often many off us fail to prep for. In order to give you a head start on your prep and savings strategy, I’m diving into a few key ways you can begin to financially prep for the holidays.

Money Monday, motivation & success, holidays, Finances, budgetStepfanie McCaffreySeptember 23, 2019money monday, financial prep, holidaysComment

I Paid Off $40,000 in College Loans - Here's How

My first ever college loan payments were due on Christmas Day in 2012. I most certainly was not so holly jolly about that! Fast forward to October 2018 and I was as jolly as can be as I made my last payments on those loans! I truly cannot describe the feeling of paying off such a HUGE chunk of money, it’s like a outer-body experience. The world of college loans can be a dark, depressing thing but if you work smarter instead of harder at paying them off, the reward is that much sweeter in the end.

motivation & success, Money Monday, Finances, budgetStepfanie McCaffreySeptember 3, 2019money monday, college loans, budget, budget basicsComment

Evaluating Your Monthly Budget: 5 Things to Cut to Save Money

Last week in our Money Monday series opener, we talked about the basics of starting a monthly budget. One of the points discussed was evaluating your budget to figure out where you stand from an income and expenses standpoint. So lets dive into this in a little bit more detail and figure out the most efficient ways for you to evaluate your monthly budget, with 5 things you can cut to save money.