From the monthly archives:
While home for Christmas, I had a conversation with my step-dad where he said that both he and my mom had noticed that something seemed to have changed with me since they saw me in August. Every time I’m in town, my step-dad and I go out for coffee—just the two of us. In August, [...]
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The picture says almost everything. That is my mom’s comb and it is older than I am. My parents don’t live like paupers, but they do live very conservatively when it comes to money. They live in houses they can easily afford, drive cars that are paid off, and don’t buy things if they don’t [...]
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I worry it sounds bad to have my after Christmas wrap up be all about the money, but I share my feelings all over the internet (so you know I’m deep) and this is a blog about personal finance. Plus, I think money and materialism is a part of Christmas, so it would be silly [...]
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When I decided to get serious about debt reduction, it seemed there was nothing I could do to reduce my monthly bills. I have always been very conscious about keeping them as lean as possible. There’s no fat there to cut. My problem is shopping and the way to deal with that was to stop [...]
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This is my Costco mentality. I am a very organized person and I like to do everything as efficiently as possible. One trip to Target to buy all of the cosmetics, toiletries, snack foods, and cleaning supplies I need is more efficient than one a week. But, even when I try to grab everything I [...]
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I have mixed feelings about Dave Ramsey. He can be very abrasive and I don’t agree with his politics. But, listening to him is what finally set my mind straight about my debt. For the first time I realized that I am responsible for the situation I’m in and it is possible for me to [...]
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I am finally able to make my first big payment toward my credit card and I am so excited. I ended November with an extra $500, but I didn’t feel comfortable making it through the first 10 days of the month with less than a $100 in my checking account, so I waited until now [...]
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The most annoying thing so far about working to get out of debt is the wait between pay days. There are things to be done every day, mostly working a lot and not spending money, but I only get to really feel the satisfaction of progress when the money comes in every two weeks. When [...]
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It took some irrational thinking to get me so far into debt and to keep me from doing something about it much earlier. I’m trying to address some of the ways I deluded myself. I work a lot. I always have, but now more than ever. I have never been a big spender, but small [...]
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I’m a planner, so I have always made budgets. I even thought I was pretty good at it. As it turns out, I’m not very good at it at all. I’ve got three major problems with budgets: Making them is a hell of a lot easier than following them. Unexpected expenses always come up, which [...]
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