Fact: You are going to screw up sometimes. Maybe you miscalculate a bill and overdraw your account. Perhaps you succumb to temptation and use a credit card instead of cash/debit. Or you forgot to plan for an upcoming [and necessary] expense. Last week, it was my turn. First, I didn’t realize my rent check hadn’t…
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About me: I’m 37 years old, soon to be 38. Currently, I owe $54,000 [made up of credit cards, a car loan, and student loans]. My savings are fairly minimal – just a $1,000 emergency fund and some sinking funds. I have almost NO retirement savings. I am definitely “starting late”. If you’re in the…
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I just finished my lunch on this quiet Sunday. It was a very nice lunch – tuna salad [with celery and onion] on whole wheat toast, baby carrots, olives, and a glass of milk. I thoroughly enjoyed it. But I realized something while eating, as I compared it to my dinner on Friday. That day,…
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Do you use ‘Sinking Funds’? To be honest, it’s taken me awhile to start using sinking funds. At the beginning of my debt-free journey, I was so caught up with the immediate that I didn’t consider more long-term budgeting. Sometimes I would think, “Hey, I should start setting aside money for X, Y, and Z,”…
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Are you “gazelle-intense”? When I first started this debt-free journey, I read about becoming “gazelle-intense”. Picking up side-hustles, selling personal items, slashing as much as possible from the budget – all of these were touted as ways to be gazelle-intense and a necessary part of becoming debt-free. And I’m not stupid – I recognize that…
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Have you read The Complete Tightwad Gazette? In the 1990’s, Amy Dacyczyn had an idea for a home-based business. She started a newsletter called The Tightwad Gazette aimed at promoting frugality. Later, the issues of the newsletter were combined into books, and ta-da! The Complete Tightwad Gazette was born. My first experience with this book…
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I posted this on Instagram and got some great responses, so I wanted to give more information and hopefully learn a lot more too! My grocery budget is currently $300/month for just me. I find it hard to stick to a smaller budget for a variety of reasons. I live in a very rural area.…
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Yesterday, I went grocery shopping. First – let me say that I LOVE shopping. All kinds of shopping. I could be picking up tampons and toilet paper and I will still enjoy the experience. There’s just something about walking through a store with all its millions of consumer possibilities. [Which is a big part of…
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Well, it’s certainly been awhile, hasn’t it? It’s funny [and annoying] how life has a way of getting away from you. Last year at this time, I was all fired up about pursuing this blogging thing and getting out of debt. I had great plans – grand plans – to knock down the monster that…
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I find it both funny and frustrating how up and down this debt-free journey is for me. The up side: I decided to save $125 and cancel my hotel reservation for the night before a training that is being held 2 hours away from home. My initial plan was to drive down the night before…
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