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I started this blog some time in June, so July marks my first full month of blogging..  So, I figured I would share some of my highs and lows with my readers, and also thank everyone who has visited, commented, subscribed, etc.  Without you, I’d just be a crazy person talking to myself on the internet (more…)

I am one of those people who take pride in having a comfy, cozy, beautiful home.  I suspect a lot of us are, judging by the Ikea Commercial that encourages us to make our homes our sanctuary.  It would be easy to go out and spend hundreds, even thousands, of dollars to fill our abodes with beautiful things.  However, for those of us on a budget, Estate Sales provide a wonderful alternative, enabling us to buy beautiful furniture at a fraction of the cost of retail. (more…)

I was included in 5 great carnivals this week, along with many other wonderful personal finance writers.  My article Lesson’s My Parents Taught Me About Money was an Editor’s Pick in the Money Hacks Carnival, hosted this week at Can I Get Rich on a Salary.  Lots of other great articles there, including my favorites: Go Green & Put Some Green Back in Your Pocket and The Zen of Shopping.  

Make sure you check out the Festival of Frugality #136: Summer School Edition  hosted at Student Scrooge.  My article on Spending and Purchasing was included.  There are too many great articles to mention them all by name, but 3 of my absolute favorites were The ABCs of Frugality, this article praising the Freecycle Program (which reminded me to sign up in my new city) and this article which reinforced my decision to move to a smaller city.  

The Carnival of Money Stories #70 is up over at Stop The Ride.  My article, on Blackberry Envy, is up over there as well as many other great articles (a whole alphabet full, in fact).  Be sure to check it out.  I especially enjoyed: 13 Ways to Be Green and Save your Green ($$)  and Cost versus Comfort about mattress shopping.

The Carnival of 20-Something Finance hosted at Weak Wallet contained my article about How Debt Breeds More Debt along with many other fun frugal articles.  My favs here were People Who Like to Split the Check Are No Longer My Friends and 3 Great Money Lessons from My old Man, but again there were too many great articles to name them all.

Finally, my article on how my debt is complicating my life was included in the 150th Carnival of Debt Reduction hosted at Debt Free Revolution  which also included many great reads, including this inspiring story about paying off $25,000 of debt within 18 months.  

Be sure to check them all out!

One hot button issue in the personal finance (and political) world lately is the government bailouts surrounding the mortgage crisis.  In this article at My Two Dollars, the writer expressed a lot of my sentiments.  While I do feel very sorry for people who genuinely didn’t know what they were getting into, I think a lot of people just wanted what they wanted, let the consequences be darned. And I don’t necessarily want my tax dollars going to help these people, for the obvious reasons and for personal reasons as well. 

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I know I am a little late to the game, but I wanted to post the best money advice I ever received. The advice, and I don’t remember where I heard it, boils down to the simple maxim: Never Pay Interest on an Asset that Doesn’t Appreciate. (more…)

One of my earliest memories is of a party game I used to play.  It began when my mom was trying to keep me busy when we were waiting in line somewhere, I guess.  My mom used to carry about 20 different credit cards in her purse (store cards, etc.) and when I was 2 years old, I was able to name them all on site.  This was before I could read, but she would lay them out and I would be able to tell just from the picture which one was Discover, and Sears, and so forth.  For some reason, people thought this was just a darling little trick.   (more…)

I mentioned in my About Me page that I was going to be starting my own business.  Fortunately, it is an information centered business (tutoring) so there are almost no start up costs.  I paid $50 for 6 months of web hosting (which also includes this domain name too) and $50 for Google Ads, so that was a $100 initial investment. (more…)

Well, we got a paycheck today. Yay. Unfortunately, it went right back out again (my student loan payment and a $1000 payment to attack the $3100 balance on my credit card). (more…)

I meant to do this on the 15th, and I was going to post updates on the 15th and the 30/31 of every month, but as usual life got in the way.  So, anywhere, here (for those who care to see) is a listing of my spending and my income thus far this month. (more…)

In this article, I wrote about how Sallie Mae would allow me to decrease my payments online (or even apply for deferment or forbearance) but not increase my payments.  Well, this seems to be just one of the many ways in which Sallie Mae is subtly discouraging me from paying back my loans within any sort of reasonable time frame.   (more…)