After weeks of indecision about whether or not I was going to do this thing (and even more about what in the hell I should call this blog), on March 29, 2017, I finally pushed “publish” on my first post (I’m too scared to go back and read it. I think since then I’ve become at least a marginally better writer!). Which means it’s my birthday! Well, not mine—that was last month. It’s Reaching for FI’s first birthday today!!! Continue reading “Celebrating one year of blogging”
Spring snow day: a photo essay
If you know anything about me, you know that I loathe winter. I hate the cold and I hate the lack of sunlight. But when it snows it redeems winter in my opinion, even if briefly. Growing up in the south meant snow days were rare, and for as long as I can remember I’ve been delighted by snow.
And who isn’t? It’s absolutely gorgeous! Continue reading “Spring snow day: a photo essay”
Pantry staple price comparison: ALDI edition
After a Trader Joe’s opened up near me a few months back I decided to do a price comparison of some of my pantry staples at Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and the grocery store I normally shop at (RS in the post for “regular store”) to see if I should be changing up my grocery shopping habits in order to get the best deals on things I buy regularly.
Turned out there are a few things that are cheaper to buy at TJ, even though it’s more out of my way, and I’ve tried to buy those items there since that post.
My last grocery price comparison post started out like this:
Ah, Trader Joe’s. The bargain store spoken of in hushed tones of reverence usually reserved for sacred spaces and museum exhibitions of old masters (or no, is that just me speaking as an history nerd?).
Replace “Trader Joe’s” with “ALDI” and I’ve got myself the beginning of a second price comparison post! Continue reading “Pantry staple price comparison: ALDI edition”
Turkish red lentil soup
It’s been a WordPress-heavy week for me: I’ve spent most of the last three days at work doing various things on the work blog, and tomorrow’s going to be another day spent editing posts and uploading photos. Add to that Monday night spent writing and all of the administrative blog things I need to do (I’m super behind on responding to comments ?), plus this post, and it was getting to be a lot.
I wanted to do something a little different and shorter than normal. So enter my first recipe! Continue reading “Turkish red lentil soup”
Doing hard things, part 3: the plot thickens
In case you missed it, I asked for a raise and a title change in January.
When I left off with part two of the Job Saga over a month ago, I’d been doing a lot of waiting to hear back about my raise/title change request. While I’m still largely in waiting purgatory, things have certainly happened since then.
I hadn’t yet applied for the internal position when I wrote that post, but I changed that a few days later. And was granted an interview. Continue reading “Doing hard things, part 3: the plot thickens”
No one else cares about your money: a #WomenRockMoney post
This post is part of the #WomenRockMoney Movement, a group of female personal finance bloggers who have come together to inspire more women to own their finances. Thanks to Chelsea for putting together this collaboration and the amazing homepage for the movement!
Happy International Women’s Day, everyone! If for some reason you’ve missed the fact that I’m a huge feminist and am therefore all about this day (and month) of celebration of women, well…surprise! When Chelsea at Mama Fish Saves asked who wanted to be part of this collaboration, I couldn’t sign up fast enough. She asked us to write a post about our most important piece of money advice for women, and I didn’t want to add to the multitudes of how-to posts about fundamentals like the basics of budgeting (especially since I don’t budget… ?♀️).
While I was thinking, I realized there was an incredibly essential thing that I wish I’d known earlier: no one else cares about your money. You are the only one who does.
That sounds disingenuous, especially from someone who blogs about her money and certainly appreciates when people read what she writes. But let me explain. Continue reading “No one else cares about your money: a #WomenRockMoney post”
February 2018: birthday month edition
February was a bunch of working extra and two weekends spent out of town; one to see my parents, and the weekend closest to my birthday in LA. I’m now 26 so I guess that makes me Officially Old and Done With the Quarter-Life Crisis or something. Just kidding, the quarter-life crisis will for sure continue, probably on multiple fronts! Boy am I glad I figured out the financial aspect and am working on the FIRE thing so I at least know that what I want to be when I grow up includes not being tied to a 9-5!
General sarcasm at myself/my ongoing “what do I want to do in life?” emergency soul-searching aside, turns out there’s not much new to report since I wrote about much of it as it happened. So if you missed all that because for some unfathomable reason you haven’t been religiously keeping up with my posts, go read them (whoops, sorry, the sarcasm continues)! And PS I’ve now got a handy archives page so you can go catch up on everything 😉 Continue reading “February 2018: birthday month edition”
Coming to terms with a year’s worth of spending
Tracking your spending is one of the most basic things you need to do when on the FI path. December 2016 is the first month I actually kept track of everything I spent, which means I have data for the entire year of 2017.
I have to admit, for months now I’ve been thinking about totaling up everything from 2017, but I’ve also been avoiding it. While I moved to spending more intentionally overall during the year, I know for a fact there was a lot of waste, and I was scared to see what I’d find. But for the sake of better knowing my finances, I sucked it up and took a peek at the numbers. Continue reading “Coming to terms with a year’s worth of spending”