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December 2018: holiday spending/travel edition

Y’all, before we get into it, it has come to my attention that I’ve been doing this “savings” thing wrong. I need to “for-reals” save towards FI with the money that I save. The money that I save that’s leftover every month from my income once you subtract out my spending and oh wait now my poor, weak girl brain is confused because isn’t that the definition of savings?!?

You mansplain to me on my own damn blog and you’re going to get snark, just sayin’ (unless you’re enough of a dick that I straight-up delete your comment. I was feeling petty when I got the notification for that one, though).

ANYWAY.
Continue reading “December 2018: holiday spending/travel edition”

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Family and suboptimal decisions (and lots of traffic)

Friday evening was not the most fun I’ve ever had in my life.

I left work early so I could head out of town early and hopefully miss the usual traffic, but even leaving slightly before 3:00, I ran into residual traffic very soon after leaving the city (it’s not summer anymore, what the hell is up with there already being an accident and traffic at 3pm??!?). Over an hour and only 40 miles later, it started raining. It actually started pouring, and it didn’t let up for the rest of the trip. I-95 is not only a nightmare traffic-wise, but it turns out it’s not graded terribly well, and I hydroplaned in a couple of different spots. Continue reading “Family and suboptimal decisions (and lots of traffic)”

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Learning to stop and smell the roses

I love my mother dearly, but I have always been kind of terrified of growing up to be exactly like her. Some things I have no control over, like the ever-so-delightful combination of anxiety and perfectionism. It also never ceases to amaze me how much looking at old photos of my mom is like looking in a mirror. But there are other things I have control over—my reluctant struggles with minimalism (lite), for one, since I’ve got maximalist and pack rat tendencies in my blood. I think it’s pretty normal to look at traits present in immediate and extended family members and vow to yourself you’re not going to do that thing or think that way, so I’m hardly alone here.

But it turns out being my mother’s daughter is not always a bad thing. Let me tell you about two things my mom does that I used to be embarrassed about. Continue reading “Learning to stop and smell the roses”

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Holiday traditions, old and new

So writing wasn’t happening Monday night (let’s be honest, it wasn’t really happening last night either. Apologies for the resulting incoherence), so it’s a Wednesday/Friday post week because it’s my blog and I can make the rules! Also that works out just fine because I’m going to be at a holiday party for my side gig tonight so no writing’s happening. ANYWAY.

I’ve been listening to Christmas music since the properly-appointed time of after Thanksgiving and got into the decorating groove last weekend. This got me thinking about holiday traditions, and what’s new this year now that I’m on the FI path. Continue reading “Holiday traditions, old and new”