It’s just barely still January, so now’s a perfect time to finally wrap up with the 2019 posts! Continue reading “2019 year in review”
2018 year in review
So it’s been a while since I posted. I’ll let Instagram do the talking for me here, but basically I crashed in December. Remember how I kept talking all year about needing to slow down? Yeah, that never happened. Continue reading “2018 year in review”
A weekend in NYC
Inspired by Luxe’s weekend money diaries, what better post to write than a recap of my recent (okay it was a few weeks ago now—life’s been very busy lately) weekend trip to NYC, especially since I finally met her while I was there?
I originally decided to visit NYC because one of my best friends lives there (and I’m totally taking credit for the fact that she now blogs—you can find her here!) and I hadn’t seen her since her wedding last year. But I also made sure to let the NYC FI people know I was coming so I could meet some of them. Continue reading “A weekend in NYC”
In defense of kid lit and rereading
So I went to CampFI two weekends ago. And then, instead of having time to recover from that (#introvertproblems), I jumped right in to chorus concert week where I spent multiple evenings at rehearsal (remember my plan to go to bed at 11? Impossible when you get home at 11, assuming you’re lucky and don’t have to wait 20-25 minutes in the metro station for a train home so it’s even later) and had to dedicate my entire weekend to it. So to say I’m exhausted is a bit of an understatement.
I was adventurous and went to barre Tuesday night for the first time in the better part of three weeks (yes, that’s how busy I’ve been); I am very consciously making the choice to skip it tonight in the hopes that that’ll allow me to finish up this post and go to bed more or less on time. But other than that, I spent Monday and Tuesday evenings in an exhausted stupor on the couch, too tired to do things that’ll make my life easier, like putting dirty dishes in the dishwasher (my roommate isn’t currently home so I’m not forced to clean for her sake), or to work on the things I want to get done. My impending car insurance renewal isn’t going to research itself, after all.
That’s made it hard to figure out what to write about lately. It’s hard to pull money lessons out of sheer exhaustion, and even harder to dedicate the time to sit down and write a post. Hell, I haven’t even spent any money so far this week thanks to the seriously well-stocked fridge (again, good thing my roommate isn’t here because it wasn’t just my half of the fridge that was full!) my mom left when she departed my apartment on Monday morning. Bless her for that, especially because this is a week I’ve been too tired to think about making food for myself, let alone grocery shopping and actually making it. I may have spent the bulk of the last two evenings on the couch but at least I had healthy food to eat while I was there!
So let’s talk something a bit different today. And let’s start off by revisiting my bookshelf. Continue reading “In defense of kid lit and rereading”
March 2018: this feels like cheating
Having now completed my first year of blogging, here’s my twelfth spending report to round it out! Y’all, I’ve gotta say, looking at March’s spending but also hitting my highest-ever savings rate(!) feels a lot like cheating. Continue reading “March 2018: this feels like cheating”
Twelve months of experiments: March 2018
My goals for March were to go to bed at 11:00 instead of 11:30 every night and to continue my goal from February of reading a bit every day. There’s not a ton to say here because it wasn’t overly successful or enlightening. Continue reading “Twelve months of experiments: March 2018”
Twelve months of experiments: January 2018
When last I wrote, dear readers, I’d cliffhangered you at the end of the first of what’s likely to be an exhaustive series on how my first-ever request for a raise goes. I regret to inform you that today’s post is not a continuation of that series, which is something you’d probably surmised from the title.
Instead, since it’s a new month (also my birthday month! I suppose turning 26 means my quarter-life crisis will be over, right?), here’s an end of month update on the challenges I took on in January. I was decluttering, doing a no-spend/uber frugal month challenge, a barre challenge, and still trying to meditate every day.
In case that sounds like an overwhelming number of things to do all at once, may I remind you how the last bit of my first post of 2018, which laid out the four challenges I was doing, ended?
Ridiculously overly ambitious? We shall see!
In a surprise to absolutely no one, turned out it was ridiculously overly ambitious! Continue reading “Twelve months of experiments: January 2018”
How the library is helping me reach financial independence (guest post on Millennial Money Man)
Surprise, everyone! It’s Wednesday, not Thursday, so why are you hearing from me today instead of tomorrow?
It’s because I’ve got exciting news: I’ve got a guest post over on Millennial Money Man today!
Just in case the title didn’t give the topic away, here’s how the post starts: “I’m a huge nerd and a voracious reader. I always have been, always will be.” Surprise again, I wrote a post about libraries! Continue reading “How the library is helping me reach financial independence (guest post on Millennial Money Man)”
2017 year in review
Super-creative title, right? But this post does what it says on the box: here’s a look back at what happened in 2017. Continue reading “2017 year in review”
Five things I don’t regret spending money on
I spend a lot of time on this blog talking about ways I’m saving money or things I’m no longer spending money on. It’s a function both of being on the FIRE path and also just a fact of life for someone on a non-profit salary. There’s lots of talk in the personal finance community of how to save money, ranging from small things like lattes to the big things like houses and cars.
But saving money isn’t the whole story—sometimes there are times when it makes more sense to spend money than not to spend it. I’m a broken record when it comes to talking about why I spend so much money each month on my barre membership. But here are five not-so-obvious larger-ticket items I’m glad I’ve spent money on. Continue reading “Five things I don’t regret spending money on”