One Facebook friend shopped for eight hours on Black Friday last year. Another took three friends and filled one shopping cart a piece. I looked at photo after photo as they flooded social media. There were a lot–and I mean A LOT–of shopping hashtags and not a single #OptOutside on my Facebook feed. The Black … [Read more…]
Confession time, fam. I keep busting our budget. The whole thing doesn’t go up in flames, but category after category, month after month, I keep going over budget. So as I scrolled through the spreadsheet last month, I found myself wondering if this is lifestyle inflation at its undiagnosed finest…or do I need to adjust … [Read more…]
Is there anything more Midwestern than a blog post about what a fair costs and visiting cute farm animals? How about the mention of deep-fried Oreos or deep-fried mac ‘n cheese? (Full disclosure: I saw both served on sticks and I ate neither…this time.) I’ve been going to the Walworth County Fair every summer since … [Read more…]
In news that should shock absolutely no one, we don’t calculate our savings rate officially. Just like we don’t track our net worth in a formal capacity…or have a projected FI/FIRE number. And we still have cable. Basically, someone should just come take my money blog away. Even without a formal savings rate calculation, I … [Read more…]
Remember how in my last money diary I joked about $19 in 48 hours making kids expensive? Hahahahahahahaha. Here’s live footage of me trying to salvage our budget at the end of July. via GIPHY There’s just something about summertime that means spending in my life. Though if social media is any indication, it’s pretty … [Read more…]
Summer is winding down as anyone who has recently set foot in a Target can attest. You can’t move your shopping cart three feet without being assaulted with back-to-school reminders, especially those towering shelves at the Dollar Spot. Just that sentence is enough to send new and veteran teachers alike deep into fantasies about cute … [Read more…]
“But what’s the point of not really buying anything all the time if we don’t do this?” A comment my husband made while we were mapping out our summer plans stopped me in my tracks. Once again, I forgot the why of frugality. We were knee deep in the middle of ideas–literally. Our dining room … [Read more…]
You can always make more money, but what you can’t get more of is time. This statement is both profoundly true everywhere and logistically false in education. The idea that any teacher can simply work hard to earn more income shows little understanding of a profession that is governed by salary schedules, lane changes, and … [Read more…]
I logged onto Facebook. That was my first mistake. Every once in a while, I can’t resist the temptation to check in with far-flung relatives, so I log on. There were three messages waiting for me. I knew what they were without even clicking. Like death and taxes, there is another certainty, albeit much more … [Read more…]
There’s a dirty little lie in the personal finance world. Fine. It’s not a lie. But it’s not the universal truth that it’s held up to be either. “You can always make more money.” Can you really? Can I?