As the title implies, I like to personify money concepts in my head to entertain my financial avatar. (I’m not good with titles.) Here are the cast of characters in my soap opera. Mimi – Mimi is my Financial Avatar. This is who I picture whenever I write “my financial avatar.” She’s savvy. She doesn’t… Read More »
My financial avatar gives money freely and happily for me to have a happy place to lay my head at night and enough good, happy food to eat. These two expenses probably take up the largest part of my budget and I am more than okay with that. I’m happy to sign a lease for a nice apartment for… Read More »
The title of this post is misleading and I should probably change it, but I think “Thriftygal’s 2016 Budget” is more click-baity than “Thriftygal’s 2016 Financial Philosophy” or “Thriftygal’s 2016 Experiment with Financial Independence in an Annoying Bear Market.” I haven’t settled on a name for this operation yet. Maybe I’ll just call it Operation Earl and confuse… Read More »
I have a couple more items that I know that you probably already spend a significant amount of money on and that I didn’t want to point out earlier because I know you’re going to yell at me. But, dagnabbit, these items are WANTS and you really have to think hard if they are worth… Read More »
Money means freedom and power in a million different ways. Sure, there’s the obvious way of being able to structure your own days and not work, but there’s so much more to it. Having some money in your bank account gives you a cushion in your life no matter what dice the universe rolls. Money has such amazing… Read More »
I’m on a bit of a history lesson kick, watching Crash Course videos on Youtube and reading about the Great Depression. People who lived through the Great Depression understood the importance of thrift and not wasting what you had, so I’m constantly on the lookout for advice from that period. By chance, I stumbled across… Read More »
Part of the reason that women traditionally earn less than men for the same job is that they don’t negotiate their salary as often. Keep in mind too, that often the best way to increase your salary is to change jobs and negotiate for a higher pay. My rule of thumb is to always negotiate. What’s… Read More »
I like to think of myself as a fairly sophisticated consumer, too smart to fall for gimmicks. Luckily for me, the universe senses my thoughts and will occasionally give me a smackdown and snigger when I fall for something annoying. “Humility”, the universe whispers in my ear. Indeed. I forget, but there are people whose entire livelihood revolve… Read More »
We live in an incredibly and, dare I say, shamefully wasteful society. Each year, the world throws away an astonishing 33% of all food produced. Consumerism and constantly buying new crap is how we measure the growth of our economy. We throw away instead of fixing what’s broken. We upgrade to the newest electronic gadget the day it’s… Read More »
I don’t want to alienate you with my series – spending habits draining your net worth. I like to think I give both sides of the argument for each item, but for me and my lifestyle, the answer is obvious to avoid them. Here’s an incomplete list of the items I spend no money on or very little… Read More »