Last December, I wrote a bit of a love letter to my new-at-the-time phone and plan — Project Fi by Google. I had retired a couple of months prior and no longer had data at my fingertips paid for by an employer. 14 months later, I’ve paid an average of $23.41 per month for the service. Are you paying more for your… Read More »
This calendar event popped up for me recently: “Yo, still on track, my love?” This was my gentle reminder to go pet my financial avatar, update my charts and hopefully mutter reassuringly to myself. Here’s where I stood at the end of April 2016. The red line represents my expenses each month. I derive the green line from… Read More »
I used to have an OKCupid profile a few years ago before I realized that Internet dating sucks the life out of my soul. Alas, I’m reading a bit about finding a partner in crime, a mate, a dude who will tell me, “hey, we’re sitting at the wrong gate; if we don’t move 20 feet… Read More »
I love your emails. I do. I know I haven’t replied to you or maybe I replied to you once, you replied back and then you never heard from me again. I’m terribly sorry. Please know that I’ve read it though and your kind words make my day, my week, my month, my life. Here… Read More »
There’s no good way to describe the first four months of the year. I’ve used “trimester” in the past, but oops, that only means three months. Quadrimester would be more technically accurate, but I find that word a bit pretentious. Google suggests “tertile,” which I would like if it were more widely-used or I had a good turtle joke.… Read More »
I mentioned recently how a drop of water told me to change my attitude, so now instead of despairing about not being as good as everyone else is at everything, I feel relieved that so many sophisticated people are working on life’s problems, thinking about how to make things better and sharing their knowledge. Think of the possibilities! Maybe humanity is not completely screwed after… 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 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 »
I’m working on crossing off Life Bucket List Item #3 – Learn to Cook Like Mom. I’ve tried more times than I can count to cross this sucker off, but now that I’m being a bit more meticulous about the process and thinking about what worked for me in the past, I feel like I’m finally… Read More »