Lifestyle Inflation: The 8th Deadly Sin

Lifestyle Inflation: The 8th Deadly Sin

Lifestyle inflation is like the 8thdeadly sin in the personal finance blogging world. OMG – are you leasing a car? Do you eat out 2 nights a week? Do you have a home with more than one toilet? Do you bathe using something other than a sponge bath with water you then use on your…

What’s Your Panic Reflex?

In college, one of my professors made me learn what type of panic reflex I have. He taught us that everyone is naturally inclined to do one of two things – freeze or frenzy. If you freeze, you’re not of much use to anyone. If you go into a frenzy, you’re also not of much…

How Commitment Saves You Money

How Commitment Saves You Money

There’s a lot of articles out there about how millennials are a commitment-less generation. Maybe they don’t say that in so many words (though some do), but we’re job hoppers. We don’t have a lot of loyalty to any merchants, because, well, they’re merchants and we know most of them don’t really care about us.…

D’oh Money Moments

D’oh Money Moments

Do you ever spend way too long before buying something that makes your life easier? It’s kind of like this cartoon: But instead of just splurging all the time on books, it’s more about sticking with the broke mentality in the other panels over things. I have made life way more difficult than it needed…

Do It NOW

Do It NOW

You guys know those kids in college who procrastinate until the night before a paper is due and manage to push through, pulling an all-nighter and nailing the assignment. I was never really that kid. I was the kid who would get the syllabus, see that we had to write a term paper (due the…

Money Funnies

When I see an amusing money comic, I hold onto it until I’ve got a little collection to share with you all. So for your viewing pleasure today, some comics about money I’ve stumbled on over the last few months that made me laugh: Check out more Loading Artist comics here. Check out more of…

Ways I’ve Lost Money This Week

Over at Medium Sized Family, Jamie does this amazing 5 Ways We’ve Saved this week that I love reading – because awesome personal finance skillz are really just a combination of a bazillion tiny wins that grow over time. I thought of her posts many times this week as I failed and failed and failed…

Balancing Lifestyle Inflation

Balancing Lifestyle Inflation

Guys, I have some exciting news. I’m starting a new job in September that is pretty much my dream job. You know how when you interview for a job, you have a number in your head that you would do the work for? It might be even a little negotiable if you’re really excited about…

Can Online Casinos Make a Broke Girl Rich?

Many financial advice websites and personal finance blogs have mentioned online casino games as a way to make some extra money online. Some of them speak of how the big jackpots offered by slot machines can change one’s life forever, others tell a story of a much slower and steadier method of increasing one’s bankroll…

3 Challenges You Have to Face When Handling Your Finances

Do you sometimes feel you’re falling short of your own standards and expectations when it comes to managing your finances? Everyone — at sometime in their lives has felt that way. But if you have a healthy account balance or if you understand your overdraft properly, it’s possible to not only cope with these challenges,…

The Money Dance

Lately, I’ve been learning a lesson about money. In my head, personal finance was like the yodeling mountain climber game in The Price is Right. You learn what you’re doing and just keep bopping along up the mountain. Sometimes you freeze where you are for a minute but then you keep going. …I suppose falling…

When It’s Time to Use a Lawyer

When I was a graduate student, I lived in a state where several police offers were killed by speeding cars within a few weeks of each other. This state decided that anything over 80 mph was reckless driving and a reckless driving charge would result in 30 days in jail. It was a an eight…

What Not to Spend: How to Save Money as a Student

“Piggy Bank Money” (CC BY 2.0) by Tax Credits Highschool, college or university. No matter what kind of student you are, money is always an issue, whether you are sixteen and cannot afford your first date, or a Fresher at university saving up for a train journey home. It has to be said, university students are particularly hard done by. According…

The Cost of Plunging

This past week I was visiting a few schools that I’m considering applying to next year. I’ve been really carefully weighing this decision for the last year. One of the things I get asked at each school is “what makes you want to apply here?” While I have a good answer for each school, each…

Self Care Fail Confession

Self Care Fail Confession

Confession time. I have been living in the midst of a self-care fail for most of the last year. Can we just talk about the crazy high costs of mental health? Because, well, this is the current financial problem I’ve been wrestling with for a few months now, and, as we all know, most of…

Falling Off The Wagon

Falling Off the Wagon

Hi, my name is Mel and I have fallen off the wagon. I couldn’t tell you where my money has gone this month if I tried, but I have gone shopping nearly every day after work for the last two weeks. The primary culprit here is boredom, but I totally know who is to blame…

Property Investment: Don’t Let a Bad Deal Seem Good

If you listen to some people, you could be forgiven if you believed that property investment was a one-way ticket to riches. There is no question that you can indeed make good money from a savvy property investment strategy, but it should also be remembered that poor decisions and a lack of information, could end…

Don't Bank With First Niagara

Don’t Bank with First Niagara

When I figured out how to open bank accounts using a credit card to reach reward spends I thought, it’s like killing two birds with one stone. I’ll be able to write far more informed opinions about different banks too. I wouldn’t think I’d have that much to say about any bank just three months…