I have a confession to make. I kind of love sorting through and entering low entry giveaways. There used to be this great site (Tightwad in Utah), where they were compiled regularly, but the site owner stopped amassing the low entry giveaways and now it’s become a lot more of a project. I mean, there…
One of the fun things about going back to school for accounting is that a lot of the scholarships I’ve been applying for are very similar to writing a blog post. I applied for this one last semester and they asked what my biggest financial mistake was – I bet a few long time readers…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
Frugality is a wonderful thing. It can be seen as a way of appreciating the money you have and finding value in every purchase. It’s a great way to approach living and can drastically reduce the amount of money you pay for everyday expenses. However, there is an art to balancing your frugality in a…
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…
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…
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…
It’s time for another one of those confession-y posts in which I share how candles are lately making me lose my dang mind and what I’m doing to try to keep from spending every penny over at Bubble and Geek on Etsy. I blame the nesting mood I’ve been in this year. I’ve really been…
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,…
There’s no point in pretending: shopping online is fast, easy and convenient. If you want something, all you have to do is click or tap an icon and hit okay. In just a few days, you have a parcel waiting for you at the door; it’s like getting a present. Even though you already know…
It’s time for an update in the Peggybank, Groupon saga, since there’s actually an update to provide. If you’ve been around for a while, you might remember that a few years ago, I wrote a post about a Groupon that totally flopped. The summer after my grandmother passed away, I wound up with a ton…
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…
To start out the week right, a small collection of money comics that have made me laugh recently. Not always in a good way…
One of my goals for 2016 was to spend a week monitoring where I spent my time online and then a week going without. This experiment has been a very mixed success. I used RescueTime to track how I was spending my time on my computer and Moment to track how I was spending my…
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…
“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…
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…
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…
With so many real money gaming outlets out there, you might have felt tempted to give it a try yourself. There’s nothing wrong with that: for some, it’s the “forbidden fruit”, while for others, a whole new world of entertainment to explore. I will not be the one to tell you what you can and…
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…