Evolving Personal Finance » spending
Financially Surviving Your First Month as a PhD Student
First month’s rent up front plus a security deposit. A parking permit. Textbooks. Furnishing your new place. In the first few weeks of grad school you’re hit by one expense after another. On top of that, your department expects you to start orientation (followed by classes and research) five to six weeks before getting your first paycheck! How are you supposed to swing this? The best position to be in at the time you enter grad … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, credit cards, food, frugality, grad school, housing, income, spending, taxes
My Best Clothing Purchase Ever
When I was a sophomore in high school, I gave up JV soccer to row with my high school’s crew team. This activity change warranted a wardrobe change; as loose shorts can easily get caught in the slides beneath the moving seat in the shell, most rowers wear spandex shorts or pants. I bought several pairs of spandex shorts during high school to wear in practice, but one stands out – they have become my … Read entire article »
Filed under: spending
Don’t Sell to Me, Man!
I hate being pitched to by salespeople! The quintessential situation came up for us during our trip to Madison, WI earlier this weekend: the rep at the car rental counter. When we were a bit less informed, we would always waver on whether to buy the rental company’s insurance. I think we even bought it once or twice! Then we figured out that we were doubly covered anyway from our car insurance and by a credit … Read entire article »
Filed under: psychology, spending
Do I Want a Camera or Subjects?
I’m “that person” in my group of friends – the one who always has a camera out, taking awkward candid photos. I estimate that I have tens of thousands of photos that I’ve taken with my two Canon point-and-shoots over the past 7 or 8 years. (But for all the flak my friends give me about annoyingly documenting everything, they frequently tell me how much they appreciate my efforts and several times have asked for … Read entire article »
Filed under: choices, spending, targeted savings
Pulling Back the Veil on Our Daily Money Management
I thought it would be helpful for some to get really into the nitty-gritty of how we manage our money on a daily (or at least monthly) basis. It’s simple to say “we have joint accounts” or “we use Mint” but what does that really mean? (You can reference a copy of our current budget if you like.) Start with a Clean Slate On the first of the month the only money in our checking accounts is … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, credit cards, found money, side income, spending, targeted savings
Do You Want a Vacation Home?
When I was in high school, I was invited to a friend’s family lake house along with several of our other friends. We stayed there for a couple nights, waterskiing and eating and hanging out all day. It was great fun to be hosted by that family and I had never had an experience like that before – it was tremendously generous. I learned that the lake house was owned by my friend’s parents jointly … Read entire article »
How to Help Someone Who Spends Too Much
I put out a call on Yakezie for guest posts while I prepare for my preliminary exam, and Andrea Whitmer volunteered a post for today! Andrea is a single mom and full-time freelancer who writes about everything from finance to parenting at So Over This. She’s a big fan of learning to make better life decisions while maintaining a sense of humor. Thanks Andrea and I hope everyone enjoys the post! Until a couple of years ago, I was the … Read entire article »
What’s an Impulse Purchase?
I like to think that I have quite a bit of self-control and the ability to delay gratification – I bet I would have aced the marshmallow test! So when I see the term “impulse purchase” I think that it can’t apply to my spending habits. I mean, I don’t add candy at the grocery store checkout aisle, and what else could an impulse purchase be? The more I thought about that question, the less I … Read entire article »
Filed under: spending
Why We Don’t Do No-Spend Challenges
I see the topic of no-spend challenges brought up repeatedly in the PF blogosphere – and I always dismiss them as not being for me. I feel we have a no-spend lifestyle! We don’t have a classic “latte factor” – a daily drip of single “want” purchases that add up substantially – and I think that undertaking spending fasts would only result in spending binges because we would delay necessary spending. But I had never gathered … Read entire article »
Filed under: spending
Do You Buy, Lease, or Get Free Entertainment?
For Christmas this year Kyle received an Amazon (affiliate link – thanks for using!) Kindle gift card (and the giver checked that we do in fact own a Kindle). Receiving that gift card, as well as considering some others, made me realize that we really don’t buy media any more. I can remember only twice in the last five years or so that we’ve bought a song, book, or movie that wasn’t a gift. It’s not just … Read entire article »
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