Leaving on a jet plane! - Counting My Pennies

As you read this, I am on my way to my hometown for the holidays. I can’t believe the trip is already here. I bought my tickets over the summer (before the airline added the $25 fee for each suitcase – so I shouldn’t have to pay it, but we will see how that goes). I’m hoping that the weather holds so that I can actually get there without too many delays. I’ve already got my bag of snacks ready to go, but I hate spending too much time in the airport – it gets so expensive. If nothing else, I will be buying water. I know I could just bring my water bottle and fill it, but I’m not sure I trust the cleanliness of the water fountains in the airport. Years ago, I had a Brita water bottle that had a little mini filter in it – I should see if I can find something like that for the next time I travel. That said, I’ve had an overzealous security guard confiscate my empty water bottle before – so it might not be worth it at all.

There will be a few posts over the week next week, maybe even a full week of posts, depending on how much time I manage to find. Have a safe weekend, everyone.

Megan Smith

Megan is a 30-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:

In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.

While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.

Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.

So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.

I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.

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