Birthday Shopping

So apparently, the post I wrote for today got eaten somewhere between the writing phase and the posting phase.  It’s backed up on my home computer, but I still wanted to put something out today, even if I did miss my completely arbitrary deadline.

My birthday was this weekend and I had the day off on Friday and some birthday money to spend, so I headed to the mall to see if I could find some new clothes for work.  I really don’t own a whole lot of work attire that I really love, and some of the items I do like are starting to show their age, so I figured it was time to put some money into my professional wardrobe.

I failed miserably.  Oh, I successfully spent money, and picked up a new pair of jeans and some eyeshadow, but nothing really work related.  Why?  The stores are still having their post-holiday sales and it seemed like everywhere I went, it was all sale racks and sale bins.  I like a good deal as much as the next person, but by this point, all those racks and bins have been really picked over.  Unfortunately, I’m very average sized, which means that finding anything in my size was a challenge.

I went to the mall with a number of coupons.  I really enjoy how every store I’ve ever shopped at has me on a mailing list that means I get a coupon on my birthday.  I know some people aren’t a fan of this, but I do often go shopping with birthday money, so having a coupon is a great deal.  Admittedly, some coupons are better than others.  A coupon for $10 off a $50 purchase is clearly designed to get me to spend money.  A coupon for $10 off any purchase is more of a birthday gift.  There were also a few “free gift with purchase” sort of coupons.  I didn’t use all these coupons of course, but I used a few.  I managed to not buy anything that I didn’t plan to buy just to use a coupon though, so in a way, I beat the system.  Sort of.

All in all, it was a good birthday weekend.  Dinner out, splurged on a nice bottle of wine, and got some lovely birthday wishes from some lovely friends.  Can’t complain.

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.