Last month, I was well under my grocery budget. This month, not so much. How did that happen?
*glances at the wine bottles in the cabinet*
Oh, that’s how.
This month, I splurged on some things for today’s inauguration celebration, just a little gathering of between 2 and 8 people, depending on who makes it, but I definitely put my money in good places. Rather than doing what I would normally do and pick up all sorts of finger foods and snacks, I went for quality over quantity and bought a few nicer snacks. It doesn’t look like much, but while people will quickly plow through chips and pretzels, fancy cheese and bread can be savored. Maybe this is a sign that I’m finally reaching adulthood and realizing that a bottle of good wine might be pricier than a case of cheap beer, but the wine is so much more enjoyable. It’s something I’ve noticed that I’m applying to a lot of parts of my life. I think this is a good maturity.
I cheaped out on the champagne, though. We’re using it for mimosas. No need to waste good champagne on that!
(Anyone else wonder what the media is going to talk about tomorrow? Okay, maybe Thursday, once they’re done talking about post-inauguration stuff.)
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.
My guess is that the media will be back to talking about the global recession by the end of the week if not sooner. Cheerful stuff!!