This weekend was the Lost finale. I stayed up last night to watch it and now I am absolutely exhausted. I won’t spoil, for anyone who still plans to watch, but I’m definitely satisfied with the ending. It was a long journey, but definitely a fun one.
For once, I didn’t have to watch Lost alone! A friend was in town this weekend, not specifically for the Lost finale (though it was convenient timing), and I have to admit, right now, my wallet is filled with unfiled receipts. There’s just something about having a friend in town that seems to require splurging. Going out to neighborhood restaurants together, getting fancy cake for dessert, and of course, hitting the mall and spending money on some new clothes for work.
Okay, so that last one doesn’t really flow. But for the first time in a while, I had someone to come with me to help pick out things to wear. I’ve become very good at purging my closets of things I don’t wear, at least in terms of work clothes. Fun clothes are a different story. But the problem is that I end up doing so much purging that I end up with very little to wear! I know that there are people who say you only need X number of items in your professional wardrobe, but I think that some variety is important. Plus, things wear out. You need to buy new things. And sometimes a girl likes to look pretty.
I bought five new items, which isn’t that huge of a shopping spree, but I feel much more set with work attire for the summer weather. And I can finally toss a few items that are starting to look a little too worn.
I hate shopping. I’m terrible at it. I know a lot of people love the adventure of bargain hunting, but I hate digging through sale racks to find those gems. I know they’re there, but I just don’t want to! So instead, I spend less time and buy fewer things. Maybe I spend more money than I should, but it’s worth it to not have to shop for hours and hours.
And it’s way more fun with help.
Megan is a 40-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.
