Ow.

Week one of my new workout plan has gone well.  It was a bit of a cost investment to buy the plan and some additional dumb bells, but my opinion is that if I’ll stick to it, the cost is well worth it.  Yes, I know I could do it all on my own.  But I won’t.  I know myself. Some people need classes to stick to a workout plan, some people need trainers, I need a pre-designed plan.  It’s what works for me.

But man, am I sore.

I’m also a little frustrated.  A few months back, a friend was having some money troubles, and as she’s a big jewelry maker, I made a big order from her store to the tune of about $100.  It was stuff she had pre-made, and I knew it would make good gifts.  She was having some personal issues too, so I didn’t press her on the speed of the shipping.  And when I asked, she said it was coming, that she was just doing something a little special for me.  I was getting suspicious, but decided to give her the benefit of the doubt.  Then her pet got sick.  Then he got better, thanks to the donations of others.  Then her other pet got sick, just as people were starting to ask about their jewelry shipments.

I’m thinking I got scammed out of $100.  I’ve bought from this girl before, so I know she has a valid business, and she’s got great etsy comments.  But I waited too long to dispute the transaction, so I’m stuck.  She’s not answering my emails.  Part of me thinks “Well, if she needed the money that badly, I will consider it a Christmas gift and be done with it.”  But this isn’t some stranger.  And it really bothers me.

I’m still giving her the benefit of the doubt, as you can see.  I won’t publish her name or any identifying details.  But I’m really frustrated and hurt.  And I’ve learned my lesson.  The benefit of the doubt will only last so long.

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.