Financial Hack

It actually happened. I ran out of money in my food budget. Usually I can scrape together a $5 meal and eat it for two days but…I didn’t have $5. Old me? Pull money out of next month’s budget. New me? Find something – ANYTHING – to eat. I found a dusty box of chicken [...]

I’ve been told about the importance of good hair products for women. I’ve always been on the fence about them. Does my long hair really need $40 shampoo? I buy my hair products from the same place I buy my milk and my garden supplies… Target. I clip coupons from the paper for Infusium brand [...]

Not only am I $24 shorter in my grocery budget this week, the employees in the lighting department think I’m a pot head.

I’ve got an insider trading tip. If you invest in this… you WILL gain benefits. This isn’t a Murdoff Ponzi scheme and I’m pretty sure I won’t suffer Martha Stewartesque consequences (though I could use a lovely hand knit prison sweater). I’m talking about investing in… your marriage. What does marriage investment have to do [...]

April’s tax hikes gave me yet another incentive to push myself to find additional ways to save. I’ve cut most of my budgets as much as possible but there was one I could scrimp a little on… gasoline I am fortunate to live near the center of a beautiful city and most of my errands [...]

I lack a green thumb. An example of this fact? We have two bougainvilleas in our backyard. I tried to keep one alive and kill the other. The one I tried desperately to keep alive… I killed. And the one I tried my hardest to kill… is flourishing like a giant miracle grow plant. Seriously… [...]

The personality preference class was… interesting. HR put me through an hour of testing and three hours of scenario testing. It wasn’t until halfway through that I realized… the results of this test may hurt me! Am I going to lose my job over this? But, like I said before, I’m big on honesty at [...]

As I’ve mentioned before, I have really bad teeth. Sure they look great… but they should considering I spend an average of $2,000 a year in maintenance. In light of this, I’ve grown accustomed to paying dental bills but… I was a little thrown off at my last one: Bill From: Satan. *cough* My dentist. [...]

Now that my car is paid off, I’ve rolled the amount I usually apply toward my car to my credit card. I’m paying $800 over the minimum payment each month… $800 could help my fledgling work wardrobe… $800 could mean eating more than store brand wheat noodles for dinner… $800 could fix my internet so [...]

I’ve been taking the stairs at work once or twice a day and have become increasingly frustrated at my inability to hike 10 flights without stopping to breathe like an asthmatic smoker with advanced stages of lung disease. At first, I could only hike 4 flights before needing a break. Now I can hike 7 [...]