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19 for 2019

Happy New Year and welcome to…oh shit, we’re 1/6 of the way into 2019.

So that ship has sailed! Which is fine, because I hate New Year’s resolutions anyway. Last year I tried something new and did a series of monthly experiments instead of year-long resolutions. While that was fine, it was also hard to build any momentum. I don’t like the focus on “new year, new me!” that tends to come with resolutions in January, but there is value in tracking goals for a longer term/over the course of the year, rather than moving on after a month.

So this year I’m trying another new thing and doing a kind of bucket list for the year (credit to Sarah at Smile and Conquer for the idea). And 19 for 2019 sounds catchy, so 19 bucket list items/goals for the year it is!

First up, money things because I am a personal finance blogger. Continue reading “19 for 2019”

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The year in money goals: 2018

Yep, it’s the last day of January and I’m still doing 2018 wrap-up posts (this is what happens when you stop posting regularly, whoops).

In lieu of doing New Year’s resolutions for 2018, I did monthly experiments instead (and yes, the months I didn’t do set experiments were experiments in slowing down/taking pressure off myself. That totally counts 😉). But I also set some money goals for the year.

In that post, I wrote that I failed at my 2017 money goals. But failing while still making progress means failing upward, so for probably the first time in my life, I embraced failure.

Did I, seasoned money blogger that I now am, kick ass on my goals last year? Or did I fail upward (or just straight-up fail) for a second year in a row? Let’s find out. Continue reading “The year in money goals: 2018”

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Everything I spent in 2018

The fact that it took me multiple tries of adding up numbers to get ones that were reasonably the same means I a) am not as much of a recovering perfectionist as I thought and b) probably need to slightly rethink my system of tracking numbers. I think a lot of it is inconsistency in categorization, which is frustrating but ultimately doesn’t affect the total (so I could’ve spent a way healthier ratio of time spent writing this post compared to spreadsheeting for this post 🤦‍♀️).

But, I am finally done spreadsheeting. And in total, I spent $28,629.03 in 2018. Continue reading “Everything I spent in 2018”

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Twelve months of experiments: it’s the end of the year already?!

I’ve taken a few months off of explicitly doing a monthly experiment. September/October were unofficially me decluttering my life and slowing down (ahem, a work in progress. I don’t have some big announcement to make concerning that) and I’ve been doing a no-spend month for November (tune in next week for the spending report to see how that went!). But for this last month of the year (!!?) I’m back to doing a monthly experiment in the vein of my previous ones. In December I’m doing a 30 day yoga challenge.

Yes, you read that right. And trust me, I’m as shocked as you are that I’m saying this. Continue reading “Twelve months of experiments: it’s the end of the year already?!”

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September 2018: I was NOT expecting this

I’m gonna be quite honest: September was a damn expensive month. How the hell did I manage to pull out not only a positive savings rate, but a halfway decent one? I honestly have no idea (although this is the power of including my 401(k) contributions in my income as well!).

I didn’t post much in September: I had four posts, three of which were for things that happened in August (CampFI and August’s spending report). And a lot of that is because that month saw a few big changes in my life that have occupied a fair amount of my time, including the resumption of weekly chorus rehearsals. Ah, sleep on Tuesday nights, I miss you dearly!

And of course I had FinCon at the end of the month! Continue reading “September 2018: I was NOT expecting this”

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Adventures in decluttering, round one

Since January I’ve had a box in my room designated as the place to put things I’m getting rid of, and I’ve slowly been adding to it, one item at a time. And eventually that box got full. Hooray!

But said box then continued to sit in a corner of my room for months. I’ve mentioned it here multiple times, saying I need to empty it.

Why was that? One simple question. Continue reading “Adventures in decluttering, round one”

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Decluttering more than things

Hey, y’all. Long time, no post. I spent much of the last few weeks in an exhausted stupor post-Glacier and then post-CampFI Midwest (Military Dollar, I blame you for part of that since you were in town and making me be sociable right before the exhaustion of CampFI!).

And last week while I was recovering from CampFI, my personal life kinda…threw up on me. That has zero relevance to this blog (because good lord am I trying to keep my blog persona and my offline life from completely melding), other than that on a day I ostensibly should’ve been writing, I was dealing with some things instead.

I think it’s a sign of maturity that instead of trying to push out posts like I probably would’ve done in the past, lately I’ve recognized that some nights I just need to get the hell in bed more or less on time instead of forcing myself to unproductively stare at my cursor blinking at me while I struggle to write (and likely stay up too late without even being able to finish a post).

Or maybe it’s laziness. 🤷‍♀️

Either way, I haven’t written very much in this last month, and, as it turns out, that’s exactly what I’m talking about today. Continue reading “Decluttering more than things”

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Tiny houses and letting dreams evolve

Last weekend I went with Military Dollar to the VA/DC Tiny House Festival, despite being someone who does not want to live in a tiny house. Conceptually they’re super interesting! But they’re not for me. Mainly when I think about tiny houses I start feeling claustrophobic and restless, and I’m not signing myself up for that! Why am I so anti-tiny house? Continue reading “Tiny houses and letting dreams evolve”

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An update on my unofficial clothes shopping ban

Oh hi, friends. It’s Thursday. Despite my best attempts to keep at a normal posting schedule, things keep getting in the way, and Tuesday posts are particularly taking a hit for some reason.

This week, which was supposed to be quiet, unexpectedly turned into a shitshow Monday night. It involved both me witnessing an attempted serious crime/spending the evening talking to the police (serious to the level of I wrote everything down afterwards so I can remember in case it goes to trial and I’m called in. ETA: I am fine though, don’t worry!) AND the arrival of both my youngest sibling and car troubles that started happening an hour before they arrived here (thank goodness the previous owners of my car bought it new and therefore I know they took care of it, plus I still get a free oil change once a twice a year from them, aka my parents!).

I got up early both Tuesday and Wednesday mornings to be at the mechanic right when they open before going to work, and you know how I write posts the night before they go up? I was too tired last night to stay up as late writing as I normally do, so I got up way too early in order to finish writing this on Thursday morning because I AM GOING TO PUBLISH A POST TODAY, DAMMIT.

Let’s talk about something that’s not attempted [serious crime what the fuck] or car issues, shall we? Continue reading “An update on my unofficial clothes shopping ban”