Personal Finance

The longer I go with debt payoff being my numero uno priority, the more I notice that my lifestyle and financial priorities are not the same as my friends and general peer group. Some of this is, I believe, due to living in Austin. Austin is a young town where lots of people are either […]

I spend a fair amount of time fantasizing what it’ll be like to be debt free. I imagine I’ll feel lighter and finally free when that day arrives. I have been dreading these loans since my senior year of college, 2010-2011. I realized that I was going to be shackled to 25K for ten years […]

I mention occasionally that bringing home catering leftovers is a big way for me to save money. My nickname with my catering company is ‘zero waste’. I don’t like to see food thrown away in general and I capitalize on every event as a chance to eat for free. I love the amount of money I […]

I am officially one week into my No-Spend February and I thought I would update everyone on how this challenge is going. Newsflash: almost nothing in my life has changed! Turns out I already sort of live a no spend lifestyle. The only money I have spent thus far is $12.00 for gas. When coaching I […]

Hello February! January seemed to fly by and to take forever…is that possible? I had a busy month with some great highs and a low or two. I definitely spent a lot more than I intended to in the areas of entertainment and food. More importantly though, I had a great month when it came to […]

Yesterday I pulled the trigger on my first financial Smart or Dumb decision. Was I going to take a trip to San Diego in May with my best friends from home, incurring some major expenses along the way? Or was I going to save that money and continue with my debt pay off plan and […]

This past weekend was my boyfriend’s birthday. The big 2-5! We, along with another friend, drove three hours to Houston to spend Friday night and Saturday day. One of my roommates/bestie recently moved there for a new job. She was a friend of my boyfriend before we began dating and actually introduced us, so it […]

I got my hair cut yesterday! For all my frugality and for all the belief I hold in my mantra ‘Nothing saves you money like not spending money,‘ I spend money on haircuts. Recently my hair has been looking pretty rough. I had really bad split ends and the bottom four inches of my hair […]

Happy Saturday! I spent the morning doing some quick calculations and I am very happy to report that after 2 years of repayments, I am more than halfway to paying off my loans! Total Borrowed: $25,302 Total Owed Today: $11,912 When I think that at this point last year I was $17,200 in debt and […]

Welcome to the first post in a new series I’m starting up. Smart or Dumb is a great game that I play with my best friend. We invented it in college and have been using it to make some very important decisions ever since. It goes a little something like this: You ask your best […]