Earn, Save, and Live Joyfully.
When I was a teenager my mom bought me the most beautiful white eyelet dress. It was just the right length, right size, right fit, right everything. But I only wore it once. The rest of the time it hung safely in my closet. Quite honestly I was afraid to wear it. It was expensive … Read more
Everyone has their own level of comfort when it comes to the topic of finances. Take for instance, buying a new house. I have two good friends who I’ve both known for years and years. One told me the listing price of the house she wants to buy, while the other provided every detail of … Read more
In a little over 45 days I sold fourteen items on eBay for a total of $162.49. From that total eBay took $16.45 in miscellaneous fees and PayPal charged me an additional $10.19. So when all was said and done I brought home $135.85 of the $162.49 total. Unfortunately, my smallest eBay sales resulted in … Read more
As a follow up to last week’s post, Why Am I Buying This, I have been thinking more and more about training myself to resist impulse purchases. Why Am I Buying This: Part Two focused on my weakness for purchasing deeply discounted sale items and really forced me to think about why I find myself … Read more
As I click around personal finance blog sites I am always amazed by just how many bloggers are in debt. There are a lot of bloggers that write about how they got into debt, how they plan to get out of debt, what keeps them in debt, etc. Thanks to the wonderful gift of a … Read more
Lately, I have been enlightened by the Voluntary Simplicity movement. Voluntary simplicity is the act of consciously minimizing the pursuit of consumption in favor of spirituality, health, stress reduction, and conservation. In essence, after reading up on the subject, my goal is to reduce the accumulation of ‘stuff’ in my life. For the first time … Read more
If you read yesterday’s post you know I have to play quite a few tricks to prevent myself from impulsively purchasing items. Most of the time I’m able to walk away without purchasing unexpected items, but every once in awhile I falter. Just as Superman had kryptonite, my weakness is a deeply discounted sale item. … Read more
The other day I found myself in Marshalls searching for new picture frames. I’ve been in Marshalls about a million times, so I know exactly where the frames are located in the store, but rather than walking directly to that aisle I decided to take a stroll around the store. This is usually what happens … Read more
Last year I contributed, $15,000, the maximum amount allowed, to my 401(k). My employer matches my contributions dollar for dollar up to 3%, so last year I should have received roughly $3,000 worth of employer contributions. Unfortunately, a rookie mistake prevented my employer from contributing the full amount. In essence, I forgot to ensure that … Read more
In honor of Blog Action Day here are a few of my favorite tips for saving money while saving the environment. Plant trees. For $10 you can sign up for membership to the Arbor Day Foundation. They’ll send you 10 new trees just for becoming a member. Rather than spending money on expensive bottled water, … Read more