Two years ago I looked around my apartment and realized I was storing a small warehouse of things I never touched. So I started selling. Slowly, steadily, one listing at a time. Since then I’ve sold a little over $1,900 of my own clutter. I’ve also relisted, discounted, and eventually donated a whole category of … Read more
The 24 hour rule might be the most repeated money advice on the internet. Want to buy something? Wait a day. If you still want it tomorrow, buy it. Sensible. Reasonable. Completely useless for me. Here’s what actually happened when I used it. I would wait my 24 hours like a good student. While waiting, … Read more
The big stuff was never my problem. Rent, insurance, the car payment. All handled, automated, boring. And yet every month ended with the same confusing gap between what I earned and what remained. I always explained that gap with a shrug and the word “stuff”. So I decided to catch the stuff. For 60 days … Read more
Last spring I did a no spend month. If you haven’t met the concept, the rules are simple. You pay your bills, you buy groceries and true essentials, and everything else is a no. No takeout, no little treats, no online carts. Thirty days. I expected a boring month and a fatter savings account. I … Read more
Let me save you some time. This is not a list of ways to make $5,000 a month from your couch. Those articles are written by people whose actual side hustle is writing those articles. This is the boring version. Five things I actually do, in the real world, that add somewhere between $200 and … Read more
For most of my adult life, my budget had a recurring villain. The Surprise Bill. Car registration. The vet. Six months of insurance, due all at once. Every time, the same scene played out. A good month ruined, an awkward transfer out of savings, and me muttering “where did that come from?” Here’s the embarrassing … Read more
I have downloaded, configured, and abandoned four budgeting apps. One of them twice. The story was identical every time. Two enthusiastic weeks of categorizing transactions. Then a busy stretch. Then eight hundred uncategorized transactions and a notification I started swiping away without reading. What finally stuck wasn’t an app. It’s an index card and fifteen … Read more
My grandmother washed and reused aluminum foil. She also paid cash for a house. For years I thought those two facts came from the same trait. They don’t. One was frugal. The other was just the Depression talking. I’ve been on both sides of this line myself. There was a year when I was so … Read more