Ever since our 7-month apartment lease expired at the end of August, we’ve been house-hunting. Actually, it began as a sort of obsession because I didn’t understand that after the original lease, we could continue to live here month-to-month (that’s what happens when you live in government housing for 8 years). I continued to obsess [...]
Entries from October 2008
October 28, 2008
No More Credit Card Debt!
As of today, I am completely credit card debt free! Today my final payment for American Express is paid, and what a relief. That means we’re $1,186.06 less in debt! My goal of being completely free of credit card and associated debts has been achieved (for myself, that is, Nate still has to pay of [...]
October 24, 2008
Achieving goals
I’ve been feeling rather exhilarated lately, mostly after I spent two days going over our new “Financial Freedom Plan.” I was updating a few sections here about our finances, and looked over the goals that I put down for us, and this year’s main goal was to be completely free of credit card debt (and [...]
October 23, 2008
How to deal with debt collectors
So, I’ve been avoiding even talking to American Express about the money owed on the closed account. I was pretty sure it had been sent to collection, and since I hadn’t updated our account since we moved, they didn’t have our current address. So, any amount that I had thought I owed was just a [...]
October 22, 2008
Windfall
We’ve been experiencing a monthly increase in income, almost doubling what Nate brings home. For some reason, despite the economic down turn and the government’s careless bailouts (where do they think the money comes from, anyways?), they are sending Nathan his Montgomery GI Bill Benefits. At least they are keeping their end of the contract, [...]
October 20, 2008
Freebie…sort of
I really, really want a lap top computer. I just signed up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month for those of you who don’t have delusions of grandeur), which begins November 1st, and then I realized that I will be visiting the parents for a week, also in November. I calculated that if I am [...]
October 17, 2008
Self-cut hair
Tuesday night, I cut my own hair. Yes, you read correctly. For months now, I’ve been noticing how my split ends are splitting, and then splitting again, like branches on a tree. Primarily because of laziness, I haven’t located a salon nearby in which to make an appointment, although there are other reasons that I [...]
October 16, 2008
Pumpkin carving fun
Over the weekend, we visited “The Pumpkin Patch” on Sauvie Island, drawn there by the promise of free hay-rides, a giant hay pyramid for climbing, animals, and, of course the pumpkins. There is also a corn maze, but it was muddy, and not only were we not prepared, but Seth was more interested in the [...]
October 13, 2008
Exercise & Frugality
My challenge this month is to begin to exercise regularly. Seems a little strange as this is more of a personal finance blog, so as I was putting Seth to sleep I pondered the question: What does exercise have to do with frugality, anyways?
It is a well known fact that people who exercise regularly have [...]
October 13, 2008
Local news…featuring Living [Frugally] Well
I had the honor of doing an interview for The Oregonian last week, which you can read about here. Pretty cool, eh? The topic of Needs vs. Wants really got me thinking, and in the coming days I’m going to blog more about how we’re figuring out what a true need is vs. what we [...]
