My (recent) personal finance story

My (recent) personal finance story

March 8, 2008, 7:15 pm
Filed under: About me

I graduated from college in July 2007, almost a full year earlier than I was supposed to. Regardless of my love for my school, classes, and friends, I was eager to get out and “start living my life.” I moved in with my then boyfriend, now fiance, Jake, and got serious about looking for jobs. After searching for two months, I still did not have a job or get even one phone call back to show for the bazillion jobs I applied for. I went from being a broke college student to an even more broke unemployed adult. Living my life, indeed.

During those two months (and for several months following) money was (and still is) very tight. Jake, luckily, has a stable full time job and so pulled much of the weight for us. I found odd jobs (mystery shopping, figure modeling, online editing) and used all the money I was making to pay for my part of the rent and utilities (not to mention paying back my student loans-UGHH). I instinctively knew that if we kept going how we were going, we would be finding ourselves in a nice pile of debt. I began searching for information about how to save money and how to spend our money more wisely.

I started out on MSN Money. There were only a handful of articles that pertained to frugality and I quickly ran out of things to read. While on MSN, I came across an article written by Trent of The Simple Dollar. The articles on his website enabled Jake and me to pull back our spending and to really evaluate our relationships with money. It turns out I’m much more of a saver, while he is much more of a spender (and boy does that spark a lot of our arguments!).

Quickly following the discovery of The Simple Dollar, I stumbled upon Money Saving Mom and Hot Coupon World, among various other sites and books that made me realize (rediscover, really) the value of couponing, shopping for deals, and good old fashioned frugal tips. I finally managed to find a job, albeit a minimum wage paying job, at a local independent bookstore and a few months after that, found another part time job at a local library. Holding down two part time jobs, plus any odd jobs that come along, is not easy by any means, but it has enabled our bank accounts to breathe a bit easier.

While I was reading all of those personal finance blogs, I realized that many of the bloggers were older, parents, stay at home homemakers/moms/dads, or otherwise more established than myself. A very good number of them were religious. I have definitely gleaned a lot of good information from these bloggers, but I couldn’t help but find myself skipping over a lot of their articles because they didn’t pertain to me and my life. Where were all the 20something secular bloggers struggling with money and triumphing over financial hurdles? Since I couldn’t find many at all, I decided to create a blog myself and hopefully form an outlet for said 20somethings, or 20savers as I like to call them. By no means am I excluding the older, married, religious, parents/stay at home parents. I respect them and their ability to share their financial lives with the world. I am simply creating an alternative for those flipping through the PF blogosphere.

Jake and I are a long, long way off from reaching our finanical goals (not to mention planning and paying for a wedding!), but we are definitely taking steps in the right direction. I hope that by sharing my setbacks and triumphs with you, I can add to the collective PF voice and maybe help a fellow 20something turn into a 20saver.

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