The Next Rich Girl

It's New Year's... Have You Made Your Resolutions Yet?

It's that time of year again!  I think the reason so many people get drunk on New Year's Eve is because it's the only way they can trick themselves into thinking that they'll devote the next 12 months to such decidedly un-fun things as dieting, exercising or saving money.

But, I do have to admit that I love making new year's resolutions.  I like that feeling that something new and exciting is starting... that I'm about to make my life better.  I like the idea of putting past mistakes behind me and working toward a new goal.  It's a time to look at yourself and tell yourself that you can make a change.

Sure, most resolutions fall by the wayside mere days after January 1st... but I'm convinced that if you really want to make a change (and I mean REALLY want to) you can do it.  

And, the first way to do that is to tell people about it.  Because once those words fall out of your mouth and the world knows you are trying to accomplish something, it becomes real.  You have a sort of instant accountability.  Even better?  If you tell someone to ask you about it.  Because eventually you'll get sick of telling your friends and family that you "just haven't gotten around to starting an exercise regimen/quitting smoking/whatever" and you start to want to show that you're doing it.

Recession Lessons: The Emergency Fund

If you've heard it once, you've heard it a million times... we all need to set aside at least three months salary in case of emergencies.  But, at the height of the financial boom, it seemed downright silly to keep money in a money market or savings account when practically every stock on the exchange was going through the roof.  And besides, we thought, it's much better to put that money into a house since those were guaranteed to increase in value... right?  Right?

Oops.  That's right.  Emergencies do happen.  And a lot of us were left holding the bag when the stock and housing bubbles popped one after another.  Couldn't you just hear the voice of your father in your head telling you to put aside 10% of every paycheck aside for a rainy day (or whatever your parental axiom of choice was)? 

I was always a big proponent of the emergency fund.  But, I never seemed to be able to get it up to three months' salary.  There was always some emergency expense.  The car broke down or a family member needed a loan or whatever.  Throw in planning a wedding and the emergency fund became something we'd start contributing to after the wedding madness was over.  I somehow managed to keep the savings hovering around a month's salary and felt pretty damn proud of myself.

The Recession Vacation

I'm back from my annual retreat away from the world and I'm thinking about how fun it is to see some old friends and get away from it all... without breaking the bank.

Every Memorial Day weekend, my friends and I converge in the Outer Banks.  We stay in a rental house my friend's mom owns and, in exchange for a few light chores around the house, we stay for free.  It's a pretty awesome deal.  To make the trip even more cost effective, each guest (there were 16 this year!) volunteers to cook a meal for everyone, so we aren't spending money going out to eat or ordering takeout. 

So, basically, for the cost of cooking a big meal and a few bare necessities (toilet paper, booze, whatever the house needs) we all have a long weekend at the beach. 

Taking Control: Financial Fixes in 15 Minutes or Less

When you have bills piling up on your kitchen counter, a bank balance hovering dangerously close to zero and a half dozen creditors calling you all hours of the night, the idea of taking control of your finances can seem impossibly overwhelming.  Heck, even if you aren't drifting down a financial death spiral, it can be daunting to figure out where exactly all your money goes each month. 

And all the conflicting advice you hear (especially in a recession!) doesn't help either.  It seems like every other minute another talking head appears on the news networks on to tell you how to beat the stock market in a recession or how to create a budget or save money or whatever.  It's dizzying.  We're all in recession overload and our circuits are rapidly getting overheated.  What should you do first?  What's the best way to keep yourself afloat?  Isn't it easier (and much more fun!) to just hide under the covers until the recession goes away?

5 Things NOT to Do in an Interview

We're all looking for jobs.  Those of us who haven't been laid off are facing budget cutbacks at work.  Raises are scarce.  Everybody is freaking out.  Yada yada yada.

So, in light of everyone's need to get out there and market themselves (read: preen in front of prospective employers in hopes that we'll land one of those last few precious jobs in industries that are still doing well), I thought a few interview tips would help us all out.

A Frugal Anniversary Revisited

Last week, I talked about how my husband and I are saving money as we celebrate our first wedding anniversary.  Last year, we celebrated our wedding in France.  This year, money is much tighter and we came up with a much more reasonable (but still fun!) plan: we'd each take a night over our anniversary weekend (my husband got Friday night and I got Saturday) to cook a great meal and enjoy it together by candlelight in our apartment.  We figured that we'd get two great meals for less than the price of one meal out in a fancy restaurant -- and our hard work could count as our gifts to each other, so we didn't feel compelled to spend even more money on gifts.  It's a good thing we both love to cook!

Now that the celebrations are over, I thought you'd like to hear what we created and see just how cheap a fabulous three course meal could be.

Taking Control, Part 1: An Hour a Day Adds Up

As discussed over at Blogher, one of the more emotionally difficult side effects of the recession is the pervading feeling of helplessness we all have. For a lot of us, our jobs and how we make our livelihood are closely tied with our identities –- so when a recession comes to town and starts to threaten all that, we get scared. Especially since we don’t have much control over it. I mean, we can say we’ll work harder or save more, but, when push comes to shove, if your company is going out of business, it’s going out of business… and we can’t always stop that from happening.

I think we all need to start accepting that we can’t always fix everything ourselves, we can’t always control everything. It’s not easy to accept, but it’s key to staying sane in this increasingly insane world. And, I’ll admit it, it’s hard for me to accept too. But, we all have enough stress without worrying about things we can’t control.

7 Cheap Luxuries to Soothe the Recessionista's Soul

I've been letting the economy get me down lately.  I've been worried about my job.  I've been concerned about my husband's business.  I've been wondering how long we can keep hanging by this thread, barely making ends meet.  It's stressful  -- not just for me, of course, but for everyone right now.  We've been in this situation for months and the light at the end of the tunnel still feels like it's just a tiny blip in the distance.

But there's only so much that we all can take.  We can worry and worry, but that won't make the economy turn around any faster.  Despite the need to cut back, we also need something to distract from the stress.  Here's a few things we can do to bring a little luxury back to our lives, without feeling guilty about the cost:

Coupon-spiration

I was congratulating my husband on his grocery shopping prowess just a few hours ago (Our bill was $25 less than usual thanks so a few extra sales and coupons), but after reading about the amazing deals that  Ashley Nuzzo, the founder of the blog Frugal Coupon Mom, gets, I think I'm taking my praise back!  It's time for us to step up our game!