The “Nicer” Vacation

I have been posting about my big camping adventure that is set for September. However, I am also in the midst of planning our October vacation.

In 2010, we embarked on a seven-night cruise. I really enjoyed it but felt as though I was done with cruising for another five or ten years. This year, however, the thought crossed my mind—cruises can be ridiculously cheap if you allow them to be, especially if you’re lucky enough to live on the coastal United States where you can leave directly from a port without having to travel to it first. Then I found myself considering an all-inclusive vacation but found the cost of flights to be prohibitively expensive. Ultimately, I decided that in October I would like to stay somewhere warm and perhaps even obtain some type of color, preferably something tan not red. Let the planning for Florida begin!

I have only flown a few times in my life and three of the four times I have flown have been to Florida. While it’s unfortunate that I won’t be going anywhere new this year, I am just happy to be able to go somewhere.

How to Try to “Cheapen” the Trip – The Beginning

The first thing I did, once I decided upon Florida, was to consider the locations I planned to visit. I knew that I did not want to be on the Gulf since that is where we traveled last time and as beautiful as it is, a beach without waves makes this girl sad. I also decided that I wasn’t interested in Northern Florida, the Orlando area or the Southern most areas of Florida. From this, I compiled a list of beaches that seemed reasonable and began my research.

After looking around online, I noticed some beaches were definitely more expensive than others. I started my search by just going through general travel sites, such as Expedia, to get a general idea of what the rates might be. This alone allowed me to narrow down my search. Other things helped me narrow down my search and that you should also consider:

• Is there anyone nearby I want to visit?
• Are there other activities besides keeping my body on the beach all day?
• Is there an airport nearby?
• Is it easy to get around?
• Do I have to rent a car? If so, how much will it cost?

I’ve Decided on a Location – Now What?

I decided to narrow my focus to a few different areas that I was looking into — Ft. Lauderdale, Pompano Beach and anything else nearby. I looked through Expedia some more to get a general sense of the costs of different hotels. I also decided to pay attention to the following because these things can be huge additional costs that people do not take into account:

• Do I have to pay for parking? When I do, I find this to usually be somewhere between $12-$20/day.
• Do I have to pay for daily resort fees? These can vary greatly and depend on how many people are going on your trip. In addition to resort fees, do I have to pay additionally for beach rentals?
• What is the difference in price between an oceanfront, a room with an ocean view and a city view?
• Does the place include any extras — free breakfast? Discounts on activities? Credits to the room?
• Does the place charge automatic gratuities and service fees for everything?

Don’t Forget to Look on Other Sites

Sites like Expedia, Travelocity and their various incarnations are great and all but they can be quite limiting. One of the best places I have ever stayed in was no where on any of those sites—it was a gorgeous B&B that I found on TripAdvisor. I find using a website like TripAdvisor to find places to stay is generally my best bet. Not only will you find very in-depth reviews about lodging but you will also find reviews for everything else in the vicinity. You will always find complainers but I have found that most people review things quite honestly.

Using TripAdvisor is a good place to find smaller motels and inns that might be in the area but don’t charge exorbitant rates. They are usually smaller, family-owned joints that might be right off the beach, just a block or so away, that offer the basics. Remember: You can always choose to stay at multiple places, although sometimes you will find certain places at certain times require you to stay a minimum amount of days. When we went up North for a vacation, we spent one night in a very, very nice hotel and spent the other night at a much cheaper motel.

Are You Getting Ready to Book Your Trip?

If you have decided on where you are going to go, keep these other money saving tips in mind:

• Always check for discounts that may apply to you, such as a AAA membership. You never know—you might end up with a better deal.
• Look around at different sites—some may offer extras, deals or even slight price variations.
• Check to see if bundling will save you money—what would be the price difference if you booked a hotel with the flight?
• See what the difference would be for weekday versus weekend reservations. The prices can vary a lot especially in the summer. Avoid taking trips around holidays or when big events will be taking place, such as conventions, in the area you’re interested in visiting.

Any other tips you have in mind? Feel free to share. Happy planning!

Why I Don’t Pay for Magazines (Anymore)

I used to subscribe to various magazines throughout my lifetime.

When I was a teenager, I probably subscribed to something like Seventeen or one of its relatives. When I was in my early twenties, which sounds awful considering I’m going to enter my late twenties this year, I subscribed to science magazines, such as Discover and Science News. I had entered a stage in my life, however, where I seemed to have completely stopped reading anything beyond a few hundred words. Thus, I didn’t want to find myself purchasing magazines.

Approximately a year ago I started to read blogs and decided to mostly stick to one in terms of freebies and deals called Money Saving Mom. I chose this one because it was easy to remember and because she seemed to list tons of deals via other bloggers as well. I began to notice that she even posted ways to get free magazine subscriptions as well.

If you’re looking to score some free subscriptions, keep the following in mind:

1. Beggars can’t be choosers: You will find that you cannot get every magazine for free. Some magazines will never offer free subscriptions while others only offer heavily discounted deals. Generally, I have found that very well-known magazines are more likely to offer free issues as opposed to very specific, smaller magazines. I have noticed that certain bloggers like Crystal at Money Saving Mom will post deals for these niche magazines that make a subscription substantially cheaper. Do not always expect to receive a subscription forever either—I have found that many of the issues I have received have been anywhere from 3-6 months, though they can be for up to 12 months.

2. Check on your deals regularly: If you’re following a blog or partaking in a forum, make sure to check on the deals you’re interested in regularly. Many of these free subscriptions are only available for a certain period of time or for a certain number of people.

3. Always check for terms: Generally, I have found that the frugal bloggers are pretty good about avoiding scams or things with specific terms and agreements. That being said, you should always double-check and see what you are signing up for when you find a free magazine subscription. Never provide a site with your credit card number or bank information. Generally, when a company has you do that, they will send you some issues for free and then bill you for an additional six months to a year. For all of the subscriptions I have received for free, I have never once provided anything other than my name and address.

What magazines have I received for free over the past six months?

• Woman’s Day
• Newsweek
• Forbes
• Bloomberg Business Week
• Smart Money
• Outdoor Life

You can easily ascertain that I’ve received quite the variety in terms of magazines!

The Hopefully Obtainable Goals

I was never a very goal-oriented person, which retrospectively irks me regularly.

Now in my twenties, I find that I have become somewhat goal-oriented but not really.

Early On

I guess I was smart but by the time I high middle school, I became pretty lazy. Didn’t want to take a test? I went home sick. Was I behind in homework? I guess I’ll stay home and make as much of it as I can up in a day. Am I going to college or am I getting a job? I guess I’ll go to college because all of my other friends are going so what else am I going to do?

I managed to spend six years in college, including three college transfers, to finally obtain a B.S. in something in the sciences.  Even when I graduated, I didn’t want to use my B.S. for its purpose. Haphazardly, I applied to doctoral programs and a program very similar to Teaching Fellows that would allow me to obtain my M.S. in education practically for free. I finished that (on time, surprisingly) and then left the field.

Funnily enough, nearly a year after that, I studied for (and passed) my state licensing exam—the original purpose of my B.S. Sadly, I don’t think I am done with my educational pursuits, as I sit here not knowing what to do in my life.

The Past Few Years

Growing up without any money has certainly made saving money easier. Maybe it’s growing up with a frugal parent or maybe it’s in the genes but I have a decent amount of self-control with money.

I would say this is one of the few places where I am goal-oriented.

Although I really want to do something else with my life, I do have the goal of owning a home. But it’s such a slow process when it comes to saving money. The other thing I want to do is open an IRA through Vanguard.

So what’s stopping me?

We had a lot of expenses after the wedding. We probably made back what we spent on the wedding, so I was happy to break even. But between random expenses popping up, problems with my eyes and a variety of other things, we could not get past a certain point. The past few months have been better. In fact, we saved a decent amount of money in the past few months. But…

…we are going to decide on our October vacation. I really wanted to go on a cruise but did not want to spend the money.

…we are going to spend 3K+tax on a new couch. (See a previous entry about the cost of being cheap.)

So really, the 4K or so that we have saved in a short period of time is out of the window.

And Now…

I will continue saving for that down payment. But hopefully the month of May or June allows for me to open my Vanguard IRA. (My original goal was March or April.) Regardless, I will get there and that’s what matters.

The Cost of Being Cheap

My husband and I have been painstakingly saving money for a couple of years for a down payment on some type of home. The only thing we could even remotely afford is a co-op in this area. Condos are too pricey for us. And, as you could easily ascertain, a house is way, way too pricey for us.

When we first moved in together, I had this idea that I would buy “nice” furniture because I thought that we would be able to move out with the future and already have the “nice” furniture for our eventual home. I would look at furniture online and my friends, looking over my shoulder, would make comments, wondering how we were able to buy “nice” furniture at that point in our lives. Now, you might have noticed that I have annoyingly been putting the word nice in quotes and that’s because I have come to realize something in hindsight: the furniture I thought was nice was, in fact, not.

Maybe some people have better luck than I do but anything that I have purchased in terms of furniture that was “cheap” or that I thought I was getting a good price on was actually quite a piece of shit. I know there are other people who have 349-year old couches that get passed down through their families and they are still in great condition or people who buy a cheap futon that decays at the rate of a diamond but this does not happen with me. Let us review my examples of what I have deemed my lessons regarding the cost of being cheap.

The Couch

We moved into our apartment without a couch and spent approximately one month sitting on the floor. We searched. We didn’t have a lot of money because my guy had only been earning a somewhat decent salary for a short period of time and I just started working my first full-time real job a month or two before that. Jennifer Convertibles? Nice but it would take too long to get to us. Raymour & Flanigan? Ouch—too expensive for us at the time. Random furniture store on a major avenue? Okay, I guess so. We happened upon a really gorgeous sectional that was a leather blend. For $1,000, I was happy with the price. Eventually we got the couch. For two years, I was enamored. The couch was super comfortable. I could nap on it at any time. As far as I was concerned, my couch was better than yours.

And then one day I noticed pieces of my couch coming off.

Since then, the entire couch has completely been peeling off. If you lay on the couch, you will end up with 695 pieces of the material on you. You know where someone walked because you will find trails of the couch from the living room to wherever they end up. And because of the way the couch is built, you cannot put something on it to cover it—the only thing we could really try to do was staple a sheet onto the back and it never stays in place. To further fuel my ire, the couch is built in such a way that a baby could fall through and be trapped. There is a Nintendo DS case stuck in the couch and we have no idea where it is—we have even cut a piece of the couch open only to not be able to find it. Why do I own the Bermuda Triangle of couches?

The Bed & Dresser

I guess I should know better than to depend on the prices of Ikea but really, they know how to suck you in—they appeal to small spaces, city living and your first time being out there on your own. When you can’t afford much, you end up at Ikea, finding yourself walking into their model rooms, picturing the furniture in your own home. This bed was actually purchased way before we moved into the apartment but it traveled with us; the matching dresser was a later addition.

So imagine my “shock” when one day, a day where I am actually cleaning no less, I am leaning on the end of the bed and BOOM, I fall straight down with the end of the bed. I take a look at the bed—we had been sleeping for who knows how long with my side of the bed barely being held together. Great. I am all set on purchasing a new bed when, after looking around and getting annoyed, we decide that my dad can, for the time being, reinforce the bed and shove additional screws in there.

The dresser? I don’t know what the bottom drawer has against me but this thing is always misaligned, doesn’t like to close and randomly drops down. My husband has better luck than I do so his dresser, also a matching dresser but slightly bigger, has no problem with him. Again, it’s all me.

Back to Bad Living Room Choices

We purchased an entertainment center. It’s a decent size. I think my favorite parts about it is that we could never get the top on quite right, pieces came off as we screwed parts of it in and that the entire top shelf dips down in the center. I love having a shelf I can barely use because I am terrified that it will break and fall onto my flat screen television.

I also eventually purchased a coffee table and matching end tables. I think the thing I like best about the coffee table is how it wobbles from the slightest touch. I honestly don’t want to even bother attempting to fix it because I kind of want to see when it just all falls down.

I Will Not Leave Out the Kitchen

I have to say I think I learned my lesson in terms of purchasing Ikea products for the kitchen as well. Salad bowl I barely used? The entire bottom fell off. Wok? Fell apart. Other frying pans? Gone. Why do you hate me Ikea?

Result?

We are currently looking for a new couch. We almost purchased one last week but then took a step back. I wasn’t quite ready to put the $3,000+ on a new sectional. We plan on only buying real leather because I hate microfiber and do not want any fabric since my husband has some intense allergies. There is also enough cat hair around and don’t need another surface to which cat hair has an extreme affinity to. I am trying to buy  a nice couch that we can take with us, such that I want the sectional to have each of its own individual pieces so we can change the orientation if need be.

I will wait on the other furniture…

My Love-Hate Relationship: Online Deals

I started using Groupon & LivingSocial around the time they pretty much launched themselves.

Now, I love a good deal. Since I live in a large city, there are multiple deals every single day. Tempting? Yes. But I have found that with a little self-control, making use of these sites can be quite advantageous.

The Good

(1) Since there are multiple deals throughout the city, and there are a lot, I have pretty much decided to have these deals e-mailed to one of my junk e-mail accounts. Do I end up with a lot of e-mails? Yes. But I would rather do that than be annoyed that I missed something I actually wanted, as opposed to one of the five hundred spa treatments offered through the website.

(2) Once I actually find a deal I want, I make sure that I go through it in my mind a bit. Do I really want this? Can I afford this right now? Will I actually use it? If the answers are yes, I will generally buy it. For example, I rarely ever go to the movies—usually I only go once a year. At ten or more dollars per ticket, it’s just not worth it to me. But if I know there is a movie coming out I want to see and one of these sites comes out with a deal, I will probably purchase it. For $12, I just purchased a Groupon for a movie theater near me that includes two tickets and bottomless popcorn. I also keep an eye out for places I enjoy eating at or want to try since I really do love eating out—it’s like a hobby to me. For $15, I purchased a deal for $35 of food from a healthy food place that we really enjoy. These will be used for a “date night.”

(3) Of course I realized thisafter my last purchase, but my credit card, which offers pretty decent cash back rewards, has 15% cash back on purchases for Groupon if you go through their website. All you need to do is log into your credit card website, for example, and click through the links on their site. Once you do that, you’ll get the cash back—you won’t get the 15% just buying it without going through the credit card’s site.

(4) Sometimes you will end up with free stuff—I got a credit of $10 once because someone apparently used a referral link to LivingSocial that I had put out there. If all of your friends want to go in on a deal, many times they have it set-up so that if you refer three friends you get your deal for free. If it’s something big, you might be able to all go in on a deal, such as a vacation, and then split it up so that four people are paying the price for three people—making the savings even greater.

(5) I find that the sites have pretty good return policies. My sister bought something she could not use once and they refunded her money relatively quickly.

The Bad

(1) Having your credit card linked to your account makes it all too easy to make a fast purchase. If I am waffling on a deal, within a few seconds and a couple of clicks, I might have purchased it. Whoops.

(2) Constantly being bombarded with deals makes me want more things in the moment. For example, I had been talking about going zip lining and literally the next day I had an offer for zip lining in my mail box. I was so excited I wanted to purchase it right away. I gave myself a little time and instead I decided that it wasn’t the time to do it. Also, I stated that I am always on the lookout for restaurant deals. I find that often times it is the case that there will be nothing I want for months and then all of a sudden there are a bunch of restaurants I want to purchase deals for in a row. Sometimes I really, really have to resist the temptation.

What I Try to Do

I decided, after purchasing two deals within the same day after not purchasing any deals for awhile, that I will just make it part of my budget. One of the descriptors in my budget is a “miscellaneous” category. If I don’t have the money for it, then I am not going to buy it. Of course, if it’s for some big purchase that I have decided I am going to make, such as a purchase for a trip, I will have a little more leeway.

How do you feel about these sites? Are they forces of good or evil?

Cheap Vacation Mode – Camping Style

I have two weeks for vacation at my current place of employment. My husband has three because he has been at his job for a little longer than I have been at mine. I decided that one of the two weeks we spend together must be on the cheaper-side, so we have elected to go camping. This especially holds true because we are unfortunately buying a new couch and we will probably spend a bit of money on it. And by a bit of money, I mean way too much for my frugal tastes. (Let’s just say I have learned my lesson in terms of buying cheap furniture.)

Ah yes, the great outdoors. This can actually be quite expensive but we plan on making it a bit cheaper for us. I think the most expensive thing for us will be the gas. How will I make it cheaper? Good question.

(1) I already bought the state pass that will allow me to access nearly every state park. I was already planning on purchasing this for our hiking excursions but now that we have it we won’t need to pay the entrance fee to any of the parks we visit. Since I have a list of parks that we want to go to, this will probably pay for itself. Since I plan on visiting the state parks more than eight times over the course of a year, I will end up saving money.

(2) I will use Gas Buddy, a phone app, to find the cheapest gas around. Since we will be driving quite a bit to get to our destinations, this will hopefully be quite helpful.

(3) I will buy food that is on sale. Since most of the time we will be cooking for ourselves in the park, we will bring staples that will easily last such as canned goods that will serve as part of the meal or as a side to the meal. There are a number of large supermarkets throughout the area that we could stop at and try to purchase whatever we can that’s on sale. We will also be saving money by not making constant trips to the general store, which would end up being more expensive, or going out to eat wherever is closest.

(4) We will be exclusively staying at campsites. We will not be renting cabins or anything else. Campsites are only $15/night at most of the places I have looked at; however, since part of the time we are going is around a holiday, it is $4 more/night. That’s fine with me. For two people, we have a place to sleep for under $20/night.

(5) We will be using rentals where we can. I looked at possibly purchasing an inflatable kayak for adventures but then I received a sharp slap in the face when I saw how expensive they were. Given how infrequently we partake in water activities, there is no reason to purchase anything—rentals are usually pretty cheap anyway. There is no reason to make a big purchase if you are going to infrequently use it.

(6) It might not seem like it saves you  money but I recommend buying things in baby steps. Instead of rushing out to buy everything at once, take your time, read reviews and find the best deals. If I know, for example, that I need a new sleeping bag and I have quite a bit of time to find one, I will wait until there is a good sale before I purchase one. Last minute or impulse purchases often result in one spending much more money than they actually need to spend. You may be able to find things at outlet malls as well.

(7) I plan on researching the surrounding area for information on other cheap activities. If you wade your way through websites like TripAdvisor and Yelp, you can find recommendations for various activities as well as food options. You will also find out if people found things to be overpriced and if you’re lucky, you can find out what the good deals are in the area. Additionally, you can follow a company’s Facebook page if you’re interested in something they offer, like guided tours, and see if they have any type of deals for you. You can even go as far as to sign-up for Groupon or LivingSocial deals for that area—that way, when the time comes, you might be able to do something awesome on the cheap.

(8) And this is the most important part of my cheap vacation—ask around! We do not currently own a tent but my parents have one so we will be borrowing their tent. We also do not own a cooler so we will be borrowing that too. Try to borrow things whenever you can if you’re not in a place to buy your own.

Of course, when September rolls around, I will let you know how much we spent in its totality. We do plan on doing a couple of things that are ridiculously expensive but that is why the rest of the trip needs to be cheap.

Outdoor Excursions – Forcing Myself Outside on the Cheap

My husband and I really enjoy hiking. I love torturing myself and whining about it most of the time. I enjoy the challenge and feel accomplished when we complete a trail that is at least moderately difficult. The only problem we have is that since we are city-dwellers, we have to drive at least two hours to hike anywhere with any kind of elevation. I really would like to hike more and make it a regular thing so I have tried to put some things into place that will push me into hiking more often.

(1) I purchased a parking pass that allows for entry into any of the parks listed on their site, which includes most of the state parks. Given that the pass cost $65 and that entry into any of these parks costs $8/day, I will have to go at least eight times to almost break even.  I can start using this pass April 1st so hopefully I can make it somewhere within that first week.

(2) I let friends know that we plan on going hiking. Sometimes it’s easier to get yourself to go somewhere if you have other people involved. Now the frugal part of me would love if they gave us some gas money or offered to pick up some snacks but the logical part of my brain reminds me that I am inviting them as guests.

(3) We are planning to make one of our weeks of vacation an outdoors trip around the state. During this week, we plan on hitting up as many state parks as we possibly can within reason. I’ll actually be writing about this later when I talk about planning a cheap vacation.

For me, this is a type of cheap fun. At $4/person, my husband and I can enjoy one of the beautiful state parks for the entire day. The only downfalls and added expenses, which can be quite large, are gas and tolls. Since we are quite a distance from any real hiking areas, it really drives the cost of an outdoor excursion up quite a bit. We actually try to take routes that involve less tolls and they are usually only a difference of about five or ten minutes in driving time. We have some pretty expensive tolls in our area so the additional five or ten minutes usually makes sense. In terms of gas, there’s not really much we can do about that. The only thing we try to do is make our way into the adjacent state, since that is part of our route, and purchase gas there; it’s always cheaper by $0.20-0.30/gallon.

Does anyone else go hiking? What do you guys do for fun to enjoy great outdoors? You know, unless you’re a shut-in.

The Inevitable: A Budget

It seems obvious that if the first step was to become aware of our financial situation that our second step would be to make smarter choices when it came to spending our money.  We did. The cable was cut. We stopped eating out so much. And since I wasn’t working at my previous job, I couldn’t hit up the bars immediately after work on Fridays.

For some reason it didn’t actually occur to me that I should formulate some type of budget until recently.

Just for some clarification, it’s pretty easy for me to say “I” in this situation because handling the finances is pretty much my job in the relationship. I keep the budget. I pay the bills. I am constantly tracking our money. I always keep my guy up to date about everything and always ask for his input but ultimately, if anything is going to get done, it’s my responsibility. Truth be told, I’ll do anything to get out of washing dishes, the worst chore of all time. Fact.

This year I started developing and trying to stick to an actual budget. Most Dave Ramsey fanatics subscribe to the cash envelope system. I live in the big city and that’s not going to work for me—I walk by a million stores a day and most of the smaller ones only deal in cash. Trust me, I will find some junk to buy in the dollar store or talk myself into a candy bar.

After looking around for a bit and reading some reviews, I decided to try out Pear Budget.

Pear Budget offers a subscription service online for $5/month but let’s face the facts—I’ve been known to be a bit miserly. I prefer the term frugal. Frugally, I downloaded their free excel file. As soon as I downloaded it, I was in love. It’s really easy to use and they explain how to set-up the spreadsheet on the first page. As long as you know what categories and values you are putting into the spreadsheet, it will not take you very long to set it up. Once it’s set-up, the only difficult part is remembering to actually enter the amount of money you spent that day. If you spend money daily like me, that part gets a little tricky. For the most part I remember to add what I spent but sometimes I forget and cannot remember if I already put it in the spreadsheet or not.

During the first two months, I found myself tweaking the budget here and there but overall the numbers have been pretty static. Making a budget has really opened my eyes to what we spend. For example, since we own a car but don’t drive very often, I was surprised that we were spending as much as we were on gas. And I love my food but it still surprises me how much we spend on it.

How does everyone else budget? Do you use software or do you just wing it?

First Step: Financial Awareness

The first two years my husband and I lived together, we didn’t have a budget. We each had our own accounts and took turns paying the bills. If I paid rent one month, he would pay it the following month. If I was paying rent that month, he was paying all of the other bills. We each paid our own credit card bills from our own accounts. I was responsible for paying the bills from each of our accounts. We lived moderately but spent money regularly. Friday night? Time to go out with the co-workers. Want a new video game console? Pick-up that PS3 because you can.

We didn’t make a lot of money but we were comfortable. We each worked full-time. We paid our bills, paid for cable television, bought our new (used) car in total, paid for our vacations—we didn’t have to really make an effort to save for these things. We were still able to save some money, didn’t really have any debt and essentially, we were fine.

So when I left my job, we had a cushion. We had some savings. We had two months of pay coming my way. I wasn’t panicked.

But then two months came and went. I didn’t have a job yet and a sense of dread started to come over me. How were we going to pay the bills? How were we going to live in an expensive city with our income completely cut in half? I applied frantically to everything and anything—even jobs that were only $10/hour and part-time. I didn’t care anymore. I felt a sense of desperation that I could barely contain. I just wanted a job.

It was at that point that a sense of monetary awareness sprouted within me.

We immediately slashed all of our spending. We didn’t need the cable television so we turned in our cable box. We didn’t need to order take out all of the time so we didn’t. We didn’t need to buy snacks so we bought our essentials. We didn’t really go anywhere or do anything for a few months—we only did it if it was free. We were able to cover our bills with only my husband’s income. We didn’t save any money and we probably lost a little bit but we were okay.

This was when I realized how much money we had been wasting. We were never big spenders but we were regular spenders. If we wanted something, we bought it. Obviously I’m not talking about extravagant things but everyday things that add up without a second thought: meals from the Chinese store, a cup of coffee from my favorite place, drinks after work, a new video game—anything.

Thankfully, one morning when I couldn’t sleep, I received an e-mail from Monster about jobs that applied to me. By six in the morning I had applied for a job that I eventually got. At first it was just busy work that didn’t pay much but eventually it became more. This became my first experience in the field that I am in now. I started to kick myself about how much money we had wasted the first two years we lived together. Then I realized there was no reason to kick myself; I was in the process of learning the lesson I was supposed to learn about money.

And that was only the beginning…