real life with (very) real debt
Welcome to another edition of personal finance confessions — a totally irregular recap of how I’m managing my money lately.
This is my fourth confessions post. Here are the others: one | two | three.
This round features five confessions. Much like the first three posts, calling these confessions is likely a little dramatic.
Here we go.
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There are two things we’re all about here at Our Bill Pickle: keeping it real and sharing this space with those who can provide perspective on matters outside our expertise.
Today, I’m sharing a special guest post…from my husband, Jeff.
Although Jeff does not have a blog, he does have a lot of knowledge in a unique area: procurement.
He’s been working in the industry since 2016. I’ll be honest: there are definitely elements of his work that go over my head. But there have also been times where his training has helped us a great deal. This is particularly true when it comes to making big purchases.
Today, Jeff is sharing some simple steps that will help you assess big purchases, shop confidently and get what you want.
(Interested in guest posting at Our Bill Pickle? Click here for more details!)
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I wish I could say delayed gratification comes naturally to me but it doesn’t.
I say this as a self-identified saver — someone who likes to stash away my cash, watch my account grow and ponder all the options before making purchases, big or small.
While I can’t say I’ve never made an impulse purchase, generally speaking, I’m mindful about how I spend my money.
Even so, waiting to make purchases, especially ones I’m excited for, is challenging.
However, I have learned over the years delayed gratification, while not always enjoyable, has its benefits.
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Our spending tracker is so simple I hesitate to even call it a spending tracker.
There’s nothing fancy about it. In fact, I went out of my way to make sure it was the opposite of fancy.
What can I say? I like my budgeting tools to be functional above all else.
And this spending tracker is definitely functional.
Here’s why I decided to start tracking our spending, what our spending tracker looks like (and why we went with Google Sheets) and how it’s been working for us over the last few months.
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The cost women’s underwear is one of those things I don’t think I’ll ever understand.
There are few things I hate shopping for more than underwear. Styles and sizes are inconsistent from brand to brand and while it is possible to find affordable options, I have never had much luck as far as longevity goes.
Maybe it’s me, but I find the whole experience to be chaotic.
If it were possible to buy one set of underwear and wear them forever, I’d be all about that. Alas, that’s not the way it work, which means, every once in a while, I end up doing what I call an underwear drawer refresh.
I did my most recent on in November 2020. Here’s what that looked like (and how much it cost).
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