Owner: This Writer's Wallet URL:http://www.thiswriterswallet.com Join Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2008 12:42:58 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: I’m Grad Girl, often known as GG, a 20-something Chicagoan with a recent graduate degree in a writing-based field. At my blog, I chart my saving, spending and learning journey for you. Site statistics:Click here
5 Things to Be Happy about, Now 2008-07-03 06:32:47 1. Casual Thursday: yeah, jeans!
2. A three-day weekend because of a free nation.
3. Rainstorms (wishing to spread them to you guys in California!)
4. The ability to eat solid food! Finally, as the bug I caught on vacation seems to be leaving.
5. Completed financial goals.
What about you? Read more:Happy
New Goal: I want to buy a house with cash! (or, I hate debt) 2008-07-01 08:25:39 I feel somewhat hypocritical talking about debt as a bad thing, seeing as I never went into it. It’s a little like a skinny teenager lecturing a Weight Watchers group. True, I have no debt… BUT my parents paid my college tuition. BUT my parents let me live rent-free while I was in grad school. [...]
Savings Updates (Goal #2 Accomplished!) 2008-06-30 08:00:58 In the sidebar, you’ll notice a few updates to my savings goals. I’ve removed the Cali Vacation bar, as that’s completed and accomplished.
And there’s a new completed goal, too. As of this morning, at the open of the business day, I will have deposited the final $500 into my 2008 Roth IRA.
Two goal down; two [...] Read more:Savings
Free Fun: First Lesson Learned 2008-07-25 06:09:49 My blogging buddy FGS issued me a great challenge last week, in response to my mentioning the Single-Step Personal Finance Challenge: Get some friends together to do routine, free nights together. Here’s the recap of week #1:
Event #1 came to me, without my doing much work: an e-mail announcing a free foodie event in the [...] Read more:First
, Learned
Unexpected Frustrations, financially 2008-07-24 08:15:13 I said I was starting with the good (and oh, it was good), but today I’m telling you the bad news (and to me, it’s very bad):
I still haven’t gotten the raise my boss said he’d fight for, the one I asked for over a month ago.
I was planning to follow-up with him a month [...] Read more:Unexpected
Unexpected Blessings, financially 2008-07-23 08:00:19 Oh, I have so much to blog about, friends. Let’s start with the really good: two very unexpected blessings that I am superhyped about (side note: did you know super- usually doesn’t get hyphenated when creating a compound noun? there’s your fun grammar fact for the day or, your unexpected blessing, if you will. Wow, [...] Read more:Unexpected
, Blessings
Job Hunting & Dating Both Stink 2008-07-21 08:48:28 Last week, I had a guy tell me, as he walked me out after dinner on our first date, “You’ll have to let me know if you want to do this again sometime.”
He leaned in as if to go for a hug/kiss, right there in front of the restaurant, and I turned away a little [...] Read more:Dating
, Stink
, Job Hunting
How College Money Network Is Good for You 2008-07-20 14:51:45 Just in case you missed my first announcement about the new, fantastic, exciting CollegeMoney
Network, here’s another plug: are you in college? did you recently graduate? are you a 20-something, or are you the parent/friend/sibling of a 20-something?
Well, CMN is the PF site you can’t miss. All of the authors (Including yours truly, ahem) [...]
Single-Step Personal Finance Challenge 2008-07-19 06:00:12 One of my fellow College Money Network members, Laura at Green Panda Treehouse, tagged me and the other CMNs recently with the First-Step Personal
-Finance Challenge
.
Originally started by Mrs. Micah, this challenge is simple: Find one step you can take to make your financial system better or more organized.
I’ve been thinking about it, trying to decide [...]
So I Have This Friend (or, on mooching) 2008-07-18 06:00:43 What do you do when, say, a friend comes to visit and suggests you go to THAT restaurant with the amazing food and the great atmosphere, the one that makes delicious food but hits your wallet big-time? Then, say, this friend orders an entree and drinks and more drinks and a side of this and [...]
Introducing… the College Money Network! 2008-07-17 08:00:23 I’m thrilled to announce to you the launch of a brand-new PF network, set around the theme of money and college. There are six members (including yours truly), and we are college students, grad students or recent grads.
The CollegeMoney
Network is a place where we’ll pool our information, giving you the best content we [...] Read more:Introducing
Money Hackers Carnival #20, Chicago style 2008-07-16 06:00:52 Welcome to this week’s Money
Hacks carnival! Putting my own Chicago
spin on the list, I’m showcasing some of the city’s sights, compliments of Flickr. Enjoy!
EDITOR’S PICKS, along the Chicago River/Trump Tower, image by spudart
**J. Money presents Start Investing by 26, Retire a Millionaire by 67 posted at Budgets are Sexy. I totally agree. If [...] Read more:Hackers
, Carnival
161st Carnival of PF is up! 2008-07-14 19:34:18 Just a quick post to send you over to the 161st Carnival
of Personal Finance, hosted by the Budgeting Babe.
My post about finding a use for bridesmaids’ dresses is among the articles featured. Go take a look!
Saturday Round-Up 2008-08-09 08:31:00 Happy Saturday
!
In the spirit of our back-to-school giveaway, the College Money Network has been bringing you great tips that relate to the return to classes. Here are some great articles to check out from the past week, college student or not… more are coming!
Broke Grad Student: 6 Cool Ways to Track Your Expenses Online
Green Panda [...]
5 Things Every College Freshman Needs to Know 2008-08-07 07:03:49 (or, What I Wish I’d Known)
As old as this makes me sound, I was headed off for my first year of college eight years ago. And though it’s been almost a decade since I applied, was accepted and packed up for my freshman year, I remember it well. For most of us, it’s an exciting [...] Read more:College
, Freshman
, Needs
, Things Every
Announcement: I Let Go. 2008-08-06 06:46:54 No, seriously. The me who worried about spending $4 on soup? I don’t even know that girl anymore. She’s been replaced by a freer, happier, positively let’s-enjoy-summer girl who’s forgotten about the down-payment fund or the saving-money goals or the budgeting lifestyle.
I keep specific categories of what to spend where. Usually, as in, for the [...] Read more:Announcement
On Management 2008-08-05 08:32:11 Quick, a survey!
Who was the best boss you ever had? The worst? If you’re a boss, do you think you’re a good one?
I should preface the question with the statement that, as a still-newbie manager with absolutely no training but fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants learning as I go, I have learned more about authority this past year than [...] Read more:Management
CMN Gets Even Better: a Big, Big Giveaway! 2008-08-04 07:00:58 OK, readers, big announcement: The College Money Network (already established as being a great resource for us PFers) is celebrating the start of another school year by throwing its first giveaway! To sweeten the deal, we will be posting a series of articles over the next two weeks with money-saving tips that revolve around a [...]
Additional Income for July 2008: 2008-08-03 05:05:21 Time for my monthly update on additional income. For July, I didn’t work too hard at this goal, at least not in terms of immediate rewards. I had some payouts ($22) from old Pay Per Posts I did, but I never got to the eBay selling I planned for. My leather bag, my bags of [...] Read more:Income
My Apologies 2008-08-02 00:45:28 It’s not that I don’t have things to write about, friends. I do, and I will, soon I hope.
For now, I’m giving you something even better than a blog post. Here’s this week’s round-up of fantastic CMN articles:
Go congratulate MFA or Bust. She just got more money for school, all because she asked for it. [...]
Confession 2008-07-29 21:16:04 So. It’s been a little more than four years since I started dreaming of becoming a writer, thinking it would never actually happen, that no one in his/her right mind would actually pay me (and well) to do something like write all day long. But here I am, pinch me someone, doing just that.
I forget [...]
Tonight’s Blogging Mission: 2008-07-28 19:12:05 Correct bad backlinks leftover from my switch to this domain. Fun, right? Ugh.
To make tasks like these more fun, I usually do something else at the same time. Tonight
, I’m working the dual-monitor thing to my advantage, watching T.V. online while I blog. Don’t you love streaming video? Here are all my choices:
1. Shows from [...] Read more:Blogging
, Mission
Fifty Cents 2008-07-27 22:58:02 Saturday night, while I was walking to my El station, wallet in hand, fishing for a couple singles, a guy approached me to ask for money. Before I could give him my standard No, sorry, I don’t have any extra money on me, I heard him say something about needing $0.40.
My fingers were, literally, touching [...] Read more:Fifty
happy birthday to me! 2008-08-25 08:39:06 It’s my birthday. And, as a true sign of things—my age? my personality? my lifestyle?, I didn’t buy myself clothes or dinner or a trip somewhere fun. I just bought, via Macy’s on Amazon, a new Silipat mat for baking cookings.
Little luxuries, friends.
A New Way to Learn about Your Credit Score 2008-08-24 08:24:56 You may remember that a few months ago, I went through this whole should-I-buy-a-credit-card faze. I used a couple sites for information, comparing and contrasting different cards to see which would be most beneficial. Would you believe I still haven’t gotten a credit card?
I know, I know. I’m so stuck in the habit of my [...] Read more:Score
Saturday Round-Up 2008-08-23 06:40:33 Check out these great posts from the College Money Network this past week!
Broke Grad Student does such great round-ups. Check out this one: 25 Tips, Ideas, Resources on Having Fun as a College Student
Prompted by a heated discussion at another blog, Green Treehouse Panda asks you why you read blogs and how much personal information [...] Read more:Saturday
Why Gardening & Money Are the Same 2008-08-21 20:54:42 There are a million gardening cliches, as there are financial ones. And the elements that go into producing a good crop aren’t that different from the principles of prosperity or success:
Think about it: Consistency, wise choices and, honestly, some things that just aren’t in your control.
I can water my tomatoes (consistency), I can plant them [...] Read more:Money
How to Drink Starbucks for Free 2008-08-20 06:48:53 I’m something of an unusual coffee snob—I don’t even like Starbucks
that much, to be honest. Give me a good cup of Dunkin Donuts, and I’m a happy girl. However, everything tastes better when it’s free!
And this last week, I drank at Starbucks for free THREE TIMES, never for the same reason. Here’s the [...] Read more:Drink
On Managing Time or, Not Managing It 2008-08-17 08:00:15 Do you know what everyone in this room has the exact same amount of?
Time. 24 hours in a day, 7 days a week.
That was the beginning pitch for a speech I didn’t get to hear the rest of at a conference last week. I, instead, went to a fantastic, inspiring, completely great talk about [...]
The Truth about the Month of August 2008-08-16 06:00:28 When I was in junior high, old enough to value sleeping in but young enough to have nowhere to go all summer, I remember some smart-alecky type kid, upon hearing when my birthday fell, tell me, What a great birthday present! Just in time for back to school!
It wasn’t always this way. I remember, or [...] Read more:August
, Truth
, Month
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