Punk With Money

Today is June 8th so that means it's been almost three months since my last post. I don't know where to begin. I mentioned the unexpected expenses that were giving me difficulty; well, those dragged out through the next month, too. On top of that, my husband, who had been sober for six months, started drinking again. This caused extreme tension between us and led to him wanting to separate. I, falling back on what is not always a helpful instinct, fled to my hometown to visit my family, which was nice but also left me completely broke and with no room at all on my credit cards. I worked the entire visit but wasn't making as much as I normally do; I barely made it home. My husband and I had reconciled via video calls and I looked forward to getting back. Unfortunately, his alcoholism came to a frightening and violent head when he almost burned the house down. The silver lining is that once he sobered up he realized he had to stop drinking. We quickly got him into AA meet...

Wow, I can't believe it's already been a month! Time passes so quickly. Let me start by saying that this has been a hard month for me. I had a lot of unusual expenses pop up: a traffic ticket, my AAA renewal, an unexpectedly high tax preparation cost, dental costs... I've struggled to keep on top of it all. The good news is after this month things should be easier. Let's sum up what I've been able to achieve this month: I put $300 in my savings account. I paid $250 on my auto repair cards I paid over $250 on my regular credit cards, however, I spent $200 on my credit cards again for the ticket I got while in Las Vegas last month (make sure to check that your registration hasn't expired before you go on a trip!). I decided to put the ticket on my credit card again rather than spend the cash I had because the savings as a buffer has been really important to me psychologically. I know I have money in the bank for gas and food and I don't have to worry ab...

Hello! This is the first post for my new blog! Exciting! I started this blog because I was inspired by an article by Cait Flanders to finally get my financial shit together. Her article talks about how she paid off 30K in credit card debt in two years and finally started saving money. That's great except she makes 55K a year; neither I nor anyone in my peer group makes 55K a year. We don't even come close! And furthermore, the way these self help stories nearly always focus on a highschool-to-college-to-career type path is not really relevant to our lives. I'm in my thirties. I do have some college, but not a four-year degree. I dropped out of highschool because it wasn't fun and I spent four years traveling around the United States because it was. When I did settle down I wasn't much more stable; I still moved frequently back and forth across the country and I rarely kept a job more than a year. All that being said, I have always been a hardworking and respon...