Two weeks ago, I went to the Farmer’s Market and bought a huge loaf of bread, two bell peppers, a bag of salad mix, and two croissants. All of it cost $20.00, which is a crazy lot of money to pay, but everything was fresh, tasty and made locally. Considering that I packed 3 lunches for work and ate 2-4 other meals (lunch or dinner) from it, that’s not bad. I bought some orange juice and small steaks at the market later in the week, on top of pulling frozen chicken from the fridge to round things out, protein-wise. For two of those lunches I took to work, I bought some tuna or seafood salad to fill out the salad mix I packed, for about $3.50 each time. The other one was leftover steak. Each meal was awesome and fresh! (What do you think inspired my Nalgene post with the balsamic vinaigrette recipe?)

I even went away for Father’s Day and returned to find a small wedge of bread that had a speck of mold. I cut off that part and served with cooked lentils from the pantry so as not to waste it. (I was going to toss the bread, but hoped it would go stale to make breadcrumbs. Unfortunately, it’s too humid right now.) The only thing left in the fridge is a bell pepper, which though old now, will get consumed soon.

This week, I didn’t have time to go to market because I was away for the holiday and I’ve already spent about $20 on 1 breakfast, 2 lunches and 1 dinner. This is not happy making. I went to lunch late on Tuesday and hated absolutely everything they had to offer. I grabbed my car keys and went for salad and half sandwich at a Vie de France instead. I could have skipped the salad. It was no better or worse than the farmer’s market salad mix. The sandwich was tuna nicoise, very yummy with no mayonnaise. However, this does not excuse the fact that I think I am going to have to keep on packing much lunch because frankly, I’m feeling moody about food (PMS) and think I can make lunch for cheaper and love its taste a lot more if I bring it from home.

Maybe it’s the PMS, but after a week of really yummy packed lunches, looking at food prepared other places has zero appeal.

Anyone else feeling this way?

Finance is Personal has it available now.

Frugal Law Student tries baking soda instead of toothpaste. Read for his wife’s comment. Cracks me up! I am a Crest devotee in Clean Mint flavor. But I like to buy it on sale.

BPT at Money Changes things tells us, Don’t waste a wedding gown. Click the link marked Brides Against Breast Cancer. *bawl*

GolbGuru with real tips he and his wife use to save money every day. A huge list and a good one. It’s so easy to get started on these too, so there are no excuses!

The Digerati Life has another reason to love Craigslist. Try it for used furniture! That you don’t end up killing rainforest trees. Currently, the desk and bed I use at home were from a listing at Craigslist. I <3 Craig!

Another international blogger at Cheap as Chips asks What are you really saving for? Good question. Clearly I need my own vacation fund, and a new car fund, and a laptop fund, etc., etc.

It was $11 I didn’t need or use anymore.

In fact, that snappy iPod I won last year has gone AWOL. Frankly, I don’t really miss it. I was balking at spending the $50-$100 needed to get a car adapter which is all I would use it for anyway. No iTunes spending for me.

I am trying to stick only to the essentials, which is why I decided to go to the Gogol Bordello show in DC next month with my friends. They said it was a fantastic time, so if I am going to spend time doing anything with that crowd, this looks to be the event. I am eschewing all the weekly happy hours and only attending social events at people’s homes so that I can bring food/booze, and good times. That somehow always seems cheaper than hitting happy hour every week.

I am in the midst of planning my annual large camping trip. For some reason, I’m being completely silly about getting a car. I keep thinking that I can fudge it in some manner so that my friends can pick me up from the airport when I arrive and deliver me to a hotel before I leave. (10-days without a real shower means I need to wash up before flying.)

JD of Get Rich Slowly has the 105th Carnival of Personal Finance available now. He’s done it DJ-style. “Stacks of tracks on tons of wax, etc.” I think I can almost hear Casey Kasem.

Madame X at My Open Wallet with Who Do You Think You Are? I’m serious. I think I can hear the song play when I read that title. Anyone else remember it? “A star?”

Accumulating Money has a really fascinating post about buying experiences over things. I suppose this is one reason why I don’t own a TV. It forces me to do things I want to be doing like hobbies and chores.

Mighty Bargain Hunter explains exactly how being disorganized costs you money. If you’ve never been able to see the direct connection, he lays it all out for you and invites commenters to leave more.

Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity has chosen his post Money isn’t everything and it isn’t you.

The Sun’s Financial Diary on opening a T-Bill account with Treasury Direct. He references Jonathan at My Money Blog, but I actually think you have to read Jonathan’s T-bill category for truly complete information.

Wealth Building Lessons on Canadian Royalty Trusts or “Canroys”, one way our northern neighbors save. It’s like an industry mutual fund, similar to an REIT.

SFOrdinaryGirl, my recent guest blogger, claims her best post is Giving Old Clothes a Second Chance. Pretty good advice since I’m about to go through my closet soon.

Clever Dudette with the famous packing your lunch post. This was put up on a high traffic website and has generated a lot of comments about lunch ideas. I highly recommend reading through all of them.

Five Cent Nickel says his best post is Ten Simple Ways to Cover Your Ass(ets). I agree! This is one of the best posts I’ve seen at his blog, but certainly not the only one. I definitely think you should take the long view on planning, and contingency planning like this is very important, especially if you have kids (say like, 4 boys).

A new blogger, Grace, at GRACEful Retirement only has 8 posts, but I do like this one on Special Needs Trusts. As many of you know, I’ve thought about something like this for my cousin. This might be the advice I’ve been looking for.

GolbGuru at the Tao of Making Money says his boss is lame, er, no. He writes about sharing knowledge about paying bills and investing. Though many couples decide on a division of labor, perhaps that’s not the wisest route. This is the only “couples” post I put on my list since most of them don’t apply to me. However, I watched my parents divide this labor and I think my dad is a disaster with money, so I agree a lot with the advice.

In honor of Single Ma’s new job in DC, and to welcome her to Northern VA, HC of One Big Mortar Board and I decided to have a happy hour.

Ground rules: No complaining if this is inconvenient. I can’t please everyone all the time, much as I would like to do that. Next time *YOU* host.

BIG HUNT
1345 CONNECTICUT AVE NW
WASHINGTON DC 20036
202 785 2333 - DUPONT CIRCLE METRO
6pm till whenever

PLEASE RSVP via email so I know whom to expect and send further details

Red and Orange line metro accessible
(But Orange is further away in Farragut Sq. Closest is Dupont Circle on Red)

15 cent wings till 7pm, so feel free to show up sooner than 6.
$3 Red Hook pints, but the beer selection is really good.
Try the black bean dip. I love it.

Realistically, I will be there around 6 or later because I have to schlep from my job in the suburbs.

I hope you can make it, if you’re a local in DC or in town for business!

NPR had them on Morning Edition this week!

If I could get it in a split natural style, that would be great! I have already shorted out two or three keyboards with wet droplets falling from my hair. Totally stinks. There is only so much you can do.

If you really want to clean them, alcohol swabs work best. If there are crumbs, pop off the keys *gently* and then clean the inside with another alcohol swab, or vacuum.

Greetings and welcome! Thanks for clicking through!

Credit Card Lowdown tagged me as one of the 100 Most Inspirational Personal Finance Turnaround stories. However, I need you guys to know something. That’s not true about me. I don’t have a turnaround story. I’m still in debt. I asked my parents to help me buy my apartment. The only things I’ve accomplished are finally finshing paying off my student loans and my car. Nothing that I think was truly exceptional compared to the other stories on that list. I want to be abundantly clear about that. I’m still working on it. So far, this is not a feel-good story. It’s very much a work in progress, hence the name ‘Fiscal Challenge’.

New readers who like what they see can subscribe to my feed.

I’m so sorry that my site STILL looks crappy in MS Internet Explorer 7, but you really should use Firefox anyway. (Truly frugal types go with open source software.)

Thank you for visiting me. Please feel free to leave a comment. I just have a few basic rules that boil down to these two:

1) Please try not to be anonymous. Even if you say something like ‘W.L.’ for a name, that helps clear up conversations that anonymous has with anonymous in the comments section.

2) Please try to be courteous. Rule of thumb, if you wouldn’t say it to my face in person, don’t say it here or to my other guests. (Read more about internet trolls and discussion moderation at InformationWeek in this great article by Cory Doctorow.)

Thanks for listening to my caveat and welcome!

Recently one of my readers IM’d me via the Meebo window on the left. She was asking me about job hunting and recruiters. I tried to answer her questions as best I could, because I’m really good at getting a new job. That’s not to say that I suck. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever truly been sacked for a job because I was a lousy employee. Most of the time, I hated what I was doing and departed for greener pastures when I was younger and much more antsy.

Anyhow, I came across an article at Yahoo on Salary Mistakes and some of the advice I gave this reader was contained within it.

The main things for younger folks are these:

1) Don’t Fence Yourself In: Don’t enter the salary negotiation too early. Save it till you know you are a serious contender. Somewhere in there, the HR person or recruiter will tell you what the compensation might be. If it’s too low, hold on till you find out more before deciding to walk away. Or they might ask what your current compensation is. If they ask what you are currently making, tell them on what you would like to make to focus them on where you want to be.

2) Be Honest and Accurate: DO NOT LIE on your resume. It’s a very ugly thing to do. (My point is completely different from the article’s, but still good advice.) Many years ago people would lie and say they went to Harvard. BAD idea. My friend worked at Transamerica as a temp in the PR department when an executive’s bogus resume was uncovered. Let’s just say he and I went to a long lunch that day so he could avoid the flak flying on the executive floor. Bottom line. Be honest.

3) Look at the Big Picture/Focus on Career Goals: These are really the same thing and tie back to #1. Your compensation is not the only reason to take a job. Trust me. I’ve been there. I’ve taken jobs to learn new skills. I went from a $55K/yr job in equity research to a $17K/yr job as a IT helpdesk technician. Yes, that totally sucked. But in the end, I am now well compensated as an Oracle database monkey and I wouldn’t have gotten here without that first entry-level IT job. (And I was 26 at the time.)

I have also moved jobs to get out of hellholes and taking only a blip in salary increases just to get out and get out fast. Because I was not focused on a long-term career goal but only the money and escaping, I didn’t like that job very much either. So take the time to really figure out what job you want next.

4) Timing Is Crucial: While the article ties back to being honest throughout the process, I find that if you’re always a straight-shooter, this isn’t going to be a problem for you. But I also live by Veritas vos liberabit. “The truth will set you free.”

Another way that timing is crucial is that while the time is not right now, it might right in the future. When I first moved to California, I took a job at UC Berkeley. While I was there, I got a call from someone about a job working in the semiconductor industry. They had received my resume from a referral and wanted to interview me. As I had just taken the post at UCB, I wasn’t interested in another opportunity. A few months later, as the Dean of our School was resigning, my department was on thin ice without our champion, so I decided it might be a good time to go and take a job within San Francisco. (The $40-60 monthly commuting cost didn’t help either.) The lady who had called me months before was still looking for someone and called me a second time. This time, because circumstances had changed, I was open to talking with her. So timing is crucial. Keep that in mind when you are in the job hunt. You might still be a great fit at a later date.

I hope everyone out there who is looking for a job gets one soon! Graduation season is coming to a close and jobs are starting soon. Those student loan bills aren’t going to wait much longer. If I recall correctly, my first ones were due in November after my May graduation.

Good luck if you’re looking for a new gig!

A long time ago, I wrote a Nalgene bottle post. I love that post because I *heart* Nalgene bottles.

This month, I have a new reason to love Nalgene bottles. I go car camping a few weekends a year. I usually don’t have to buy a lot of extra food, but I like taking things like soy sauce or balsamic vinegar with me just to add a little zing to things like instant cous cous. Camper food can be hit or miss so I like to bring instant foods I know I enjoy, plus I only have to boil water in a kettle instead of actually cook. But I digress.

Let me first put a disclaimer here. My website is not sponsored by Nalgene or its parent company. But I wish it was! You’re about to read more wonderful uses of Nalgene bottles. AND they sell replacement caps for their products so you can be frugally minded about using their stuff. (How cool is that?)
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OMG! KAWAII!

I am going to enter the Personal Finance Haiku contest at Make Your Nut.

Though traditionally it’s a 17-syllable poem of three lines 5-7-5 syllable count, in Japanese culture class, Kaneko-san told us that haiku is about “the moment”. It’s evoking a feeling in the reader.

So please look for an entry or two from me later this week.