Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

But you might have guessed that already as a regular reader.

Via Escape Brooklyn, it’s official. I scored a 17 on the Time Out New York quiz.

I took this quiz about being cheap at timeoutnewyork.com/livecheap, and my cheapness quotient rated as 17.

Here’s what they said:
Finally! A sane person. You’re careful with your money, but never cheap. You know that what goes around comes around and that a thank-you goes a long way.

Try the quiz and let me know how you score:
Cheap Quiz

Alrighty. I am dragging this post out of my draft archives. I wrote it a really long time ago. But since Plonkee tagged me to write about if I was debt free.

You have to understand though that this is just some homesickness on my part more than it is about debt.

If you asked me what my financial life would be like, this would be easier on me emotionally.

1) I’d max out my 401k Contributions again.
2) I’d save for a Roth IRA.
3) I’d bulk up my emergency/get out of DC fund.
4) I’d get laser surgery on my vision. (Which still might happen! I’m going to refurb this body before I turn 40 dammit.)

But here’s the original post I had written. Reading it serves nothing but to make me sad, which I suppose is why I hadn’t posted it last spring when I wrote it.

(more…)

Unless it’s over a beer. But really, all you need to know about me is already in this blog.

I’ve played the game before, so any new meme tagging for tidbits about me will be ignored. Sorry Kay, TMac, Juan Million. I won’t do it.

Alrighty reposting all you want to know:

100 Things

Another 5 Things

ENOUGH. That’s it. Nada. No More. BASTA.

Hello and welcome to readers of Grad Money Matters!

ISPF posted in reply to my tag on living frugally, including my old post on the same subject. I appreciate your stopping by here.

There is a round-up post that includes some other compilations of tips that was left off of ISPF’s post. You might like those as well.

New readers can subscribe to my feed.

I’m so sorry that my site 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 and welcome!

#1: I am disliking CleverDude for tagging me for this meme. to Mike.
#2: Mike rocks because he helped me bring down my motorcycle.
#3: I am at work.
#4: I am coding some SQL today and it is taking a long time.
#5: I <3 one of my Indian developers. He ran a great requirements meeting today. Every meeting should be as effective and efficient.
#6: I hate the new iPhone.
#7: I hate camera phones or phones that play music. I want my old StarTac back.
#8: I love silence. I am getting lots of work done today except when Mike pesters me to participate in his meme.

No. I refuse to tag anyone else. But if I had to pick people. I’d pick on:
English Major Money
HC of One Big Mortar Board
Tmac of My Financial Odyssey
Beachgirl from Beachgirl’s Budget Blog
Coddleshell
Sun from The Sun’s Financial Diary
Moominoid from Moomin Valley
Debt Hater

Curse you kids at Make Love Not Debt! *shakes fist*

My obsessions? Well, one of them is really obvious since I have a whole blog devoted to it.

The next four? Hm. Narrowing down to four? This is going to be tough. I wrote this post, then decided I sounded like a weirdo and changed almost all of the next four. The other thing is that I’m not really obsessed with these things. I could definitely live without them. That’s how I know I don’t have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

Obsession #2 - My blog. I love checking stats like Clever Dude.

Obsession #3 - Blue ink. I must have blue ink pens. Other colors are ok, but I have a strong preference for it. I think it’s because I loved Bic STIC Medium pens in school.

Obsession #4 - Scratching the itch. I keep my nails long so I can get that itch. I bite my nails too sometimes, but I also like manicuring them. (Frugally! At home! Most of the time…)

Obsession #5 - I hinted at this before. Even English Major does it. I like to listen to the same song over and over again. Yesterday it was VNV Nation’s Judgement CD, Track 8, Illusion. For a solid hour on repeat till the headphones squished my brain too much. (There is a sound clip available at the Amazon.com link.)

Gah. I hate you people. I got tagged by Golbguru and LAMoneyGuy.

I already did 100 Things About Me. Wasn’t that enough?! FIVE MORE? Sheesh.

Ok. 5 more. But THIS IS THE LAST TIME. I mean it.

1. I am currently experiencing a crush on a Cary Grant lookalike. When he told me yesterday evening that I am a lovely dinner hostess, I just about died.

2. I hate computers. No really. I do. It’s a medium that separates us from one another, as much as it lets us maintain a fantastic virtual community. (Yay PF Blogging!)

3. I am about as subtle as a sledgehammer. I am blunt and direct. Read above. ‘I hate you people.’ Who says that?
4. When I get a vaccine or have blood drawn, I always look away when they do the first stick. After that, it doesn’t bother me to see something sticking out of my arm, even if it’s blood squirting into a tube violently. Because it really does squirt a lot when the phlebotomist hits the right vein.
5. I am an attention-whore. I may appear at first to be shy and retiring, but secretly I love it when everyone is watching me be funny, tell a joke, etc. I’m the life of the party dammit.

6. I am tempted to write lies now that I am doing this meme. I wonder how insanely wild my lies could get. That could be another meme.

There. I give you six. That should stave off any further requests. If anyone else wants to know more about me, they can meet me in person. Jim at Blueprint and SingleMa expressed an interest, and I believe Donna Jean did as well. Ooh. Wait. I think I just tagged three of them to do this meme. Now I have to find two more in the DC area to do it.

Assets & Liabilities! I tag you!

Now I only need one more! The Almighty Dollar appears defunct, so I’m going to need some help finding the 5th one… Oh wait… I think Punny Money is in MD!