Rainy Day Pennies | Debt Free Living and Personal Finance

How to Make Time without being a Superhero

A frequent phrase I hear from friends and coworkers is, “I would like to do <blank>, but I don’t have enough time.” Some of the items for <blank> are as follows: exercise lose weight cook meals at home do another task at work find a new job learn to write computer programs travel I assure [...]

A Spending Statement from the Past

The other night, I went through my filing cabinet looking for tax documents. I found an interesting item from my past instead: a credit card statement of my former spending habits. In glaring detail, it is evidence of a spending spree that would eventually lead me to the lowest point in my life. The [...]

Save Money at Restaurants (And Lose Weight!)

One of the main trouble areas that contributed to my debt and weight gain was restaurants. I didn’t cook at home, and I ate out at every meal. McDonalds for breakfast, Burger King for lunch, and Applebee’s for dinner. I didn’t realize that an average American restaurant portion is 2-3 times larger than it should [...]

Rainy Day Fund Saves My Bacon Again in 2009

One of the recurring topics I write about is the many ways a “rainy day” or “emergency fund” has saved my bacon. It helped me get out of debt. It’s now helped me stay out of debt. I finished paying off $35,000 worth of consumer debt in April 2008. Since that time to present, I [...]

Working on it! (Forgive me!)

I know I know, I promised new posts and I’m late. I do have topics. This has been a very rough year, but I’m still debt free and have some insights to share with you. We’ll chat soon!

Luxury for Less: Pedicures

I read an article from Time recently about ways people are cutting back during this economic downturn: 10 Big Recession Surprises. One of the benchmarks of a recession is lipstick sales, strangely enough. During wallet tightening cycles, women buy fewer designer cosmetics, but more lipstick. Lipstick is an inexpensive cosmetic luxury women feel they can [...]

First Quarter 2009 Rainy Day Funds Assessment

The start of 2009 was rough. I’ve tapped into my emergency fund several times due to unexpected events. 1. My company is indirectly hurt by the instability in the financial sector. Thus, many of us took a paycut. I took a 7.5% paycut. Impact: Disappointed, but my goals are marginally affected. I can still meet [...]

Flu Prevention: Wash Your Hands!

The big thing in the news right now is the swine flu. What’s the big deal, you might ask? The first thing to know is the flu is always a serious illness. Pneumonia complication from a flu is the 8th leading cause of death in the industrialized world. If you’ve ever had a stuffy, running [...]

Philanthropy in Tough Times

Give a hungry man a fish, you have fed him for a day. Teach a hungry man to fish, you have fed him for a lifetime. – Proverb I won’t deny it. I wouldn’t mind being a millionaire. But I do not want to sell my soul to do it. I do not want to [...]

A Tale of the American Car Company

My family was the poster child of the “Made in USA” label. My father and grandfather were both mechanics that fed, clothed, and provided education for their families by being indirectly employed by the American car companies. My uncle was a journeyman at General Motors in the 1990s. The first cars I remember were my [...]