WARNING: If you don’t want to hear about blood you will not like this story 🙂
I’ve been known to do a few weird things to save money. The most recent one involved bleeding all over our living room. I was perusing the website for my new health insurance (through my job) and noticed something awesome: they offer $100 if I get a blood test and health assessment. To combat my laziness they even send it right to your home. Hmm! Not only did I want the money, but I was also was curious. I have very small veins (there’s your weird fact for the day!) and people literally can’t take my blood. Even the…blood professionals…is that what they’re called? I haven’t had my blood successfully taken since I was in high school and as a result I have no idea what’s going on in there. Continue reading “Literal Blood Money”
World record! I maxed my 401K and Roth IRA in 4 months. The last time I took up the max your 401K challenge it took me 6 months. Improvement! It’s crazy what two years, a cross-country move and a 52% increase in salary can do. Now to the next challenge: Pouring as much money as possible into my taxable account. Let’s do this!
In response to my
I’m going to tell you a story that my Mom doesn’t remember and denies it to this day. I remember vividly and wrote it down because it’s so ridiculous. This is how I learned about the used economy. I love reading. I’ve mentioned that before. Before the age of easily accessible internet the other outlet I had for this was books – from bookstores (because my mom and grama think library books are “dirty”, but we’ll talk about that and my love of libraries as an adult at another time). 
I got my paycheck last night. It included a bonus. A bigger bonus than I anticipated. All of my concern that I didn’t feel excitement when I heard people get their bonuses unless they’re on an improvement plan completely faded away because I am PUMPED! I know lots of job search disappointments and life disappointments have conditioned me to not believe something until I see it, until it’s in my hand. And I think that’s what happened here. I didn’t believe I would get a bonus. I didn’t necessarily believe that new HR person knew what she was talking about. I didn’t necessarily believe that bonus was a part of my compensation package. But it is. And updating my spreadsheets last night was glorious. 
I used to eat out several times a week. If someone suggested it I was always down (unless it was near the end of the month and I’d run out of budget…). In January I did the 