Category: Spending

I Don’t Regret Spending $7,000 On A Plane Ticket

by A Purple Life, posted in Musings, Spending, Travel

Now hold on! Hear me out. My Mom came to Seattle for my birthday and we started talking about money – as usual 🙂 . My favorite. My partner commented that while his values and spending have never really changed – mine have. And he cited as as example me spending $7,000 for a $21,000 roundtrip First Class ticket on the luxury airline Emirates to the Maldives while in my second year in NYC. While we were talking I realized something shocking: I don’t regret buying that plane ticket. Despite it being 35% of my current budget I don’t regret what I did. Let’s go back in time and investigate why. Continue reading “I Don’t Regret Spending $7,000 On A Plane Ticket” →

Am I A Minimalist?

by A Purple Life, posted in Musings, Spending

I had lunch with a colleague recently. We don’t know each other well and during our conversation she just casually said “well you’re a minimalist so..” and I’m like “I am?!?!” This came up while we were talking about my latest trip where I worked from my parent’s house on the east coast. I had left straight from the work summer party and someone had asked where my luggage was. I pointed to my regular backpack and explained that I can just borrow my Mom’s clothing because we’re the same size. This colleague considered me a minimalist because I didn’t have a lot of luggage. I explained that I just don’t like to carry a lot of things. I’m not a minimalist, I’m lazy. Continue reading “Am I A Minimalist?” →

Breaking The Unofficial Beauty Ban

by A Purple Life, posted in Musings, Spending

It’s been 3 years since I’ve had any type of salon, beauty maintenance. Prior to that I would have my eyebrows plucked every month or so and hair cuts whenever things got out of hand. When I got into financial independence I started cutting all unnecessary expenses and as a result started doing these things myself. I didn’t see the point anymore despite my eyebrows costing maybe $40 a year and hair $50 every few years. It was still wasted money. Instead I started just plucking my eyebrows when they got unruly and cutting my hair a little when the ends looks raggedy. I’m lucky it’s hard to see weird cuts in curly hair 🙂 . Continue reading “Breaking The Unofficial Beauty Ban” →

A $30 Phone and That New Gadget Feeling

by A Purple Life, posted in Musings, Spending

When I find a product or company that I love I’m all about representing it. If someone asks for my advice, I tell them. When my partner’s brother and wife asked about our cheap phone plans I recommended Republic Wireless. However, apparently there is a large difference in service that we receive in the middle of a metropolis and that they receive in their 2,000 person rural town. I was sad to learn that they had infinite problems with the service and later their phones. In the end they moved and I feel like I failed them :(. However, I now have an additional data point to add to my recommendation. They might be my only friends that live in a rural area, but it’s good to know the limitations of companies I recommend. Continue reading “A $30 Phone and That New Gadget Feeling” →

How I Learned About the Used Economy

by A Purple Life, posted in Finance, Musings, Spending

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). Continue reading “How I Learned About the Used Economy” →

Shocker: I Don’t Love Going Out Anymore

by A Purple Life, posted in Finance, Food, Musings, Spending

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 Frugalwoods Uber Frugal Challenge where I severely cut down on eating out. I ended up only eating outside food twice for a total of $12.34: A friend lunch date at Chipotle (my suggestion 🙂 ) and a take out burger on 1/2 priced Wednesdays. Luckily this was the same month I started eating low-carb and as a result discovered that butter and cheese make anything delicious 🙂 . Continue reading “Shocker: I Don’t Love Going Out Anymore” →

Lessons Learned from My Mom

by A Purple Life, posted in Musings, Spending

When I look around I can tell that I’m different from other people. Some have even told me so. I’m not sure if they meant it as an insult, but I didn’t take it that way. When I look around even a less consumer city (compared to NYC) like Seattle I see people in name brand coats with name brand bags wearing the same name brand boots. They like to talk about the other name brand things they are planning to buy while decked out daily in jewelry and make up. Continue reading “Lessons Learned from My Mom” →