The Birth of a Blogger

Well, I did have the "dots" template on this blog, but it made me want to shop online at Target (aren't subliminal cues great?) so now I'm in plain white. In 2005, I was debt free (other than some pretty big student loans). I was feeling so free & easy that I set up housekeeping for my first apartment using my credit card and paid off a few thousand dollars of student debt. Turns out I should have done one or the other as I then had credit card debt.

I borrowed money from my grandfather to pay off the high interest credit card debts and successfully paid him back, all $3,000 . However, 2006 came around with a juicy tax rebate of $1800. What would I do with the money? I had never been out of the country so with student debt out of sight and out of mind, I bought a ticket to London & France.

I went to Europe with some friends and had the time of my life. However, our travel plans were nearly sunk by a huge snow storm, so instead of waiting in New Jersey for 3 precious days of our trip, we chose to fly into another part of the UK and take the train to London. Continental originally told us that the train may be covered, but has since denied my claim.

On top of that, London was much more expensive than I thought it would be. I knew the dollar was weak, but (incorrectly) assumed that the prices would be lower to compensate a little. They were nothing if not higher! I ate pasties the entire time to save money, stayed in hostels, skipped seeing Stonehenge, and nearly got knifed in a less savory part of town, looking for a good deal (another story completely). In France, we took more precautions, having learned our lesson in England. Anyway, point of paragraph: tried to conserve money, but is $$$ (and my travel partner still owes me the $98 he borrowed)

So, the point of this blog will be to keep a log of what I buy, how much I spend, and how much I make/job related decisions. I am notorious for not keeping track of my finances, not to the point that I am charged for overdrafts, but enough so that I wonder where my money has gone. Also, I am a plastic addict, everything goes on the credit card. This was fine when I paid it off completely every month, but now that I'm carrying a balance, not so great. Feel free to offer financial advice as I am a fresh-out-of-college complete finance novice.