Since I’ve been feeling awful, and had no desire to edit anything this week, I thought I’d answer our own questions for once. So this Monday we’re interviewing Andi B. from Modern Tightwad. After reading our interview, be sure to check out some of our favorite posts from this week around the Yakezie network (at the bottom of the post).
1. What blog/website do you read most often?
I love reading Budgets are Sexy, Financially Poor, I Pick Up Pennies, just to name a few. When I’m feeling like a glutton for punishment I read a little bit of TMZ or People.
2. What made you start writing? Particularly in personal finance?
I’ve been writing since I was little. I remember when I was eight years old a family friend gave me a blank notebook to write poetry. My literary obsession reared its ugly head again writing for the school newsletter in middle school, and again in college when I wrote for, and eventually became editor of, our award-winning college paper.
Eventually I started reading a blog that has since been deleted due to the writer being “outed” at work. I looked at blogs as a way to be accountable, and then as a way to share my crazy lifestyle with other people…except after the recession, my lifestyle wasn’t so “crazy” anymore.
3. What is your favorite post that you’ve written and why?
I like the ones about my great-grandparents in MT Tip: Live Like It’s 1939, and it’s corresponding oops edition. I had an immense amount of respect for my family and was please to discuss how they have influenced my life.
4. How do you feel about frugality in today’s society?
I think it’s a full-time job that most people just aren’t willing to work at. I do believe that frugality offers a type of freedom because it trains you to live within your means. If you don’t need to spend as much money, you don’t need to make as much money. For some people, living on less can be a great stress reliever.
5. Do you have a favorite cheap eat to share?
Plan your bad days. I try to keep some pre-packaged or ready-to-eat meals in the freezer that I buy on sale. I also rotate a few restaurants that we know have inexpensive meals or happy hours into our meal plans. I get exhausted like everyone else, but by planning a bit in advance, I don’t beat myself up when I look in the bank account.
6. Do you have a favorite money saving tip or practice that you use?
Don’t give the IRS any money they don’t need. I know a lot of people who have way too much pulled out of their taxes. I think it makes more sense to reduce your withholding, but have that same amount automatically transferred to a savings account. You still never see it to touch it, but you get the interest on your money.
7. Looking back on your financial life, if you had to do it all over again, is there any one thing you’d like to do over? Or one thing you believe was a pivotal moment?
I wouldn’t do anything different, because I’m not sure that I wouldn’t be here, in feetie pajamas, with my puppy at my feet and my husband next to me. Those two individuals are worth whatever stupidity I had in the past. Getting a student loan was most certainly my pivotal moment because I’d never carried a balance until that moment. After that, I felt like, “I’m already in debt so what does it matter?”
8. And just for fun, if you could be any superhero based on their alter ego, what would you be? (Because we all know Peter Parker and Clark Kent spent more time as themselves than walking around as superheroes.)
I would’ve been Jamie Summers, the Bionic Woman. Getting to teach kids all day, and then cavorting with Steve Austin at night? Sign me up!
For other good reading around the network, check out:
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Thanks for inluding me in your roundup!