Can I take this moment to tell you I’m doing pretty well? Since starting this blog I’ve upped my net worth a bit. I am paying down my debts. I am spending less on frivolous purchases and better controlling my urges to splurge. I have not bought any clothes, even though I’m kind of sick [...]
The Broke Yuppie
trudging slowly toward solvency.
Author Archives: Erin
Dealing with student debt: Forbearance and Deferment
So it happened: the dreaded day when my student loans all entered repayment. I was slammed with a $544 bill from one of my lenders - a third of my take-home monthly salary. Last weekend I applied for a consolidation loan from the U.S. Department of Ed., but have yet to receive that loan. I [...]
The car wash is a lie
The older, wiser and poorer I’ve grown, the more I’ve come to believe that many of the “convenient, time-saving” habits adopted by older generations of yuppies are nothing but lazy, resource-guzzling, ass-fattening wastes of time and money.
Case in point: Taking your car to the car wash vs. washing your car yourself.
When I was a very [...]
Dealing with student debt: Consolidation
The student-loan bills keep rolling in. Week after week, month after month, loan after loan - they seem endless.
I accumulated nine separate student loans during my academic career, and many of them are on different billing schedules with different monthly payments and different interest rates. I owe money on at least one of them almost [...]
Dealing with student debt: Student loans, defined
Let’s start with the basics: Which loans are available to graduate students, and how much you should expect to pay for them once you’ve finished school.
I’m not going to spend any time telling you how to get the loans. The Internet is overflowing with information on how to saddle yourself with student debt, so if [...]
More ways to reduce the heat
It’s 81 and sunny outside, but I’m feeling quite cozy in my apartment, even though it’s 4 p.m. - the hottest part of the day.
During the week I’ve learned some more heat-reducing tips that I think will help save me and my cat from heat stroke this summer. They are:
Close those gaps: Inspect all your [...]
Introducing: Uncomfortable calculations
Three days into the AC Experiment, I’m sitting in a cozy, well-ventilated room enjoying the fresh evening air flowing through my open windows. My cat seems comfy, too, sprawled along the windowsill, staring at the people mulling in the parking lot of the laundromat across the street. It’s a pleasant night - perfect for open [...]
Highs in the 80s, and I have no air conditioner
It’s a new month, so it’s time for a new experiment. Last month the task at hand was to track my expenses and then analyze them with the goal of creating a budget. This I did with moderate success.
This month, the test will be one of will, physics and heat tolerance.
It’s getting hot in my [...]
Why October scares me. (It has nothing to do with Halloween.)
The main source of my financial woes is the more than $55,000 of student-loan debt, the majority of it from grad school, that I must pay off bit by bit each month.
I finished grad school in December, and since then the loan companies have started demanding that I repay them. First the smallish private loans [...]
I have no idea what I bought last week
Dammit. I failed at the final week of Experiment No. 1. Chock it up to laziness or busy-ness or just plain lack of will, whatever the reason, I’m not sure how much money I spent in the last few days or what I spent it on.
What I’ll do to make up for this egregious error [...]