I’ve highlighted one post for each month in 2008. This is kind of late because I wasn’t going to do a “best of” post but since my readership grew quite a bit last year most of you probably haven’t seen these posts and I’m too lazy to write an original post today you’re getting a “best of” post.
- January- A Sample $1000 Monthly Budget
This should provide people a guideline of how it is possible to live on a small amount. - February- Concentrate on the Big Three Cut your big expenses before you worry about the little expenses.
- March- How I lived for 3 Months on $450 The title explains what this is about. This post was stumbled and got a lot of views but not too many comments.
- April- Bloggers Who Disclose Their Income Many bloggers disclose their net worth but not many disclose their income.
- May- Five Crazy Things I’ve Done to Save Money There are a lot more than five.
- June- Living in a Van Down by the River
My most popular post ever. Since I moved in with my GF this isn’t likely to happen though. My GF thinks that living in a house with her rather than in a van by myself shouldn’t have been a difficult decision. - July-More on Food Stamps This was a follow-up post to My Food Stamp Experience and was featured on MSN. These are some of my most commented on posts and I still receive comments on them now.
- August- I Can Drive 55 Slowing down can save you gas and money. Now I save even more money by not having a car.
- September-My Plan to Retire at 50 This plan still needs work but I’m making progress towards my goal and I still believe it is achievable.
- October- My Identity Theft Experience It wasn’t that big of a deal for me.
- November- A $500 a Month Retirement Budget This is a little extreme but I think it would be workable for me if health insurance costs stayed reasonable.
- December- I’m Now Car Free This should save me a lot of money in 2009.
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The food stamps discussion is interesting. I’m nowhere close to getting food stamps from a financial perspective, and yet my monthly grocery bill is around $260. I don’t typically use coupons, and don’t skimp at all, though I do buy on sale and stock up (a little) when I can. I eat very healthy, lots of fruits, berries, vegetables, legumes and brown rice, some meat and fish, etc. However, due to a really busy work schedule, I know very well that I could save significantly more if I cooked all week (or enough for all week) all the time. All this to say, I find it unbelievable that one person and one baby have any real issues stretching $260 a month as long as they have access to a stove/microwave, etc. And this girl is going to culinary school, so presumably she’s actually living somewhere normal. She also gets over $60 a month in WIC for milk and baby products. To me, food stamps programs are so that you don’t starve and have just enough to maintain health, not excess and not every little thing to eat your heart desires without having to do any thinking or budgeting or planning. People who think they should get whatever they want to eat whenever they want to eat it on the taxpayer dime tend to irk me.
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