boys against girls.

so i’ve been enjoying a couple of new finance blogs lately: punch debt in the face and financial samurai, and i’m starting to notice a pattern. go figure, men and women blog about money differently. which is not to say that there aren’t many shades of finance blogging, but these guys are definitely a good representative sample of what’s going on in the boys club.

1. one calls himself a ninja, the other a samurai. debt is the supervillain, and these guys fancy themselves vigilante supermen ready to eradicate the enemy with whatever force necessary. to female bloggers on the other hand, debt is an unfortunate neighbor that they accidentally invited over for tea. they are more likely to want to reason with debt, or at least tastefully let debt know that it’s no longer invited to the party.

2. this is a competition, and they will cut your ass to win. male finance bloggers are not just brutally attacking the debt and racing toward the nebulous concept of wealth, they want to do it harder and faster than anyone else. and what is up with this yakezie challenge*?  as if the goal of reducing debt isn’t enough, they needed to invent and additional contest where they can measure themselves against their brethren (why not just whip it out already?). it’s funny, you’ll rarely hear a female frugal blogger spout off about “getting rich”. their goals tend to be personal, internal (afford to stay home with my children, live without the stress and shame of debt, buy a first home). they may have an equal enthusiasm for financial freedom, but the trip toward the milestone is less of a race and more of a journey. kind of like a vision quest, but with coupons.

3. there is no crying in debt reduction. you will never hear a male finance blogger lament about the hot pair of discount louboutins that he broke down and bought in a moment of weakness.  they’re too busy attacking their debt like wolverines on a carcass to get sidetracked by shiny baubles.  but whether they have financial meltdowns or not, you are unlikely to hear them discuss it. women do tend to be more emotional in recounting their affairs- financial or otherwise, and more likely to focus on their failures and struggles. menfolk on the other hand are more likely to shine the spotlight on their successes. it’s all about the bragging rights in the land of the xy chromosomes.

4. they’ve got something in their truck that will fix that up like new. male finance bloggers fancy themselves problem solvers. if they used 2 ninja stars and a taser** to take down their debt, then they’re going to detail how you can do exactly the same thing. in their minds, they’ve unlocked the secret formula, and want to share it with the universe. the ladies don’t want to instruct, they want to discuss. possibly over herbal tea. it’s more about exploring and workshopping than it is about showing and telling, while the men just want to convert everyone to their new found religion.  in short, female finance bloggers are talk show hosts, male finance bloggers are evangelists.

5. they’ve got a mouth on them. the majority of female finance bloggers rarely swear or say something really inflammatory, whereas the men are more than willing to be all up into your face. there is a fearless quality (also a marginally obnoxious quality) about the kind of person who will say anything- no matter how offensive. although there is also a classiness (and agitating piety) about a  person who doesn’t need to resort to profanity to make their point.

now it’s late, and these are very broad strokes, but just like that time i realized that i’m one of the few crazy coupon ladies out there without a sexy cartoon avatar… the patterns do exist, and i’m ok with that. i find things to enjoy (and to enjoy hating) about both the yin and the yang. and then there are guys like me who fall somewhere in the middle, where i sulk about my shopping binges, and then make dick jokes all in the same breath. see, something for everyone.

*i would join your challenge, but i HATE your logo, and don’t want it on my website.

**i am aware that no self respecting ninja or samurai would use an electric device like a taser to take down an enemy, i merely wanted to make a taser joke.

pre-baking day musings.

i’ve come a long way grocery-budget wise. just about one year ago, i was routinely spending $80 dollars a week on designer groceries and random produce that rotted quietly away in my fridge while i went out to eat instead of cooking. now, i’ve whittled my grocery budget down to $30ish a week, plan a weeks worth of meals in advance, cook often, and generally eat dinner out no more than twice a week. if i never got any better at food management/economics, i could probably still be pretty satisfied, but i demand more! one of the great things about having a blog is using it as an excuse/inspiration to experiment with my life. thus, baking day.

i first heard tell of such things from one of my favorite websites, money saving mom, although it seems like everybody (like her, her, and her) is doing it. basically, plan the majority of your meals a month in advance, and cook and freeze everything in one day. it seems like such a good idea, but she has a christian home school family of 5 to feed- would the same principals be able to apply to my heathen living-in-sin family of two? i think they can, and here’s why.

i’m always busy with something, and i’m not always in the mood to cook when i get home from work. this is why the produce goes bad- because i don’t make whatever it is i bought it for on the designated day, and then i just forget about it. oops.

you might ask (assuming that you are not someone who believes that it is the woman’s job to do the cooking), why can’t your boyfriend make dinner?  well, that would be because my boyfriend is a shitty cook. he grew up with lousy food, and thus he only knows how to prepare lousy food. bland, mushy, overy sweet, crap food. and barely! usually when i leave him on his own for the evening, i come home and he has eaten something like “whiskey & granola bars” or “stale doritos and egg nog” (no foolin) for dinner. the truth is that he would cook more if i would let him, but he hates to cook and sucks at it. i love to cook and am good at it- i just need like 2 extra hours in my day to get it all in.

anyway, that’s where baking day comes in. i dedicate one entire weekend day to putting a bunch of meals in the freezer, and all i (or the epicurially challenged boyfriend) need to do is heat them up (and possibly prepare some vegetables).  my goals for the month of january are simple:

1. prepare 16 dinner meals (4 per week).

2. go out to eat for dinner a maximum of twice per week.

3. eat convenience foods once per week or less.

i still plan on going shopping weekly, but just for perishables.

sometime between now and new year’s weekend, i just need to figure out what exactly it is i’m going to make, exactly what it is i’m going to buy, how i can pay as little as possible for those groceries, and how it’s all going to roll out.

all i know is that if these amazing people can live off $1 a day, i can certainly trim a little more out of my grocery budget.