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.

i’m wordpress famous!

chances are if you are visiting my blog today, it’s because you got here from the wordpress.com landing page. you know, the one with the “freshly pressed” section where a random selection of blogs with provocative or interesting articles get a little pimp every few days? well, in case you’re in the 1% of my regular readers who didn’t wander here via the wordpress train, I AM ON THAT SHIT RIGHT NOW! (and i’m totally peeing my pants about it).

it’s funny actually, because a few weeks ago, i read an article entitled “5 ways to get featured on freshly pressed“. and i was all like “hell yeah i wanna be on freshly pressed”, what do i need to do? apparently, the answer was something about no typos and no adult content. considering that my blog is written entirely in lowercase, and is riddled (and i do mean RIDDLED) with profanity, i figured my chances of being picked were pretty much slim to none (leaning toward the none side). apparently, i was wrong. all i needed to do was write an inflammatory article about not paying for the education of my imaginary future children.

as it turns out, a lot of people have A LOT to say on the subject (some people’s responses were longer than my post!). at 62 comments and counting, i’m feeling completely overwhelmed (in an awesome way) by the response, but even more shocked that the majority of it has been positive. ok, one guy called me an idiot, and another person told me that my uneducated daughters would grow up to be whores (hand to god, you can not make this shit up), but mostly i was feeling the solidarity of so many people who just wished that they had put the secondary education on pause for a minute while they did some growing up.

i have every intention of answering all 62+ of those comments as completely and thoughtfully as i can. that said, it will probably take me a while.  so while you wait, in the absence of any neil diamondesque elevator music, please just accept my humble thanks for coming to visit and bothering to have anything to say (good or bad) about my insane ramblings (or if my thanks isn’t enough to keep you busy, maybe you can go look at this for a while). this has been the best blog day ever.