Rant and Rave: Baby, It’s Cold Outside

Rant:

I hate the cold.

HATE IT.

As a very petite lady, I seem to suf­fer from cold more than every­one else. Any time the weath­er dips below 50 degrees F out­side, I can be found hud­dled in a hood­ie under mul­ti­ple lay­ers of blankets.

Last week­end, the weath­er got up into the 50’s. Peo­ple were out wash­ing their cars, run­ning, walk­ing their dogs.… it was great. Until 36 hours lat­er when the temps dropped and we got lots of snow. And then bit­ter­ly cold weath­er. And then lots of wind with some snow and even more cold. Why am I liv­ing some­where it hurts to breathe?

The air is also very dry, so I was forced to go out and get a humid­i­fi­er. I’m not sure how I ever lived with­out it. They’re amaz­ing machines!

On the bright side, I pay a LOT less in util­i­ty costs. Last mon­th’s bill was $45 for the top floor of a new apart­ment build­ing. Last year, I paid $220 for gas/electric, plus more for water. That was for a 1940’s house with very poor insu­la­tion, cracked win­dows that would­n’t lock and doors with no weath­er strip­ping. So even though I’m con­stant­ly cold, at least I’m not also cold AND pay­ing a lot of mon­ey for it.

Good thing is Punx­sutawney Phil did­n’t see his shad­ow, so spring is just a few short weeks away! I can’t wait get my warm weath­er clothes out again.

Rave:

I’ve been hit­ting some mile­stones with the blog late­ly and want­ed to share! Today, Twit­ter let me know I have 25 fol­low­ers. It might not seem like a big deal, but that means I have as many fol­low­ers as I fol­low accounts!

Also, I was recent­ly men­tioned in an arti­cle Jim Collins wrote about the upcom­ing trip to Ecuador for the 2016 Chau­tauquas. If you came here from his blog, Wel­come! I’ve seen a big boost in dai­ly views since then, so it’s nice to know I’m not just shout­ing at a brick wall anymore.

I’ve also decid­ed to start ramp­ing up things relat­ed to the blog. So, this year, I’ll be going to Fin­Con! I’m real­ly look­ing for­ward to meet­ing more FI blog­gers and what bet­ter place to do that a con­fer­ence specif­i­cal­ly aimed at finan­cial blog­gers!? If you’re going to Fin­Con, be sure to shoot me a mes­sage and meet up!

I’ll also be attend­ing Camp Mus­tache this year in Seat­tle. Paula from Affor­dAny­thing, Mr. Mon­ey Mus­tache (of course) and Bran­don From Mad Fien­tist will be there. I can’t wait to team up again with Paula and MMM and I’m incred­i­bly excit­ed about meet­ing Bran­don and get­ting to pick his brain. I believe tick­ets are already sold out, but if you’re eager to go, sign up for the wait­ing list and some­one might drop out.

I’d hearti­ly rec­om­mend going to the Chau­tauqua in Ecuador with Cheryl Reed. This year, it’s being held in Novem­ber over the first few weeks. I’m unable to attend since I’ve already com­mit­ted to a dif­fer­ent inter­na­tion­al trip this year. I had the best time ever last year and sin­cere­ly wish I was able to go again. Maybe next year!

Some­one on the Red­dit /r/financialindependence sub asked if any­one else had gone to a MMM meet up. They were wor­ried about not being “FI” enough. Let me tell you, there’s no such thing. No one will judge you if you eat cere­al for break­fast instead of oat­meal, or dri­ve your car to get to the gro­cery store. The fact that you’re inter­est­ed in FI, and try­ing, is enough. Every­one has a dif­fer­ent path to FI and there’s no one “right way”. If any­one tries to sell you the “right way” RUN! The FI peo­ple I’ve met so far have been incred­i­bly kind and very sup­port­ing. Who does­n’t need a bit more of that in their life?

How has your life been going? Do you have a rant or a rave to share?