Blogging Away Debt

I’m not the kind of girl that melts over fancy jewelry. Sure, I love my grandmother’s diamonds and my mother’s garnets, but that has nothing to do with the stones and everything to do with the fact that I love my grandmother and my mother and the jewelry reminds me of them. Even when I wasn’t dedicated to digging out of debt, I didn’t buy expensive jewelry.

Diamonds are the one thing you can fake. I can’t fake a house or a car, but I sure can wear a cubic zirconia ring that looks an awful lot like the real thing – and I do.

Of course, there is a problem…

The town near ours holds a street fair every Christmas. At this fair, one of the antiques dealers sells replica antique rings for $29. Over the years, I’ve acquired two rings from his booth. Without fail, whenever I wear the rings, someone compliments them and asks two questions…

1: Is it an antique?
2: Is it real?

Obviously, saying, ‘Nah, it’s a cheap knock-off I bought from a street gypsy who sold it to me in a tasteful paper sack held together by scotch tape’ isn’t the answer I want to give.

It’s bad enough I air my financial dirty laundry here, do I have to air the fact that I wear cheap knockoff jewelry to all who ask?

I know some of you are just as thrifty when it comes to jewelry and have stumbled across the same dilemma. What’s your best response?

Let’s walk through a salary scenario…

by Beks

You accidentally discover a recently hired employee at your office negotiated a salary within 4% your own. Not a big deal normally but…

this employee was hired to be your assistant.

You approach your manager to confirm the salary and inquire as to the reason why you are underpaid or the assistant is overpaid. He shares your mistake was not negotiating your salary when accepting your job initially and you should never have accepted their first offer. He then tells you with a laugh, ‘We were kinda shocked you took it.’ Had you negotiated, you’d be making more. He then shares that thanks to company mandated increase limits, you will never reach the same salary potential as the new person, even when promoted, regardless of experience.

Rather than be paid based on hard work, experience, or accomplishments, you will now be forever limited because of mistakes you made as an inexperienced job hunter.

All this is a ‘hypothetical’ scenario of course – said with a wink and a nod.

Here’s the question:

Would you stay?

Blogging Away Debt Blogging Away Debt follows real people on their journey to debt freedom — with tips on the debt snowball, budgeting, cutting expenses, and staying motivated.

Faking It Financially…

Let’s walk through a salary scenario…