the tools you need to be set free
My sister is extremely generous. As a kid, she delighted in pretending to take the family’s orders one-by-one, then carefully carrying out miscellaneous items from the kitchen meant to represent our hamburgers (me), filet mignon (dad), and lobster a la carte (mom). Every gift she gives is carefully considered and tailored to the recipient. Once, […]
A detailed breakdown of how I spend $1,600 a month in Portland, OR
June was the month of uprooting. Mr. Mechanic is headed across the country for his first year of residency and I am going with him. We moved most of our stuff to storage, packing what we could into our little white Rav4. Mr. Mechanic drove cross-country, arriving in New York later that week. He has […]
I try to walk in my mom’s high heels, dressed for the day in pearls and a little blue dress. I want to be pretty. I’m three years old. The never-ending quest for beauty begins young. I’m twelve when a girl at school announces to the lunch table that I still don’t shave my legs, […]
South America has been on our minds for a while. I have wanted to go ever since I stumbled across a little shop in Spain run by a Colombian man, who sold me the most delicious fried ball of food that I have ever eaten. My partner likewise had it on his list of intriguing […]
“Testing, testing,” I leaned up to the mic, holding the headphones to my ears. I was a bundle of nerves because it was one of my first podcast interviews with FIRE Drill podcast, hosted by Gwen and J. I had one interview previously with the Simple Minded Millennial Podcast, but this time I was taking […]
Hangers rattled as I grabbed them eight at a time, heaving clothes onto the bed. If you have read The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up, watched the subsequent show on Netflix, or tuned in at all to the viral sensation of Americans facing their consumerism with tears and stubborn denial, you may recognize the first […]
Last year, I wrote about our attempt at meal planning and lately have been wondering if it has decreased our grocery bill as I had hoped. At the time of writing that post, my total came to $130 a month on average. Now, I spend just $108 a month on groceries. First I checked if restaurant […]
Hi everyone, I’m Mr. Mechanic. Financial Mechanic has been begging me for weeks to write a guest post and I finally have a topic to share! This article gives a brief look at the cost of my medical education, then goes on a deep dive into my costs on the residency interview trail. It’s no […]
We began the new year in a deserted city. Storefronts were planked over as we walked alone down the streets of Antwerp, the most populous city in Belgium. Most people were sleeping off the night before, quiet calm descending after a night of reflections and hope for the year of 2018. I spent the first […]