Happy Anniversary! Whether you’ve been reading for the whole three years or you’re just joining the community now, it’s time to celebrate in our achievements! Yes, “our” achievements – I may write this thing, but it’s you, reader, that makes it special. Otherwise, I’d just be airing my financial baggage in an echo chamber, and I’d have no one to call me out when I’m wrong (yeah, like that ever happens!)

We’ve grown! This blog has grown, I’ve grown emotionally, but thankfully not physically – I’m still a shorty at 5 foot 10 inches. So let’s take a quick look back at what’s happened over three zany, incredible, wacky years of Poorer Than You…

By The Numbers

-$7,993 – amount my net worth has dropped by. Entirely student loan based!
$2,440 – amount of credit card debt and overdue school bills paid off in year one
$1,363 – savings in the bank now
3,469 – approved comments on Poorer Than You
1,496 – peak number of Poorer Than You RSS subscribers (December 16, 2009)
401 – individual posts on Poorer Than You (402, including this)
1 – number of college degrees achieved since the start of this site

Memory Lane

The numbers don’t tell you everything. They don’t tell you about how I started this blog because I’d run out of money and dropped out of college. I gained quick attention for being the film school dropout with a money blog, and landed a mention on the front page of the New York Times. The site moved from Blogspot to its current home at PoorerThanYou.com after I won the domain name in a contest (for realsies!). I launched an epic battle against the concept of a No Gas Day, and I like to think I won! (No, I didn’t. It’ll come back again, you just watch.) Then, I decided to go back to school.

I bought a laptop, moved house, then moved to California for the summer (yes, in that order.) I did my first Identity Theft Week then switched from aggressive debt reduction to building an emergency fund (and got yelled at in the comments for it!). I went back to school (finally!) and was interviewed by my college magazine. I made a spreadsheet of all the purchases that I was paying off from my credit card, which turned into my biggest motivator for paying the thing off. I turned 21.

I contemplated whether film school was worth all the debt, and then eventually changed my major. I was nominated for a blogging scholarship, made it as far as finalist and got $100. I put the blog on strike, and went silent for two months.

…

I came back. I railed against the FAFSA while my friends weighed the costs of grad school. A few months into year two, I confessed that I still didn’t have a budget. I made a video about how expensive and wasteful bottled water is. I did a series for my friends who were graduating. I didn’t graduate, because I still had to make up for the time I had dropped out. I achieved about half of my summertime goals. I paid off my credit card debt. I went without shampoo for four months. Now it’s been a year and a half without shampoo.

HP gave me a laptop to give away on my birthday. I looked back on the past year to see if I’d saved money by commuting and living at home with my parents. I started dedicating Fridays to money tips specifically for college students. I paid off my student loan interest without all the facts and missed out on a tax deduction (that I now think never would have mattered any whicha-way.) I found out I would have health insurance after graduation. (Huge relief!)

I started playing with Lending Club using their bonus money. I graduated, but suddenly there was this recession thing and I wasn’t finding a job. I talked about delicious lickable textbooks. I shared something that money can’t buy. I started paying off my student loans… come back in 25 years, and I’ll be done with that! Credit card reform was passed that was mostly good, except it coddles college students. I packed up to move from Rochester to the greater Washington, DC metropolitan area.

HP gave me two more laptops to give away. I moved everything I owned in my car, which stalled 160 miles into my trip. I turned 23. Poorer Than You grew to include forums. I did a second Identity Theft Week (cause it’s just that important). I got a few “big girl” jobs down here in the big city. We don’t have cable, or really even a TV, in our apartment.

Poorer Than You turned 3.

But I guess those are just the highlights… the events. In between, there’s been so much. So many thoughts and articles and lists and ideas. And I can’t take all of the credit. Because I’ve just been living my life and smashing my fingers on the keyboard while doing it. You guys are the real treasure here. You make everything worth doing, and most certainly you’re the ones who make it worth writing about.

So you just keep reading, commenting, and bothering me on Twitter. I’ll keep moving forward, paying down my debts, building up my savings, and sharing it all. Together, we’ll push through and instead of waiting to find out what the future holds, we’ll build it. You and me.

Ready?

Set?

GO.

Related posts:

1. PTY and the Blogging Scholarship

You should go ahead and vote for me because it requires no registration, you only have to click “Vote for Me,” and you’re done! The rules say you can vote once per day, so go ahead and do that if you’re so inclined.

What’ll happen if I get enough votes to make the top 20? A video contest, that’s what! And I know you’re excited to see that (and maybe even help out and get your 15 seconds of internet video fame), so help me out and get me into the top 20. Because I may be poorer than you, but my mood is still quite good.

(And the gig pays so well, I wouldn’t be poorer than you anymore!)

Having trouble voting? You’re not the only one! If you can’t vote once per day as per the contest rules, send the contest administrators an email describing your voting problem. In your email, include your IP address, what browser you’re using (e.g. Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3.5) and what operating system you have (e.g. Windows Vista, Mac OS X Snow Leopard).

No related posts.

Want to get me a real present?

Oh alright, if you insist. Here’s what you could do:

Donate to something I care about, The Human Rights Campaign
Buy me something from my Amazon.com Wishlist (it will be shipped to me, even if you don’t know my address)
Tell someone who would benefit from it about Poorer Than You!

Related posts:

1. Buy Me a Beer!
2. Charity and Personal Finances
3. Carnival of Credit Report Stories #6: Museum Tour Edition

Not.

Meet my list of goals for Summer 2008. Some are financial, some are not. But I want to get them all done before classes start up again on Labor Day (my school is anti-holidays, it would seem).

Goals for the Summer of 2008

• Juggle daily
• Stretch daily
• Read a book a week, at least
• Organize my whole room, including papers
• Pay off my credit card debt
• Save money for textbooks
• Clean out my email inboxes
• Organize and backup the files on my laptop
• Watch all the episodes of Buffy again (I blame this one on Lazy)
• Watch West Wing season 7
• Learn to knit using the Continental Method
• Learn to rollerblade
• Convince my parents to buy a Wii Fit
• Find 20 caches
• Write an ebook

I’m stopping here! Anything more, and I run the risk of not getting very many of them done! So we’ll see how I do with this list over the summer.

No related posts.

Then I looked at it for a year. And on other monitors, where it burned my eyes. I’m sure there are a lot of you reading this who hate this layout as much as I do. [Side note: if you hate the layout but love the content, you can save your eyes by subscribing to my RSS feed or getting site updates sent right to your email.]

So I’m wondering if anyone out there knows someone who’s really good at designs, and knows WordPress really well… and works for cheap. I had someone lined up a few months ago, but he got some awesome job and moved away… such is my luck!

Related posts:

1. Back to Basics #1: Time
2. Poorer Than You is on Strike
3. Happy New Year – Poorer Than You Returns

No, the strike is not over. And the first person to call me a scab or use the phrase “crossing the picket line” gets hit with a lawn chair. (Just kidding! Or am I?)

Having this blog on strike no longer serves its intended purpose. I set out to bring attention to the WGA strike, and I feel I have done that as much as my personal strike can do. Now it’s time to get back to the keyboard and bring attention the opposite way.

This was not an easy decision, and I consulted a lot of friends for their opinion before making my choice. I felt in my gut that it was time to come back, and after some banter, the unanimous decision from my friends was that they would also like to see me return.

Not to mention, I’ve got to explain that huge drop in my net worth soon, or some of you readers are just going to start freaking out.

I will be doing some strike related articles, in as much as I can tie them to personal finance. So, be ready for things like “How to Help the Writers Without Spending a Dime.”

I have to say… it feels good to be back.

Related posts:

1. Poorer Than You is on Strike
2. Savings Snowball: New Year 2010
3. Why I’m Happy My Net Worth Dropped $2,000

What does this mean?
There will be no new entries on Poorer Than You until the end of the WGA strike. I may respond to the occasional comment on old posts, and I encourage discussion in the comments section of this post. But there will not be any new content.

But Stephanie, you’re not a member of the WGA!
True. This is a showing of solidarity toward my fellow writers. It may seem silly, but due to my connections to the film and television industries, I feel deeply moved to action by all of this. I don’t feel content to sit by and simply be an observer.

You’re not hurting anyone but yourself by doing this.
Perhaps. I am not really sticking it to “the man” by doing this, as I answer only to myself and my readers on this blog. However, I’m hoping to at least raise some awareness of the cause. Also, I feel that because I have advocated (on this very blog) digital and internet formats for watching television, I need to do this. Writers should be fairly compensated when their work is released in any format.

You’re just looking for an excuse not to update.
You might think that, and I don’t blame you. But I’d like to remind you that I do make income from this site, and striking puts my already precarious finances in jeopardy. I am, in fact, putting my money where my mouth is by doing this.

Where can I find out more about the strike?
The Writers Guild of America website
Why We Fight – a video explaining the reasons behind the strike
Support the WGA Stike!
United Hollywood – unofficial blog by a group of strike captains

Please consider visiting these websites and supporting the WGA strike in any way you can. Thank you.

Related posts:

1. Happy New Year – Poorer Than You Returns
2. Time for Poorer Than You to Get a New Look?

Anyways, I thought it would be a fun little thing to put up for my birthday. It uses the PayPal donation system, and you can pay as much as you like. The suggested price is $3.00, but any amount is appreciated.

Rest assured, the money donated will only be used for booze. If you wish to donate for any other purpose, please contact me.

No related posts.

Open a Citibank Ultimate Savings account and enjoy a 4.75% APY as well as a $100 bonus – read my review of this account if you’re unsure (there are, of course, pros and cons), or check out my post on online savings accounts if you’re confused!

Related posts:

1. $100 Bonus – Hard Credit Pull and 45 Day Wait
2. E*TRADE $25 Bonus with High Yield Savings
3. Last Chance: E*TRADE $25 Bonus

I’m sitting in my living room, a cautious eye on the Time Warner guys that have come out to my house to deliver what I refer to as ”the demon signal” (aka cable). I’m not a giant fan of cable to begin with, but Time Warner and I have a torrid past to boot, so I basically loathe the company. But I’m being polite to the install guys, because, hey, it’s not their fault. Also, it wasn’t my idea to put cable in this house.

But the real reason I’m giving you up-to-the-minute updates on my cable installation is to share the details of a rather odd piece of paper that was placed on my dining room table – the work order.

Installation and service fee: $72.80

Whaaaaaaaaaaat? Lame.

Monthly service: $61.56

…

Now, I’m not here to tell you what entertainment you should or should not put your money into. But I’ll run the numbers: if instead of getting cable, my family took that installation fee and invested it, and added that $61.56 every month, and got 8% returns… we’d have $36,849.02 after just 20 years.

I’m just sayin’.

Related posts:

1. How To Live Without Television – It Can Be Done!