As I’m trying to set and adhere to realistic savings goals, I spoke to Lynette Khalfani-Cox, who is founder and lead writer for personal finance site, The Money Coach.

Right away, Lynette told me, “Your goals are good, but the one I like best is the summer vacation.”

My grandmother recently sent me a chunk of money—of the five-figure variety—in the mail! I was definitely surprised. 

She explained that her financial advisor had suggested she send my sister and me our inheritance now as a way to ensure we don’t pay huge taxes on it after she’s gone. It’s sad to think about, but couldn’t have come at a better time.

It’s been three months since I started this blog. I hope you’ve enjoyed it so far.

When I wrote my first post, I was looking forward to starting to save (and to making up for all that I didn’t put away in my 20s). But then a project I was working on didn’t pan out and left me trying to quickly drum up some new income.

It’s tough to be in my 30s and thinking about making coffee at home because spending $2 at the deli isn’t in my budget. I’ve already been through this phase (a few times)!

Since I started writing about my finances, my friends are increasingly bringing up their own money matters with me.

I was out with friends recently – drinking 25-cent beers and eating free hotdogs (who said a deal can’t be found in New York City?) – and was surprised when all three confided they had not checked their credit score in the last year. Two had never done so!

I started to wonder how common this is among my peers so I decided to conduct an informal email survey. I asked 70 of my friends these three questions:

Last week I wrote here about TransUnion’s response to my credit report dispute letter. While TransUnion corrected certain errors I had challenged, the agency confirmed I still had the negative impact of a “paid tax lien” on my record with a $103 payment I made to the New York County City Registrar in June 2007.

For me, one of the hardest things about budgeting is that I can’t update my wardrobe as often as I’d like to. I have a lot of nice clothes I love, but – to be honest – I always have my eye on replenishments.

I’ve been taking a closer look at my spending patterns, prioritizing and trying to uncover where I might be able to cut back. I used an Excel spreadsheet to track all my spending over the last three weeks including everything from meals out to cabs, bills and, yes, shoe repairs.

I then reached out to Dr. Brad Klontz, who is the co-founder of Your Mental Wealth and an expert in financial psychology, and sent him an email that summed up my background and priorities, like this:

A couple weekends ago as I was sifting through a stack of mail I came across an envelope from American Express. I could barely contain myself as I read and reread the enclosed letter that said I had a balance of zero! Five years ago I owed American Express $8,000. (Because of a confusing debt management program I had not known exactly how close I was to paying this off.)