Friday Faves: Quit Trying to Keep Up With the Joneses

For the fifth edition of our Friday Faves, we noticed a pattern around the personal finance blogosphere lately. A lot of posts have been centered around the need to quit trying to “keep up” with the Joneses in our lives.

In fact, we even published a post about here on Add Vodka earlier this week!

Once you finally stop trying to “keep up” all the time, you should have time and money to devote to whatever your real life and finances goals are instead of trying to impress people or follow societal norms.

Why Do You Care – The Frugal Farmer – Laurie had a great post this week where she talked about how she and her family were able to finally see the light and get away from trying to “keep up”. After they moved to the country, their vision was cleared and they were able to finally see all the detrimental effects that keeping up with the Joneses had on their family and their finances.

Fruclassity Commandment #3 Part A: Don’t Compare Yourself To Others – Fruclassity – Ruth and Laurie’s new site, Fruclassity, is all about balancing frugality with real life, or as they say “frugality for the not-so-badass” (as a reference to Mr. Money Mustache’s Badassity). Anyhow, this week Ruth took the time to explain part of the third commandment of Fruclassity in which you stop comparing yourself to others.

How I Let Go of Caring What People Think – Frugalwoods – This post isn’t quite as recent as the others, but in case you missed it, I wanted to highlight it here. It is one that recently got me thinking more about how to quit caring what others think about my outward appearance so I can make more progress with my financial goals. Frugalwoods is one of my favorite blogs as their posts always get me thinking some profound thoughts. 🙂

29 Ways to Make Money on the Side in 2015 – The Penny Hoarder – Ok, this post doesn’t exactly follow our theme this week, but it’s a good post nonetheless. Making extra money via a side hustle is a great way to help you reach your life and financial goals much quicker and this post has some great ideas to help you get started making extra money.

Our Personal Finance Work:

Aaron and I aren’t slackers. Both of us are constantly working and writing for a variety of websites about personal finance. Here are just a few places you can find some of our latest works.

You’re Still Working for the Tax Man, But Relief is Soon – Daily Finance – Americans spend the first quarter (or so) of the year working just to pay their income tax bill for the year. This could be why you are feeling burned out on work right now (or is that just me?!). But don’t worry, the rest of the year the money you earn is yours.

Your Auto Insurer is Acting Like a Backseat Driver – Cheap Car Insurance – With all the technology available to help us prove our safe driving habits to auto insurance companies, many are able to see much more information than we may realize. This article shows a few ways that your insurance company might be using the data to control you and your driving habits whether you realize it or not.

My 3 Biggest Financial Mistakes – Red Debted Stepchild – Everyone makes mistakes. The key is to learn from them and move on in the future with better choices. Here are three of my biggest financial mistakes.

How to Use Coupons and Not Be a Jerk About It – Wise Dollar – I love to save money just as much as the next person, but ever since the TLC show “Extreme Couponers” came about, couponing etiquette has become much more of an issue. Here are some things to consider the next time you get ready to take in a “big haul” with your coupons.

That’s it for this time folks. Have a great weekend!