Hello, world!

Welcome to Live Beneath Your Means, a blog and financial education and advocacy company that celebrates making $10 … and spending $9. And leftovers. Love leftovers. Which are basically the culinary version of the same idea. This way, I can write about my favorite recipes and it’s not totally off topic.

Genius, right? Yeah, I know. Still, for full truth in advertising, the company should probably be called That Angry Asian Lady. But all the social media accounts were taken.

Apparently, we are all pissed off.

There is a lot to be angry about. From the oxymoron that is “financial services” to the dismal data around women’s pay, women’s wealth, and women’s share of housework to umm, all the frickin’ news all the frickin’ time, it’s enough to drive a gal to … do something.

A year ago, I was working for a company in New York City and traveling back and forth every couple of weeks between my home in Madison, Wisconsin, and our corporate headquarters. The company had undergone a restructuring and I was getting acclimated to a new job with a new team.

On the road, learning a new business, it became very clear very quickly that I was not going to be able to do the job well AND read fiction AND keep track of the seasonal clothing swaps for my three kids (not a thing where I grew up in Texas). Live Beneath Your Means—LBYM—isn’t just good advice for our finances … it’s good guidance for our life.

(Other things that would be better off with this attitude: Planet Earth, Thanksgiving dinner, housecleaning … capacity, people!)

So I quit. This was exhilarating for approximately 15 seconds:

I clearly needed to channel my energy. So, a million free “How to Start a Blog” YouTube videos later (LBYM, y’all ✌), here we are. Still angry, but now on your behalf.

And what do we do after we get mad? WE GET EVEN!

Ha, no. That’s a movie quote. At Live Beneath Your Means, we learn. Well, I mostly vent. But I hope you learn—mostly about managing your pennies. Ladies! Make more of ’em, keep more of ’em, and use ’em exactly how YOU want to. Nobody puts Baby in a corner (oops – movie quote again). Love your daily latte? Buy. A. Damn. Latte.

Also, make really good vegan curry. And let’s be honest, I’m probably going to write about how to do a whole bunch of other (less useful) things, too. #sorrynotsorry

Our goal at LBYM is to keep the writing lively—zing!—and the finance boring. Make $10, spend $9 … it really is that simple. All good things follow from this principle.

Good things sound good? Subscribe, follow us on social media, learn with us, and send your burning questions, financial and otherwise, to grace@livebeneathyourmeans.com. Answers may appear in a future post.

Happy National Financial Goal Day!

(Pretty sure this is a made-up holiday but since I don’t feel forced to spend $3.50 on a card, I will allow.)