Budget intervention required

Michelle showed up with coffee and good intentions to help me figure out where all my money went this month. Turns out having a personal trainer friend who’s also weirdly good with spreadsheets is both a blessing and a curse.

Budget intervention required

We spent two hours going through receipts and bank statements, and honestly? I have no memory of buying half this stuff. Apparently I spent forty-three dollars at Target last Tuesday and came home with… a candle. A single candle. Michelle just stared at me like I’d admitted to setting money on fire.

The good news is we found three subscription services I forgot I was paying for. The bad news is after canceling those, I still can’t afford groceries until payday.

The math is not mathing

Michelle’s solution? She’s bringing ingredients for her famous black bean soup tomorrow. Sometimes friendship means someone talks you off the financial ledge with carbs.

Jake walked in on us hunched over my laptop looking like we were planning a heist. In a way, we were—trying to steal back my financial sanity one cancelled subscription at a time.