@finallygettingtoeven.com – Keep it up over there!!! You really can’t go wrong being YOU unless you’re like an axe murderer or something (you aren’t, right? RIGHT?). Staying true to yourself is always something I’ve admired about people – and something I have to at times double check w/ myself. Not that I try being others or change my ways on purpose or anything, but just that I can easily start molding my actions depending on who I’m hanging out with at times (non-financially that is). I always come back to ME though when I realize it.

@Aury (Thunderdrake) – You got that right. It’s personally MUCH better knowing you can buy any of this stuff if you really want to, but that you don’t *HAVE TO*. Such a huge difference having control over your own spending actions like that ;)

I think it was smart of you to have taken the route to make your own financial decisions based on those you hang around with online. We all got pretty similar goals, I suppose you can say. <3

With all that being said, ever since I have found this here internet and the world of blogs, websites, etc with interests the same as mine I have opened up a whole new world of friends. My ‘real life friends’ bore me…(sorry, but it’s true… we really have not much in common but we still like one another as people and if asked I probably bore them too) anyway I have found people ‘like me’ and I really enjoy the daily interactions with others that want to talk about the same things I do. Social media for me has been a great addition to my life and I look forward to a lot more goodness coming my way each day. Does it influence me, in a way, mostly because I look forward to reading what others are saying. And now that I have my own blog and can express my opinions to the world (sorry people….) I enjoy posting and I get a kick out of seeing just how many people are stopping by and listening to what I have to say….

@everyday tips – Trax!!! oh man, haven’t thought about those in ages… I bet you could totally bring those back if you could find yourself a pair ;)
@Khaleef @ KNS Financial – Haha…. yeah man, if you rocked those you could jump so much higher than anyone else ;) Interesting that you base everything on the bible. Would be interested in hearing more if you had time to share? Maybe we can do a “Money & the bible” type guest post or something? Give it some thought :)
@Meghan – And we love you for it!!! The internet needs both questions AND answers for it to work so well, so keep on starting the convos baby!
@Carrie – Bad ass. Matinees are underrated too – there’s nothing like walking out into the sun afterwards and pondering what your eyeballs just consumed. Always better to decide if you’re on Team Jacob or Edward while you’re wide awake and not falling asleep ;)
@kt – That’s too bad. If you were here in DC you could hang out with all of us! :)
@Micki – Passionate much?! Haha…love it. Sad that your friends are in the never ending cirle (aka the rat race), but good for you in realizing you needed to break it. I hope you can find some new, more normal, friends to hang out with! Sharing financial similarities is great for relationships.

Btw, didn’t know you were in DC – I am too :) So totally get how expensive it is around here. Well done for changing up your living situation – to be totally honest I’d sell our house and get back to renting/sharing a place in a heartbeat if I could. And if the Mrs let me ;)

@Nyx – Don’t feel stupid for paying down debt!!! Debt-payers are ROCK STARTS! And guess what? We ALL have had, or currently have, debt right now – it’s all apart of the game ;) We make mistakes, we pick ourselves back up, and we try to avoid them going forward. Even though we’ll still slip and make mistakes again :) Keep that head up and know that you are getting that much closer to Financial Freedom and stress-freeness! Not many people can say they’re doing that.
@Micki – Hey,
@Miss Jane – Awww, well good job! Sorry to hear about your father, that always makes me sad. My wife lost hers early on too – you girls are strong for going through all of that ;) I can’t even imagine.

@Christine – Haha, yup! And usually our friends are buying new things left and right trying to tempt us ;) Keep staying strong over there though, you’ll be a lot better off in the long run.
@Yana – HAH! That’s a very interesting way of looking at it….but man, that is so true. I’m much more influenced by friends & reviews online than I am in random advertising. Esp if it’s a blogger I read a lot or if I’ve heard it like 5 times in a day(this recently happened to me with LivingSocial.com – it was like BAM! Everyone was talking about it and I had to see what the fuss was about ;). Great realization!

The internet is my friend. And basically the only one that makes me spend money :P

The worst influence in my life though is my boyfriend! I definitely spend a bit more going out and buying things when I’m with him. Though I have had an influence on him also, on curbing his spending habits. So in a way, it all kind of works out. Though sometimes its good because when he buys something, I don’t need to because I can just use his!

After my dad passed, I was pretty much broke all the time since I was never taught how to save and earn. I didn’t care about materialism and what my friends had compared to what I had in high school/college since they were all as broke as I was anyway. So unless you count my friend influenced choices of cheap alcoholic beverage, there wasn’t much anything else ;)

Lately, there has only been minimum influence (i.e. Friend with a bass amp they wish to sell and the like) and everything gets discussed with the finance first.

Scored a 92 on the test. Way better than it would have been a couple of years ago :)