On $an Franci$co living.

I have been living in the city [of San Francisco] for just over 1 year now. I live in the Presidio, which means I live here...

But a lot of the time it looks like this...

But I really don't care because these things are in my backyard...

The San Francisco housing market is a nightmare, but I got very lucky and ended up in a nice (though dated) split level apartment on a lease that's over 5 years old, meaning that it dates back to a time when rent was semi-affordable. I'm actually only paying 1/3 of my income for my housing (which all the HOW TO HAVE GROWNUP FINANCES articles I read via the internets tell me is what I'm supposed to be paying), which is fantastic because I work in the nonprofit sector and love my job and would prefer not to have to leave my job or sector just to make ends meet in the city.

SO life is good, right? YES! Life is good. Except for one thing....San Francisco living (as most city living around the world) has a funny way of draining one's assets, no matter how "frugal" you think you're living. I've been pretty good this past year, taking a cheap trip to New York City last fall and still managing to save a bit in a high yield online savings account (shout out again to all those HOW TO HAVE GROWNUP FINANCES articles), but this summer has killed all my budgets and overspending has made my grownup savings plan in danger of arrested progress. Thanks to Justin Timberlake, Jayz, Beyonce, summer sales (DAMN YOU UNION SQUARE BEING SO CLOSE TO ME NOW) and one too many delicious foodie #treatyourself dinners out, July wasn't my best month for $$. 

So why am I blogging again about this, of all things, after such a long hiatus? Well, I have an idea about how to get myself back into the habit of blogging! I need to save money this month to make up for my overspending the past couple of months. To do this without having to resort to a hermit lifestyle, I've decided to do a 6 week FREE fun only challenge, and I think blogging about it will keep me honest and be a fun way to get me back into blogging. Starting this week and ending the 2nd week in September when I go on vacation to Turkey, I vow to only go to events that are free. 

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. 

it will be LEGEND....wait for it.....DARY!

well not really, but I think this will be fun.