Welcome to yet another amazing Scotch Street article!

Are you new to Scotch Street?

We write stream-of-consciousness articles about money while drinking scotch (or an alternative drink).

Today, Mike Collins from Budget Kitty is joining us with a choice beer from Nimble Giant.

Passing the mic to Mike!

Bio –

Mike Collins is a personal finance nerd who blogs at BudgetKitty.com. He writes about his family’s struggle to make ends meet on a single income while still having fun and enjoying life. Be sure to stop by his site and say hi.

Scotch Street Guest Post – Budget Kitty

Greetings fellow humans!  Ny name is Mike and I normally write about personal finance at BudgetKitty.com, but when I saw Robbie asking for guest posts from other bloggers AND he wanted us to drink while we write…well, nuff said.

I’m not a scotch guy so I went with an excellent craft beer. Nimble Giant from Troegs Brewery in Hershey, Pennsylvania. This one happened to come direct from the brewery itself since my daughter played a soccer tournament there on Father’s Day weekend.  Well, she played in Hershey not in the brewery itself.  That would have been interesting.  And tasty!

So, I’m enjoying my beer in the backyard and writing whatever comes to mind as our dinner cooks on the grill. The steak smells amazing by the way.

Anyway, I’m supposed to write about money, so which direction should we go in?  (takes a sip of beer, it’s not scotch but its nine percent and I’m on my second pint and feeling good).

Hey I know how about the finances of drinking beer?

You see, I’m not a Miller/Coors/Bud kind of guy. That all tastes like water to me. Give me a robust stout or a hoppy as hell IPA any day of the week.  Quality over quantity is my motto.

I’d rather pay $14 for a 4 pack of truly delicious beer than $20 for a 30-pack of crap every day of the week.

Is it a luxury, yes of course it is.  I don’t need to drink finely crafted independent beer.  But I like it, damn it.  And I’m willing to cut out other stuff that I don’t care about so I can enjoy a really good beer and support the local economy too.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t watch your spending though. You can’t have everything, its all about priorities and choices.  Cut back on the stuff you don’t care about so you can afford to splurge on things you do.  Am I suddenly channeling Paula Pant?

My buddy is going through a divorce as we speak and talk about life changing events.  He’s paying a mortgage on a house he doesn’t even live in and rent on top of that.  His kids play sports with mine so I know how much he’s paying for that too.  He has had to seriously cut back and question every bit of spending he does.

It’s a good exercise in general as we all tend to have money leaks that hurt our finances more than we know.  Look to cancel subscriptions and memberships first as those recurring fees will really get you.  I think Costco is totally worth the cost but if you have a small family maybe not. Can you cut cell phone bills, cable TV, shop around for insurance?  Even if you don’t get divorced you should look to do these things and damn my timer just went off. Holy cow 5 minutes goes fast!

PS – speed writing is really fun but I did have to go back and fix a lot of spelling errors.  Other than that, this is just what popped into my head as I typed away.

TL;DR – drink good beer and don’t get divorced if you can’t afford it!

Funny stuff!  Big thanks to Mike!

Don’t forget to visit, Budget Kitty.

Interested in more Scotch Street articles?  Here are some recents:

Scotch Street Guest Post – Michael Dinich

Scotch Street Guest Post – I, Vigilante – Caol Ila 12

Scotch Street Guest Post – Tuppenny – Champers

Interested in contributing?  Read this:

What Is Scotch Street? Description, Rules, and How to Guest Post!