If you had asked three weeks ago, I would have told you my financial future was set. My belongings were boxed up, and I was on my way to law school with plenty of financial aid from Uncle Sam. But my plans changed, and like so many others, I found myself unemployed and unsure of how to meet expenses.

Things turned out well, and I learned an important lesson about the relative importance of what you know versus who you know.

I never thought that learning what saute meant and how to do it would keep both me and my wallet from going hungry.

When paying my most recent credit card bills, I happily discovered I saved $30 in the past month alone by preparing a majority of meals at home rather than eating out. At this rate, I stand to save $360 per year if I keep clear of restaurants and continue to cook.

Maybe because of the $100,000 albatross (law school loans) I am about to hang from my neck, in the past month I've decided to try out thriftiness. And you know, I'm kind of liking it. Here's how it's going.

If you lose thousands of dollars in the game Monopoly, you may very well wind up bankrupt. However, all financial ruin abates when you put the pieces away, with no harm done to your actual assets. That's not the case with an investment in graduate school.

I'm about to borrow $150,000 to pay for my legal education, and I'm doing it far away from the safety of a game board. I know I stand to lose a lot more from this transaction than a utilities or a railroads card.

Here's 10 $20 bills, and a $5 bill. Take them. They're free. You want them? Apparently you don't.

In a time when saving is in vogue, it would seem that $200 is a sizable enough sum not to disregard. Yet the average household that participates in loyalty programs fails to redeem $205 of $622 in rewards each year, be it airline miles or points accrued from shopping and credit card use.

I have yet another confession to make. Even though I often tell others to read their credit card agreements, I have never done so until now. And I'd be lying if I told you I got much further than the first page.

It's not that I have an aversion to reading. In fact, I love a good book, editorial etc., but there is a reason that I don't reach for my credit card agreement when I want to unwind. It's seriously the most boring and tedious text I've ever tried to understand. And I think that says a lot coming from a recently graduated journalism/neuropsychology student.

Apparently I'm not the only one who has trouble stomaching the fine print. The average credit card agreement is written at a 12.37 grade level, making them incomprehensible to approximately 80 percent of Americans, according to a recent study by CreditCards.com.

I read above a 12th grade level. I've been tested. But even still, skimming my contract made me wonder whether or not I'm in need of some remedial classes. What tripped me up were the insanely long sentences and the feeling that traps lurk within every paragraph.

Oh my gosh, I'm so excited I could just go and flip a table.

My blog titled "'Real Housewives of New Jersey' credit card tales of trouble" about the broke but fabulous RHNJ co-star Teresa Giudice was included in the Carnival of Personal Finance hosted by Beating Broke.

The tables turn on reality TV Real Housewives of New Jersey co-star Teresa Giudice -- and this time she's not the one flipping them.

No, don't worry RHNJ fans. She wasn't arrested for being a "prostitution whore," but Teresa, the big-haired spendaholic, known for her extravagant shopping sprees and lavish lifestyle, is flat broke.

News recently surfaced that she and husband Giuseppe "Joseph" Giudice filed for bankruptcy in October of last year. The couple is approximately $11 million in debt, according to court documents. Unpaid mortgages and home renovations (some of which the Giudices dispute) constitute a majority of what they owe, but their credit card balances aren't pretty either. The Giudices owe a staggering $100,000 spread across eight credit cards. Of that, they charged nearly $20,000 in total on their Bloomingdale's, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom cards alone.

So, you clicked on a certain picture or perhaps you've included ice fishing as one of your interests. Other people will probably find out.

The tales of sites tracking their users' actions or pimping out personal information to marketers are becoming more commonplace. For the most part, though, this type of information exchange has become a tolerated side effect of life online.

But there are some types of information that consumers expect sites to keep private. Consider the number of times people save credit card information online, or enter bank account numbers into budgeting sites. Even the contents of our e-mails and Google Docs, which are all stored in cyberspace, are assumed to be safe from prying eyes.

The tales of sites tracking their users' actions or pimping out personal information to marketers are becoming more commonplace. For the most part, though, this type of information exchange has become a tolerated side effect of life online.

But there are some types of information that consumers expect sites to keep private. Consider the number of times people save credit card information online, or enter bank account numbers into budgeting sites. Even the contents of our e-mails and Google Docs, which are all stored in cyberspace, are assumed to be safe from prying eyes.

That's not a wise assumption.

I'm pleased to announce that shopping for new fashion accessories might be a more valuable activity than you think. Companies around the world are now selling wearable ways to minimize your chances of falling victim to identity theft. From smart wallets to stealthy socks, here are a few of my favorites. Happy shopping!

The iWallet: If James Bond had a wallet, I think he would own the iWallet. This suave-looking contraption reads fingerprints and is unlocked in the same way as an iPhone. However, it won't respond to just anyone's touch. The wallet remains locked if the fingerprint does not match the owner's. Another handy feature is that the wallet links via Bluetooth to the owner's phone. An alarm will sound if the two devices are separated.

After buying the iWallet, however, you may not have much cash left to put in it. The cheapest model costs $399.

The television commercials promising college degrees or professional certificates fast are hard to miss. The smiling TV actors offer assurances of future economic security and success. But might these programs really be subprime mortgages disguised in academic regalia?

Schools like University of Phoenix, ITT Technical Institute and a host of others are part of the growing for-profit education sector that might the next industry to crash, burn and drag us all down with it, according to Steven Eisman, the investor famous for predicting the subprime mortgage crisis that set off the recession.

The glaring similarity between the subprime mortgage business and for-profit education is the issuance of loans to people who cannot repay them.