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We’re Doing Something Big and We Need Your Help
If you get my emails, then you know that our family has a big financial undertaking coming up. We have never done anything of this magnitude before and that’s exciting and scary at the same time. We...
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Frugal Recycling Hacks You Need to Try!
I love making the most of what I have and hate being wasteful. Today I want to share with you some hacks to make the most of one of the most wasted items from your home, the bag that the cereal comes...
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THANK YOU (… and They’re Here!)
I am long overdue in offering a heartfelt THANK YOU to those of you who so generously supported us in welcoming our Ukrainian refugee family. It has been two and a half months since I shared that our...
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Handling Finances For Sponsoring a Refugee Family
Since our new Ukrainian friends arrived three months ago we’ve had a lot of questions about our experience sponsoring a refugee family. Some questions are cultural. Others are about the more personal...
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7 “Normal” Things We Don’t Spend Money On
The great thing about personal finance is that it’s personal. Some people take “personal” to mean that it’s private. I think of the “personal” in personal finance as meaning that it’s about your...
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Our family of 8 spent $3,048 on a 3-week cross country road trip. Here’s the...
Memory-making family adventures don’t need to be expensive to be unforgettable, but sometimes it can be tricky to figure out how to keep the costs down. After sharing our cost breakdown for our 10-day...
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The simple 3-step calculation that will save your gas budget
Unless you own a gas company or an oil well, you’re probably not a big fan of the gas prices lately. I paid $5.67 per gallon yesterday and that was at the cheapest station in town! It’s easy to throw...
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How to make your own pumpkin puree (from ANY pumpkin)
Fall means it’s time for pumpkin everything! I love eating pumpkin all year long, but in the fall the rest of the world (well, at least the country) joins me. Do you know what makes pumpkin recipes...
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3 Inexpensive household items we use to save hundreds of dollars each month
The internet is full of “money-saving” products with all sorts of promises to make your life easier while keeping cash in your pocket. I’m sure some of those gadgets are great and for the right people...
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Budgeting gets much better than Mint anyway. We switched to YNAB nine years...
If you are one of the 3.6 million people who uses Mint for managing your personal finances, you might be panicking with the news that Mint will be shutting down completely by January and is hoping to...
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Cost Breakdown for Our Epic San Diego Trip
You loved hearing about what we spent on our 3-week cross county road trip, our 10-day Washington DC trip, and our Yellowstone Family Trip so I know you’re going to love hearing the financial (and...
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29+ Non-food items you should keep stocked at home
Until about four years ago, we all took for granted the ability to purchase whatever we wanted whenever we wanted. When covid hit and the world started shutting down, many people raced to the store to...
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Frugal Feats, Flops, and Funnies: Goodbye Sleeping Bag, Hello Long Arm
Living frugally can be quite an adventure. As with anything in life, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. And sometimes you just have to laugh. Years ago I regularly shared frugal feats, flops,...
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5 Smart Ways to Use Overripe Bananas (and how to freeze them)
If you’re trying to save money on groceries, the last thing you want to do is throw food away! Wasting food, simply put, is wasting money. In the past I’ve shared 7 ways to use milk that is almost...
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The Power of Asking– Simple Questions Have Saved Us Thousands!
Sometimes saving money just requires asking a simple question or two. With very little effort you can be saving money on your monthly bills and beyond. In many cases it is just a matter of asking to...
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How we budget for an epic international family trip
The closer our kids get to leaving the nest, the more we are prioritizing family travel and adventure together. Our oldest will graduate from high school in just two years, so we are eager to take...
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My Shoulders and Your Budget
When I very first started blogging in 2013, I would often have “debt discussions” with my early blog readers. At the time, my husband and I had just decided to pay off our law school debt as fast as...
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Everything we’re packing for 2 weeks of backpacking in Guatemala
Not too long ago, I shared with you our budget for our family adventure in Guatemala. I have literally been packing and planning since I booked the flight. Although it’s still a while until we’re...
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How to Save Money on Road Trips
Don’t let our upcoming epic trip to Guatemala mislead you. Road trips are our normal vacation style. As a frugal family of eight, we get a lot more bang for our buck when we take road trips than any...
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June 2024 Budget Update
It’s budget time! Many people dread making or reviewing their budgets, but I love it! Some people think that you can only enjoy budgeting when you have lots of money to work with, but I had the...
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