Simplify & enjoy life at home with littles.
Our first month of intense debt pay off was January, 2015. It took us a few months after Ben was employed to play catch up – pay my parents back for a beater car we bought with borrowed money, get a mini $1000 emergency fund saved, etc… We sat down at a Starbucks, …
I’ve written about how the momentum of debt payoff (or any financial goal) picks up once you get going, and makes you a little crazy. I’ve also already shared 5 things we’re not buying while we’re getting out of debt and 3 semi-hippie things we’re doing to save money. Today I wanted …
Understanding sinking funds is essential to accurate budgeting (unless your income is such that you choose to cash flow big ticket items). A sinking fund is a category in your budget that adds up from month to month and only occasionally gets spent out of. Sinking Fund Example #1: Car Insurance Most …
So far in this Budgeting 101 Series, we’ve learned how to start a budget and how to track spending. You’ve made your budget, tracked your spending and the inevitable has happened you went over budget in a category or 2. Or all of them. And you feel like this. Lots …
I often suggest to people to try using all cash if you’re new to budgeting. We used to do cash for everything. Then, I cut back and only used cash for only groceries and my “blow money” spending. After a while, we gave up cash and used debit cards with …
We have committed to basically spending no money on home improvements in our rental house. The landlords take care of necessary stuff (plumbing, new window screens, etc.) and we aren’t spending money on the optional stuff (paint, new furniture, etc.) Because the ultimate goals are to be debt-free and hopefully own a …
Sometimes I’ll jokingly say to my Ben, “when we get out of debt, I would like to buy .” Then we both say, “womp womp,” because it’s not really a joke. There are a lot of fun, …
So maybe you’ve heard (or perhaps you’re tired of hearing) … we’re getting out of debt. Not just kinda sorta getting out of debt. Oh no, we are all-in trying to be completely debt free. To that end, I have picked up a few borderline hippie habits to save money, …
Ben was planning to attend a trip to New York City for a conference. It turned out we had enough Southwest points for me to tag along with a free flight. His company would be paying for the hotel anyway (for the duration of the conference), and we could pay …
Where is all my money going? How much should I budget in this category? I want to save money but I never have any leftover… It seems like emergencies come up a lot… If you’ve had any of those thoughts, you are not alone. Maybe you’ve made a budget, but …
Whether you’ve tried budgeting a million times or it’s the first time ever, starting a budget can feel daunting. What if I do it wrong? What if I mess it up? What if I don’t guess right? I’ll save you the worry and tell you up front – you won’t …
We used EveryDollar for 9 months, then switched to YNAB. I have updated this post to reflect my current thinking abut EveryDollar after using it for 9 months. While it has some good features, my husband and I both like YNAB much better. (Detailed review of YNAB here.) In the …
Confession: I used to be entitled. (Hey, you can’t get help if you don’t admit you have a problem, right?) I wouldn’t say I consciously thought to myself that people or the world owed me anything. And I definitely didn’t call it entitlement. It was more subtle than that. More …
We read Dave Ramsey’s book The Total Money Makeover (which I highly recommend, by the way) and listened to all the teachings from the class when we first got married. We were on board. Debt is dumb, pay cash, blah blah blah. Made perfect sense. Then we took out a BIG loan …
This year, Ben and I have discussing how to give more generously and simultaneously cut back on excessive spending. The thing is… We love to give gifts. I love to shop for people and think – she will love that, or he really needs this or… whatever. And I think gift giving …