My family’s financial security is one of the highest priorities in my life, and I’m guessing it is just as important to you.
That’s why I’m sharing my personal experience with Ethos life insurance in this post (these are my referral links) as well as why I failed at my previous attempts to get decent life insurance coverage for my family.
I’m checking in with my October update on my 2018 Debt Challenge – you can read all about the challenge in this post!
I am trying to celebrate the fact that I made SOME progress paying down debt, even though it wasn’t as much as I had planned. The big impact on my budget this month was that we stayed an unplanned extra five days in Disney World last month due to Hurricane Florence hitting the day we were supposed to fly home. Read more...
I shared with you last month that I’ve had some credit card debt hanging around from an over-budget house remodel and dental implant that I can’t seem to make much headway with.
I am happy to report that I ACTUALLY made some headway last month and paid down my debt balance by $670 in August. My balance went from $9,800 to $9,130. I am on track to meet my goal to have the balance under $7,000 by the end of 2018! Read more...
One of my goals for this year was to pay down some lingering credit card debt incurred by a house remodel and dental work. Well, I have been failing at this goal (for some legitimate reasons, I admit) but now I am ready to buckle down and get serious about paying down this debt!
I need accountability for any goal that I set, so I’m sharing my commitment with you, my amazing readers. Read more...
I have a secret weapon for saving money and I’m sharing it with you today! I use a free Captial One 360 savings account to automatically set money aside for various needs every month.
I’ll show you how to set up an account and automate your savings to finally save that money you have been meaning to save!
Before I had this savings hack in place, I struggled to put money aside in a savings account. Read more...
How amazing that we are almost a THIRD of the way through 2018 already! I figured it was time for a goals update since I did the first quarter review in my PowerSheets earlier this month.
I have come to love the PowerSheets monthly “Tending List”. It is exactly what has been missing from my goal-setting in the past, which is a way to translate my yearly and monthly goals into something I can work towards every day! Read more...
One of my goals for 2018 is to pay down some lingering credit card debt. Since the average US household has over $15,000 in credit card debt, I’m likely not alone in wanting to pay off some debt.
One tool that has already been a huge help to me this year is Credit Sesame. In this review, I’ll explain how to sign up, why it is safe, and how Credit Sesame can help you achieve your financial goals! Read more...
I’m incredibly lucky to have frugal habits that help me live a rich life on a limited budget. I’m not sure when or where I learned these habits, but when I look back at my life I realize I’ve been developing them for almost 20 years!
With this blog, I want to help you develop frugal habits that will enable you to reach your financial goals. Your goals might include:
While it has taken me more 20 years to develop my habits, I want to hit the fast-forward button for you and help you reach your financial goals sooner! Read more...
Taking on a no spend challenge is a fun way to create a little breathing room in your budget. Weekends are often a time when families spend money on entertainment, eating out, and activities, so they are the perfect place to start!
Here are seventeen ideas for having a super fun no spend weekend with your family. As you can tell from the pictures, we have done ALL of these ourselves at one point or another! Read more...
Guest Post by Jacob from Dollar Diligence
Becoming debt free is not easy by any means and if someone tells you it is, he or she likely did not have a lot of debt to eliminate.
When I first looked at my student loan balance statement, I was scared. I mean, truly scared for myself.
I owed a lot of money.
Money, that I thought I would never even have in my hands at any point in time. Read more...
It’s hard to believe 2017 is already half over, isn’t it? I try to remember to review my goals every quarter, and though I missed the first quarter (oops), at least I’m checking in now.
My first goal for the year was to pay down the $5,000 in debt we acquired during our kitchen remodel last year. I ‘ve been monitoring the balance every month and am happy to report that I’ve already paid down $3,300 of the balance! Read more...
I recently sat down and recorded my goals for this year in the front of my planner. It was pretty easy since I had been working on them in my mind for a while! Studies show that I’m more likely to achieve my goals if I write them down, so I did. 🙂
Here they are, in no particular order:
I tried to address some failings from past years (like how I give up on the fight against weeds halfway through the summer!) and address some areas in which I’d like to grow. Read more...
This summer we took on a remodel of the entire front half of our house. We had been planning it for years and started assembling materials six months in advance.
We thought we had a nice, cushioned budget for the project, too. We allowed for 50% more over what we initially estimated, knowing that remodels almost ALWAYS go over budget! Read more...