Join us on our journey to lead a debt-free, credit-free, clutter-free life.
From the category archives:
I ran into an acquaintance the other day I hadn’t seen in months upon months. When I saw her I inwardly gasped: she had lost so much weight!
We were both attending a 31 Gifts Party that was doubling as a fundraiser for our mutual friend who’s raising money to provide a service dog for their special needs daughter.
Got [...]
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I argue that tracking your finances is even more important than creating a budget. After all — if you don’t know where your money is going, how can you create a realistic, working budget?
The first time my husband and I were challenged to track every dollar we spent was over ten years ago when I was taking [...]
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… computer! Which was quite necessary, in the modern scheme of things.
We have been putting off the wheedling from our teenage son for well over a year, but the time had come: our old desktop lasted years longer than any other computer we’ve owned and it was one step away from crashing completely. Also, our [...]
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I recently exchanged emails with Mary Hunt. Eeeek! Yes, The Mary Hunt!
She had posed a question on her Debt-Proof Living facebook page:
“Have you gone extreme to cut the cost of 1) Cell phone 2) Cable TV 3) Internet service and 4) Landline phone? Care to share? If so, all the details, please!”
I [...]
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Wow, I just scrounged up a draft of this post originally dated July 1. I guess I had admirable intentions of a timely update. I have been amazingly lazy about reluctant to post June’s numbers: Paying down debt just isn’t very exciting when you’re only making the regular payments.
I really can’t call this a snowball. [...]
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Hmm… Mid-June and I’m finally ready to talk about May? Yea. It’s been a few of those weeks.
Debt Update
Not very exciting. We’re in minimum mode right now. As in, just making minimum payments. Our debt snowball is just sitting there, in limbo. Waiting for a couple of major life changes (aka Selling a house and [...]
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Alternate Title: Why You Shouldn’t Travel Without an Emergency Fund
Alternate-Alternate Title: How Not To Communicate with Your Husband About Finances
Alternate Sub-Title: Why You Might Not Want to Max Out a ROTH Right Before Traveling Cross-Country
First I Met With Our Financial Adviser
On our recent trip to Kansas to visit family, I met with our financial advisor [...]
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In short: I think I’ve made this unnecessarily complicated for my taste.
I started with four cash envelopes:
Food/Groceries
Clothing
Gifts
Booze (Just keeping it real.)
I’ve since added two more:
Entertainment
House
First off — I’m doing much better about remembering to take my cash when I go to the store. Yea, for me!
However. Aside from the grocery envelope? By the end [...]
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I think many people feel that putting themselves on a budget will restrict their lifestyle and keep them from being able to spend money on the things they like to have and do. My experience has been the opposite: creating a budget has actually felt quite freeing.
Before, whenever I wanted to spend money impulsively, I [...]
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You may have heard a little something about the East Coast getting dumped on with the most snow they’ve ever had at one time since 1899, or something crazy like that. Ohio’s only gotten a taste of what’s hit DC and New York, but it was enough to close the schools for a couple of [...]
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