When I asked if you wanted to continue the Debt Smashathon in 2020, I got a resounding YES, so we'll keep it going this year as well! This is our first debt smashing report of 2020. If you don't already get the link to report your progress at the end of each month, sign up here! I get so excited when I read each of your reports (yes, I read them ALL)! I love reading your successes like lowering your grocery spending, sticking to your budget, being consistent, and making progress toward your ... read more
Monthly Grocery Shopping– February 2020
If you're curious what a typical grocery haul looks like for a frugal family of 8, then keep reading. Today I'm sharing what we bought in our monthly grocery shopping trip in February. We went to Winco and Sam's Club and spent right around $300. That leaves about $150 for other grocery/food purchases for the month. I took December and January off from sharing grocery hauls, mostly because I was posting new videos and blog posts nearly every day in those months for the Christmas Series and ... read more
Real Family Budget Update– January 2020
Whew! After posting 28 blog posts and 28 videos since the beginning of the year, I'm a week late getting January's family budget update published. If you missed all the activity, you can you can sign up for the Frugal Fresh Start Challenge here! If you're new here, every month we make our personal finances public by sharing everything we earn, spend, save, and pay toward debt (we're currently tackling our mortgage). We've been doing this since September of 2013 (when we were in six figures ... read more
Create Frugal Habits
Saving money here and there by living frugally is great and deserves to be celebrated, but what if you were able to replicate and automate that savings every month, every week, every day by creating frugal habits? Frugal living gets easier once you form strong frugal habits. What seemed like a sacrifice at first, becomes old hat. What was hard initially turns into just the way we do it. So what sorts of frugal habits are we talking about here? Turning off the light when you leave the ... read more
Don’t Give Up Giving Even When Money is Tight
One of the dangers of spending a lot of time talking about personal finances is that it can get to seem like life is all about money. And it’s not. It’s easy for money to become the focus, the goal in itself. That’s like making food the focus of our lives. It’s true that we need some money and we need some food, but life shouldn’t be about money or food. So today we’re talking about giving away money. Getting rid of it. Showing our money that we know it isn’t the most important thing, and ... read more
Hold Monthly Budget Planning Meetings
It may not sound fun, romantic, or exciting, but I've got to admit that I really look forward to our monthly budget planning meeting. We treat it like a date! The kids are in bed and we're together focused on the same thing. We're on the same team working to achieve our goals. Seeing our progress, reaffirming our goals, and making sure we're on the same page is motivating and fun!` Before I lay out the way we do our monthly budgeting meetings, I want to be clear that there is no one right ... read more
Frugal Gifting– Not the same as giving a cheap gift
It’s the thought that counts. We’ve all heard that before, but how many of us believe it? Do our gift-giving practices reflect what really matters or are we caught up in the price (or perceived price) of our gift? Today we'll talk about how you can give great gifts on any budget. We really wanted to touch on gifting in the Frugal Fresh Start Challenge, because there will constantly be opportunities to give gifts, and they can derail the progress toward your goals if you let ... read more
Own Your Money Choices
Have you ever been teased for being frugal? How did you react? Did you get offended? Did you blame your circumstances? Or did you OWN it? If this has happened to you, congratulations! If you’re being teased about the frugal changes to your lifestyle, then you are probably on track to reach your financial goals. That’s awesome! Today we want to talk about OWNING that change. https://youtu.be/QJrvujiEvC0 As you change your habits, surely those around you will start to notice. When you ... read more
Do it Yourself (Or Don’t)– Is it Worth it to DIY?
The phrase “do it yourself,” or DIY for short, means taking back the responsibility for something that you would otherwise buy or hire out. DIY projects are all the rage these days. With a desire to be more natural and get back to basics, many people are interested in discovering ways to be more self-reliant. The internet is loaded with tutorials for doing things yourself. Pinterest is filled with all of the homemade cleaning and personal care products you can imagine. Images of home décor ... read more
Buy Used Instead of New
Before you buy something new, do you consider buying it used instead? It's no secret that a great way to save money and become more frugal is to get things second-hand instead of buying them new. Anything you can buy new, you can also buy used. You just need to know where to look and how to look effectively. Keep a List The first key to effectively buying used is to keep a list of things that you need to buy. When you’re looking to find things secondhand, it may take longer to find exactly ... read more
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