Happy New Year friends! It's time share our real numbers budget from December and tell you how we finished off 2020. We made a couple of big financial moves during December that might be interesting to you. We refinanced our house again! We bought the house four years ago and this is the third time that we've refinanced! It sounds kind of crazy, but each time the numbers made sense. We used owning.com again, since their rates were about as low as anyone's and they offered to pay all ... read more
Want Help Lowering Your Grocery Spending in 2021? Introducing Grocery Budget Hero!
I'm really excited to share with you what I've been putting my time and energy into lately (in addition to, you know, feeding my family and homeschooling four of our six kids!). Back in 2020 I conducted a survey of my blog readers and YouTube viewers to get to know you better, find out what you like and don't like, and learn how I can help you. It was awesome! I read every response and loved "meeting" all of you! I learned almost half of you have been following since before we finished ... read more
December 2020 Monthly Grocery Haul
I debated about doing a grocery haul this month. Not just a post/video, but doing a grocery shopping trip at all! We have lots of produce from our summer and fall garden and plenty of food storage. There wasn't really much that we needed, but I went ahead and shopped just to replenish our food storage. For those who are new here, I do my grocery shopping a little different than many people. Instead of shopping from a menu and buying exactly the things I'll need for our monthly meals, I ... read more
Real Family Budget Update — November 2020
I've been a little quiet around here because I've been crazy busy homeschooling my 4 older kiddos (K-7). I definitely underestimated the time and energy it would take, but overall it is going well. But you know me well enough to know that even when life is busy, we still take time to keep a budget and manage our money. We do it because we have goals! We know that if we don't make a plan for our money it will disappear and we won't know what happened to it. Plus, we love making progress ... read more
Debt Smash-athon OCTOBER 2020 Progress Report
I'm so impressed with how you guys have rocked the debt smashing even though it has been a crazy year! I love reading about your successes and positivity through your trials. It hasn't been easy, but you're on the way to reach your goals even if the timeline isn't what you had originally planned. For those who are new here, in 2019 we had a Debt Smash-athon! Everyone was invited to participate by reporting how much you paid in debt each month. We also kept track of how much we invested ... read more
Real Family Budget Update — October 2020
October was a spendy month for us. It was a perfect example of things not quite going the way you planned. Even when you've been faithfully budgeting for years, you will still need to make changes throughout the month. Making changes to your budget during the month doesn't mean that your budget has failed or that you have failed at budgeting! It just means you live in the real world where things don't always go as planned. When we budgeted October at the beginning of the month, we put $1,000 ... read more
Debt Smash-athon SEPTEMBER 2020 Progress Report
I love getting a peek into each of your financial journeys as you share a few details in your Debt Smash-athon reports. I really am rooting for each of you! I'm encouraged by your progress and by your willingness to get up and keep going even after disappointments and struggles. 2020 has definitely not been the year that any of us planned for, but it's great to see some of you making even more progress on your goals than you had planned. For those who are new here, in 2019 we had a Debt ... read more
October 2020 Monthly Grocery Haul
We have had pretty big grocery hauls lately, but October's was different. I waited until the middle of the month to go shopping, and even then we really didn't need to go. With the experience of our quarantine food storage challenge and with a garden that's still producing, we are doing just fine. Still, I wanted to go grocery shopping to restock some things that we use regularly and grab some things to try. For example, I bought oyster crackers for the first time ever. I'm thinking ... read more
Real Family Budget Update– September 2020
It's budget update time! If you're new here, for the last nearly seven years we've shared our family's real budget here every month. We share what we earned, what we spent in each of our budget categories and our progress, and sometimes lack of progress, on our financial goals. Those numbers have changed dramatically over the past seven years, but we hope that whatever stage you're in, it might be helpful to see an example of working a real life budget. There's not one right way to do it, so ... read more
Debt Smash-athon JULY & AUGUST 2020 Progress Report
Life got a little crazy here, so today we're catching up with TWO months of your debt smashing progress! I love reading of your progress and how you are working hard to reach your financial goals even in these crazy times. In fact, some of you even reached the exciting milestone of being free of credit card debt or debt freedom altogether in these past two months! Hooray! It's amazing what you can do when you set a goal and work hard for it! Now that September is nearly through, it's ... read more
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