I'm sure your life is looking a little different than it did a month ago (I know ours certainly is), but I hope you are well and adjusting to this new (albeit temporary) normal. I haven't heard from any you whose health has been directly affected by COVID-19, but I have heard from many of you whose finances have been affected. In the past few weeks as we've considered our own financial situation, we've decided to make some major changes. Let me start by giving a little background, then ... read more
Making the Most of Quarantine 😷
Has the coronavirus cleared your calendar too? I can't think of the last time our calendar looked so empty! Thankfully we are all well, but like many of you, we are currently sheltering in place. While there's lots of disappointment about what is being missed, we're actually enjoying having time to do things we otherwise wouldn't. Slowing down the pace isn't all bad. If you're feeling anxiety about the future and you're at a loss for what you can be doing now, I want to give you some ... read more
Debt Smash-athon FEBRUARY 2020 Progress Report
Well, life in March may be crazy, but you guys did an awesome job smashing debt in February! We smashed nearly $100K of debt between us! Let's go back to February for a minute and celebrate you amazing financial accomplishments and talk about your big wins and how you did it! It's so motivating to read of everyone's sacrifices and hard work. Your efforts are definitely paying off! As you'll read below, you guys did awesome in February! For those who are new here, in 2019 we had a ... read more
Monthly Grocery Shopping– March 2020
The world has turned upside down in the time since I made this grocery shopping trip and when I'm posting it. When I made this shopping trip I had no idea that a week and a half later store shelves would be cleared of food and basic household products because of the coronavirus. Needless to say, I'm thankful that monthly grocery shopping is the norm for us. After this shopping trip, our pantry was replenished with most things. While we are promised that the supply chain is strong and ... read more
Real Family Budget Update– February 2020
Every month we make our personal finances public by sharing everything we earn, spend, save, and pay toward debt. We've been sharing our finances since September of 2013 (when we were in six figures of student loan debt) and haven't missed a month! Our hope is that getting an inside look at one family's way of budgeting will give you ideas on how you can make budgeting work in your family. Of course everyone's income and priorities are different, so everyone's budget should be different ... read more
Debt Smash-athon JANUARY 2020 Progress Report
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
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