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
September 2020 Monthly Grocery Haul
Since August was a crazy month with getting homeschooling up and going, I didn't post our monthly grocery haul, but I'm back in September! In fact, I'm taking you shopping with me! Our family of 8 usually spends around $500 per month on groceries, well until 2020 hit. Then we took a couple of months off from grocery shopping during our Quarantine Food Storage Challenge where we were eating strictly from our pantry and food storage. And then we had a HUGE grocery haul to restock our ... read more
Planning Your Emergency Water Storage
You know I'm all about being prepared. Today we're going to talk about water storage. You'll get lots of options and ideas for putting together emergency water storage for your family, including how you can do it virtually for free. But first, why is water so important? Don't we all have it coming out of our faucets? Why store water? Yes, we are blessed to have clean water coming out of the tap 99 percent of the time. BUT in times of natural disaster or a disruption or contamination in ... read more
Real Family Budget Update – August 2020
It's time for a budget update! I pretty much haven't checked in with you all since our budget update a month ago. August was a crazy month getting homeschooling set up for our 4 school-age kids. It seriously consumed all of my time! You seasoned homeschoolers probably have all sorts of secrets that I don't know since I'm new to this. Just as we were getting into a groove, we were accepted into a homeschool charter where we had been on the waitlist for months. A lot of things stay the ... read more
Best Blackberry Syrup Recipe (with canning tutorial)
It's blackberry season where we live, which means free blackberries are available in every direction. The kids had been begging to go berry picking because we have been out of blackberry syrup for too long and we need to restock. Sure we have other kinds of syrup, but nothing compares to homemade blackberry syrup. It's everyone's favorite! Everyone was thrilled that last week's Family Night activity involved picking buckets of blackberries on the side of the road. No one even complained ... read more
Real Family Budget Update – July 2020
It's time for our July 2020 real numbers budget update! Life in July was a little crazy for our family. We went from laying low in quarantine, literally not going anywhere, to having two scheduled surgeries and one emergency room visit in July, along with the associated doctor visits. And even aside from that excitement (most of which hasn't hit the budget yet), July was a fairly expensive month. We spent way more on groceries than we normally do, as we're trying to get our long-term and ... read more
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