At the end of the month, I love reviewing our budget and planning our finances for the next month. When we look at our budget at the end of the month, we aren’t checking to see if we our spending matched up exactly with the amount we set for our budget categories at the bginning […]
We took our family of 8 on a 6-night cruise. Here’s the complete cost breakdown.
We recently returned from a 6-night cruise with our family of 8. We’ve been planning and saving for this trip for about 18 months. We’ve never taken a trip like this before, so we were super excited! As always, I’m reporting back to share all of our spending with you. Of course I don’t expect […]
March 2025 Transparent Family Budget Update
It’s budget update time! I always look forward to going through our budget at the end of the month and planning our budget for the next month. When we look at our budget at the end of the month, we aren’t looking to see if we matched our spending up exactly with the amount we […]
5 Genius Ways to Save Money on Toilet Paper
Every family has certain expenses they are focusing on lowering. Once you’ve lowered your bills, reduced your grocery spending, and cut out superfluous spending, you can look more closely at even more specific expenses. I don’t know about your family, but our family seems to go through a lot of toilet paper. When I look […]
Frugal Feats, Flops, and Funnies: Show, Shipping, Shopping, and Sleeping
In addition to sharing ways to save money, budget, and reach your financial goals, I love sharing our day-to-day frugal adventures. The frugal life is full of ups and downs, some of which can only be appreciated by other frugal-minded people. Do you have friends or family who also live frugally? Maybe you have certain […]
How to Save Money on Glasses (and even get some free!)
If you wear glasses, you know that they can be expensive! Back when we were paying off six figures of student loan debt, I was especially diligent at figuring out how to reduce every one of our expenses. While some of our spending habits have changed as our finances have changed, our spending on […]
Monthly Grocery Haul- Family of 8- March 2025
It has been a while since I shared a monthly grocery haul. That’s because life has been crazy and I haven’t been doing meal planning and monthly grocery shopping like I should. You can see what happens when I do that in our last budget update! Yikes! During March I am committed to lowering that […]
Want to win at personal finance? Stop using this phrase!
What do you think when you hear someone say “I can’t afford that?” Do you admire them for their self-control or wish you could be as budget-conscious as them? Careful, now. Those words can actually be symptoms of some serious problems in their relationship with money. It may sound counterintuitive, but if you really want […]
Frugal Feats Flops and Funnies: Socks, Sales, and Flying Free
Being frugal isn’t just about making a money-saving a decision here and there. It can become a way of life! While we were working hard to pay off six figures of student loan debt, living frugal was a necessity in order to reach our goals. Now, a dozen years later, we’re still sticking to many […]
February 2025 Family Budget Update
Every month we share our family’s real budget with you in an effort to break the taboo about budgeting and help you manage your own budget. Unfortunately, personal finance isn’t offered in most high schools and most people don’t ever have experience with a real budget until it’s their own. When we started openly sharing […]
4 Ways We’re Lowering Our Grocery Budget This Month
I love a new month to have a fresh start! Our grocery budget has been creeping up lately and I’m determined to stop it! I know I’m not the only one who feels like their grocery spending has gotten out of control. The difference is that I know better! I am a grocery savings expert […]
How to Get Started with Sinking Funds (and Why You Should!)
Have you ever been hit with a big bill that you didn’t budget for? If so, it’s time to set up some sinking funds so that next time you can be prepared. The annual premium for our disability insurance is due next month. While it’s not a surprise, it would be easy to forget that […]
January 2025 Family Budget Update
Budgeting has always been key to reaching financial goals, but in these uncertain financial times, budgeting really is crucial! I’ve been sharing our family’s real budget since 2013 when we were in six figures of student loan debt. A lot has changed with our finances since then, but one thing hasn’t changed- we still budget […]
Easy Way to Cook a Turkey for Meat and Broth– plus cost analysis!
Have you ever wondered if it’s worth it to stock up on turkeys around Thanksgiving when the price seems to be dirt cheap? This was (and is) my mother-in-law’s habit, so I was curious how cost effective whole turkeys are, considering you’re paying for the weight of the bones and all of the “extras” (not […]
October 2024 Family Budget Update
What do you do when you have unexpected expenses? As you’ll see in our budget below, we try to plan ahead by adding to sinking funds for specific purposes. By adding money to each of these categories every month, we build up sums of money that will come in handy when those expenses come up. […]
Frugal Feats, Flops, and Funnies- Owl Edition
Both my husband and I grew up with frugal parents, so we come into frugality naturally and it has served us well. Carefully and intentionally minimizing expenses was a huge part of how we were able to pay off six figures of student loan debt in three years. I love helping people learn to be […]
Our Secret for Saving on Heating Bills (+ 8 More Money-Saving Strategies)
It’s finally starting to cool off and feel like fall here! Aside from being soup and sweater season, another lovely thing about fall is that utility costs are lower because you don’t have to pay to to cool or heat your house. Stretching this low utility cost season even further is one of our number […]
5 Ways we’re saving for a family vacation (without using our own money)
It sounds pretty crazy to save for a vacation without using our own money. No, we’re not stealing! And we’re not using anyone else’s money. But I want to see how much we can save creatively from money that isn’t our regular income. Hear me out! We have something exciting planned for our family in […]
Transparent Family Budget Update – September 2024
I always look forward to going through our budget at the end of the month. When we look at our budget at the end of the month, we aren’t looking to see if we matched our spending up exactly with the amount we set for each budget category. Throughout the month we track our spending […]
Frugal Feats, Flops, and Funnies
It has been a while since I shared a new edition of Frugal Feats, Flops, and Funnies. As you probably know, the frugal life has its share of adventures. Some of those adventures end with a smile, some with a frown, and others leave us laughing. This is a series where I share some of […]
Transparent Family Budget Update for August
Today I’m sharing our transparent family budget, including all of our spending and earning, from August. If you read my last post, then you already have an idea about the most exciting part of this budget update: we bought a car! While that might be the most exciting, it’s all of the other things in […]
We bought a new car!
Okay, not a new car, but a new-to-us car. If you’ve been following our financial journey, then this probably isn’t a big shock, as we’ve been saving for a new vehicle. We still had a long way to go until we reached our goal amount and we didn’t buy the type of car we had […]
Two-Week Family Trip to Guatemala – Budget vs. Actual Spending
After deciding to take a trip to Guatemala, I immediately got to work making a budget. Rather than just save up a random sum of money and hope it would be enough, I did lots of research and created a meticulous, well-thought-out budget. If you missed it, you can check it out here. Not only […]
July 2024 Transparent Family Budget Update
It’s the time of the month where I tell you how much I love having a budget! Budgets often get a bad rap because some people see them as restrictive, but if you’ve been around here for any length of time, you know that I believe the opposite is true. Rather than being restrictive, a […]
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