Six Figures Under

One of the silver linings of paying off six figures of debt was learning to budget and really take charge of our finances. I’m so thankful for the habit of consistently budgeting that we developed during that challenging time. Because we are actively involved in our finances and very aware of our income and expenses, […]

After being out of town for most of April, we’re back to a more normal budget in May, though there are definitely signs of inflation in most categories. We have been more haphazard with our grocery shopping rather than doing one big monthly grocery haul and that shows in our spending. We also have been […]

April was definitely not a normal month for us. We spent three weeks on a 6,000-mile cross country road trip. We drove as far as Niagara Falls with lots of stops to see sights and visit friends and family along the way. Mike used accrued paid time off so he didn’t have to work at […]

We spent most of April on a cross country road trip, so I’m pretty late in getting March’s update posted. The good news is that April’s update will be posted very soon. As you’ll see in a second, we got a big tax refund in March. That will be going toward our solar goal when […]

Welcome back friends! If you’re a long-time follower, you might be hoping to find something especially appropriate for April 1st, like… 5 Genius Ways to Save on Toilet Paper, How to Get Meat for Free or Cheap, How to Make Money from Your Random Talents, 6 Hacks for Storing Food in Small Homes or Our Post-Covid […]

I know January sounds like forever ago, but for the sake of not missing a monthly budget update since September 2013, I’m going to still share it, even though it feels a little stale! I’ll have February’s budget update posted shortly as well. If you’re new here, we have a family of 8 and we […]

It’s time to share November’s complete budget update. Getting these numbers all together has me really excited to share the cost breakdown from the big trip we took in November. I can’t wait to tell you all about it and share some really great tips for affordable family trips! In other news, my course Grocery […]

The year is quickly finishing up and we’re due for some budget updates! Rest assured we’re still over here budgeting!  I know you didn’t expect anything less! If you’re looking for some frugal holiday tips, check out my blog series 25 Days of Christmas Cheer on a Budget. Without further ado, here’s how we earned […]

Publishing our family’s budget update for September is kind of a milestone for me. The very first time I shared our real numbers budget here was September 2013. That makes EIGHT years our making our family’s personal finances public. For most people that’s a crazy idea. And it was for us at first too.  When […]

“Better late than never” is pretty much my motto over here lately. We went thought August’s budget and set September’s budget right at the end of August as usual. It just took a little while for me to make time to sit down and type up the post about it! This homeschooling four kids while […]

It’s time for our monthly budget update. I typed this up at the beginning of the month, but I was waiting to post it until we filmed the accompanying video where Mike and I walk you through our actual budget in YNAB. But a lot has happened this month and that video pretty was low […]

It’s monthly budget update time!  As usual, we’re sharing what we did with our money last month.  If you’re new here, let me make a quick introduction. We are a family of 8 in Northern California.  Mike is an attorney for the State of California and I stay home (and now homeschool) our six kiddos.  […]

It’s time for another budget update!  I was a little late in getting April’s budget update put together, so if you missed it, you can find it here. The most exciting part of May’s budget was putting a big chunk of money toward our mortgage.  For several months we’ve been contemplating putting in solar, which […]

Phew! We are essentially done with our first year of homeschooling. I don’t know how those one room schoolhouse teachers handled things, because four kids in four grades with two littles, was no small feat!  It was great for lots of reasons and we don’t regret it at all, but the blog has definitely been […]