Why (frugal) fun with the kids this summer? My family is working on a goal: we’re saving up a down payment for a home. So I’ve been flexing my old frugal muscles and trying to minimize expenses everywhere. Of course, that doesn’t mean I don’t plan on having fun this summer. Summers are made for […]
Five Frugal Things
Joining up with frugal and fabulous bloggers The Frugal Girl and The Non-Consumer Advocate to share Five Frugal Things I’ve done recently. 1) Instead of buying a new math book for my 13-year-old daughter for next year’s homeschool, I got one FREE from PaperBackSwap.com. It even has the answer key, which I was preparing to […]
Scam week at the Willard house
It’s an odd coincidence that after my last post about finances, the scammers decided to target our family. My husband called in the middle of a work day and asked me about a few unusual charges on his bank account. When I confirmed that I had not spent money at those businesses, he called the […]
shame of the middle class (and why teach kids about money)
By now you may have read either the original Atlantic article on The Secret Shame of Middle-Class Americans, or read a response to it. The article was fascinating to me, and so were the comments. It seems that most people fall squarely into two types: they lambasted the author for his stupid financial choices (he […]
Frugal Friday: Fails and Wins
Given the excitement around here after Ruby broke her arm, had surgery to correct it, and spent a night in the hospital, not to mention that everyone caught a nasty virus with fever, aches and chills, let’s just say I didn’t do so great in the food waste department. There was food that I intended […]
Frugal Friday and food waste update
On Fridays, two bloggers I admire for their frugal skill and panache, The Frugal Girl and The Non-Consumer Advocate, list cheapskate things they’ve done that week. (The Frugal Girl often posts pictures of food she’s wasted that week, brave soul. It’s inspiring.) Years ago, I did the same thing here each week. I’ve decided to […]
Technical difficulties
I won’t spend too much time discussing this, lest I engage in that internet faux pas known as metablogging. It’s been very hard to come here lately. Not because I don’t have anything to say, but because of various hardware and software problems. By hardware, I mean my brand new Chromebook was destroyed by a […]
When blogging is difficult
For weeks now, there have been many things I wanted to say here. My head is very loud with all the things. But when I sit down to write a post (if I get that far, even), they all seem so silly and unimportant. I don’t want to bore people with tales of my feelings. […]
Diversifying Your Online Income: how to protect yourself from the changing internet
Some of my readers have online businesses or are interested in the topic. I’m sharing something that’s become increasingly important to anyone who works from home, and that is: the importance of diversifying your online income. Diversifying Your Online Income: why? Things change online, quickly. Social media outlets change what they show your audience. Google […]
Habits of the Wealthy
This post is part of a 31-day treatise on habits. <— Click there to see all the posts. I’m a big fan of finance guru and talk show host Dave Ramsey. My husband and I attended Financial Peace University classes a few years ago, and have been working on his Baby Steps ever since. There was […]