The weather in New York City still feels like January, but we’re rounding the corner into April already. 2015 is flying by! I’m also coming up on 38 weeks of pregnancy, which means life as we know it is about to be flipped on its head in the OFB household. And we’re getting pretty darn excited. Before we become a mushy, sleep-deprived mess that has eyes only for our newborn, we wanted to do another About You. We haven’t done one of these since January, so just to recap, these posts are our chance to hear from you, our readers. Johnny and I get to talk our brains out on here, and sometimes it’s nice to hear more about what makes you guys and gals tick.
Before we let loose on some rapid fire Q&A’s for all of you, here are a few other ways we can stay connected. Like us on Facebook, follow me on Instagram (lots o’ Sally, NYC, and Johnny giving the camera his best grimace-smile), follow me on Pinterest, and follow us on Twitter. And we’ve kicked off a super secret email list where a few times a month we’ll show up in your email inbox with budgeting tips, knock-knock jokes, and other stuff you won’t read here. So if you’re into that sorta thing, join our secret email list.
And now… here’s what Johnny and I have been dying to know from each of you.
- Give us your best baby girl name recommendation. (Otherwise, our little girl who’s due in 2.5 weeks, might remain nameless.)
- If money were no object, where would you live?
- How do you keep track of your budget?
- What was the freaking dress: gold and white or blue and black?
- What topic(s) would you like to see covered on OFB?
We’ll answer, too, to get the ball rolling. And then it’s your turn.
Joanna
- Johnny hates all the names I love. After I’ve imagined our future daughter as a baby, young girl, teenager, and adult, introducing herself with the name I’ve thought of, I tell it to Johnny. And he crushes my dream into powder. I currently like the name Ivy, which he said isn’t a name at all, but a plant. I also like the name Olive, which he says is a food that he hates. So I give up.
- Fun fact: I hate cold weather. So if and when we find our forever place, I’d like it to be somewhere that’s warm year-round. And if there happens to be a beach nearby, I wouldn’t mind that either.
- We use the HomeBudget app as we spend money, and we refer to Mint when we get behind a few days.
- How do I put this? To me, it was more of a periwinkle and olive color. Johnny wouldn’t talk to me for the rest of the night.
- I’m hoping to do a post soon all about our experience with potty training Sally… it’s been quite an experience, that’s for sure.
Johnny
- Thor. Thor-zy. Thor-ella. Nah, I actually have some really good name ideas, despite whatever lies Joanna will spread.
- I’d go for that one place that has white sand and crystal clear water and is always 80 degrees and where coconuts and pineapples grow from every tree, which is weird because pineapples don’t grow on trees, but on this island they just do. I don’t know what this place is called, but that place.
- HomeBudget and receipts in my pockets that usually stay in my pockets during laundry. And then become a tissuey mess in my pockets.
- Gold and white. If you see it any differently, stop everything that you’re doing, go to your eye doctor, and tell him you’d like to return your defective eyeballs.
- Political, religious, and super personal posts, preferably all three topics rolled into one. So basically more stuff like my Facebook feed.
Okay, we’re done and ready for ya. Give us the best you’ve got.
125 Comments
1. Alexandra or Sophia are my fave girl names.
2. My current city. Money is the only reason I’ve ever considered moving out!
3. I don’t really budget. I mostly just save/invest first and let myself spend the remainder. I generally have a rough guess of what that’ll be because of Mint though.
4. Blue and black.
5. Day care and taking trips with kids
Oh, lovely names! Thanks for sharing!
Give us your best baby girl name recommendation. (Otherwise, our little girl who’s due in 2.5 weeks, might remain nameless.) – Well I’m partial to Avery and Lillian! I also liked Morgan, Grace (used that as Lillian’s middle name), Cadence and for a classic I like my grandma’s name, Ruth.
If money were no object, where would you live? – Newport, RI or Block Island, maybe somewhere along the coast of Maine (I love cold weather). Across the pond I’d love to live in London for a bit!
How do you keep track of your budget? – stay a month ahead and pay every bill the first week. The cash categories I don’t track. When it’s gone it’s gone and if there is leftover it rolls to the next month. Never borrowing between envelopes.
What’s the freaking dress: gold and white or blue and black? – Since I’m such a rebel, I refuse to even look at the dress. I’m so anti-social media these days!
What topic(s) would you like to see covered on OFB? – More on Joanna’s work from home life…esp with number 2 on the way.
If you love cold weather, anywhere in the NE would have been your dream this winter! It’s been a frozen tundra for months now! I really love the name Avery, too!!
Way to be a rebel with the dress. And hopefully we can share more about my working/mommying routine these days soon!
1. Isabel, Valentina, and Sofia are my top 3 baby girl names. (I’m from Puerto Rico, so names in Spanish are always a go.)
2. I’d live in Tuscany if I could.
3. I use an Excel spreadsheet to keep track.
4. I saw it white and gold first, but then jumped on the blue and black bandwagon.
5. Baby pictures!
Promise to share lots of baby pictures when this girl finally makes her debut. And Tuscany, of course! If I just get to visit at some point, I’ll be one happy woman. Love your name recommendations… thanks!
1. i love Kathryn. but if we ever have a girl, i’ll probably go with a family name (which Kathryn is not).
2. i love living in Alabama
3. excel spreadsheet
4. white and gold
5. post about anything…i love it all
Kathryn is a beautiful name. And Alabama! I lived there for several years, and my parents still call it home. I don’t think anything could ever get them to leave because they love it so much!
Give us your best baby girl name recommendation. Hadley, Grace, Riley
If money were no object, where would you live? I would spend winters in Costa Rica and summers in Northern Michigan.
How do you keep track of your budget? We use an excel spreadsheet that I created.
What’s the freaking dress: gold and white or blue and black? Never looked at the dress 🙂
What topic(s) would you like to see covered on OFB? How to go into Costco without spending $150 every time :-), how to stay within a budget with a new born, how much do you spend on diapers, wipes, baby clothes, etc….
Johnny has this thing for Costa Rica right now, too! Sounds dreamy right about now in frigid NYC. We actually love the name Hadley… one of the few names we both like! As soon as baby girl arrives, w’ll have lots of baby spending posts coming up!
1) I don’t have children yet but I have loved these names for a long time – Brooklyn, Kendall, Avery, Caden
2) I would live in Costa Rica – always beautiful, actually still very budget friendly and the people that live there are incredibly nice and appreciative of everything they have.
3) Written budget – I need to try the HomeBudget!
4) Blue & Black – tell Johnny to get his eyes checked! 🙂
5) I love to see how you all save money on fun stuff. sometimes I feel like I can never find anything cheap to do in our area
Those are all great names… thanks! Johnny’s been trying to convince me we need to move to Costa Rica! Hard to imagine, but maybe someday we can make it happen…
Thanks for the post recommendation! I’m hoping when the weather warms up, we’ll have lots more fun/free activities to share!
1. We named out little lady “Teagan” because all the other names we like were too hard for American’s to pronounce…. I still like Aoife and Aine… Fiona was high on our list.. but then we remembered the name is in Shrek
2. It would probably be somewhere in Ireland, Either Kinsale, Cobh, or Ardmore. All three are very lovely seaside towns.
3. Magic
4.Blue Black… except when people cheat and actually show a legit White/Gold one.
5. I look forward to hearing your potty training story… I think our little guy has just about got it (thank you daycare for doing the heavy lifting). I would like to hear more stories about Johnny’s hatred of olives and other foods.
What a cute name for your girl! I love it. And oh potty training…. it’s been mighty interesting. I should be sharing more on that in the coming week, as long as I don’t go into labor before I get a chance to write it!
1. I like Nora and Shaniqua (JK!) Side note that I found interesting: women with androgynous names (Pat, Jo, etc), generally find it easier to get hired and earn more…
2. I’d live in Vancouver – moving there soon, but going to have to stick to a strict budget!
3. I track my budget via Mint and excel spreadsheet.
4. Dress: SO over it, but it was interesting to find out the reason behind it.
5. Topics: Budgeting, maybe a comparison of what it costs to live in different cities around the world with differing levels of costs of living, more on tithing/reasons behind it, and different money psychologies around the world.
Nora is such a feminine name… I really love that one. And thanks for all the great topic ideas… we’ll be running with a few of those!
1. I like classic names. I do not care for anything that the kid is going to have to explain the spelling to every teacher they ever have. My maiden name is Nowak, which is pronounced Novak… it’s Polish and it was annoying in school, so I don’t want to do that to my kids. I also think if you pick a trendy name then they will be in school with a ton of other kids with the same name… in my generation Ashley, Amanda, Katie, Jen, Jess, Lauren. That being said… Amber is obviously a great name 😉 But seriously I really like Emma, Grace, Hannah, and Alice.
2. Ummmm if I had the money to travel home whenever I want, I supposed I would live somewhere tropical, but I actually love the area we live in. SE Pennsylvania is perfect. Close to Philly, NYC, Baltimore, DC, the poconos, and the beach. And more important, close to family!
3. I do not keep a formal budget. I still haven’t taken the plunge. I follow my spending closely on my online bank account, but I don’t actually have a budget. Probably should fix this… I did sign up for Mint but apparently it locked me out of my student loan account so when that happened I immediately deleted my Mint account.
4. White & gold, all the way!
5. Hmmmmm, I love your posts. I am currently paying off student debt and in the next few years we’ll be starting a family, so everything relevant to that. Maybe some further motivation to actually sit down and create a budget? Although I’m sure there’s plenty here and even more that I’ve read that still haven’t convinced me (aka I’m lazy).
We tend to agree on classic names, too! That’s awesome you’ve found an area you love and plan to stay in… you have so much nearby, and being close to family is a *huge* perk once you start a family!
1. Lumen was our baby girl name choice, but we’re having a boy (in June). Still love the name, but not enough to have a 3rd. 😉
2. I’d buy a ton of land in New England somewhere. Or if going exotic, Honduras.
3. Google spreadsheets and a binder/notebook I keep.
4. White and gold!
5. No real suggestions, you already cover so much! Perhaps costs of new baby’s diapers/wipes/necessities.
Congrats on your baby on the way! How exciting. As I’m sure you’ve already seen, pregnancy flies when you have another one keeping you busy! It will be here before you know it. We’ll be sharing more about all the newborn costs soon!
Give us your best baby girl name recommendation.
Lucy (my daughter’s name!), Vivian, Anna, Phoebe, Caroline, Josephine, Clara
If money were no object, where would you live?
Hmmm, I will say Colorado, Portland OR, Seattle, or North Carolina.
How do you keep track of your budget?
In writing or by checking our checking account but I need to work on a new system.
What was the freaking dress: gold and white or blue and black?
Gold and white!
What topic(s) would you like to see covered on OFB?
More kid posts! Daycare, budget-friendly family travel, etc.
Such great name ideas! Johnny loves Caroline, so that one’s currently on our list. We love those old-fashioned names like Lucy, too! I’m sure with baby #2 coming, we’ll be doing LOTS of kid posts!
1. Laurel and Vivienne are my favorites that I won’t be able to use.
2. Santa Barbara, CA. Where sunny days outnumber the cloudy ones by a landslide, the ocean and foothills are nearby, fruit tress grow in almost every yard, and the temperature averages 75 F all year round.
3. I use YNAB and Mint.com
4. At first I thought gold and white, but once the photo was white-balanced, blue and black.
5. Groceries – how to eat well (organic, whole foods, grass fed meat) on a budget
A Santa Barbara climate sounds pretty ideal to me right now. This never-ending NYC winter is crushing my soul!
We have a grocery post on that very topic coming up in the next few weeks, so stay tuned!
Give us your best baby girl name recommendation: Camdyn, Lydia
If money were no object, where would you live? A shoebox sized flat in Europe. 😉
How do you keep track of your budget? I have an addiction to spreadsheets. It’s bad.
What was the freaking dress: gold and white or blue and black? Not sure, but it was poorly photographed.
What topic(s) would you like to see covered on OFB? ~ Emergency fund, what’s realistic? ~
Oh dear, you and Johnny both. I’m fairly certain no matter how hard I try, I’ll never be able to have that love affair with spreadsheets that so many seem to have!
Firstly, this is a really funny post! Brought a smile to my face so thank you! 🙂 Both of you really bounce off each other, great couple! To the questions!
1. Love love love Millie…along with Molly, Polly, Holly, Julie, Lauren, Tori, Willow, Jennifer (shortened to Jenny or Jen as a child), Anna, Pippa, , Kelly, Keelin and top of the lot, my name!! Ha ha! Sorry, I’m giddy now…!
2. I wouldn’t live anywhere long term other than my home, Ireland…You could get 4 seasons in one day here but love it!… Plus I’m a total home bird so I’d actually die if I moved..
3. Pen and Paper – I’m old school..
4. Blue and black… I’m ready to duel it out Johnny 🙂 Admittedly, I’ve seen it look white and gold in some pics but the actual REAL dress is blue and black so I rest my case 🙂
5. Would love to see “a day in the life of…” or “what I bought/spent this week…” and more of the he says/she says which are always very amusing.
Love all those names, especially Polly! (It’s on our shortlist!)
Ireland sounds pretty great… I hope we get a chance to visit someday. Thanks for the post recommendations! We will be doing a typical week of spending post coming up soon, so stay tuned!
1. We are also having a girl soon, so I can’t give away my favorite name, but I might steal your’s! Ivy is so, so cute. Our first daughter is named Ina, so Ivy would match quite a bit. Other names on our list that my husband hasn’t approved: Rue, Cora, Macy, and Eloise. My husband has one – Maven, which I think sounds too dark. Good luck!
2. I would live where I do now, in Kansas City. I want to be close to my family. However, if money were no object, I would definitely travel a lot more. 🙂
3. In my super tricked out, highly programmed spreadsheet. I tried a few different apps, but none did exactly what I wanted, so I made my own. It works perfectly for us!
4. It kept on changing colors on me…
5. Oooh, a potty training post would be wonderful! I am currently potty training my 2 year old and I woke up to hear this, “Momma! I’m peeing on the carpet!” Good times…
Congrats on your little girl on the way! How exciting. Ugh, potty training… the things I’ve heard and seen these last few weeks will scar me forever. We’ll be posting it this week (as long as I don’t go into labor before it gets written, haha).
1. Just last night I decided that River was an awesome girls name and almost called my pregnant sister to suggest it … then I decided to be selfish and keep it for myself (despite no kids on current horizon)! But we can share if you want, just can’t have cousins with the same name.
2.We have a forever house on the west coast of Scotland which I would never want to sell. However if it was viable I would be interested in living back in a city for a couple of years, maybe London or, after a holiday there, New York.
3. I am an excel genius (&modest!) so like the good old spreadsheet. I keep looking at app reviews though to keep track a bit more accurately.
4. It kept changing on me. So confused.
5. Just carry on doing what you’re doing. I trust you!
Ohh, that’s an adorable name! Thanks for sharing!
A forever house on the west coast of Scotland sounds like a pretty great place to be! This frigid concrete jungle we currently reside in had better redeem itself soon or I’m gonna lose it!
1. We too are in baby-naming mode with our second so while I love the girl name we have chosen, I’m not giving it away. 🙂 But some of my favorite names are Anne Elise and Mallory. My husband loves the name Olivia.
2. Because my husband is in grad school and could literally get a job anywhere on campus, I keep a running list of places I want to live. Most of them are realistic (Colorado, North Carolina)… but if money were no object, I’d have the shores and climate of California and the red rocks of Colorado
hauled in to Alabama so we could stay here and live close to family.
3. I’m a paper-and-pen gal, so I still use a basic paper spreadsheet to keep up with expenses. I’m trying the HomeBudget app so my husband can also see our expenses. We tried using Mint but it didn’t work for us.
4. White and gold. Duh.
5. Maybe some interviews with people who have gotten out of debt, have a nice nest egg, or even people learning from their mistakes – it’s always interesting to hear different stories and perspectives. I mean, I like y’all’s stories and perspectives! That’s why I read this blog! But it would be interesting to hear how others are obtaining the same goals, maybe in different ways.
Congrats on baby #2! The pregnancy with baby #2 flies by, I tell ya! Your due date will be here before you know it. Thanks for the post tip… great idea!
1. Scarlett (How cute would Sally & Scarlett be?! You both start with J so keep the trend going and have all S’s 🙂
2. I hate the cold weather too! I’ve lived in Utah my whole life and I don’t do any snow sports so… warm weather it is. I seriously wouldn’t mind St. George, or AZ.
3. I just use a plain old excel spreadsheet & my memory.
4. To me, it looked brown & purple! Weirdest thing ever!
5. I love the financial posts, as well as personal. I can’t wait to hear about life with a newborn and a toddler 🙂
Scarlett is such a cute name! I’ll have to add that to our list. St. George is our ideal Utah climate, too! When we lived there, we talked about moving down there… of course, if SLC keeps having winters like the one it just had, you’re all set!
1. My favorites are Evelyn, Adeline, or Eugenia. My husband and I agreed on future kids names of Evelyn, Cora, or Katherine.
2. Minneapolis, Minnesota, where my family is. We are trying desperately to relocate there now, but jobs just aren’t available for us in our career fields. Alternatively, Southern California where my husband’s dad lives.
3. Mint and a paper budget.
4. Ugh…I don’t even want to answer this. Blue and black.
5. Have you had any major disagreements about money, what have those been about, and how did you resolve them? Also, as Johnny seems to have great success moving for his career (unlike my husband and me as of late)–do you have any job hunt/application tips?
Good for you guys for already having baby names you agree on! Johnny and I are that way with boy names… but I don’t know if we’ll ever have a boy! If Johnny has it his way, we won’t stop until he has a son… 😉
Great post tips! We’ll try to get around to both of those topics soon. Thanks!
1. Norah and Phoebe are two of my favorites.
2. I would stay in Colorado but upgrade my housing situation!
3. I use home budget and a numbers spreadsheet
4. Team white and gold ftw
5. I would love more personal posts about you guys as a family
Johnny nixed both of those names a few weeks ago, but for the record, I’m also a big fan of Phoebe! So cute. I’m sure with baby girl arriving soon, we’ll have more personal posts on the horizon. Thanks for the tip!
1. Tabetha and Natalie
2. Hmmm. A ranch in Montana
3. 50/20/30 budget plan I found on Pinterest. I track purchases and put them into one of the three categories. It’s changed our attitude on spending. “Less Lifestyle” seems to balance the budget.
4. ?
5. Saving money stuff…actually, I’m with Johnny post super personal stuff… Just Kidding
Johnny and I have never been to Montana! But it looks so beautiful. It’s probably not as warm as we’d prefer haha, but I’d really like to do a vacation there soon!
1. Stella (Or Estella) would make a great pair with Sally 🙂 I also love the name Frankie for a little lady and Ruby.
2. Alaska or Colorado or Ireland or….oh heck I can’t decide–too many places I love!
3. Mint–but loosely, mostly pen & paper and keep a close eye on my accounts via the WellsFargo App.
4. I was a white/gold-er then it magically changed before my eyes to periwinkle/charcoal–sorcery I say! 😉
5. I’d love to hear more about your vacation planning/activities planning and how you work them into your budget, would love to hear more about Joanna’s side hustle income pursuits from home—-would also like to know if you’re keeping up with rock climbing while in NYC (gym?)
—Keep being Awesome!
Big thumbs up on Ruby! Love that one. You’re the first person to mention the periwinkle color! I felt like a crazy person because that wasn’t one of the color options. Glad I’m not alone!
Great post tips! Hope to share more on those in the coming weeks. Thanks!
1. I like our daughter’s name – Valerie. She’s a blonde blue-eyed Type A person. Sal reminds me so much of her when she was that young age. We call her Val for short.
2. Regardless of $$$, to me there is no place like home – Toronto (despite having crappy sports teams)!
3. To budget I use a monthly 1-sheet page, divided up between budget vs actuals, separated between income sources vs cumulative monthly expenses. At month end I then transcribe the numbers into an annual excel spreadsheet, broken out by month and yearly totaled. I keep a copy of each yearly spreadsheet and thus can then compare to track monthly / year-over-year trends.
4. I don’t wear dresses! (and besides, I forget now about the colours) 🙂
5. Guys, you’re doing great variety-wise in your posts already so keep up the good work.
However, that said, I’d look forward to the anticipated big day (or middle of the night, probably), when you tell us all about the “fun” that transpires when Sal’s baby sister decides to “pop by” and say “hi” for the very first time at the hospital! Now that should be pretty interesting to read! 🙂
Val and Sal! I love names with a good nickname built in. We’ll see when baby #2 decides to make her debut! I’m hoping it’s sometime in the next two weeks… not sure how much longer I can keep up this waddle!
1. My husband picked both of our girls names but now I can’t see them as any other name. We get compliments on their names all the time because they are a bit old fashion. But I like the names Ava, Adele, Adelyn and Adeline. Our youngest name is a form Adeline.
2. Hawaii
3.HomeBudget
4.Gold and white
5. ?
I really like those names… unfortunately, forms of all of them are already used by cousins!! That’s what happens when you have three older sisters with multiple children of their own haha!
1. Being cursed with a gender-ambiguous, unspellable name, I’m a fan of straight-forward, only-one-way-to-spell names. Abigail, Emily, Emma, Jane, Mary, Maria etc. Of course if you don’t mind constantly having to spell names for people, I love Gaelic names (that’s where mine started before the spelling was “simplified”) – Niamh, Aoife, Eilidh.
2. In a really beautiful house in exactly the same part of London where I currently live (Kennington). There’s a square of houses about 5 mins walk away of which I am deeply jealous. Also I’d have a holiday flat in Sydney, and maybe one in the south of France too.
3. An Excel sheet. Which means that keeping track of it at the moment (baby is 5 weeks old) requires impossible time in front of the laptop.
4. Who cares?
5. Making extra money (side hustles), how your budget got rearranged when Joanna became a SAHM, and anything with numbers (I really like the monthly budget updates).
Oh man… our budget is going to go out the window for a while after baby #2 is born for sure! Congrats on the baby! Getting through that first month is a big milestone… and if I remember correctly, now’s about the time we started getting smiles and actual eye contact. The best!
1. I think Maisy would be a great name choice for you guys! I also love Ainsley, Valerie, Amelia & Delia.
2. Born and raised in Upstate NY! I love it there and if money wasn’t in the equation thats where we’d be but my husband’s job has us across the country in Washington State right now.
3. Our bank USAA has an awesome budgeting tool that we’ve been using for years, but I really like the EveryDollar tool just released by Ramsey Solutions. We just may switch!
4. I’m not blind- white and gold
5. I really like your financial posts. There are hundreds of blogs run by stay-at-home moms about living and parenting frugally and I already follow a bunch. What makes your blog unique is the great financial knowledge and advice you put in the mix. Keep up the good work!
My little ones name is Delia. It’s not an often mentioned name! But I do love it!
I really love Maisy! That’s one that’s been floating through our “baby naming” conversation the last few days. I just heard about the EveryDollar tool… sounds like it has everything you could ever need!
Give us your best baby girl name recommendation.
Stella. That’s my dog’s name and my dog is the greatest human who’s never been a human.
If money were no object, where would you live?
No object? I wouldn’t live anywhere. I’d travel for the rest of my life. With a personal attendant for all of my pets (and husband).
How do you keep track of your budget?
A simple Google Doc. However, I just read I Will Teach You To Be Rich and I really like Ramit Sethi’s approach to budgeting (where there’s no itemization but every dollar is still vouched for and there are spending limits).
What was the freaking dress: gold and white or blue and black?
The freaking dress was freaking white and gold.
What topic(s) would you like to see covered on OFB?
I’ve think I’ve mentioned this before but… book reviews. Especially of the nerdy/finance-y/self-help-y variety…
Your human dog sounds pretty great. Our cat has started becoming much more vocal lately since she sees that Sally gets attention by being very vocal… I’m about to throw that feline out the window!
1) With Sally, I like Alice, Ruby, Greta, Rosie, or Beatrix (imagine Sally and Bea! So cute!)
2) Right here. I love where I live. We would just have a much more interesting house bc I would give my architect husband free reign.
3) Google doc spreadsheet. Mint is too easy, gotta keep it a little painful.
4) White and gold.
5) I’m really interested in your Baby Bucksx2 pieces.
Oh my! You and I have the same taste in names… so funny. I’ve mentioned Alice, Beatrice, and Rose to Johnny, and he’s nixed them all haha! SO… we continue our quest.
And yeah girl, we’re all about keeping the budget a little bit painful. Way to work it.
1. First off, Ivy is totally a name. I know this because it’s the name of my mom’s bff. If I’m blessed with a baby girl one day, Lucille is my favorite. You can use it since we only know each other via the interweb. My best friend also just named her daughter, Claire, which I love.
2. Since money isn’t an option, I’d easy choose anywhere near water. It can be a lake, a river, or the ocean…I’m not picky. There’s just something about the sound of water that relaxes my soul.
3. I’m the worst budget keeper ever and by that I mean it’s all in my head. I have money going to so many accounts that I sometimes am surprised to see what’s where. It’s terrible. That is one of the main reasons I’m thrilled to have found OFB.
4. The dress was a million percent black and blue, don’t be silly guys.
5. I like the money talks…yours is one of the only “budgeting” blogs I follow. However, I like a healthy mix of personal stuff too.
Agree… there’s something so therapeutic about being near the water. And full disclosure, Claire is on our shortlist! We’ll have to see what fits when we finally meet this little girl!
Give us your best baby girl name recommendation – our little lady is Linnea. In the future, we’d love a Maurin, too! I personally also love Ines, Isla, and Diem.
If money were no object, where would you live? Probably still here in Minnesota, although I’d love to find a beautiful lake home to enjoy! We are near family, although I hate the cold weather for so much of the year. Perhaps we’d buy a vacation home somewhere – we did love Puerto Rico!
How do you keep track of your budget? We use Mint and are going to try the You Need a Budget app for free next month.
What was the freaking dress: gold and white or blue and black? I saw gold and white, but I’m clearly wrong. Oh well!
What topic(s) would you like to see covered on OFB? Saving money with kiddos. You probably have written lots about this! But it will be a new chapter with your new little one on the way!
I really love Isla, too, but Johnny’s not on board of course!
I will say that I could stomach cold weather much better if we were near family… it’s so nice to have them around once you have kids!
1.) Sienna, Ava, or River
2.) Colorado and Europe 🙂 Denver/Breckenridge and somewhere in Europe
3.) I just try to spend as little as possible.
4.) Uhh, both?
5.) I enjoy what you two cover. I would love for you to do a grocery comparison like item. Utah vs. NYC
Can’t wait to see the pictures of the baby! And Sally looking at the baby 🙂
Oooh, that’s a great idea! We should do a grocery comparison sometime soon… although, it might make me a little sick to realize how much more we pay for things out here!
1. I love the idea of double names for kids (they can drop the second name as an adult). So I vote for an Emma Rose or Loretta Lynn.
2. I would buy one of those fancy apartment suites on a cruise ship, you know the one, with the pillow concierge and private dining room if you don’t want to be social. Then I could live anywhere and everywhere depending on the mood and weather.
3. Excel spreadsheet
4. I don’t really have on opinion about the color, but I thought the domestic violence awareness ads that used it were pretty cool.
5. Maybe a series on how people make their money. i.e. what does your career path look like? I am always interested in hearing how the other 99.9% spend their working lives.
Great post idea! I’d find that really interesting, too. Thanks for the tip!
I like the names Lark and Aspen.
Lark and Aspen! So cute! Love Lark especially. Thanks for sharing!
1) I like name that lend themselves to different variants because nicknames and pet names are fun and who knows what her personality will be like? For example, Charlotte (Charlie, Shar, Carlotta, Lottie) or Naomi (Nene, Nay)
2) I’d probably stay in Oakland ( either in the same place or trade up to a slightly snazzier unit with a view) but my vacations would get much splashier and more frequent
3) Excel- it’s a mix of constant amounts (mortgage, student loan, pet insurance, internet etc), guesstimated amounts ( I estimate a value for food for example, after having done a couple months of detailed tracking) and logging of all the miscellaneous things that don’t have their own categories (clothes, theater tickets, gifts, etc)
4) Ugh
5) I would never have been able to come up with most of the topics you cover, even though I’ve found almost all of them applicable and oftentimes thought-provoking and inspiring. I would just say I hope you continue with your blend of brass tacks advice and trying to get at the deeper issues that finances are linked with ( life goals, communicating with your partner, personal definitions of success etc).
We are the same way! Anytime we think of a name, we always ask what the possible nicknames would be!
1. My favs are Harper, Emma, and Sophie. None of which I was allowed to name my daughter due to my husband thinking Harper was a boy’s name (it’s so not!), his best friend’s little girl being named Emma and my mom’s dog named Sophie. I now love my daughter’s name which is Haylee. Fits her perfectly!
2. Where I live now. Colorado, of course! It has all four seasons, has tons of outdoor activities, is beautiful, and most importantly, my family is here. 🙂
3. Mint.com and spreadsheets. Gotta love spreadsheets.
4. Gold and freaking white. Don’t get me started on this one! Seriously? How can people not see it? I mean, it’s not a very pretty gold and white, but it’s still gold and white!!
5. Let us know how adding a baby to the mix changes things. How you adapt, how your budget is affected, etc.
Your daughter’s name is on our current list of possibilities! So cute! We plan to share a lot about how baby #2 changes things… ready or not, change is a’comin’ any day!
1. I’ve had babies on the brain lately! My husband and I have a really beautiful italian last name, so if we have a girl, I’m totally insisting on Bella. When I was younger I also thought January was a different but sweet name for a girl. 🙂
2. New Paltz, NY. Seriously. Or someplace exactly like it. A small college town with a super artsy vibe, surrounded by a ton of state-preserved land that’ll never be developed. Its also 15 minutes away from Poughkeepsie, which has all the chain restaurants and shopping you could ever want or need.
3. I use an excel workbook that has ALL THE PRETTY COLORS and PIVOT TABLES that I designed myself. It started with a one-tab basic budget to ensure I was paying my student loans and other bills on time and has evolved into such a monster that I’m not sure its serving any kind of purpose now aside from the original purpose. I’d like it to show my net worth, and where all my money is going in other pretty graphics but I think its too much of a monster now and I should probably scrap it and get a budgeting app to do that for me. But, pivot tables, you guys.
4. I definitely 100% see it as white and gold, even though I know that it’s actually blue and black. When you zoom in on the image, I can see what Joanna saw with the blue-ish/olive thing going on there – but I definitely don’t see any royal blue/black.
5. What do you guys think about minimalism? Do you ever sell stuff on E-Bay/Craigslist and how do you go about doing that? Oh, oh, and if you guys have ever had a garage sale, how do you guys deal with people who haggle over the prices? I’m not saying haggling shouldn’t happen, but I would feel so awkward having to do it!
January was on the shortlist for us when Sally was born. Still really love that one. And Bella is adorable… that’s our niece’s name!
It sounds like you are queen of Excel! Hey, if it gets you excited about budgeting, I won’t judge. 😉 And Johnny is downright jealous about your pivot tables.
1. My favorite girls names are Tierney, Vivian, and Maisie.
2. A condo on the ocean of the beautiful sugar sand beaches of the panhandle of Florida, a mid-century modern home in Palm Springs or a barn style house on Lake Tahoe.
3. A very simple spread sheet for each month and then the year based on previous expenditures.
4. Definitely Gold and White!
5. I like everything you cover on OFB.
Yes to all three of your places to live. Take me with you!! New York’s winter is killing me slowly.
1. I think Olive is so sweet! I also like Everly, Marlo (or Marlowe), Lilah, Lily and Mayla.
2. As I am nearing graduation, I have been contemplating this question a lot recently. Realistically, I’d love to live in Hawaii, LA, Austin, or Portland. In my dreams? I’d love to live in Bali!
3. I use Mint, but I also keep a spreadsheet budget on my computer and use handwritten notes as well.
4. I saw both, depending on which media source I was reading or viewing! I’m still frustrated about it!
5. I appreciate all frugal living, budgeting and general money saving tips! Also, as someone about to enter the job market, I would love any advice about job hunting, realistically examining salaries and benefits, negotiating with potential employers, etc.
Thank you both so much and congratulations on your little one!
Really love all those girl name recommendations! Everly and Marlo are such cute ones. And great post tip! We will try to cover that topic soon. Thanks!
Give us your best baby girl name recommendation. (Otherwise, our little girl who’s due in 2.5 weeks, might remain nameless.) I really like Eloise, Hadley and Grace
If money were no object, where would you live? I would snowbird between New England in the spring/summer/fall and Aruba in the winter
How do you keep track of your budget? Excel document on Google drive
What was the freaking dress: gold and white or blue and black? Gold and white
What topic(s) would you like to see covered on OFB? I totally understand if you don’t want to share but I’d love to hear more about your lives/views etc… I always find that interesting 🙂
We both really like Hadley… that was actually one of the names we almost named Sally! We’ll have to see what name fits baby #2.
And I like the way you think… if every winter for the rest of my life were spent somewhere tropical, I would be the happiest woman in the world.
1. Linnea is our daughters name, she’s 21 & I still adore the name. I also love Olivia.
2. The British Isles, I’m very content in SW WA state too.
3. Still in the learning process, love your blog & glad we found it.
4. Was there a dress?
5. You both cover the basis really well, enjoy your humor!
I don’t think I’ve ever met someone named Linnea! I love names like that… so cute and feminine, but not a name you hear every day!
1) I love flower names – Lily, Rose, Daisy
2) Tough one – I may need several houses. My first house would be the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
3)Excel!!!
4) blue and black
5) Free, fun stuff to do with toddlers on rainy days – I’m always looking for new ideas!
Great post idea. Thanks! And agreed… if money’s really no object, why not have several houses all over the place?
Baby girl name recommendation – well, I love Sally, since that’s my mom’s name, but I really like Evelyn. Also, I think the name Joan, it goes well with Sally for a name, but it’s a bit close to Joanna.
Where would you live? In the north! Or back home on the prairies. I’d also move the New Zealand if money truly were no object.
How do you keep track of your budget? I don’t… typically just by paper and pen every week, but I need a better method.
What’s the freaking dress: Blue and black, but I didn’t get the hype.
Topics: super interested in online shopping posts, confessions and babe #2!
I love Evelyn! We have a niece with a form of that name, so it’s off the table, dangit! Thanks for the topic tips!
1. We have a 2 year old named Olivia, we call her Liv or Livi. I liked Olivia Madison but when my wife realized her initials would be OMG she put the kaibosh on that.
2. We have plans to retire to Florida someday. So that’s my grounded in reality answer. But if money were truly no object? I’ve always wanted to visit New Zealand and though I’ve never been I assume I’d like to live there.
3. We don’t really have a budget. We have a big shovel and small hole so it’s been fairly easy to pay off big chunks of debt wihtout having to sacrifice on some of the smaller things. Our only debt has been our mortgage and after this week that’ll be gone.
4. I’ve reached an age where I take pride in NOT knowing what’s going on in popular culture. Though I’ve obviously seen references to the dress and have a general idea of what’s going on I haven’t cared enough to seek out more information.
5. Can’t think of anything right off, you do a great job.
So exciting to get your mortgage paid off. You guys are definitely doing something right! Also, OMG would have been incredible initials.
1. I love the name Ivy! Sally and Ivy sound great together. Other favorite girl names: Eleanor, Emily, Annabel, Gretchen, and Afton. I’m trying to convince my husband that Afton is a great girls name, but he isn’t convinced.
2. So many ideas for where to live if money were no object. Portland, Oregon or maybe Vancouver in Canada?
3. Mint, although we don’t follow it too closely.
4. To me the dress was blue and black.
5. I also like the financial posts. And maybe more on comparisons of living in New York vs Utah.
1. We definitely make sure there’s sister compatibility with every name we’ve considered. Sally and Ivy sounds like a good superhero team. Maybe too good. Last thing we need it two daughters who conspire against dad and mom.
5. Utah vs. NYC would be a fun post. Thumbs up.
1. Marlo, Gwen, Hazel, Caroline, Ruby, Charlotte, Edith, Evelyn…you know, just look up “Grandma names” and I basically love them all–Marlo Sylvia is my toddler’s name, and Gwen is the name we’ve picked for baby 2, coming in May.
2. Somewhere a bit farther from my in-laws:)
3. I have a worksheet I fill out by hand for every pay period. I like the routine of it, and actually writing it out helps me remember my parameters. But I could be better at tracking spending as we move through the pay period…
4. What is this dress everyone is talking about? I gave up Facebook for lent.
5. Life with 2 kids–really anything, your writing always cracks me up, no matter the topic.
1. We started our baby name search with “popular girl names in world war ii” and then we only went backwards in time from there. 🙂
2. Hahahaha. This is the best answer by far.
4. http://www.buzzfeed.com/catesish/help-am-i-going-insane-its-definitely-blue
1) Love the name Thea, Myla, and Lucy June. All soo cute!
2) Egypt, Johannesburg, Malaysia, anywhere far away really.
3) Online banking
4) I saw blue and black..then 2 min later white and gold….
5) You SHOULD interview some of your audience. Maybe find people who are in different situations financially and suggest a few things they could do or let them know if they are on track? You guys are experts and now you should us help become experts with our money too. I’m sure looking at different people’s situations will help us with our own, especially when we can relate. Idk, just an idea. I’ll volunteer myself if ya want!
4. Your eyes and brain made the right choice in the end. 🙂
5. Great idea! We’d love to bring in more stories from our readers. Thanks for the suggestion.
1. Shelby…very southern I know, but Sally and Shelby sound cute together.
2. Any beach in N.C. or Montego Bay (the other beachy place I’ve been)
3. We recently sat down to start our budget…My husband is sketched out by Mint since it ties to your account but I’ve tried to tell him it’s safe. I’m going to look back at your “Best App’s” post and figure that one out later.
4. WHITE & GOLD!
5. Exactly how to start a budget when you don’t exactly start with a full bank account. For example, it’s hard for us to know how to start when we don’t start off the month with all the money we are going to make that month in the account (does that make any sense?)
1. You’re right, those do have a nice ring to them. And we definitely make sure every name jives with Sally — not sure why, but it seems important to have compatible sister names.
5. Definitely. Added it to our list of possible topics. Thanks for the suggestion!
1. Olivia, Chloe, Isabelle (Izzy for short), Elizabeth (Lizzy for short)
2. Hawaii, no doubt. Who doesn’t love a place where it’s beautiful weather year round?!
3. YNAB – my favorite budgeting software to date – though I am intrigued by Dave Ramsey’s new EveryDollar budgeting tool – it’s about time he came out with budgeting software!
4. Purple. I’m a rebel.
5. I LOVE money saving tips and advice from your real life. I.e. budget categories, etc. I also really love the baby spending posts. I have already spent an exorbitant amount of $$ on my 11 week old baby!!
3. Yeah, I’m interested to give EveryDollar a test run. And you’re right — how it’s taken this long is beyond me.
4. Hah. Joanna saw green and purple, so you two can go to the eye doctor together. 🙂
1. Gretchen or Zoey
2. I will truly have to travel more in order to make that determination. Having said that–Kona, HI was BEAUTIFUL and is my favorite place so far.
3. I use a combination of Mint and the Google cloud for budgeting.
4. I don’t care.
5. I am a fairly new reader and have not read most of the posts so I scrolled through the archive and it looks like you cover everything I would be interested in.
2. We’ve got to go to Hawaii. Saving for a trip there hasn’t made it on our budget just yet, but after we’ve settled a bit as a family of four, I’m hoping we’ll start.
5. Welcome, and hope to see you around here again!
1. Caroline Grace (my daughter’s name)
2. Winters in Colorado, summers in Mexico or Caribbean
3. Excel Spreadsheet, Wells Fargo Money Map, Mint
4. Gold and white
5. Budget friendly travel ideas for families with kids, ways to save on income taxes! Realistic ways to earn a little extra cash, work from home, side job, etc.
2. I think I’d swap these and it’d be perfect. We love the mountain summers and hiding from the winter at a warm beach.
5. These are all awesome. Thanks for the suggestions.
1- Frannie, Hattie, Winnie…
2- Colorado, California, or stay right here in Madison WI
3- YNAB and I try to convince all my friends to do the same! Sure there is an upfront cost but the app and software is PERFECT.
4- Blue and black!
5- more personal posts, especially baby and toddler related.
4-
1. Hattie and Winnie have been thrown around. We’re pretty big fans of Winnie right now.
5. Baby stuff will probably be a more frequent topic with baby #2 crashing into our family. Stay tuned.
I just found your blog last weekend and am really enjoying it so far and thought I’d play along (although a little late).
1. Eleanor/Ella, Claire, Olivia – I like classic names.
2. This is tough…at this exact moment, maybe Melbourne, Australia. But I’d also be happy going between two places – somewhere in the mountains, and then a city near a beach.
3. We track everything in MoneyWell (an app) and use a spreadsheet to actually come up with our budget numbers.
4. Gold and white, and then later blue and black.
5. I’d love a post on transitioning your budget once your out of debt and transitioning your budget after moving to a new place. Basically transitioning your budget in general. Also, saving for a big relocation (one where you have to buy furniture, cars, etc.) 🙂
1. These three are all on our short list. Great minds…
5. These are great suggestions. Noted and thank you.
1. It looks like you’ve gotten lots of name ideas already 🙂
2. I think my husband and I would move to Spain or France… He thinks we should even though money is an object 🙂
3. For 4 years I kept track with paper and pencil. In January, I downloaded an app on my iPad to help keep track of expenses. Now, I just downloaded YNAB (my husband is a student so we got it for free!!) and I’m going to explore that!
4. Blue and black (dark gray actually)
5. Net worth. I see so much talk about this and it’s just overwhelming to me. Maybe that’s because I don’t have a large net worth…
3. It’s a process. It took a few years before we figured out what worked for us. Fingers crossed YNAB does the trick!
5. Great suggestion. And no, the size doesn’t matter, in fact, the less you have, the more important it is to track. We’ll plan a post on it soon.
I love old-fashioned names that can be cute for little kids and mature for adults so something like: Rose, Ruby, Beatrice, Helen, Imogene, Josephine, Pearl, Violet
Most of my time is spent day-dreaming about where to live. Ideally it would be on a boat so I can travel the world (I’m from Indiana though so my actual boating skills are non-existent)
My husband does. I was pretty bad with money when we married so he naturally took over the task and now I’m trying to push him to budget more so we get out of school debt – so far its not working.
I saw both. If I concentrated on the stuff in the background it magically turned black and blue.
How to have unconventional views from those around you (ie: different political, monetary, or religious views) and let the ‘arguments’ others have roll off your back. My politics and religious views are now quite different from my in-laws, and sometimes parents so I stay quite, but I’d like to have talks without people freaking out on me.
1. That’s our style. If it was popular when our grandmas were born, we’ve probably considered it.
4. I’ll admit, there was one random time that I looked at it and it was blue and black, but then my eyes realized the error of their way and changed it back.
1. Abra (its a name in a book I love)
2.I’d live in Europe, probably in a villa in Italy
3. I have a spreadsheet and review my bank app to make sure bills clear, I need to estabish a budget so I found your site!
4. The dress was gold and white
5.I’m very new to this site, like 2 days, so I’m soaping up all the info I can find
4. Heck yeah it was!
5. Welcome, welcome. Hopefully you find something worth your while. If it’s about money and it’s a topic that would suck the life out of any party, we’ve probably written about it. 🙂
I like my daughters’s names Molly and Katharine, who we call Katy.
I also like Lucy, Caroline, Alexandra, Fiona,
I keep changing my mind about where I would live: New York, London, Florence, Ithaca ( NY) Boston, Portland…..
I use a spiral notebook to keep track of spending. I just write the amount, store or bill, and date. I also have a page just for food and items like cleaning, pet food, toiletries since that is hard for me to keep under control:(
Strong name contenders. A few of those make my list.
We’ve all got our budgeting demons. This here blog is where we exorcize them. Welcome to the club. 🙂
1. I love the names you picked! Ivy and Olive are so cute. I love plant/color/food names, I guess! My daughter is Daisy (after great-great grandma) but I was concerned because a lot of cows and dogs are named Daisy but no regrets! All of my favorite names have already been mentioned except I didn’t see “Maple” yet. A tree name. Not any better than Ivy 😉
2. A tourist coastal town. I love the ocean and good restaurants. Plus getting visitors is a plus.
3. Pen & Paper, plus Mint.
4. No idea.
5. Whatever you feel like sharing! 🙂
I’ve come around a little bit on Olive, but Ivy is still too “plant-y” for me. Daisy is a great name, btw. That was on one of my lists at some point. I actually really liked Bessie for about 4 seconds before I realized that is the mother of all cow names.
1) I’ve always liked European names, my favorites would be Nastassia, Mareike, Sasha
2) Anywhere warm and where they let you do your own thing. If you want to take a boat out and see if you can catch a fish, no one will check if you have your boating license, fishing license. If you want to sell noodles from a stand, you won’t get arrested for not having a permit lol. Definitely warm and beach is a must though, need tropical fruit.
3) We pretty much pay our bills, pay our savings and then try to live off whatever we have left. Even if we’re tight alot haha
4) White and gold
5) more goal stuff would be nice, where you guys plan on being, what you’re working towards, how you plan on getting there. Big dreams you have
2. You took the words right out of my mouth. Do you own thing, warm, beach, fruit. This is paradise. High five.
5. Great suggestions. Putting these down on our topic list. Gracias.
First just wanted to say Hello, I just found your awesome website.
1) I can not answer this because I am also expecting a little girl , due April 8th, 2015. Names are hard to pick and I hope you can find the perfect one for your little one.
2) colorado or spend a year traveling to find the perfect spot
3) no matter how many budget apps I try I keep going back to pen and paper.
4) my husband told me about this picture but i have yet to see it.
5) I’m new here so I still have catching up to do. Keep up the good work and congrats on your expanding family 🙂
Hey, Nflorian! Thanks for dropping by. And congrats on your new arrival! It’ll be a race to the finish line. 🙂
1. Tess, Marin, Isabella, Stella
2. I currently live on a small farmette in the Midwest and love it. Trying our hand at self sufficiency. At some point, hopefully soon, I’d love to take the whole family overseas to live for a while. Three to six months in Greece, France, Spain or Italy. I think that would be life changing for my kids. Know anybody who has made this work?
3. I use pen and paper for our “per pay period” budget and cash for spending categories. Though, thanks to you guys, I have become an obsessive hand washer after each transaction. I try to keep my savings split into categories and tracked with Excel.
4. Obviously blue and black.
5. Love the idea of guest posts, either on their career paths, sticky money situations or advise they received that has changed their financial lives. I like the posts you guys do now – sharing where you’re at now, how to navigate life in NYC, etc.
2. Ooo, a farmette? Never heard of that, but color me intrigued. Self sufficiency and farm chores for the win!
5. Great ideas. We’d love to open the forum up to other folks who have insights and stories to share around our virtual campfire.
1. We were going to name our second child Sophia if he were a girl. (Darn it all, we didn’t have any boy names picked out, so we had to make lists!) Our daughter’s name is Margaret Grace (Maggie) after my gramma.
2. Phoenix is really hot in the summer, but it’s so gorgeous the rest of the year. If money were no object, I’d probably buy a beach house somewhere not too crowded and live in it for the summer.
3. We use Mint & Goodbudget. I used to have a binder,too, but I got smart and made a spreadsheet instead.
4. I scrolled by the dress in my newsfeed. No clue.
5. I am definitely enjoying the NYC posts since I’ve never lived in the city, but also because we’re going to be visiting there next year. Also loved the he said/she said series you had going. You can throw in some budgeting stuff here and there, too!
You couldn’t swing Sophia to be a boy’s name? Kidding. We have the exact opposite problem. We’ve got boy names covered for three sons (don’t read into that), but coming up with girl names for Sally and #2 has been toughhh.
I realize I’m coming to the party a bit late but I love your questions and you know how us “older” ladies love giving advice/opinions – so here goes:
1) baby names–my absolute favorite of all time is Elizabeth because the nicknames are so numerous but a good compromise for your Olive might be Olivia which sounds lovely. Isabel or Isabella are also reside on my short list of favorites.
2) If money were no object I’d live in Maui happily for the rest of my life.
3) the dress–I went to the web site and found that the dress is sold in two color combinations–one white/gold and one blue/black. So, seriously folks need to stop obsessing about this–sometimes the dress is photographed in one color combo and sometimes in the other. end of discussion.
4) I love reading your baby updates and your budget tips have given me some fresh insights–yes, I believe we “oldsters” can learn much from smart young people. Keep up the good work and show us pics of that new baby!
I’m coming to the party a bit late but we “elders” love giving advice or opinions so here goes:
1) My all time favorite girl name is Elizabeth because of all the possibile nicknames, but I think a nice compromise for your “Olive” is “Olivia.” “Isabella” also resides high on my short list.
2) Maui is paradise and I’d live happily there the rest of my days.
3) the dress–seriously – I checked the website where the dress is advertised for sale and guess what-it comes in two color combos–white/gold and blue/black. Sometimes it’s photographed in one combo and sometimes the other. The end.
4) I really enjoy your child(ren) updates, and yes, even as an older person I still benefit from your budget tips. Never too old to learn is my motto. Keep up the good work and post pictures of the new baby please.