Budgets help direct our spending, but by nature they constrain us. While that doesn’t sound very fun, these restrictions are for a good cause. By voluntarily limiting short-term spending, we can stay out of financial trouble and work toward achieving longer-term financial goals. Though it sounds contradictory, we achieve financial…
One of the biggest considerations when it comes to starting a family is finances. It’s not that children cost all that much initially. Even three and a half years in to having children, we’re still not spending very much on them (sorry, girls!). I think in food consumed, our cat…
When it comes to shopping at the grocery store, beginning-of- the-month Ashley and end-of- the-month Ashley are two very different people. Beginning-of- the-month Ashley thinks she’s the Queen of England. Imported Italian prosciutto for $18/lb? Sure! Aged Parmigiano Reggiano for $25/lb? Okay! Out of season strawberries for $82/oz? Treat yo’ self! End-of- the-month…
Johnny and me, circa 2010 (i.e., in the throes of paying off debt) I can still remember the night Johnny and I sat down and made a plan to pay off our debt. We were fresh out of college, each having just landed our first real jobs and both feeling…
Without meaning to, Johnny and I performed a bit of a financial experiment on ourselves in December and January. FYI, “experiment” is a cool way of saying “slacked off,” but regardless, we thought the results were worth sharing. We’ve been sorta consumed by our side project-turned-business which has been great and…
When you hear advice about saving more money or getting out of debt, it often involves avoiding lifestyle inflation. Johnny and I have tried our best to avoid lifestyle inflation over the years, despite the pull of changing careers, income, or cost of living. By fighting the urge, we’ve almost been able…
Recently, Johnny and I were contacted by a talk show in LA to be possible guests on a segment about money-saving tips. A producer from the show wanted to get on Skype with us and chat about our “area of expertise.” We went back and forth on how to respond to the email.…
This has been a long time coming, and I really hope that it’s somewhat helpful information that I’m about to share. I usually write a post in one sitting, and I knew that just wasn’t possible with this post! So I’ve been squirreling away little moments here and there to…
It’s time to get real. Budgeting is no fun. It’s a necessary evil that we do day in and day out because it’s… necessary. At times, we warm up to it, like when we freaking rock our monthly goals or grow our savings or become debt free. We may briefly dub ourselves king and…
We’re drowning in boxes up in here! Unpacking with two little kiddos is slow going. It seems that one is always either hungry, screaming, or throwing up on something. Well, Winnie just spits up a ton, and poor Sally got a stomach bug. Luckily, as you can see above, Persie’s…