My youngest is about to turn one year old. I ran into a friend at daycare the other day, who asked about plans for his birthday party. She seemed genuinely confused when I told her that we are not having a party for him. Why in the world would we …
Our town limits the amount of garbage that we can put out to the curb each week. The other morning, Mr. Smith told me about an interesting thing that happened while he was putting out the garbage. He brought our one can to the curb (for a family of five), …
We are always on the lookout for free, fun activities for the kids. They seem to have the most fun playing outside with sticks, dirt, water, and rocks – all free! It’s still a bit chilly to be spending too much time outdoors. I was really excited to find out that Home Depot …
Daydreaming about your goals can be a great source of motivation. Mr. Smith and I are always ruminating about the unique life that we’re designing for our future. Of course, we’re very excited about our cross-country trip with the kids and often discuss different destinations or the practicalities of that adventure. …
2016 is the third year in which I will attempt to go without buying any new clothing. We have too much debt. If we ever want to reach our extreme goal of financial semi-independence, then we need to take drastic steps to minimize our spending. But, *SPOILER ALERT* it hasn’t been …
Happy Friday everyone! This is just a fun (and very overdue) update on the gifts that I crocheted for Christmas. My neighbor gave me a big bag of yarn last fall, so I went to work creating things to give for Christmas, instead of spending money.
I can read the confusion in their eyes, when I tell people things like how I cut my own hair. They seem surprised when we don’t rush out to buy a new minivan after the birth of our third child. They marvel at the time we spend, out in the sun, working hard on …
For any new readers, Monday Medley posts serve as an update on our family. One of the purposes of this blog is to document our journey out of debt and to financial semi-independence. I like to post every few weeks about our new adventures, successes, and setbacks. So, what have …
There are two simple ways to improve your finances: spend less money or increase your income. Our extreme goals require extreme effort, which is why one tactic isn’t enough . . . we do both. Our progress in 2015 was due to living frugally and hustling to earn extra money. We were able …
I may be a bit late with to the year-end review party, but here is the update on our progress. 2015 was an important year for us in many respects. We made progress on improving our finances, but also made quite a few changes to our lifestyle which will enable …
