Tag: <span>frugality</span>

Closing Out 2023 & Exciting Plans For The New Year

Happy New Year from Our Kaleidoscope Homestead!  We hope your holiday season was filled with joy and happy memories, and that you’re feeling refreshed and motivated for the wonderful year ahead of us.  The past few months have been very busy for us, and we have a couple of very …

Announcing: Two New Resources For Better Work-Life Balance

Greetings from our homestead! In the near decade since this blog was born, I’ve worked diligently to achieve better balance between work and so many other passions. Now, I have two ways to share some of my acquired skills and knowledge with everyone.   As a New Years’ gift, I …

Reflections On “The Road-Less-Traveled” Challenge, Seven Years Later

Back in 2016, we had just started on our journey to destroy our debt, while mapping out a plan to achieve financial semi-independence.  A lot has changed since then, including the addition of twins and moving to a forever homestead.  Have our goals or strategies changed too?  What can we …

Four Foraged Foods From Our Homestead

When we purchased our new home, with 16 acres, I was very hopeful that we would be able to forage some free food for our family of seven.  There is now a garden with lots of delicious vegetables, but it was very exciting to find a few edible things already …

Monday Medley: Updates, Holidays, and Kaleidoscope Homestead Progress

Time for an update on our progress in Creating Our Kaleidoscope of a life: even though our family is mostly settled into the new home, there is still more work to be done towards our next goal of financial semi-independence.     The Holidays We just hosted Thanksgiving for our …

Maintaining Momentum After Achieving Big Goals

It can be tempting at times, to focus on your accomplishments, and decide that you’ve done enough.  We have been working so hard for the past decade.  After paying off our debt and moving to the forever homestead, it’s been difficult to resist the lure of celebration, relaxing, and letting …

Plan Adjustments & Preparing For A Recession

We have been ready to move to our forever homestead for some time now, but the right property has yet to hit the market.  At the same time, it’s impossible not to notice the rising prices of well, everything.  We realize that flexibility continues to be a huge key to …

Things To Do While Waiting For Your Dream Home

After years of hard work, and surviving pandemic quarantine with five kids in a 1,300 square foot home . . . We are finally ready to move into our forever homestead!  There is a down payment in the bank and we have our mortgage preapproval letters.  The next step is …

Death, Money, and God: Reflections and Lessons From A Difficult Time

My father passed away last month. He had been in the hospital since the beginning of December, after suffering a head injury, due to a fall. The rollercoaster ride of the past few months have challenged me beyond anything that I’ve faced before in my life.  In my continuing attempts …

Our Somewhat Frugal Christmas

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year from our family to yours!  This “season of giving” always seems to highlight the struggle between being true to your finances versus indulging and spreading joy to others.  A generous Christmas could easily negate significant financial progress made through the year.  Our …