This is a crafty post, but still has a lot to do with saving money. I spent many hours creating a Willow Block Blanket as a wedding gift for my sister, and all it cost me was my time. A neighbor recently gave me a ton of yarn, so this wedding gift …
The arrival of a new baby is always exciting. I have a friend who can’t wait to find out next week whether she’s having a boy or a girl. I’ve written before that babies don’t really need all that much. However, you may still want to give a gift to …
Wow, it feels like forever ago since my last post. An extremely demanding work project came up at the same time that I was helping my sister prepare for her wedding. I’m happy to report that all is well in the Smith household and we had a wonderful time celebrating with …
The financial independence / early retirement community relies on several basic tenets in their quest for freedom from the “normal” lifestyle defined by working 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, until old age. One of these golden rules for FIRE is that you need to invest 25 times your …
Happy Friday everyone! I had a rough day yesterday, between a little fight with Mr. Smith and feeling pretty depressed about being at work. This is just a short post to offer some inspiration, because we all need a little reminder sometimes, of the purpose behind the struggle. We had …
As time goes on, you begin to adopt new priorities. The phases you went through before, start to become different versions of yourself, not quite individual characters, but more like varying shades of you. I’ve been thinking about the past a lot, and how much I’ve changed in just a …
I really should have written this post a while ago. Maggie at Northern Expenditure challenged other bloggers to come up with a list of accomplishments, or “awesome opportunities you’ve taken.” She wrote about a friend who was disappointed about not checking everything off of her to-do-before-I-turn-30 list. In comparison, Maggie decided …
My sanity is dependent on indulging in a little me-time here and there. It’s necessary to occasionally escape from the responsibilities and stresses of being a working mom of three little ones, with extra endeavors on my plate. While I may advocate for multi-tasking whenever possible to maximize your productivity, it’s also important …
As you formulate new strategies in life, priorities start to shift. Much like a line of dominoes, things that you held to be absolute truth for decades of your life can suddenly be thrown out the window. I always believed that I would freely pay any expense we could afford in …
Time for another update. What’s new with the Smith family? Well, we celebrated a birthday, continued our frugal living, paid off more debt, and planned for our awesome future.