When you are living in the trenches of paycheck to paycheck, financial independence can feel like an impossible goal. Every time I read an article about how many millions you need to retire, I have a panic attack. How will we ever save that much? I wonder. I’m not sure if we will ever be millionaires, but even at our lowest…
Typically, our whole Christmas budget is around $500. This year, our budget is a little smaller. We weren’t able to make regular contributions to our holiday gift fund due to job instability and our house fire in the spring. Our entire Christmas budget this year is about $300 . That doesn’t seem like much, but we’re starting early and we…
Today I’m making up a new word: micro-budget. Definition: a budgeted amount that seems ridiculously small to the average american. Last week, I was reading an article about overspending your budget by Sarah at Lemon Blessings. She has some great advice there, but do you know what my very favorite thing was? She said her clothing budget for the month was…
My husband currently works on a contract-by-contract basis. He’s associated with a company that is pretty good about making sure their employee’s have work. When he started his last project, we knew it was supposed to be around 8 weeks. It ended up running closer to 12. We knew the project was winding down, but we hoped that it would…
Whether your seeing the world or just going to visit grandma, travel ain’t cheap! We afford travel by maximizing our rewards and shopping for rock-bottom prices. The way I see it, your three largest expenses when traveling are flights, accommodations, and sight-seeing. (Food costs could arguably be included as well, but my solution to that is to feed everybody PB…
Managing your finances can be overwhelming. I love reading what other people are writing about finances because it keeps me excited and motivated! I spend the last week collecting new side hustle ideas from some of my favorite sites, and thought I should share some of my favorite finance blogs. Frugal lifestyle 1. The Busy Budgeter by Rosemarie has tons of…
I am all about trying side hustles. When my husband first lost his job, Amazon arbitrage was one of the first side hustles I found that genuinely interested me. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the extra money to spend on inventory at the time. Luckily, we finally met our financial goals and set aside some money to experiment with amazon selling…
One of the things I hate most about the blogging world is watching bloggers take advantage of other bloggers, especially new bloggers. There are so many successful bloggers out there telling you that the only way to succeed is to pay for tons of expensive services, buy their blogging success course, and sign up for pricey yearly memberships. That just…
Who needs an emergency fund? EVERYONE needs an emergency fund! Emergencies happen at the most unexpected (and usually inconvenient) times, so it is important to be prepared. If you have dependents, it’s even more important to have an emergency fund. What do you do if little Jimmy needs to go to the ER? Unless you have incredible insurance, you are…
I recently wrote a guest post about 5 financial mistakes bloggers make. In order to help you avoid the #1 financial mistake most bloggers make, today I’m providing a free blog budget download to help you track your blogging expenses and income! You can read more about budgeting basics here. If you need a personal budget, check out my free excel…