Nope, I don’t have 200 shoes again. Although if you’re not familiar with my journey, that’s where I started. I was raised by a nana who took her shoes seriously (she picked up pennies, too!), and I followed in her footsteps…a little too well! After my closet reached a literal breaking point, I realized that … [Read more…]
As I sit here starring at a gas station Diet Coke on my desk, it shouldn’t surprise me that I’m about to type this. I don’t do No Spend Months. In fact, I rarely participate in No Spend Challenges. But–I thought long and hard about doing one in the month of January. And now it’s … [Read more…]
There’s absolutely no judgement here if you brought in the new year with a bang. Unless you’re my neighbors who scared my five-year-old awake four different times starting at approximately 9:27 pm. I love watching other people ring in the new year with glitz and glam, champagne and change. But that never feels quite right … [Read more…]
10 years ago today, I bought a house. And paying off that house has been the focus of our money journey for years. There have been more ups and downs than I ever imagined. Several reductions-in-force at work, two unpaid maternity leaves, and so much more. A few months ago, we made that goal our … [Read more…]
I used my emergency fund, and I liked it. More precisely, we found an issue with our two-story foyer window. When we replaced our front door (for the second time!), we had the bottom of the foyer window resealed with an epoxy thanks to an excellent observation from a new contractor. While that surely saved … [Read more…]
I started my 15th year of teaching. For a decade and a half, I’ve been writing and reading alongside middle schoolers. It’s hard to believe. So hard, in fact, that I actually wrote out every year I taught, counted and recounted, just to really check. Then I spent some time thinking about all the things … [Read more…]
We just celebrated our son’s fifth birthday–a whole hand! While we are just getting the ball rolling on many financial things, like a formal weekly allowance, there are a few big money lessons he’s already learned. Money is for Spending and Saving I have to be honest! We were a little worried about this first … [Read more…]
Let’s cut to the chase: we spent more than we needed to on our daughter’s first birthday. Way more. But the other truth is that we spent exactly as much as we wanted. Let me explain. For years, I’ve focused on living frugally. (I even won an award for it back in the day!) Frugality … [Read more…]
No sense in burying the lede: A few days before my 36th birthday, our lender cleared our mortgage payoff check! The longer post recapping the why and the how will happen at some point, but for now, I simply want to celebrate. Not just what we did, but how far we’ve come. How Far We’ve … [Read more…]
M is for money, B is for book, and GW is for generational wealth! There are so many different ways that I want to grow generational wealth. Some of that wealth absolutely involves my husband and I putting in the work to build up assets we plan to pass along. But another big piece of … [Read more…]