Somewhere in the swirl of a pandemic, long overdue protests, and a slew of personal ups and downs, we paid our taxes. We also made a really exciting discovery during the deepest financial dive we do all year. A money milestone that I’ve been pursuing relentlessly unfolded: we could pay off our mortgage. But we … [Read more…]
If you have a stack of books or textbooks that you’re absolutely desperate to part with, you are not alone. Sometimes, donating books or giving books to another home is the right call. But sometimes, you just want to be done with them! In cases like that, Half.com used to be my jam. I have … [Read more…]
When I first started teaching, I had one class where I was the only white face in the room. Our curriculum spanned everything from Edgar Allen Poe and Jack London to Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. There were times when I was the expert and other times when I couldn’t muster a single … [Read more…]
To say that this hasn’t been the spring we imagined is an understatement. Our usual free and frugal fun adventures are comprised of library visits, playground adventures, and children’s museum explorations. So when the pandemic and subsequent lockdown more or less shook the Etch-a-Sketch of options clean, we had to rethink what free and frugal … [Read more…]
To say it’s been quite the year is an understatement. And we’re not quite halfway done! I recently heard someone joke that all of us got our 2015 five-year plans wrong. Isn’t that the truth? I don’t think any of us are strangers to curve balls, but what happens when the whole season is cancelled? … [Read more…]
When the pandemic hit, we stopped vacation planning, but we already had our air travel booked for this summer. That meant that I was going to try to do the unthinkable: get my money back from an airline. I honestly never expected that it would happen. But this past week, we got our moolah back! … [Read more…]
How fast can I spend $1200? How fast can we spend $2400? In my mind, I can spend that money in a blink. (In a past life, I probably could have, too, on shoes alone!) But it turns out that we have only spent a fraction of our stimulus check so far. Personal finance is … [Read more…]
If you’re not a stranger to the blog, you probably already know this about me. When I’m stressed, I shop. The same is true for just about any other emotion, too. There’s a lot of talk about the endorphin rush and all the other science-y explanations for why people impulse shop. And those things are … [Read more…]
I hate my mortgage. If you’ve read my blog at all, you’re probably acutely aware of how much it eats away at me on psychological and emotional levels. You also probably know that I can be the queen of frugal, even if it makes things downright awkward. So why in the world would this frugalista … [Read more…]
I haven’t done one of these saved and earned recaps in a while. Why? Because I somehow seem to be one of the only people in the universe whose spending isn’t dramatically less during COVID. Why is staying home so expensive? OK. It could have something to do with the fact that just this morning … [Read more…]