“My teacher is a superhero.” “I teach. What’s your superpower?” “Teachers are just superheroes in disguise.” If you’ve spent any amount of time in the classroom, there’s a good chance you’ve heard one of these sayings. You might have even been gifted one on a coffee mug. Teaching is a noble profession. Maybe the noblest. … [Read more…]
I have a lot of credit cards. That’s actually not a surprise. After all, I opened them. Truthfully, I have far fewer credit cards than I used to. I pretty much opened a credit card at any store that asked back in my 200-plus-pair-of-shoes heyday. I never got into any consumer debt with them, but … [Read more…]
What a year these first six months have been. I already admitted that the goals I set in January feel like an April Fool’s joke, and then I spent some time thinking about how smaller goals might serve me better. It’s hard to focus on the future when it feels like all you’re doing is … [Read more…]
What’s the first thing you picture when you hear people talking about savings accounts? What about when you read about emergency funds? If I’m being totally honest, I often see little snippets of Lord of the Rings in my head. You know that little balding goblin-y fellow (hobbit?) that clutches the precious ring? via GIPHY … [Read more…]
Last month, I closed the lesson plan book on a decade of teaching at my current school. Calling it a decrescendo would be generous. It wasn’t really a whimper or a whisper. It was actually just a click. I moused over the “Leave Meeting” button, let Zoom know I was sure, and that was that. … [Read more…]
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…]