This week, I’m focusing hard on our overall list of household expenses. I’m trying to identify ways for us to save money. First Step >> creating a household expenses list When I think about the things we spend money on, especially with kids in the mix, it really makes my head spin. Listing Out Monthly Costs I figured the first thing I should do is determine all the different ways we spend our money. So I decided to take start listing out all the ways I can think of that we spend money in a year’s time. I was about 10 minutes in and on #70 before I started Keep Reading
Cute Monthly Budget Printable – Free Editable Template
Today I have something exciting to share with you - it's something I've been hoping to give my readers for a long time - ....an updated, vibrantly colored budgeting spreadsheet! I don't know why I'm so excited about this. Maybe it's because the last budget template I published was as plain as can be. I see all these super colorful ones on Pinterest all the time. Now I have my very own! :) Free Monthly Budget Template Since this is my second monthly budget offering, I thought it would be a good idea to offer you the chance to download a really plain one if you'd Keep Reading
10 Expensive Baby Things I Would Have Bought if Money Was No Object
When I was pregnant with each of my babies and we were scrimping and saving as much money as we could so I could be a stay-at-home-mom. I remember looking at the looooonnnnnggg list of necessary baby items and wondering how people ever afforded children! Money was especially tight when we were preparing for our first. I remember looking at the list of expensive items like the stroller, crib, jumper, car seat, etc and hoping that I would receive them as shower gifts because I knew there was no way we could afford all of those items. I went to Target and Babies R Us and put Keep Reading
The Best Thing You Can Do for Your Finances
As a CPA, I know how important it is to have your finances under control. Even though I have been trained to use complicated strategies to managing money, I don't actually do anything complicated when it comes to my money. In fact, there is one thing I recommend that everyone do that is quite simple, but I don't think many people do it: Open a second savings account Before you say, "That's stupid" and leave because you're angry that I made you come read this post to find out my super secret tip, hold on a second! Let's look at the reasons why I recommend this. Why Keep Reading
Our Emergency Fund Story
There was a time when we lived paycheck to paycheck, but after our kids were born we became increasingly worried that an unexpected loss of income would put us in a serious financial situation we couldn't escape. This is our story. Is It My Responsibility to Set Up an Emergency Fund? My husband and I have this thing. It's that we both want to be the carefree one at times. We both want to have time to ourselves to take naps in the middle of the day, we both want to go out to dinner with friends, we both want to spend money on things we want and travel Keep Reading
Best Budget Spreadsheet for 2024!
Searching for the best household budget spreadsheet template to use this year? Well, you have found it! In this post, I'd like to discuss and recommend the best Excel budget planner I have found to manage your finances in 2024 and forward in 2025! If you are ready to really take control of your money this year, you will want to use a family budget planner to do so. This little document will seriously rock your wallet! It will give you all the information you need to save money, pay off debt, and live a more financially free life. CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE PERFECT FAMILY Keep Reading
{Free Printable} 52-Week Savings Challenge
Recently I had some requests for an extended version of my 26-week savings plan. I decided to make this a 52-week long savings plan - it's so simple it's almost ridiculous! All you do is start with $1 in Week One. Then every week after that you add $1 to the amount you're saving for the week. That's it! If you do this, you'll have a cool $1,378 extra in one year's time! Imagine if you did double this?! $1,378 is plenty of money to buy all the Christmas gifts on our list when we're sticking to our Christmas budget, so that's what I'll likely use ours for. It's Keep Reading
The Best Penny Saving Challenges for 2026
Have you heard of the penny challenge? It's an easy way to save up $600 a year, starting with a literal penny! The next time you see a penny in the streets, you'll definitely stop and pick it up once you see what you can do with the money saved with these penny charts. A Penny a Day ....Matters! I love little ways to trick myself into save money like this - anytime I can put away some cash versus spending it is a great thing. Some may laugh & wonder what in the world a penny a day can do, but I don't think the real results are a laughing Keep Reading
How to Eat at Home More Often
Today I want to talk about something that is very important. It’s important if you are trying to fill in the gaps of your household budget and save a little bit more money. The biggest thing that I found that most families do that drains their finances is eat out too many times in a month. When I have a lot going on at work with my blog and the kids are really busy with sports and my husband is traveling a lot, I find that I barely have time to focus on the things I need to do. So sometimes my go-to tactic is to eat out at restaurants instead of making dinner. :/ Even Keep Reading
$265 One-Month Money Challenge! A Fun Way to Save / Earn Nearly $300 Without Even Trying
This one-month money challenge will allow you to boost your savings! Today I have something super fun to share. It's a $265+ ONE MONTH SAVINGS CHALLENGE I put together to help anyone get a jump start on savings. It's a unique combination of saving money and making money that, if done bit by bit over the course of a month's time, will net you at least $265 in extra money! I am a strong believer that some people are just not cut out for strict budgeting. I personally fall into that category! I don't like feeling deprived ALL THE TIME. But I can do just about anything if it's a Keep Reading
26 Week Savings Plan Printables: Start with $26, End with $1000!
It's been a while since I originally posted my 26-week savings plan, so I figured it was time for an update! If you're anything like me, visualizing your goals plays a huge part in the success of a goal. When I set out to grow my blog to $7,500 per month (October 2015 earnings....income report to be posted soon!), I started with my end goal in mind. I looked at what my then-monthly income was and calculated how long it would take me to meet my goal if I simply duplicated my efforts up to that point. I visualized all of this on a whiteboard, then eventually moved it into an Excel Keep Reading
Amazon App Deal: $5 Off your First $10 Purchase
Take advantage of this great Amazon app deal! If you haven't used the Amazon app to order stuff, here's a $5 off $10 you can use on me! My husband and I love ordering things from the Amazon app! I have it on my phone so I can make purchases on the go, and we also have it installed on our iPad at home, and even my husband orders things from there. I don't know what we did before we incorporated Amazon Prime into our daily lives. It seriously reduces my stress so much because I can shop when it is convenient for me and have everything delivered to my door in two days. No more taking three Keep Reading
Must-Read Money Management Tips for New Moms
Before we had our first child 11 years ago, we were used to living on two really nice incomes. We both had professional jobs and no debt other than student loans and car payments, and we really had no commitments to anyone other than ourselves. We traveled wherever we wanted, ate out at restaurants often, and didn't really give much thought to saving or scrimping because we didn't feel the need to do so whatsoever. When we decided that I would be a stay-at-home-mom when our daughter was born, we were in for a super rude awakening! I went on a long journey of figuring out the money rules of Keep Reading
2017 Money Saving Challenges to help you CONQUER your finances!
I don't know about you, but I have big plans for 2017!! I am going to challenge myself to build up my savings and make sure I am intentionally saving for big expenditures throughout the year. There's nothing worse than being surprised by the cost of something you knew was coming!! (like Christmas or vacations lol) If you want to join me, I created a few different money saving challenges we can all use. 2017 Money Saving Challenges These challenges come with printable tracking sheets to help keep you on track. 52 Week Challenge to Save $1,378 This is a really cool Keep Reading
THE 52 Week Money Saving Challenge you must do!!
Hi guys!!! I'm so glad you're here. If you're here, that means you are SERIOUS about improving your finances. There is really no reason why saving money has to be super boring & excruciating!!! I am going to do a 52-week MONEY SAVING CHALLENGE starting right now and I hope you will join me. You can join this challenge at any time. The point is that you JOIN IT AND ACTUALLY GIVE IT YOUR BEST EFFORT! Easy Money Saving Challenge If you follow this plan, you will have $1,378 to use however you'd like in just 52 weeks with very little effort on your Keep Reading
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