This year it seems more than other holiday I’m getting a ton of emails, mail, and coupons for SALES. I get it, the economy isn’t that great, consumer confidence is down (where’s my portion of that $700+ billion?), and people are spending less. In my not-so-humble opinion that’s a good thing. Most of us were […]
Mysterious Energy Bill
Since we’ve been on a journey to financial freedom, and we consider ourselves pretty “green”(despite the 4 kids), we have been cutting back on energy and water costs as part of our overall efforts to reign in spending. I was really proud of the energy bills we’ve had for the past 6 months. They’ve crept […]
TCL featured on Wesabe’s blog!
Our No Spend Month was previously featured on Wesabe’s blog, including 7 tips from the experts. The Dec 10th post includes 5 lessons I learned from our No Spend Month. Here they are: 1. Competition breeds success.
 It was fun to try to spend less than my husband on unnecessary expenses. It made the challenge […]
How to Host a Frugal Birthday Party
Throwing a birthday party can be an expensive endeavor but with a little planning it doesn’t have to be. Local birthday venues start at around $200 for a simple no frills birthday, and with 4 kids with cold weather birthdays that can add up fast! Instead we host our parties at home, and use a […]
NO Spend Month
The main reason I started this blog is due to the hugely popular response our No Spend Month story garnered. We were featured in USA Today and on The Today Show as the face of families everywhere who are trying to cut back. I first read about the idea in Reader’s Digest (my grandmother’s yearly […]
How to: get a raise
Now that you’ve looked at your spending habits, (You did didn’t you? If not I’ll just wait here, go do it now….okay moving on) it’s time to give yourself a raise! You think I’m going to suggest you go into your boss’ office and demand a raise in this economy? No way! How would that […]
find your money
The first step to taking charge of your finances is paying attention to what you are spending. It seems simple, but it’s always the hardest step to take. Pull out your bank statement or go online and write down everything you spent on last month, and then add a star to any expense that is […]
Today
The night after I appeared in USA Today, I got a phone call from Frank at Today, who found me through the USA Today article. Yesterday there was a film crew in my house, and this morning our segment aired on Today on NBC. It was a fun experience, and my kids loved seeing themselves […]
USA Today
I was recently interviewed and featured in an article in USA Today. The article talks about how the downturn in the economy had more people saving. While our main motivation for saving money and paying down debt has more to do with peace of mind, I can’t say that the economy doesn’t play a part […]
How Did I Get Here?
After years of raising our 4 kids from babyhood into early childhood we’ve finally pulled our heads out of the sand. Convenience and ease were more important than cost. When we had money it was easy to spend it on rewarding ourselves or our children. Now we are learning to lead a centsible life. […]
