Not that we have a choice at the moment.
If you’ve been following along, you’ll remember that we listed our house for sale back in October. We had a whole list of reasons for wanted to sell:
#1 Our Life Plan had changed. We had a child sooner than we originally planned and switched to a single income. I originally planned to go back to work part time, but I just couldn’t when the time came. A very affordable house became a nearly unaffordable house as quick as you can say “baby!”
#2 …

You’d think that I would have done this by now considering my baby-wearing, co-sleeping, breastfeeding approach to parenting, but I had a few hangups. For one, the apparent start-up costs seemed staggering. Second, I was leery of poop-scrubbing. Then my neighbor and friend, Lindsay, got into cloth diapering with her three-month-old daughter. After she educated me and let me come over to her house and play with her fluffy stash, I realized two things: cloth diapering is only as expensive as you allow it to be and flushable liners are …

I just finished reading The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. I have been reading through various articles on his website for a while now. When his class, Financial Peace University, was offered at our church this past year, Eric and I didn’t have the money to go, so I set out on a mission to learn as much as I could about Dave’s plan as I could through the web. Then I was at my sister’s house a few weeks back and I noticed that she had two of …

My husband was starting to look a little too cute this weekend, so it was time for a haircut. It costs about $10 for Eric to get his hair cut at one of the discount salons around here, so it’s not extravagantly expensive, but considering he basically gets it shaved off, why spend the money?
A few years ago we spent a little over $30 on a Wahl Clippers set kind of like this one. It has served us well, especially considering it paid for itself after just 3 haircuts.
Cutting your …

This is one of those topics that is really difficult for me to write about, simply because I feel so uninformed. Health insurance and all things related are way over my head. I do my best to read and understand the fine print, but the important big picture question, “what should I do?” is the one that stumps me. I just don’t know. I read about all the controversy about this health care reform bill and I wonder, “how will this affect my situation? Will it even help me? Will …

There is something that I have wanted for years. I have had a digital SLR on my wish list for about eight years now, but they are pretty expensive. When Eric and I got married, we each had that dream toy we promised to buy each other. He wanted a big screen TV, and I wanted that camera. Last year, we finally bought the big screen. It probably wasn’t the best timing, but every time we got some money, he would push to buy the TV and then become incredibly …

Let’s say two families would each like to buy a nice house for $250,000. Both families have about $2000 that they can put towards housing each month. Family A, the Anderson’s, decide they would like to save up for their house and pay for it in cash. They rent an apartment for $750 per month and save the rest in a regular old savings account. (They are afraid of high risk investment, you see.) Family B, the Bailey’s, can’t wait that long to move into their house and everyone has …

This post is about how much I love (LOVE!!) my husband. I would say something really poignant about how our love “withstands the fire and trials of life” to go with the above picture, but then you would hear me laughing across the expanse of the internet. Not that it isn’t true…
Eric and I are certainly not the only people holding on for dear life during this economical death wave the news is calling a recession. You know, the one which is supposedly over? Yesterday I saw a man driving …

I’ve never been much of a baker or a cook, but lately I’ve come to the realization that there is a whole lot more food in my pantry than what meets the eye… I just have to make it!
From fried rice to giant ginger cookies (shown in the photo above), there of tons of things I can make from scratch and save a lot of money in the process. It just requires a little extra creativity and a little searching (through my cookbooks) to find what I can make …

In my last post I mentioned that Micah had no teeth yet. I spoke too soon! Saturday afternoon, I noticed that my fussy little boy had a “split” gum – and in that little opening was a tiny tooth coming through! This morning he was in much better spirits; the hardest part is over. Today I could feel the sharp little point with my finger. Pretty soon it will be big enough for me to take a photo. I can’t believe it’s happening already! People always tell you how …