So I finally finished setting up a Vanguard account this week. Considering I put this as a “short term” goal back in July, it was a well overdue accomplishment. Now that I’ve gotten that one checked off, I figured it was high time to look back at the rest of the goals I set for myself.…
My brother in law got married on Friday, so my husband and I both took the day off (him to help with setup, me to hang out with the kiddo so my MIL had the day free). It was a beautiful wedding and a wondeful day. Our son was the ringbearer and he was so…
Side hustles and second jobs have become regular vocabulary these days as a great opportunity for debt repayment and wealth building, and my part time job was wonderful for both of these reasons. The idea of working multiple jobs has been second nature to me. I worked both an on campus job and an internship…
Like most many young 20-somethings, we ate a lot of Top Ramen when we first moved in together. It wasn’t fancy and it definitely wasn’t healthy, but it was cheap and filling, which was on the top of our list when we were just married and flat broke (and I couldn’t cook beyond boiled tortellini and fried…
When you're in elementary school, you invariably get asked what you want to be when you grow up. For most kids, their answer is "fire fighter" or "astronaut" or maybe "doctor" or "soccer player." And then you get the oddballs like me who answered "senator." Even as a young kid, I knew that I wanted…
Travel hacking through credit card sign ups is an awesome way to take trips for almost free, but that was not what we did for this trip, beyond having our normal airline miles credit card. My husband works as a construction superintendent and is in the middle of a custom home build, so it's very…
We live on the top of a hill a short walk from a small strip mall with a grocery store and a few restaurants, along with a few other stores. When a weeknight gets especially hectic, our go to dinner has been to walk over and pick up teriyaki. Chicken teriyaki is a meal we…
I'm 29 years old, I have a bachelors degree and two graduate certificates, and I paid off my student loans over 4 years ago. I graduated with my bachelors degree with $24,000 in debt, which seemed like a terrible amount of money at the time, but was a completely average student loan debt at the time, though…
My husband and I are total foodies. While we are generally frugal in nature, food is a place where we tend to spend way too much money. We live in an area with some really great restaurants that make fantastic food and many times source ingredients locally and seasonally. While we mostly go out for…
When I was young, my family had a large garden for a short time - I think only for a year or two. We grew potatoes, carrots, lettuce, beets, tomatoes, all the standard vegetable garden fare. While we eventually got to busy to keep it up (4 kids and competitive sports take up a ton…
