Wrapping up the year..

My last post was right after I had been laid off last year. In that post I sound so calm, but I can honestly tell you I was not. So here's what has happened since the last time I was here (just about 11 months ago). First, I got a job, and I got a…

When things don’t go according to plan…

It's been a long time since I've written here, it may be a long time before I come back here again, but I felt like an update was needed, even if it's just for me. I lost my job last week, but let's back up shall we? I've been a product manager for a software…

Frugal State of the Union February 2021

Wowee! It has been ages and ages since I've done a Frugal State of the Union post. In fact, the last time I did one, I'm pretty sure frugal husband and I were both still working second jobs! We had so. many. payments. So what has changed? Well, as mentioned, I got a substantial raise…

Frugal Friends!

It has been awhile. Turns out, a pandemic and trying to remote school 3 children while you AND your husband work full time also remotely, is a bit more difficult than anyone expected. Here we are though, pushing through and making slow progress. I have lots of things that I'm ready to write about and…

Our new reality.

I really cannot believe how much life has changed in the time that has passed since my last post. We were getting ready to list our old house when the world went crazy. For about 3 days we didn't even know if we COULD list our old house because real estate agents were not listed…

Update

Hi Everyone! Phew, looking back I realized that I haven't updated since JULY! So I will do my best to give a run down of everything that has happened since then. I kept thinking I was going to post once our money situation smoothed out, with my raise and everything happening it all looked wonky…

When life comes at you!

I had all these plans to get back in the swing of things and weekly posting, and then LIFE happened. The last time I was here I think I mentioned that I thought I was being underpaid. Whooaa boy was I being underpaid!! So that could probably be a post all on it's own, but…

6/1/2019 Frugal State of the Union

It's been a lonnggg time since I've done a frugal state of the union post, and a lot has happened since then. So how are we doing? Meh. I think we've made some good progress in a lot of ways, but I also feel like we're not going fast enough. Frankly I think we're a…

Spring is here!

Life never seems to get any less crazy around here, so I thought I'd take a little bit of time to update on how we're doing and what's in the works. Not entirely sure if I'll ever get back into a regular cadence, but I sure hope so! So everyone is back in school, that…

Frugal 5 Friday 3/15/19

I for one am ready for spring! We've had some good melting as of late, but there's still about a foot and a half of snow in our front yard. I'm itching to get into my garden, but it'll be awhile yet before we get there. Anyhoo, here's what we did to be frugal this…

Update

Hello! I thought I'd stop in and give an update, and I apologize in advance if I ramble as things have been a bit crazy ( as per usual). Our January no spend, no screen month went well! We did experience a bit of a backslide on both aspects because we all were sick at…

Where have we been? Where are we going?

Hello frugal friends! I'm back! It's been wild these past few months with the roof and Christmas and life. January is here and we're diving in head first. I'm holding off on a frugal state of the union for the next little bit until after the tax returns come in and we have a better…

Frugal 5 10/12/18

Well here I am! It feels like it has been ages and ages. I will have a real state of the frugal union for November, but for now our finances are a bit of a jumble. A few weeks ago I noticed that a sheet of shingles had blown off of our roof. I told…

Where have I been?

  Hi Folks! I know it's been a long time since I've posted! Never fear, I'll be back with some new posts really soon- back to school just kind of crept up on us and we've been so busy (and tired) I just haven't had the time or energy to post. It seems like this…

August 1st State of the Frugal Union

So where have I been the last month? Everywhere it seems. I traveled for work for our annual user's conference and while it's lots of fun, there's a lot of prep work that goes into it and this year it was 2000 miles across the country. I had a great time, but I'm really really…

July 1st State of the Frugal Union

As usual it was a crazy month! Our 2nd jobs unexpectedly cut our hours to the tune of about $1900 that we were planning on to help dig us out of our hole. These were hours that had been confirmed months and months in advance so I've been doing a lot of moving things around…

Frugal 5 Friday 6/8/18

Happy one year anniversary to my blog! I can't believe it's already been a year and that we've been on our debt free journey for 14ish months. We've made some good progress, but I'm looking forward to next year 😉 This week was kind of a weird mash up of spending and saving money- we…

June 1st Frugal State of the Union

Well! We had a stellar month and we made a BIG choice to cash in some of our investments from when we were teachers and we PAID OFF the subaru! Woot!! This frees up $425 a month to go toward other debt. So that's the good news! The bad news? As I type this our…

Frugal 5 Friday 5/18/18

Eeesh, it's been an interesting couple of weekends! It all started with the first weekend hubby and I were both going to be off at the same time. I had so many lofty plans of things I was going to get done and catch up on wellll..the universe had other ideas. I went out on…

May 1st State of the Frugal Union

The month of April we did alright- the numbers are decent, but I'm so so excited for the June 1st state of the frugal union, I can confidently say it'll be a big one because our first paycheck from our extra jobs actually arrives on May 3rd and between the 2 of us we worked…

Frugal 5 Friday 4/20/18

It has been a busy few weeks and we had a wicked stomach bug and a cold hit 2 of the kiddos 🙁 there hasn't been much sleep happening lately and everyone has been on survival mode. I'm hoping with the arrival of nicer weather and a week off from school we'll have better luck…

State of the Frugal Union 4/1/18

April! Already! We're enjoying some quieter weekends before we ramp up the hours on our second jobs big time toward the end of the month. That means April will be pretty normal debt repayment wise, probably a little more than 1k . We have a big bill due in April since we are going to…

Frugal 5 Friday 3/23/18

The last 2 weeks have flown by! We're still waiting on spring to show up- but hey my mulberry trees came in the mail today, so at least Gurney's thinks that spring is coming. The foot and a half of snow in our front yard can make it's exit any time now. On to our…

Frugal 5 Friday 3/9/18

Well folks, I'm ready for spring! We're staring down another nor'easter and all I can think about is my plants and how much I'd like to have my hands in the dirt. I pre-ordered some mulberry trees about 2 months ago and I'm wondering if they'll show up before the snow is melted. Where is…

March 1st 2018 State of the Frugal Union

Here we are! March! It was a good month we had lots of fun for valentine's day and my birthday, and now reality is setting in- we've got work to do! I had a terrible and super realistic dream that I lost my job and after totally freaking out about it I had a realization…

Frugal 5 Friday 2/9/18

We've continued on our major house purge and we're starting to see some major changes. I cleaned out our junk drawer and our tea cupboard and both make me so happy now! Not frugal but we purchased some heavy duty shelving for our basement and pulled out the particle board shelves that were bowing and…

Frugal self care for when you feel discouraged.

If I'm being honest, I've googled a whole lot recently, things like "Working Mom Guilt" and I've been pinning lots of links about how to motivate yourself to clean your house. Needless to say, it's been rough around here- not enough sleep, time for the kids, time for anything. I recognize that I am INSANELY…

February 1st State of the Frugal Union

So this is a big one for us! 1 year ago today we started our journey towards being debt free. I'm still feeling as though I'm in a bit of a frugal funk, but I'm trying my darndest to turn myself around. So how did we do? Here are the numbers: Frugal house- $206,000 Frugal…

Frugal 5 Friday 1/19/18

I haven't had much time to post lately, we're headed into our busy season at work and it seems like the holidays and the many many snow days that the kids have had just threw everything off. I've embarked on what I hope will be a major clean out of our entire house. I stayed…

January 1st State of the Frugal Union

This month went better than last month, we didn't make as much progress on the debt as I would have liked, BUT it did go down which to me is the most important part. With Christmas and another round of sick kids, I feel like we were able to keep our heads above water and…

Why reading is the ultimate frugal activity and some children’s book recommendations.

Reading can be insanely frugal. Visits to libraries around the country are way up even though there is a common misconception that they're outdated and no one uses them anymore. If you haven't been to your local library lately- check them out! Our local library not only has lots of awesome print books, they have…

Frugal Five 12/15/17

Well we've been running around like crazy people, but this weekend was the first weekend Frugal husband and I have had off together in a long time, so we spent a lot of quiet and slowed down family time together. The picture above is of malasadas, Portuguese fried dough, that are a tradition for my…

5 ways to be Frugal with Ham

We had a ham last week and it got me thinking about how very frugal ham can be. We personally love the Carando hams (no I'm not sponsored by them or anything, we just really like them) and find that 2 times a year (after Christmas and after Easter) they go on sale for 99…

December 1st State of the Frugal Union

I've been dreading this post a little bit because our debt on paper went up a considerable amount last month. We didn't work as much at the second jobs and murphy came for another visit. We used a 0% interest balance transfer to cover a number of debts that seemed to happen all at once,…

Frugal Five 11/24/17

Woo hoo! My favorite time of year is here!! It's been a HUGE struggle with frugality lately- pretty much everything went off the rails when kids started getting sick. I've been reflecting over the last few days and now that I know what this looks like I can try to do better in the future.…

Where have I gone?

Hi Everyone, I vanished! Mom duties took over for a bit. It started with Frugal Kid #1 and a cold, and then it morphed into Frugal Kid #2 bringing home hand, foot, and mouth disease- we had never experienced that one before ( news flash- it stinks!!). Finally, last week on Thursday I got a…

Frugal Holiday Traditions

When I got out of graduate school I was working in a school and working toward getting my +30, which basically means graduate school plus an additional 30 credits of graduate level work and then you get paid more! Unfortunately I got the +30 and then stopped working in a school (womp womp). Well, as…

Frugal 5 Friday 10/27/17

Rain rain rain! We've been getting dumped on lately which is actually a really good thing because it's been very dry all month. The kiddos are home from school today due to power outages across the state, but we've been lucky so far and still have power. Thankfully our power rarely goes out and the…

Why soup is my favorite food.

We're BIG soup eaters around here. We eat soup at least once a week year round. We love soup so much that frugal kid #2 eats cheddar broccoli soup on her birthday by request (her birthday is in AUGUST). So why am I waxing so poetically about soup? Well it also happens to be super…

Frugal Five 10/20/17

Wow what beautiful weather we've been having! Global warming aside, it has been nice to enjoy such wonderful sunny weather. Last week was quite the week. Frugal husband and I both had 2 days off. We were able to knock off 2 big things from our master list of never ending items that we need…

Frugal 5 Friday 10/13/17

Holy Moly! When it rains it pours. First the good news! I had a wonderful craft fair at our fall foliage festival last weekend. I sold out on most of my hats, I do wish I had made more, but ya know, working 60 hours a week and having 3 kids puts a damper on…

October 1st State of the Frugal Union

Fall is here! My favorite time of year! We did ok for the month of September, following the trend from last month, we had a number of big bills that we needed to knock out, like eye exams and contact lenses and glasses for Frugal Husband and myself, we also got snow tires on the…

Frugal 5 Friday 9/22/17

Happy Tuesday! We're ever soooo slowly adjusting to back to school. Frugal kids #1 and #2 are really liking their school and teachers which makes sending them off every day much easier 🙂 On the bills front, we've been slogging away and I'm still feeling like we're still not making progress fast enough- I know…

Frugal 5 Friday 9/15/17

Where have I been? Woosh your guess is as good as mine, back to school really got me this year. Frugal Kid #1 started kindergarten and is about 3 miles from our house, Frugal Kid #2 started preschool and is about 15 miles from our house, BOTH Frugal Kids need to be at their respective…

September 1st State of the Frugal Union and Frugal Friday.

Wowza August just FLEW by. Husband and I worked a ton, but we also spent a lot of really nice family time with the frugal kids and enjoyed the last bit of summer before school started back up. We had a number of unexpected bills to the tune of about 3k, but we'll be able…

Frugal 5 Friday 8/25/17

  If you're here from Repeat Crafter Me - Welcome! I can be contacted from this webpage and if you're interested in ordering a hat like the one in the picture, shoot me a message and I'll send you an invoice. If you're just here checking in- Welcome! I've been talking about a handmade Christmas…

Frugal 5 Friday 8/18/17

I'm so late! Frugal Tuesday? I do 2 craft shows a year with my crochet and it occurred to me about the middle of last week that I have less than a month before the first one and I'm severely lacking in inventory, so I've been frantically crocheting my fingers off to get ready. It's…

10 Frugal Activities to do with kids.

  I have to admit, I'm in a sweet spot with the frugal kids, Frugal Kid #1 is starting kindergarten in the fall, and even though he went to preschool he still doesn't really care about the hot new toy or special new vacations that his friends are going on. Additionally, right now I work…

Frugal 5 Friday 8/11/17

I'm going to admit, this week was a struggle. It was hard to work extra hours, and hard to see our debt tick up because of unexpected bills. I know that this is just a fact of life and that we will get over the obstacle, but in the moment things feel unsurmountable and that we'll be…

Frugal 5 Friday 8/4/17

Well getting ready to have a large amount of people over our house on Sunday. I think I may have been a bit crazy to think that it was a good idea given the state of our house, but here we are! Onto the frugal things I was able to do. Frugal husband and I…

August 1 State of the Frugal Union

Well murphy decided to visit again, to the tune of a propane bill that was about $500 more than we expected and a medical bill that was about $600 more than planned. I'm not adding either to our debt total (yet) because they won't be billed until next month- I'm hoping that we'll be able…

Frugal 5 Friday 7/28/17

Boy did I struggle this week! It seemed like money was just leaking out from everywhere! I managed a few things, but it feels like we veered off track. I picked up a turkey a few weeks back from Aldi for 1.29 lb which is a thanksgiving sale kind of price, anyhoo we had that…

Frugal 5 Friday 7/21/17

I'm a little late posting this week because I was working! Here are 5 ways I saved money this past week. Frugal husband and I both worked extra hours. I know this is more about making money rather than saving money, but they all help the bottom line. I beat my record (3) and got…

Christmas in July- Planning for a handmade Holiday.

About 5 months after I had frugal kid number 1 I realized something. It is not possible to work full time and be the kind of Mom who goes all out at EVERY holiday, and birthday and "event". It seems like with 3 kids there is ALWAYS something going on that can be celebrated and…

Frugal 5 Friday 7/15/17

Phew this week flew by! I was traveling for work on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, which was both frugal and not so frugal. Frugal because my meals were all covered during that time, but not so frugal because Frugal Husband drove down to where I was staying and we definitely indulged in an expensive meal…

Staying Motivated on Your Journey to Being Debt Free.

We're about 5 months into our journey toward being debt free and I'm starting to feel it. The excitement is wearing off, the numbers don't seem to be moving nearly as fast as I'd like them to and I'm tired!  So what can you (I) do to stay motivated? Here are my top 5. I…

Frugal 5 Friday 7/7/17

Hi Everyone, this week I was gearing up for travel for work and it felt like there was minimal time to pay attention to frugality, but we squeezed a few things in. I worked on unplugging things that we're not using. We started unplugging our modem at night and noticed a pretty significant drop in…

Saying no to wants and yes to needs.

I am a planner of epic proportion. I make lists and add items to my lists just so that I can cross them off. This benefits our family MOST of the time. However, it also gives me a sense of urgency when I see something on sale. I MUST BUY THE THING! The thing will…

July 1st State of the Frugal Union

So we have goals! Lots of goals! But our biggest goal right now is digging out of what I lovingly refer to as our MEGA DEBT PILE. No, seriously, it's really MEGA. How Mega you might ask? Well here's the break down: Frugal house- $210,000 Frugal Student Loans- $161,000 Frugal Private Student Loan- $4,900 Frugal…

Frugal 5 Friday 6/30/17

Another week of some frugal and not so frugal things! Here are my 5, and if you're reading and would like to share your frugal accomplishments in the comments I'd love to read them! I picked up some new to us clothes for frugal child #1. This is a new exploration for me because I…