Saving Families Money Since 2007
For those of you who asked to see my segment that aired on Fox Business on Friday night with John Stossel, they’ve uploaded the clip of my interview to their site here.
And I know this is very controversial subject, so before you jump to conclusions and think that I think everyone should do what I’ve done or that I believe credit cards are evil, be sure to read this followup post I wrote on Why I Don’t Think Credit Cards Are Evil.
Instagram photo from GoddessMychele
Have you purchased a copy of my 14-Day Make Over Your Mornings course yet? If not, go grab your copy here.
If you’re looking for extra accountability and encouragement as you go through the course, here are two options for you:
#1: Private Facebook Group
There’s a private Facebook Page available here with over 1100 members and they are going through the course together again, beginning with Day 1 today. This Facebook is run by my friend, Caroline.
Sign up for the private Facebook Group here.
#2 Public Facebook Page
You can also join my new Make Over Your Mornings public Facebook Page. I started it as a place to share daily tidbits, articles, quotes, and more to encourage you to use your mornings and your days well and to life life with more intention.
You can follow the Make Over Your Mornings Facebook Page here.
I’ve been so blown away and blessed by your kind notes and comments and emails sharing how this course has made such a difference in your home and life. I’m so grateful! And thank you for spreading the word about it to your friends who you feel would also find it helpful!
Guest post from Laura of Life as a Loewen
Finding adorable clothes on a shoestring budget can be challenging, but I’m here to tell you that it’s not impossible.
It should take you less than 5 minutes to set up an eBay account (if you don’t have one already). Then you can link your PayPal account for easy payments, or pay using a debit or credit card.
Here are a few tips for getting the most bang for your buck on eBay:
eBay has a number of different search features so you can narrow down exactly what you need (i.e. petite, tall, color of item, etc.)
Have you been eyeing a specific brand of clothing, say jeans, but don’t know what size you are in them? Go to a store that has them, try on a few sizes, write them down or enter into your phone and then you’ll be armed for your next eBay purchase!
You can also look on some store websites to see if they have sizing charts which would eliminate the need for a trip to the store!
You can search for items that are new, used, or unspecified. I’d suggest buying second-hand items to get an even lower prices on your clothes. Nearly all items I’ve gotten used from eBay come to me looking either new or nearly new!
Many items can be purchased through bidding (auction-style) on an item. Another way I’ve gotten steals on trendy clothes is by making an offer on items that indicate “or highest offer”. You never know until you try!
Offer less than the “buy it now” price, but what you feel is reasonable (and still a good deal) for the item.
I personally adore the style of Anthropologie. But spending $100 on one top at the store? I couldn’t possibly.
What I do is keep a search saved of Anthropologie items in my size, and the types of clothes I’m looking for — such as short-sleeved blouses and cardigans.
eBay then saves that search and I get to look for the best possible deals, getting higher-end clothes that are actually in my price range.
Selling gently used (or new) items is a great way to boost that clothing budget. Having 3 little kids on one income means there’s not a lot of wiggle room for the clothing budget, and especially not for this Mama to get new threads.
By selling some of my clothes on eBay, I’ve earned a little money to use toward future purchases by letting the balance sit in my PayPal account until something really strikes my fancy. You can also deposit the money from PayPal into your checking out to use it for general purposes, as well.
I’ve gotten lots of cute, trendy items using eBay, and I hope this helps you have another budget-friendly way to spruce up your wardrobe!
Laura is a mama of three littles {and in the adoption process}, delighting in the Gospel of grace. Attempting to be genuine and raw, Laura seeks to find the humor in everyday life. She shares her journey through faith, motherhood and marriage at LIFE AS A LOEWEN blog. Passionate about issues of social justice, and always up for a Motown dance party, Laura seeks to live with spirited intentionality.
Over the last few years, I’ve been slowly working on improving my photography skills. Not because I want to have Pinterest-perfect images (I gave up on that when I lost my SuperWoman cape in the laundry pile a few years back!), but because I want to capture and be able to look back on the memories of everyday life in years to come.
So I was excited to see that Ultimate Bundles (the same company that brings us the crazily popular Homemaking Bundle and Healthy Living Bundle each year) is offering a brand-new Ultimate Photography bundle — and it’s only available through midnight tonight.
For $37, you’ll get access to multiple amazing photography resources, courses, ebooks, and more — over $580 value total!
If you’ve been looking for some step-by-step resources to help you improve your photos as a blogger, a parent, an Etsy shop owner, or just someone who loves to post on Instagram, check out all the products offered in this bundle here.
Personally, I’m most thrilled that this bundle includes the iPhone Only Photography ebook. I have been wanting to get this download for a long time as friend after friend has raved about it and showed amazing transformation in their photography skills in their before and after pictures.
This ebook is regularly $29, so it’s almost worth the price of the bundle alone! So if I just benefit from that ebook + one other ebook, it will have more than paid for the bundle!
Read more about the Ultimate Photography Bundle here — and don’t forget that it’s only available through midnight tonight!
How long could you go without buying anything new?
Yerdle is challenging people to make a commitment to stop buying new things for 30 days (or however long you decide works for you!) by taking their Unshopping Challenge.
They want to encourage people to unclutter their lives, save money, and create less waste.
If you decide to take the Unshopping Challenge, you can make your own rules. Yerdle encourages you to still buy food (of course!) and consumable items, but what they really hope to do is to challenge people who have a shopping “addiction” or who just shop as a recreational activity, to break free from excessive shopping and spending in order to save money and simplify your lives.
Here’s how they encourage you to consider setting up your Unshopping Challenge:
For 30 days, buy nothing new (except things you can’t re-use like food and gas).
Sign up for a Yerdle account (it’s free!), go through your stuff, and post pictures of items you no longer need, love, or use.
If someone is interested in your item, they can purchase it with Yerdle credit and you’ll earn Yerdle credit when you ship it out.
This is a great way to not only clear your home of clutter and save some money, but by taking the Unshopping Challenge, it will likely help you evaluate your spending habits in a new light. And maybe you’ll end up forever changed as a result.
Tip: When you sign up for Yerdle, you can grab your referral link and share it with others. If others sign up through your link, you’ll earn 10 free Yerdle points and they’ll get 10 free Yerdle credits, too!
{This post was underwritten by Yerdle. See my disclosure policy here.}
It’s been a packed-to-the-brim week — with 3 trips in less than 7 days (a trip to Atlanta for the Say Goodbye to Survival Mode event, a trip to NYC for my Fox Business interview, and a trip back to Atlanta to meet up with my sister and her family for a few days of fun!) + more.
Here are 5 things I’m loving this week:
Kaitlynn and I went shopping for her birthday and she found some great deals at Kohl’s for some adorable clothes that she’s already worn multiple times this week. We found them on the clearance rack and they were just a few dollars per item!
I also bought some new shoes (a kind of rare occurrence for me!) and was excited to get a great deal on them! (See the shoes I bought in this picture here — I should have worn them for a few days before wearing them all over the streets of NYC because now I’m the proud owner of multiple blisters. It’s clear I don’t buy shoes often enough to know these types of things! :))
I got to read a pre-release copy of this book and absolutely adored it! It’s short, but packed with inspiration for business owners, entrepreneurs, or anyone who would like to get a glimpse at the inner workings and core values of Chick-fil-A.
When we went to Atlanta with my sister and her family, we debated whether or not to go to the aquarium. The tickets are expensive, but we are SO glad we splurged and bought them as we absolutely loved our time there.
It’s hard to say what our favorite parts of the visit were as it seemed like at every turn, we were all saying “woah” and “wow!” Some of my highlights were: the beluga whales, sea horses, whale sharks, albino alligators, weedy sea dragons (these are so cool!), and the shark eggs.
I also loved the exhibits where you could touch some of the creatures — including starfish, sea urchins, sea anemone, and the sea cucumber (my favorite). If I had to pick one favorite, it would have to be the Dolphin Show. It was hands down incredible. Seriously! We were in awe… And now Kathrynne is considering changing her career ambitions to dolphin trainer.
My friend, Jennifer, and her husband were in the Nashville area this morning and we got to meet for a quick cup of coffee. Jennifer is the author of one of my Top 10 Books from 2014 and just such a sweet, sweet woman. She’s inspired me in so many ways and blessed my life.
I was also supposed to have coffee with my friend, Tam, this afternoon. But I was really tired after a long week so I texted to ask if I could have a rain check on coffee with her. Well, guess what she did, she went and got a coffee and dropped it off at my doorstep… because she’s such a dear person like that!
After coffee with Jennifer this morning, I promptly came home and put on my Wonder Woman tee, hoodie, and comfy pants — one of my favorite “Lazy Day” outfits. (I had taken a shower and fixed my hair/makeup, so that I wouldn’t ruin my day!)
It was so nice to have a day to just rest, relax, and enjoy being with my people.
(Silas sat next to me for quite awhile today hard at work on his latest Loom Band* creation. He’s kind of obsessed with these right now and does a great job making them!
However, when I took this picture, he was concerned that if I posted a picture with the Loom Bands, someone might comment that “Loom Bands are for girls!!”
I told him not to worry about what other people think. If he likes creating with Loom Bands, then he should go for it, because I love to see him learning new things and trying his hand at new skills!)
What are YOU loving this week? Tell us in the comments!
*affiliate link
So I outlined this post yesterday and then ran out of time to finish it. So enjoy a Seven Quick Takes-inspired post on Saturday instead of Friday.
Today, I bring you 7 Things You Might Not Know About Me:
Okay, so this one you might be able to guess. Because, well, you know, my blog name might give it away just a little bit. 🙂
Case in point: when I was in NYC last week, I couldn’t bring myself to pay the hotel breakfast prices (a bottle of water was $9, so I was kind of scared to even look at what scrambled eggs and bacon might cost!). Instead I walked to a Starbucks in Times Square and bought an oatmeal and a coffee with a gift card I earned from Swagbucks.
I could have saved even more by making my own oatmeal and coffee in the room (you can make oatmeal packets using the hot water from the coffee maker), but the beautiful hotel that Fox put me up in was apparently so froo-froo that they didn’t have in-room coffee-makers. I was clearly out of my league, folks.
See that picture above? It’s very important to note that I am leaning on an actual ironing board that I set up and actually USED in my hotel room to iron my dress before heading to my interview on Fox Business.
If you are a real-life friend, you know that I don’t own an iron. Why? Because I don’t iron… ever. So this was a momentous occasion, people. It probably won’t happen again for another 13 years.
You do not want me to drive you anywhere — especially if it’s not some place that I’ve been at least 100 times before. Trust me on this.
I guess my brain is too full of other more important things (or so I tell myself!), and it has trouble computing left and right and the difference between the two.
(Going to the eye doctor is a very anxiety-ridden experience because they are constantly asking you to cover your left eye or close your right eye. I sit there like a crazy woman having to think long and hard before remembering which one is which. I know, I may have some slight issues.)
If you give me directions in north and south, I am toast. TOAST, people. You might as well blind fold me and spin me around and tell me to find my way to Mars.
So you can imagine my sheer panic when I discovered that I was supposed to find my way to the Fox Studios from my hotel. “It’s only a few blocks,” they told me.
Well, trust me, with my navigational skills, it was a whole lot more than a few blocks. I got in a full body workout, broke out into a dripping sweat, and managed to get multiple blisters on my toes.
However, by some miracle, I found the Fox Business studios and I found my way back to the hotel. I also found out a whole lot of ways not to get to either place in the process. 😉
I’m incredibly late to the podcast game, but I’ve fallen hard and fast in love. I listen while I’m scheduling social media posts, while I’m cleaning, while I’m driving by myself, and while I’m folding laundry.
Some of the ones I’ve been listening to a lot recently are: Sorta Awesome, Chalene Johnson’s Build Your Tribe, Beyond Pro Podcast, The Fizzle Show, The Laura Ingraham Show, The Accidental Creative, and The Art and Business of Public Speaking.
I don’t listen to every episode and find that if an episode doesn’t grab me within the first few minutes, I just skip it and move to the next one. No need to waste time listening to something I’m not intensely interested in when there are so many great shows and episodes out there!
I posted the above picture as we were getting ready to head out the door to Atlanta on Wednesday and said, “Apparently, Kathrynne missed the memo that it was 90 degrees today! She’s a girl after my own heart — I’m often sporting a hoodie in the summer when indoors anywhere because it seems like I’m almost always cold!”
Yup, it’s true.
You would think that all of my stepping out of my comfort zone things and facing my fear opportunities over the last few years would mean I never get dreadfully nervous about anything.
But nope.
I discovered last week that TV is still way outside of my comfort zone. In fact, I basically was sick to my stomach scared about it for half of the day before my interview.
I texted a few friends and asked them to please pray and I felt a lot more calm the day of my interview. And I’m grateful, because it would have been quite the eventful interview had I thrown up on set. 🙂
The crazy thing is, when it finally was my segment, I wasn’t really nervous at all and ended up enjoying it. So maybe I could learn to like doing TV interviews??
We had planned to check out Centennial Park when we were in Atlanta with my sister and her family this week. We ended up showing up right before the Olympic Rings Fountain show.
We didn’t even know that there was a show, so we kind of felt like we’d hit the jackpot. It was a lot of fun — and FREE!
After the show, the kids had a blast playing in the fountains. I may have gotten in the fountains a little, too. I couldn’t help myself.
It was roasting hot and the water looked too inviting. And I’m working on living with abandon and embracing the moments… So it was perfect.
What about you? What are 7ish things most people might not know about you?
My interview with John Stossel aired on Fox Business and in that interview, I shared how I have lived for 33 years without a credit card.
Most people don’t believe that this is possible. But it’s true.
I’ve never had a credit card and I’ve never had debt. Yes, for real.
My grandpa raised my dad to never go into debt for anything but a mortgage. My dad not only embraced this belief, but then he took it further. When I was a young girl, my parents paid off their mortgage and began saving everything they possibly could in order to buy land and build a house in the country.
After a few years of scrimping and saving, they sold our house, we moved to an old trailer out on land they had bought, and my dad was the General Contractor for our debt-free house-building project.
Seeing the sacrifices that my parents made and seeing the freedom that being debt-free gave them and the stress it relieved from their lives inspired me to commit to never go into debt.
My husband and I went into marriage with an audacious goal for him to go through law school debt-free. This was a much harder to actually follow through with than we could have imagined, but our firm commitment to a debt-free lifestyle inspired us to make many short-term sacrifices in order to achieve long-term benefits.
After law school, we decided to continue our commitment to living debt-free and we set another big goal: to pay cash for our first house. We knew that if we continued to live very simply and save as much as we possibly could, this goal could be a reality in the next 5 years (it helped that we lived in Kansas at the time, where housing prices are very reasonable).
Hitting that goal in less than three years was almost 100% thanks to the huge increase in income we saw from this blog. However, we both feel like had we not set the goal in the first place and had we not been so committed to a debt-free lifestyle, we would never have been so inspired to work very hard at growing this online business nor as motivated to think outside the box and look for passive income streams.
We look back at the last 12 years of our married life and have zero regrets that we’ve chosen to live debt-free. It’s allowed us much more flexibility to make business changes and life changes — like our big move to Nashville last year. It’s also allowed us to be able to continue to live simply so that we can invest our money in priorities that matter to us as well as be in a position to give generously.
I prefer to use cash and rarely swipe a debit card for anything — except for online business purchases, gas purchases, and travel expenses.
Some people think that I’m dumb for choosing this lifestyle. I’ve been called names. I’ve been told I was crazy. I’ve been reprimanded over and over again for missing out on so many credit card rewards.
And here’s the thing: I own that I’m weird. I own that the choices I’ve made personally and the choices our family has made are not for everyone.
But I hope that our story challenges you to think outside the box. I want to inspire people to not just fall in line with whatever everyone else does or feel like debt has to be a normal part of everyone’s everyday existence. Because it doesn’t have to be.
You don’t need to do what we’ve done. You may choose to use a credit card or get a mortgage. You might have found a way to meticulously track your credit card expenditures so that you are actually spending less and earn big rewards that you use to further lower your costs.
You might find that you have more self-discipline when you swipe a card than when you carry around cash. Instead of using cash, you might choose to track your spending through an app like Mint.com, EveryDollar.com, or YouNeedaBudget.com.
I’m a big advocate of doing what works for you. And if you’re responsible with your spending and you have found a system that works for your family and keeps you organized and (mostly!) stress-free, than I say to stick with it.
But if you are struggling financially and you are feeling discouraged and disorganized when it comes to finances, I encourage you to not just keep doing whatever it is that you’re currently doing. If you want to see change in your life and finances, you have to do something different than what you’re currently doing.
If you’re new here, I’d love to for you to sign up for our daily email newsletter here where I share money-saving advice, tips, tricks, and great deals. In addition, if you’re looking for practical ways to save more money, check out my series on 52 Different Ways to Save $100 Per Year.
My passion is to challenge people to live with intention in all areas of your life and finances. You aren’t stuck, unless you choose to be. So begin today to make wise financial choices. Be willing to make those short-term sacrifices. Be okay with going against the grain — even if others think you’re weird.
Your hard work and effort and sacrifices will pay off. And I’ll be here cheering you all the way!
Laurie from Passionate Penny Pincher has a great post up with 10 Things You Need to Know Before Shopping at TJ Maxx.
Living on a Dime has put together a list of 10 Foods You Didn’t Know You Could Make at Home. Did you know you could make all of these? Have you tried making all of these before?
Serenity emailed in the following tip:
Last summer, I wanted to do something that would help my family AND help someone else, in an effort to teach my kids (ages 5 and 6) about helping others.
I knew both kids liked to garden, so we did some research at the library and started a garden. We also talked about who we could pless with some of the veggies we were planning to grow.
One of our friends who lived a couple blocks away was basically homebound as she had cancer. And because of her treatments, she could only eat certain foods — tomatoes and eggplant were 2 of those foods. We made sure to plant extra tomatoes and eggplant in our garden!
I am not a talented gardener, but somehow the garden ended up producing far more than we expected! We took pictures of the garden as the kids loved showing our neighbor “their project” and how it t was growing. Of course, our neighbor really enjoyed our company, and was thrilled when the kids shared what they had grown with her later in the summer.
The kids enjoyed having a summer project and always looked forward to delivering the tomatoes and eggplant to neighbor. They also got to learn more about gardening and are excited to have another garden this year!
Guest post from Andrea
My husband and I purchased our first home when we were 23 years old. With no kids in the picture, we weren’t looking for anything fancy; we were thrilled to have a house that came with a refrigerator and central air conditioning!
It was small, and we figured that we would live here for no more five years. Once we had kids, it would be time to move on to something bigger and better. Fast forward seven years and almost three kids later, and we are unexpectedly still here.
Well-meaning friends and family often ask us when we will be moving… and they are usually surprised to hear that we don’t currently have any plans to move.
Here are a few reasons why we have decided to stick with our starter home for the time being:
Our home is about 1300 square feet. It’s not tiny, but the layout is awkward and boxy. The three bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms are pocket-sized.
I will be honest and say that I dream of a larger kitchen, an open floor plan, a finished basement, and two spacious full bathrooms. But when I step back to reevaluate, those are just wants at this point, not needs.
A priority for our family is for me to stay home with our kids. Living in a small house and not having a large monthly mortgage payment allows us to retain this priority.
I do not enjoy decorating, cleaning, or organizing… so I am thankful that my small house makes these tasks seem more manageable.
We have also been able to complete some major renovations on our home (including a new roof and a bathroom remodel) thanks to the fact that the spaces were so small and fairly inexpensive!
I want my family to be tight-knit. My big kids are cheerful and content in their shared bedroom, and I appreciate the nearness that our small house affords us even though we are cramped at times!
On the contrary, I want to own my house, completely. Over the years, we periodically threw extra cash at our mortgage and celebrated our 30th birthdays last year by using extra money in our savings to pay the remainder of the balance!
Some people advised us against this decision by saying that we would be better off investing the money or using it for a down payment on an upgrade. But I will attest that it was one of the best decisions that we have ever made.
We feel such greater financial freedom, and the increased cash flow is awesome! Also, since we know the sweet taste of being completely debt free, we are not in a hurry to acquire another mortgage.
So What’s Next For Us?
As our kids and family grow, we recognize that a larger home may soon become a need rather than a want. We hope to use the next few years to save money for a larger home — our ultimate goal would be to pay for our next home in cash, or to have a very tiny mortgage.
We are looking forward to working towards that goal!
CreativeGreenLiving.com shows you how to make a homemade tote bag out of a old t-shirt.
Do you have a fun and frugal DIY idea to share? I’d love to hear about it! Read the submission guidelines and submit it here.
Looking for a quick and easy no-bake recipe? We LOVE Energy Bites at our house and Tonia from The Sunny Patch has a free printable with dozens of different combinations for Energy Bite recipes.
