No, I Don’t Think Credit Cards Are Evil
Why We’re Sticking With Our Starter Home
5 Ways to Ruin Your Day — Guaranteed
How I Won the Cool Mom Award With a Simple Trip to Kroger
Summer Bucket List
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7 Things You Might Not Know About Me {SQT}
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:
1. I can’t help but be frugal — even in NYC.
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.
2. I don’t iron.
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.
3. I am directionally challenged.
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. 😉
4. I have gotten completely addicted to podcasts.
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!
5. I am almost always cold — except when walking blocks and blocks in NYC!
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.
6. I still get crazy nervous about stepping outside my comfort zone.
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??
7. I’m working on living more with abandon and embracing the moments.
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?
No, I Don’t Think Credit Cards Are Evil
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!
10 Things You Need to Know About Shopping at TJ Maxx
Laurie from Passionate Penny Pincher has a great post up with 10 Things You Need to Know Before Shopping at TJ Maxx.
10 Foods You Didn’t Know You Could Make At Home
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?
Reader Tip: A Frugal Way to Bless Others
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!
Why We’re Sticking With Our Starter Home
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:
We Recognized Our Needs vs. Wants
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.
Our Priorities Don’t Allow for an Upgrade
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.
Our Smaller Home is Low Maintenance
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!
Love Grows Even in Little Houses
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!
I Don’t Want My House to Own Me
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!
Do It Yourself: Homemade T-shirt Tote
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.
Dozens of different No Bake Energy Bite Recipes
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.
Reader Tip: How We Literally “Cut” Our Spending
The following is a reader tip from Leah of Life Around the Coffee Cup:
When we look at our budgets so often we think it’s about cutting coupons or cutting line items, like cable or eating out. However, my family and I have saved over $1200 over the past 3 years — and we didn’t have to cut coupons, cut back, or even cut a line item out of our budget.
Instead, we made literal “cuts” in order to reduce our spending!
I cut my family’s hair!
I’m not a professional, but after some guidance from my husband on what he wanted, I was able to cut his hair without any trouble. This last year I even confidently helped him navigate changing to a new style. I also cut my son and daughter’s hair.
I usually get mine cut with a coupon, gift certificate, or by a friend.
We also cut t-shirts into reusable disinfecting wipes, cut flour sack bags into reusable “paper” towels, cut surplus veggies and fruit into small chunks for the freezer, and cut raggedy jeans into upcycled shorts.
When it comes to our budgets, we can get pretty creative with cutting. And all of it is a really good way to accomplish a goal (like becoming debt-free) or to take on a money-saving lifestyle.
Do you literally cut anything to help with your budget? If so, I’d like to know what!
OVER-SPENDING EVERY SINGLE MONTH?Grab these FREE Budgeting Sheets!
Click here to download!
5 Ways to Ruin Your Day — Guaranteed!
A while back, I wrote a post on 5 Things You Should Do Every Day. That post ended up going viral on Facebook and has been one of the most-viewed posts I’ve written in a very, very long time!
Just for fun, I thought I’d write a post that was the opposite of that post. Because it’s important for us to remember that just like small good decisions can positively impact our day in a big way, so seemingly minor poor decisions can also negatively impact our day in a big way.
So here are 5 Ways to Ruin Your Day (it probably goes without saying that these are meant to be tongue-in-cheek!):
1. Stay In Your Pajamas All Day Long
This is highly effective for encouraging you to be unproductive. Rock those sweats, wear your frumpiest t-shirt, don’t fix your hair, and whatever you do, don’t shower or wash your face.
The sloppier the look, the better it helps you feel like spending your day doing absolutely nothing. As an added result, you’ll probably also feel grumpy and just might start snapping at your kids, your husband, your neighbor, or even the dog.
TIP: If you want to take things a step further, also consume a significant amount of junk food and do lots of sitting and lying around. These things will kick the un-motivation up a notch and guarantee that you accomplish almost nothing.
2. Mindlessly Browse the Internet and Flip Through TV Channels
Whatever you do, while you’re wearing your PJs and snacking on foods with no nutritional value, do not read or watch anything that has any redeeming value. Some of the best suggestions for mindless browsing would be things like: cat videos, celebrity gossip sites, or blog posts about subjects you have zero interest in.
The more you can distract yourself with things that do nothing to help you, the greater your percentages of day-ruining will be.
Tip: Do try to have multiple forms of media playing at the same time — if you can be watching a cat video on your computer, have your browser open to a celebrity gossip site, and be flipping through channels on the TV all at once, this increases the mindless browsing factor and will help you use up even more time ineffectively.
3. Stew About Everything That is Wrong in Your Life
You have so much wrong in your life. I mean, just think about it. No, don’t just think about it. Start listing it off.
Maybe even write a blog post or Instagram or Facebook post about your lack of blessings? This will help you solidify your stewing and further encourage you to feel frustrated, grouchy, and annoyed by everything in life.
Once you’ve created your Un-Blessing List, take a lot of time to hash and re-hash over and over again just how much your life stinks, how difficult everything is, and how stressed you are about it all.
TIP: If you can, definitely call or text or tell someone in person all about how bad everything is in your life. The more you can camp on the negative, the more negative you’ll feel.
4. Start Project After Project, But Don’t Finish Anything You’ve Started
Think of all of the projects you’ve been putting off. Today is the day to start in on them. Only be sure to just get out all the supplies, begin working on them, and then move onto the next project.
I really think if you can try to tackle 10-15 different project starts today, that would be the best recipe for ruining your day.
TIP: The more materials you can get out and the bigger mess you can make, the better. If you need to go shop for a bunch of supplies, do it. However, just get all the supplies, lay everything out, begin working, and then move onto the next thing. Don’t finish things or put anything away.
5. See if You Can Stay Up At Least 4 Hours Past Your Bedtime
This final point is one of the most important. The later you can stay up past your bedtime, the more you’ll set up tomorrow for being ruined, too.
Whatever you do, don’t accomplish anything in those last few hours. This is key. Just spend your time on frivolous, meaningless things. And do make sure that you hit at least your second or third wind.
TIP: Do not set your alarm for the next morning. Or if you do, hit the snooze button at least 15 times. Set up tomorrow to be unsuccessful, too, by getting up late and tired.
What about you? What would be on your list of ways to ruin your day?
Simple Freezer Cooking Plan for Summer
Do It Yourself: 15 Homemade Popsicles
LivingOnADime.com shows you how to make 15 different homemade popsicles.
Shared Jun 22, 2015
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How I Won the “Cool Mom Award” With a Simple Trip to Kroger (+ enter to win a $75 Kroger gift card!)
How I Won the “Cool Mom Award” With a Simple Trip to Kroger (+ enter to win a $75 Kroger gift card!)
Last Friday, on our way home from picking the kids up from their last day at camp I said, “I’m so sorry, guys, but we’re going to have to stop at Kroger. I need to pick up something for a blog post I’m working on.”
The kids gave me weird glances. It’s not normal that I just up and go to Kroger seemingly spontaneously — especially not to buy something for a blog post. But they reluctantly agreed to get out of the car and troop into the store with me, even though they were tired and hot from a long day at camp.
Their reluctance turned to sheer joy when I marched them to the ice cream bar aisle and told them that we “had” to buy every kind of Magnum Ice Cream Bar the store sold and that I needed them to be my taste testers to see if the ice cream bars were any good.
Yup, I won the Cool Mom Award. And they also decided, again, that this blogging gig thing is pretty sweet most days.
I mean, what other job do you get to pay the bills by testing ice cream bars?? 🙂
{Okay, there may be a few other things involved in the gig, too, and we are always quick to let our kids know that these fun opportunities only come with lots of hard work, however, I think it’s wonderful for our kids to get to tangibly see that Mom and Dad’s hard work does pay off!}
At any rate, it seems we’ve all been living under a rock for the past number of years because not a one of us has ever tried the Magnum Ice Cream Bars. And I’m afraid that now that we’ve tried them, we may be just a wee bit hooked.
There were oohs and ahhs and lip-smacking all around when we got home. In fact, I didn’t even get to get a picture of all of the boxes of Magnum Ice Cream Bars before two boxes were completely G-O-N-E.
{Jesse said that I had to take a picture of the two empty boxes, even though I was a bit embarrassed that we inhaled so many ice cream bars in such a short amount of time. He wanted you all to know that these are the best ice cream bars he’s ever had. I did not twist his arm or offer bribes for that statement from him. I think he is a complete and diehard Magnum Ice Cream Bar fan, now. We may even need to set aside a budget line for them based upon how much he’s been raving about them!}
Magnum Ice Cream Bars are made with real Belgium chocolate. And trust me, we all agreed that, these are hands down the ultimate chocolate and ice cream indulgence. Apparently, it does make a difference to be the only ice cream bar made with Belgian chocolate!
They are an amazing ice cream treat — silky ice cream covered in thick, cracking chocolate. De-li-cious! For an even more indulgent experience, Magnum Doubles are dipped in a Chocolate, Caramel, or Peanut Butter sauce and dipped again in chocolate. We also loved the Magnum Minis. They are the perfect size for a quick snack!
The Magnum Ice Cream Bars are on the pricey side, but we felt like they were well worth the price for how delicious they were. Plus, I’ve often seen coupons for them. They would be a less expensive (and probably more mouth-watering!) option than going out for ice cream.
Win a $75 Kroger Gift Card!
Magnum Ice Cream Bars are available at a variety of stores, including Kroger and Kroger owned stores. And Kroger would like to give you the opportunity to try these amazing treats — for free!
They are giving away a $75 Kroger gift card on my blog today. To enter to win, just post on Twitter saying which Magnum Ice Cream Bar flavor you’d most like to try. Be sure to tag me (@moneysavingmom) and use hashtag #MagnumSummerIndulge. We’ll randomly choose one winner from the entries to win a $75 Kroger gift card.
{This post was underwritten by Lunchbox. Read our disclosure policy here.}
5 Lessons I Learned After Quitting Facebook
Guest post from Mary of Adventures In Frugal Land
Last month, I made the decision to say goodbye to my personal Facebook account. It was a decision that was in the back of my mind for a while. I took the plunge on May 6, 2015.
Since then, I’ve learned five important lessons.
1. I Don’t Have As Many Friends As I Thought
One my personal Facebook page, I had hundreds of “friends”. Once I said goodbye to my account, only a handful of them stayed in contact with me.
My birthday was less than two weeks after I made the decision to quit Facebook. In the previous years, most everyone on my friends list posted “happy birthday” to me.
Guess how many thought to call or text me? FIVE.
Most of them were family… which leads me to the next lesson.
2. I Don’t Care
Learning lesson one taught me lesson two. I don’t care about the lack of communication from my former Facebook “friends”.
The true friendships that I have are even more precious to me before. I value the few close friends I have more than I ever valued the fake ones I thought I had.
3. I Have More Free Time
I am amazed at how much time I really do have in a day. I knew I spent a good bit of time on Facebook, but I had no clue exactly how much.
I no longer feel the need to check my feed because I’m bored or out of habit. Instead, I use that time to do something productive or something I really enjoy.
4. I Am Happier
Let’s face it. Facebook is FULL of negativity… and I don’t want that in my life.
I am not the type of person who can just forget about something. So, when I would see a troubling post/picture, it would stay with me for days. I don’t want to focus on negativity in my life. I want to embrace the positive.
Since quitting Facebook, I am happier.
5. I Don’t Feel “Left Out”
I honestly thought that I would feel left out of the loop since quitting Facebook. I’ve found that I don’t. My friends and family inform me of any pertinent information I need to know.
Bonus Lesson #6: My Phone Battery Lasts Longer
It’s amazing how long a phone battery lasts when you are not constantly checking for updates and messages!
Mary is the mother of an energetic four year old daughter. She is passionate about bringing awareness to thyroid disease. You can find her blogging at Adventures In Frugal Land about thyroid disease, motherhood, frugal living and whatever else pops into her head!