fine living on a shoestring budget
Shortly after mom died I found myself in the parenting section of Barnes and Noble. It didn’t take long for me to realize that there isn’t an instruction manual for raising your teen brother who has lost both his parents. I found a book about “tough topics and teens”, but it was mostly about sex…
Well, hello friend! I can’t tell you how wonderful it felt to get so many nice comments, notes, and messages about my last Frugal Friday update. Successful 6 figure bloggers will tell you that stream of conscious blogging is dead. Apparently, it’s all about SEO, Google, and Pinterest for the serious bloggers that want page…
Well, it’s been a hot minute since I wrote a Frugal Friday update. Rightly so too. It’s taking a while for me to find a new normal. I’ve been sad about losing mom and overwhelmed by all the tasks that come with losing a parent. I have not been in the mood to blog lately,…
I’m not ready to write a lengthy blog post about losing Mom. I may never be. I’m realizing that grief is weird, and no explanation is needed to validate how I’m feeling. It’s been a week and one day since Mom passed away. My home has been filled with family and friends since the night…
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about gratitude. As someone who always thinks about money, I can’t help but wonder about money when I think of all the heavy thoughts, such as gratitude. The more I learn about gratitude and the daily practice of it, the more I’m convinced that practicing gratitude can save you…
I tend to talk a big talk when I say things like, “Money can’t buy you happiness”, and “The best things in life are free”. I even gained thousands of new Instagram followers after writing a post about how my mom always told me we were “rich in love”. All of those mantras are true….
When I think of people getting bonuses at work, I always think of that scene in Christmas Vacation where Chevy Chase day dreams about the pool he’s going to put in with his Christmas bonus check. While Tom and I will probably never get a bonus check large enough to pay for a pool, we…
It’s been a really long time since I’ve done a Frugal Friday Update. Two years to be exact! I stopped doing them because these posts take a lot of time and yield very little in return. Yet, here I am writing one. I’ve missed these informal posts with my thoughts on life and money. As…
I want to give a quick update about my mom. Last week I wrote this post about how she was diagnosed with lung and brain tumors. Then I kind of left you hanging! I actually left everyone hanging. Friends and family reached out to check on mom, and I was so overwhelmed by everything that…
I’ve had this blog post sitting in my drafts since May 26th, a day after the shooting in Noblesville, Indiana. Like many bloggers, writing is cathartic for me. So much so that I have lots of posts in my drafts section of my blog that never see the light of day. It’s like a little…
