Wow. Here’s an article from my local news station about families getting really frugal and ::gasp:: doing their own house cleaning and lawn mowing. Making the article even more comical, the subject is a stay-at-home mom who ditched her maid service, and stopped sending her husbands’ shirts to the cleaners. They now also do their [...]

In my “pennywise” search I’ve really gotten into the nitty-gritty of cooking in a thifty manner. However, I don’t feel like this is the place for it. As a result, I’ve partnered with my dear friend and frugal cooking mentor, Laura to create www.3rdworldfood.blogspot.com. Laura is an adoptive mom like me, and has kids from [...]

Back in January I blogged here after reading a magazine article that explained how to know if you should refinance. It’s a tricky question for many of us. I’m personally on the fence about refinancing the condo we’ve had for five years. We’re *this* close to listing it for sale, but at the same time, [...]

Yesterday’s post was on the subject of saving money on laundry detergent. Today that got me thinking about an older, smarter choice we made on the subject of wash that has saved (and cost) our family a lot. When we first bought our home five years ago, it had a five-year-old washer and dryer. Within [...]

I do at least four loads of wash per week. This week laundry detergent was on the list and I was dreading buying it. I don’t budget separately for this but lump it in with our “food” budget in Mint since it comes from the grocery store. I found a recipe in Jim Bob and [...]

Readers: I have a conundrum. God has been good to us, and my small business is growing at a rate where I’m beginning to think the operations are outside of my skillset–and I need to bring in a financial professional (thus ensuring I don’t end up with a WHOPPING tax bill at the end of [...]

I met with someone today who mentioned in passing that he was refinancing into a lower-rate 30 year fixed mortgage. But he really wants to be debt-free in twelve years. He just needed to think of how. I suggested, why not attack his mortgage from both ends? Rob and I have been doing this as [...]

I love it when people read my blog, and even more if it helps them in some way. Today I got a great tip from my friend Julie. Here’s how Julie’s family saved on their electric bill. What cost-savings tips have you implemented in your house? I had read that for every degree you turn [...]

I’ve been trying to make the best of the permanent layoff that came my way in early December. I started a business, I’m also writing and blogging. Without commute time I find myself with a lot of free time. I’m definitely enjoying the flexible lifestyle. One of the things I’ve decided to tackle is households’ [...]

Ok, I know, nobody likes to do it, and you really can’t do anything about your expenses until you know what they are. How did I finally conquer this dragon? I signed up for Mint.com. It’s a free, online banking aggregator (i.e. dashboard) for your money. It downloaded 90 days worth of transactions on all [...]