Maria and I have been living in our "new" house now for just over 9 months. We love our home and everything about it, even its little idiosyncrasies (like the far-from-perfect DIY electrical wiring and plumbing). One thing that we don't love is the fact that we had to take out a … [Read more...]
The New Year’s Resolution We’re Sure to Keep + A Giveaway
The Christmas season is mostly over (though I'm sure we'll leave the decorations up for a little while longer so Dessa can continue to enjoy them) and we are looking ahead to the New Year. We always use this time to reflect on the past twelve months and to focus on our goals for … [Read more...]
How We Paid Cash for a New Car (and How You Can Too)
So you may have read in one of Maria's recent posts (specifically, the one about our recent no-good, terrible week that just would not end) that we bought a new-to-us van. If there's one lesson that was truly driven home to me in that whole car-buying experience, it was this: I … [Read more...]
7 Things to do with Your Tax Refund
It's just about that time of year again: tax season! If you're like Maria and me, you play it safe and get a tax refund nearly every year. We try hard to minimize the amount of our return (after all, a tax refund is really just the government paying back an interest-free loan you … [Read more...]
Fitting a Baby into the Family Budget
Babies are expensive. Not only are there the medical bills, the diapers, and the formula, but there is so much more that doesn't even occur to you beforehand. As soon as we found out that Maria was expecting, we began to prepare our finances for life with a baby. But even the … [Read more...]
7 Extravagances We Live Without to Make Room in our Budget
Maria and I are blessed in so many ways. We live debt-free, we are able to afford the occasional weekend getaway, we live in a comfortable condo in a very nice town, and I think we can all agree that Maria stays pretty well dressed. But we didn't get here just by pulling out the … [Read more...]
I Was Broke, Too – A Look at my Early Finances
I know how crazy it is to look at Rob and my success at paying off our debt, to watch the video of our Debt Free Scream on the Dave Ramsey show, and to listen to us talk about how we paid off $250,000 worth of debt in 13 months time. I also know how easy it is to look at our … [Read more...]
How We Screamed Our Way through the Dave Ramsey Show
Monday was the day Maria and I have been waiting for. The day we got to go on the Dave Ramsey Show and do our Debt Free Scream! We practiced on our drive down to our long weekend in Nashville and again in the space of our rented bungalow in East Nashville (that time with Maria's … [Read more...]
We’re Heading to Nashville!
Maria and I are about to start packing our bags for our next trip. This time, we’re heading down to Nashville, Tennessee. We’re pretty excited as neither of us have been there before. But we have one big reason why we chose Nashville as our next destination. I’ll give you a … [Read more...]
