Averting Bridesmaid Disaster + A Giveaway

My future sister-in-law asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding. “Are you sure?” I asked, “I won’t be insulted if there is someone else you’d rather have standing beside you.”  “No,” she said, “I’m certain.” After waiting over a year and a half to conceive I hadn’t told anyone in the family I … Read more

Crying Baby = Panicked Mom

It started innocently enough. “Can I take a ten minute shower?” I asked my husband. “Sure,” he answered, “no problem.” When I walked upstairs the three month old was asleep in the cradle. A few minutes later I emerged from the shower and immediately heard the baby crying. This child rarely cries. For the first … Read more

Would You Share Your Financial Information With a Friend?

A lot of personal finance bloggers openly write about money. They place their pretty little pictures in the sidebars and include their real names. I am not one of them. Despite maintaining this blog for nine years and openly writing about many personal aspects of my life I’ve never revealed my identity. A few very … Read more

My Beach House: An Owner for Ten Years

Ten years ago this week I spotted a cute, little, yellow beach house and made an offer on it. My husband and I spent a day weighing the decision and ultimately decided it made a whole lot of sense to purchase a second property. If I could go back in time I would definitely buy … Read more

Perspective

I consider myself a lucky person. I typically focus on the positive over the negative and I wonder how that impacts my overall experiences in life. Do good things happen because I push aside the negative in favor of happy thoughts? Here’s an example: It took my husband and I two and a half years … Read more

Simply Annoyed

In just a few days my family will leave for our annual beach vacation. We take two major trips to the beach each year; one that marks the start of summer and one that marks the end of it. I’m in charge of figuring out everything we might need, packing it up and more often … Read more

A Mother’s Day Gift to Myself

My husband came home this week and told me his coworkers seemed stressed and annoyed with the expectations of Mother’s Day and the gifts they need to buy their wives. I’m not a fan of all the fluff and stuff associated with major holidays. A few years back a male coworker said “I don’t want … Read more

Storing Versus Buying at a Moment’s Notice

My husband and I are not always on the same page about money. In his recent quest to rid the house of unwanted clutter he’s discussed a new philosophy I’ve nicknamed just buy it again. He told me to get rid of everything I don’t want to part with fully knowing that nothing is particularly … Read more

The Freedom of Less

A member of the family is house hunting. His goal is to find a well priced home with a minimum of five bedrooms and four bathrooms. So far he seems most interested in houses with at least 2500 square feet. A few of the houses have been more than double the size of mine, which … Read more