This Saturday is Kids Day! What? You’ve never heard of Kids Day? Well, most people haven’t. That’s probably because we made it up. About six years ago, on either Mothers Day or Fathers Day, our oldest asked Christy and I “If there’s a Mothers Day and a Fathers Day, why isn’t there a Kids Day?”…
Author: John
Saving for the future – July
No one can predict the future, but having goals and saving for the future is one way you can hedge against the unknowns you will certainly encounter in life. Christy and I haven’t always been good about saving. Being disciplined enough to not live paycheck to paycheck takes a conscious decision and practice. Is it…
Saving money on meals
Around the time we had our second child, we started noticing our money tightening up. I was busy at work and Christy was busy at home. One thing that seems to happen for a lot of people when life gets hectic and they are short on time is, they start spending more money on meals….
Buying a “new car” and when to walk away
Christy and I have never owned a new car. The cars we did have, until 2013, averaged around 5-7 years old when we bought them. We aren’t really car people, so buying something new and fancy never really registered in our minds as something we needed. I always bought clunkers. My very first car was…
My wallet has contracted COVID-19
There’s just no getting away from COVID-19. Unfortunately, it has caused a great loss of life and even more panic. I’d like to say I’m immune to the panic, but our grocery bills are telling another story. As a cost savings measure, we only go grocery shopping when I get paid, which is the 15th…
Retirement: Do you want to be Retired or Re-TIRED?
Retirement is one area that we have fallen short. As Christy mentioned in our story, when the stock market took a plunge in 2008 we stopped contributing to my work 401k. Although that was a mistake because we lost 10 years of growth during a great market run, it wasn’t a total loss because the…
They work hard for the money. So hard for it honey.
When I was a kid, I did work hard for the money I earned. Not really. I was the youngest of six, so we had a lot of waste. Do you remember those little metal garbage cans they had back then? They didn’t hold a whole lot, so we had 5 of them. In my…
Hershey Easter Pie
This pie will send you into a diabetic coma. It’s really good. How can it not be when it’s made with Hershey chocolate? I first saw it back when Christy and I bought our first house. I can’t recall where I saw it. I believe it was in a weekly newspaper ad. Probably on a…
Instant Pot Chili Mac
Christy found this great Chili Mac recipe for the Instant Pot somewhere online, but she wrote it out by hand instead of printing it. I don’t know who to link to so I can’t give them props. This is one of our new family favorites. It really retains its heat, so I would recommend letting…
Potato, Broccoli and Cheese Soup
This is my wife’s FAVORITE soup that I make. The kids whine and moan, but I just tell them that if their Mom likes it, I’m making it. It’s a good winter Sunday dinner. One thing I’ll stress is, overdue it on the immersion blender. You really want to get those potatoes blended into a…