As a family, we have been a little unconventional over the years. By some people’s standards, we are a little weird. We are vegetarians, we have a large family, and we homeschool all of our children. I am used to not quite fitting the mold. Because of covid, homeschooling is now all the rage. I…
Category: Family
Sacrifices on home improvement
The one home improvement that Christy has really wanted since we moved into our home was a new kitchen. That was 15 years ago and we are on the verge of that happening, just not the way we had planned. As we’ve mentioned many, many times (can you tell I’m bitter yet), I had an…
Electric Usage: August update
As you’ll remember from last month, our electric bill was $318. What in the world was happening over here? I still have no idea. Regardless, we decided to be more intentional with our electric usage this past month, in the hopes that our bill would be lower in August. I was hoping for a dramatic…
Working Toward Retirement – August
Here is our retirement fund update for August. I’m pretty happy to see how the market has been doing lately. Prior to COVID-19, our rate of return on my work 401k was around 17%. During the low of COVID, it got down to 4%. As of today, our rate of return on that account is…
Buying Christmas gifts already?
August is traditionally the time when I start buying Christmas gifts for our children. I know that sounds crazy, but it actually helps our family keep our finances in order during the months leading up to Christmas. By planning ahead, I can avoid pulling money from our savings account to fund our holiday traditions. Starting in…
We’re open for business (A Shameless Self Promotion)
Designs On A Dime is now open for business. We recently launched our new store to 1) Get some of the crazy ideas I have out of my head and bring them into the material world, and 2) To try and find a new income stream to help us support our family of 7 after…
Walking in the woods during quarantine
Before John and I had a million children, we had a million cats and dogs. We used to regularly take our dogs for long walks at a local nature trail. After switching states and starting our family, we stopped prioritizing walking in the woods. Between the kids and the animals, it just felt like a…
The pandemic’s impact on savings
The pandemic’s impact on our life has been pervasive. As I have mentioned before, I have always homeschooled my children. However, I have never homeschooled under these strange circumstances. Contrary to what everyone thinks, quarantine has been hard on homeschool families too. In the past we participated in a variety of weekly activites. Staying home…
Term Life: Preparing for the unknown
Back in May, I wrote about the importance of proper term life insurance coverage to take care of your loved ones and my lack of ability to lose weight. At the time I decided I just needed to get the coverage. That search led me to both lose weight and take the steps towards securing…
Electric Bill: Out of Control Usage
We received our electric bill in the middle of July, and it was $318! What in the world? We’ve never had an electric bill that high before. If there was a reasonable one-time explanation, I wouldn’t be so upset about it. Unfortunately, there is no good reason for why our bill would be that high….