My father-in-law passed away a few weeks ago. He had dementia, and his health was failing, but it was still a shock when he died. We had to quickly make travel arrangements so we could attend the funeral. In the past, we would have made the 10 hour trek by car. This would have been…
Can minimalism save me money?
I am drawn to the idea of minimalism. I love the notion of only keeping and maintaining things that are useful and meaningful to our family. In practice, of course, it is much harder to get rid of all the stuff cluttering our house. We live in a 1200 square foot house, so it is…
Tips to save on groceries
We have a large family. Seven people can eat through a fridge of food in no time flat. We spend more on groceries than anything else in our budget. Once upon a time, we shopped at Whole Foods almost exclusively. Have I mentioned how bad we were with our money? Don’t get me wrong, I…
How to fix a microwave in 2 short months
Over the summer I was making the kids lunch, and I noticed a sudden silence, or as much of a silence you can expect with five children. The change in the room was the lack of hum from the microwave. It didn’t beep, so I assumed it tripped the breaker, but when I turned from…
The End of an Error
(This is a diary account of the weeks leading up to paying off our mortgage.) Day 1 While doing a routine check of the bank accounts, I scrolled down to the accounts total. “Damn. That’s a lot of money. How much of that is savings?’ I’d convinced my wife years ago that the stock market…
Our Story: Part 4
Have you ever heard of frugal fatigue? It is basically when a person gets tired of saving every penny and delaying gratification. It is a real thing, and we’ve experienced it many times. After our long stretch of frugality while paying off our balloon loan, we were ready to live life again. In case you’re…
Our Story: Part 3
When we last left off, we had just welcomed our second child, and my husband had received a big boost in his pay. With our improved financial situation, we were finally able to get some important work completed on our house. We learned our lesson with the HELOC loan on our first house, so we…
Our Story: Part 2
As you’ll remember, we sold our home and ended up $3,000 in the hole. But no matter! Off we went to New Jersey. I should probably mention that I was pregnant with our first child during this transition to a new state. Being pregnant, we really wanted to buy another home for our growing family. We…
Our Story: Part 1
In 2000, my husband and I purchased our first home together. It was a tiny, one bedroom house that was perfect for us. We were young, with no children. It should have been easy for us to meet our financial obligations. During this time, I was in college, but I did work part time in…
Welcome to Family on a Dime!
Welcome to our blog! Family on a Dime was created to inspire families to reach their goals by using their money mindfully and with purpose. My name is Christy and along with my husband John, we would like to share our experiences with you. We recently paid off our home, and we’re now completely debt…