For the first time in a long time, it feels like the world is resuming a sense of normalcy. My kids are attending homeschool activities. We’re seeing friends on a fairly regular basis. Best of all, I no longer feel the oppressive weight of fear on my shoulders whenever I walk out the door. Maybe…
Kitchen Remodel: Behind the scenes – Blank board
Alright, this post is admittedly boring. You can tell by the title, right? Actually, I believe they are called a “false front”, but this is the tale of the board between the sink cabinets and the counter top. With all new squared edges of the shaker style doors, we couldn’t leave the fill board above…
Working Toward Retirement – March
It was a rocky month in the stock market, especially today. Collectively we are down $1,423. Due to the market being down, we were not able to meet the benchmark of having $100,000 in my work 401k. Even with that loss, my work 401k is still showing our rate of return over the last 5…
Should you go on a Financial Diet?
Lately, I have gone off the rails with my diet. I have been drinking soda from the time I get up until I go to bed. I eat whatever I want, whenever I want. Recently I developed an obsession with cheese crackers, and didn’t bat an eye at eating half a box for a “snack.” Honestly,…
Kitchen Remodel: Behind the scenes – Building a cabinet
Another first for me on this project was building a cabinet from scratch. Our old kitchen had the stove pushed directly against our old pantry. Christy had the great idea to take the dead plate that filled in the gap between the left side of the stove and the sink cabinets, move it to the…
Instant Pot Lentil Chili Recipe
I love chili. It’s one of my favorite meals. Fortunately for me, my whole family seems to enjoy eating chili too (especially my baby boy). My favorite recipe is for Instant Pot chili mac, but my lentil chili recipe is pretty darn tasty too. The original recipe came from Katie at Runs For Cookies. My…
Saving for the future – March
This month in Savings, we were able to save our normal $500, but I also cashed in the change that built up in my coin cup that I keep in my vehicle. I’ve been putting any change that builds up into Savings. Every little bit helps. With that I was able to add an additional…
Dining Room Makeover Update
Since my last post, John and I have made some more progress on our dining room makeover. Unfortunately, we’re not as far along as I had hoped we would be. Although this is a fairly simple project, the weather in New Jersey has been awful. We had snow on the ground for most of February….
Top Five Ways We Have Wasted Money in 2021
Everyone spends money frivolously on occasion, and we are no exception. John and I haven’t been very good with our extra cash lately. It seems like we are down to a few dollars in our checking account at the end of every pay period. We usually have about $5 left to spare! Looking back over…
Working Toward Retirement – February
Well, this month could have been better, but it looks like we took a loss, collectively, in our Roth IRAs. While we had a big gain in my work 401k, our Roth IRAs did not fair the turbulence as well. All in all we had a gain of over $3,641, so I see it as…