Finances & Budgeting

Buy, Sell, Trade Groups :: What Does It All Mean? What do you do with all of the things you are ready to let go of? Maybe it has some life left in it, maybe you want to make back a little bit of the money that you spent. Perhaps you want to try out something new, but aren’t ready to pay full price or maybe there is something specific you want but it is no longer available from the manufacturer where do you go? Where do you look?  In the past we may have looked to eBay or craigslist; searched resale, consignment or thrift stores or asked around, but for the last few years there has been online resource for...

A Budget-Friendly Birthday They Won't Forget There are a couple of times a year that my family has clusters of birthdays and holidays stacked together. For me, it’s May and June when we have kids’ birthdays, Mother’s Day, Father's Day, grandparents’ birthdays and even our wedding anniversary. Not to mention school and summer camp registration fees and end of school graduation events. Without even blinking, the bank account is drained and we are well on our way to disappointing someone’s special day if we don’t have a plan in place. Wait, it gets worse. Two weeks ago my car decided to unexpectedly become the most unreliable hunk of metal that I owned. The nerve!! In the middle of our most expensive...

Each year, almost immediately after Halloween, our calendars become full with holiday commitments, leaving hardly any time to stop and breathe until after the New Year. Around this same time of year, thanks to social media, we fall into the comparison trap and evolve into a wannabe Pinterest perfect Christmas super mom. You know her, and you may even become her when the end of November rolls around. She wants to make meaningful holiday memories with her family in all the ways---baking cookies, crafting ornaments, taking Santa pictures, and hosting holiday parties, all while trying to budget and shop for the perfect gifts for loved ones and juggle her normal non-holiday related responsibilities. AND don’t forget to MOVE. THE. DANG. ELF. We tend...

My best friend Katelyn and I have been discussing Twilight for a couple months now. Twilight was THE teenage romance series, while we were in middle school and high school. It is also a perfect example of emotional abuse, which, by the way, sets a great stage for physical abuse. Wind Goodfriend Ph.D. does a great job of naming a few of the thousands of examples of abuse Edward displays: He stalks Bella He encourages Bella to have as little interaction as possible from anyone outside his family He preys on her low self esteem He damages her vehicle so she can’t get away Before you go on assuming he was doing this to protect Bella, I just want to point...

I’ve always been the type of person that had absolutely no idea what to do or say when a loved one was hurting. I’ve always felt absolutely useless in these situations and as if I needed to step aside and let an adult handle it. Here are some things that stuck with me during a time I needed help: Don’t try to fill the silence. My best friend once said, “There’s not anything you can say to make it better, but there’s a lot you can say to make it worse.” Just let her be sad, hurt, angry, etc. It’s kind of selfish to fill silence just because you’re uncomfortable anyway, right? Buy a houseplant. Even if a mom thinks she has...