April 20, 2022
Inflation is here: it’s large, it’s in charge, it’s up 8.5% as of March 2022, which is the biggest 12-month increase since 1981. Woohoo! Aren’t we lucky! But all is not (totally) lost because inflation doesn’t impact all prices equally. As we’ll explore together today, this is an uneven inflationary period: almost everything is more…
April 13, 2022
Sara is a doctor and mother living with her best friend, Jodie, in the Pacific Northwest. Sara is a single mother by choice and her son Sam is now seven months old. She loves her work as a doctor and her new role as a mom, but wants to make sure her finances are as…
April 8, 2022
After my enthusiastic foray into beginner ski lessons earlier this year, I’ve now signed up for SOMETHING EVEN MORE DANGEROUS: a beginner chainsaw safety class. I can’t say I’m excited about it, but I am looking forward to developing this skill. We live in a place where a chainsaw is a necessity and using one…
April 6, 2022
Q: What’s the easiest way to earn extra money? A: A cash back credit card! I made $712.59 last year by using my cash back credit card. Not bad for buying stuff I was going to buy anyway! A cash back credit card gives you a predetermined percentage of money back on purchases you make…
April 1, 2022
Today’s a serious one and includes a content warning: I’ll be discussing domestic violence and intimate partner abuse. So take care and skip this one if you need to. If you’re in an unsafe situation, or know someone who is, you can contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1.800.799.SAFE (7233) or by texting “START” to…
March 30, 2022
Peter and his wife, Kim, both work as registered nurses in a medium-sized city in the Eastern United States. They became a family of three when they adopted their daughter, Rachel, in October 2020. Well, family of four including their cat, Pringles. Peter and Kim both enjoy their careers as nurses, but are at a…
March 24, 2022
February was a boring month from the perspective of the old expense report. Not much was purchased aside from the ordinary, which was a kindness to our savings account. No one’s expenses are the same month to month, and I relish a relatively cheap month. I see it as an opportunity to sock more into…
March 17, 2022
Sam and her husband John both work as full-time foresters for the federal government and part-time school bus drivers for their local school district. They live in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on an off-grid hobby farm with their dog, dairy goats, laying hens and Tibetan yaks. Sam’s family lives nearby and they’re very happy with their…
March 8, 2022
Healthcare is no longer tied to your job in the United States. Anyone can get healthcare in our country and you don’t have to go through an employer to do so. This hasn’t always been the case and I, for one, rejoice in the system that makes this possible. This is a system that goes…
March 3, 2022
It’s rare to be a beginner as an adult. As kids, “beginner” described our lives. Everything a kid does is new. They’re inexperienced and unafraid of grabbing a sweet potato and peeler for the first time ever and skimming the blade over the peel without hesitation. But as adults, we almost never put ourselves in…
February 16, 2022
Halfway through the winter and our gear began to give out. We play hard outside year-round and the snow and ice have a tendency to be unkind to clothing (particularly when you draaaggggg your mittens through craggy ice in search of sticks for snowman arms… ). Between snowshoeing, ice skating, sledding and skiing, last month…
February 9, 2022
Sidney lives in a west-coast Canadian city with her husband, Steve, and their nine-year-old son. Sidney works as an atmospheric scientist for the federal government and Steve is an analyst, also with the government. They’ve been renting out their basement suite to friends for the last three years, but those friends will be moving abroad…