I keep reading posts from other personal finance bloggers about how to save money during the holidays and other tips and tricks to cut back this year. One thing we are doing at the Money household is not purchasing gifts for each other and making many of the gifts we’ll be giving this year. I’ve decided to try my hand at soap making, which is pretty dangerous but also really fun for me. The other day I went to the health foods store to purchase some essential oils to use for my soap making. The essential oils were all on sale. Many were almost half price, and I decided that I would purchase all oils that were on sale that I thought would be good for my soap and many people would like. I selected my oils, went up to the register, she rang me up, and told me my total. I balked. It was about $6 more than I had anticipated! I carefully checked the register, and the reason became clear to me: they were ringing up all 30% [...]

Happy Thanksgiving, fellow Americans!  These are some of the things I am thankful for:  My wonderful family. My wonderful husband My comfortable home that we’ve molded (and are still molding!) to our liking. My doggies My job My health Freedom My loyal blog readers! And many, many more things I can’t list!  I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Enjoy your families today!

In the summer of 2004, Mr. Money and I were living in Colorado, working on a ranch breeding miniature horses. We were having the time of our lives living in the wilderness, but I couldn’t help but get these nagging feelings that we weren’t on a good financial path. We weren’t saving for retirement, we didn’t have health insurance, we were unable to buy a house, and I knew that this wasn’t something we could do for the rest of our lives. Not to mention, we were contract labor, which ultimately meant we were responsible for our own taxes. We decided we wanted to do something with our lives that would provide stability, so our decision was for Mr. Money to return to college to complete a degree. He chose culinary arts, so we researched a few schools and decided that it would be better to move across the country to go to school and live for a couple years. Not only was the school a little cheaper, but the cost of living was a lot less, and we were [...]