Happy Thanksgiving! I feel that I have so many things to be grateful for this year. -A wonderful, supportive, loving husband who puts up with my crazy antics and frugal ways! -An awesome family that, even though they live in many different parts of the country, still provide the best emotional support they can. -Amazing friends that truly are family! -Mr. Money and I are both fortunate to have jobs. -We can pay our mortgage and even afford to do some projects around the house. -The opportunity to blog and make all kinds of fantastic frugal friends! What are you thankful for this year?

Oil Cleansing Method It will probably not be a surprise to some of you that I don’t wash my face with soap. I use the oil cleansing method.  After all, I don’t wash my hair with shampoo, so why would I use soap on my face? I have a very frugal and green method of cleansing.  I actually use a blend of oils to wash my face. I know- it seems counteractive to use oil on your face, especially if you have oily skin or are acne prone. Hear me out on this one! Your skin produces oil. When you use oil to cleanse it, you are actually removing some of the oils (sebum) and impurities with it. Oil dissolves oil. When you use traditional skin cleansers, you are removing a lot of the oil and then replacing the moisture with a water based moisturizer because you are scared of putting oil back in the skin because it causes breakouts, right? Well, it could be doing more harm than good because when you remove all the oil, your skin works [...]

About seven years ago, Mr. Money and I were just starting to get really serious with our relationship. We had moved in together and were starting to figure out the mechanics of our relationship. One day while Mr. Money was at work, I was cleaning our closet and I happened to stumble upon this blue plastic shoe box filled with papers. Out of curiosity I opened that shoebox. As I started pulling out the papers, I realized that I was pulling out past due statements for credit cards and collections notices. I’ll never forget the feeling of my stomach sinking to my feet. I felt a whirlwind of emotions. Fear that he was hiding things from me. Regret that I had started a serious relationship with someone that was so far in debt and obviously had bad credit. Apprehension that his money habits would carry over into our relationship and I wouldn’t be able to make it work with him. As soon as he came home from work, I confronted him about the shoebox. He said that he had gotten [...]