Thanks for visiting Ultimate Money Blog! If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Last Monday my father had a hernia operation.  While the surgery itself went well, afterward he experienced some bleeding and developed a hematoma in the incision site.  He has a blood clotting disorder (Protein S deficiency) and is on Coumadin and other drugs that probably contributed to the hematoma.  Last night he had surgery to help drain the blood and get him back on the road to recovery.  The whole day yesterday I spent worried sick about my dad.  The thought of losing him just shattered me.  I would have given all the money I had just to make sure he would be okay. Money is worthless.  Money can’t keep us warm, it can’t buy love, we can’t eat it to keep us nourished, and sometimes it causes more problems than anything else.  I think about saving money for the future.  I struggle with thinking I don’t have enough money for everything I’ll need in life, and I need to realize [...]

The past six years have been a financial roller coaster for us, and we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel (finally!).  When we moved to this state for my hubby to go to school, we incurred moving expenses.  Then I was the only one working while he went to school so our income was pretty low.  In addition, culinary school ended up costing over $36,000 so we took on student loans. After culinary school, we continued to live frugally to be able to pay down our consumer debt.  We ended up paying off that debt this year and it couldn’t feel better. Fortunately, (or unfortunately) I’ve continued the mindset of OMG we need to save as much money as possible! and I’m getting tired of it.  Not to mention, I feel sometimes like it’s hindering my happiness.  Now, I know that money doesn’t buy happiness, but what I am saying is that maybe being a little less stingy with our money would result in more happiness.  I received a comment the other day that [...]

The other day I was bidding on Mach 3 Turbo razor blades on eBay and I stopped to think about how silly that actually sounded.  Here’s how it goes down at my house: Mr. Money tells me he needs new razor blades, and can I pick him some up while I’m grocery shopping?  I tell him that if he can wait, I can order them online and we can save a lot of money versus buying them at the store.  He then agrees and starts using my emergency stash of disposable Bic razors (not cool.)  I then forget because I’m busy, so a few weeks go by and he asks again, which prompts me to get looking on eBay.  I then find some Mach 3 Turbo razors that are a good deal, so I bid on them.  And then I lose.  And then I forget about it for a few days. Then I remember, and bid on another item.  I think I’m going to lose the auction, so I start looking on Amazon at the prices of the razor blades. [...]