Curious to see what a family of 8 in California spends on groceries for a whole year? I’m pretty sure we’re not your average family, but I’m happy to share our family’s annual spending on groceries last year. One of the side benefits of keeping meticulous financial records is all the data that you end […]
Our Transparent Family Budget– January 2026
Here’s to another year of sharing our family’s budget details with the world in hopes of helping as you work on getting a handle on your own family finances. I had planned on making changes to the way we share our budget with you, but when it came down to it, I couldn’t think of […]
6 Reasons I still use credit cards even after paying off six figures of debt
Some people are shocked to hear that, even after paying off six figures of debt, we still use credit cards. For us, credit cards were never the problem. Our debt was law school student loans. But credit cards are so often misused, causing debt problems or making them worse, that the two are understandably inextricably […]
Earning and Spending in December– Family of 8 in California
For over thirteen years I have shared our family finances with you. That’s a long time to be transparent and consistent with budgeting! So much has changed since I first started sharing our income and spending publicly. We have twice as many kids as we did back then. Our income has increased and so have […]
Complete Cost Breakdown for our 10-day Trip to Cuba
Maybe this isn’t normal, but I really enjoy going through our spending after a trip and seeing how it compares to our plan (and yes, “plan” is just a nice word for “budget”!). For some people this post-trip reckoning is the worst, most-stressful part of travel. “How much damage did we do?” Because I plan […]
How much it cost to get our new property rentable
The next step on our investment property journey was to make an RV pad on the property so we could rent the space to someone who needs somewhere to park their RV. Renting space for parking an RV sounds pretty basic, but there’s a little more to it. These costs move us toward generating money […]
5 Important Reminders as You Start Your 2026 Budget
It’s that time of year when people decide to give budgeting another try! A fresh start at improving your finances is a popular plan for the new year. And I wholly approve! Of all the goals you could make at the new year, budgeting is one of the best! So many people are suffering financial stress […]
Frugal Feats, Flops, and Funnies- Christmas Card Edition
There’s no shame in being frugal! I actually really love being frugal! As a big family with big financial goals, we focus on saving money on the things that don’t matter to us so that we can spend on the things that do matter to us. Of course our financial priorities are going to be […]
Earning and Spending in November– Family of 8 in California
I enjoy budgeting because I love the peace that it brings. Knowing that our needs are covered and that we are working toward our goals greatly reduces my overall stress. While no one likes expensive budget curve balls, they’re so much less stressful to manage when you’re on top of the day-to-day money management. We […]
Budgeting for a Trip to Cuba (and Why We’re Going)
After planning the surprise Florida trip for our anniversary, I was eager to dig into planning another trip for the two of us. I wanted to take advantage of my Southwest Companion Pass, so I looked through all of the destinations with Mike. I told him that in addition, to all of the US destinations, […]
Our Family’s Transparent Finances for October 2025
Years ago, before we started budgeting, I was always stressed out about money. Every transaction had me on edge. While we didn’t carry any credit card debt, we used credit cards. I felt like my mind was always bogged down with thinking about how much the credit card bill would be so that I could […]
Create a Christmas Book Countdown that Your Kids Will Love Every Year
One of the most anticipated Christmas activities at our house is our Christmas book countdown. All of our kids, currently ranging from 6 to 17, enjoy this nightly tradition to count down the days in December until Christmas. Even though most of the books are the same every year, there is an element of surprise […]
Complete Cost of Demolishing a Double-Wide Mobile Home on Our Own
Some of you might think we are crazy after I shared our new financial adventure. We were making great progress on paying off our home extra fast when my husband had the idea to invest in another property. It wasn’t a turn-key property either. We knew it was going to take some work to get […]
September 2025 Family Budget Update
I went a few months without sharing a budget update, but I’m back at it. We were still managing our money with YNAB as we always do, I just didn’t write a blog post to share all of our details for the past few months. Why do I share my budget online anyway? Well, most […]
Why you should identify your financial non-priorities
It’s commonly said that you can afford anything but you can’t afford everything. That might not be entirely true. There are certainly some things that I (and probably you) couldn’t buy even if we used every dollar we had. But the sentiment is so true. We all make choices daily about what to spend our […]
We Bought an Investment Property
I alluded to some budget surprises in our June 2025 Family Budget Update, but I wasn’t quite ready to talk about how our finances would be changing yet. I was still alternating between shock, fear, excitement, and dread. Frankly, I wasn’t sure how to tell you all that we chose to take on new debt. […]
Frugal Feats, Flops, and Funnies from the Summer
As a family of eight with financial goals, we are all about saving money on the things that don’t matter to us so that we can be free to spend on the things that are our priorities. My husband and I were both raised in frugal families, so we aren’t strangers to the frugal life, […]
June 2025 Transparent Family Budget Update
I love budgeting because it makes so many things possible that otherwise wouldn’t be. When I first saw that our law school debt added up to six figures, I felt physically ill. I couldn’t envision the crushing weight of that debt ever going away, especially when our take-home pay was under $40K a year. But, […]
South Florida Anniversary Trip – Complete Cost Breakdown and Budget
Mike and I are coming up on our 20th wedding anniversary this year, so I decided to plan a surprise trip to celebrate! Mike knew that I was taking him on a trip, but he didn’t know where we going or what we were doing. He didn’t have a clue until we got our boarding […]
May 2025 Transparent Family Budget Update
Do you like living by a budget? Some people associate budgeting with being poor or feeling restricted, but that’s far from the way I see it. Living by a budget is for everyone, no matter your means. Budgeting allows you to be in control of your money (whatever amount that is) instead of having your […]
April 2025 Transparent Family Budget Update
At the end of the month, I love reviewing our budget and planning our finances for the next month. When we look at our budget at the end of the month, we aren’t checking to see if we our spending matched up exactly with the amount we set for our budget categories at the bginning […]
We took our family of 8 on a 6-night cruise. Here’s the complete cost breakdown.
We recently returned from a 6-night cruise with our family of 8. We’ve been planning and saving for this trip for about 18 months. We’ve never taken a trip like this before, so we were super excited! As always, I’m reporting back to share all of our spending with you. Of course I don’t expect […]
March 2025 Transparent Family Budget Update
It’s budget update time! I always look forward to going through our budget at the end of the month and planning our budget for the next month. When we look at our budget at the end of the month, we aren’t looking to see if we matched our spending up exactly with the amount we […]
5 Genius Ways to Save Money on Toilet Paper
Every family has certain expenses they are focusing on lowering. Once you’ve lowered your bills, reduced your grocery spending, and cut out superfluous spending, you can look more closely at even more specific expenses. I don’t know about your family, but our family seems to go through a lot of toilet paper. When I look […]
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