Six Figures Under

Family Budget Update – May 2023

July 3, 2023 by Stephanie 21 Comments

It has been about eight months since I’ve shared a family budget update. That’s a long time, considering I published monthly budget updates for NINE years without missing a month. As you probably know, there have been some major changes since our last budget update in September. The most notable is that we took in […]

THANK YOU (… and They’re Here!)

June 10, 2023 by Stephanie 10 Comments

I am long overdue in offering a heartfelt THANK YOU to those of you who so generously supported us in welcoming our Ukrainian refugee family. It has been two and a half months since I shared that our family was “adopting” a Ukrainian family. We gave up renting out our Airbnb apartment so that they […]

Frugal Recycling Hacks You Need to Try!

April 1, 2023 by Stephanie 2 Comments

I love making the most of what I have and hate being wasteful. Today I want to share with you some hacks to make the most of one of the most wasted items from your home, the bag that the cereal comes in. Years ago, I saw Money Saving Mom reuse those cereal bags to […]

We’re Doing Something Big and We Need Your Help

March 21, 2023 by Stephanie 8 Comments

If you get my emails, then you know that our family has a big financial undertaking coming up. We have never done anything of this magnitude before and that’s exciting and scary at the same time. We are preparing to sponsor a family of Ukrainian refugees through Uniting for Ukraine, the US government’s program to […]

A $1,500 Mistake– How We Deal With unexpected Expenses

March 8, 2023 by Stephanie 14 Comments

Back in November when I was taking a break from blogging, we were blindsided by a massive, completely unexpected bill. If you’ve been around here much, you know that Mike and I faithfully budget each month and are pretty on-top-of our finances. So how could we get surprised by a $1,500 bill? I’m finally ready […]

Teaching Kids to Receive with Gratitude

December 25, 2022 by Stephanie 2 Comments

Merry Christmas friends! It’s the last day of our Frugal Festivities series and today we’re talking about gratitude. Specifically let’s talk about how to teach your kids to receive with gratitude. If you’re reading this on Christmas day, then you might have a renewed desire to teach your kids about gratitude after watching them plow […]

Christmas Morning Traditions That Don’t Cost Anything

December 24, 2022 by Stephanie 2 Comments

I love hearing about different families’ traditions on Christmas morning. The beautiful thing about Christmas morning traditions is that most of them don’t cost a thing. If your family is looking to adopt some new traditions for Christmas morning, then stay tuned because that’s what we’re sharing today! Let’s talk about simple, frugal Christmas morning […]

3 Ways to Improve Your Finances for Next Christmas

December 23, 2022 by Stephanie 1 Comment

We’re nearing the end of the Christmas season. Did you stress about money? Are you dreading your upcoming credit card bills? Want to be in a better financial position next Christmas? You can be in a completely different financial situation by next Christmas. Imagine not being burdened by Christmas expenses before or after the holidays. […]

Homemade Cranberry Sauce

December 22, 2022 by Stephanie 1 Comment

Hands down, the single easiest way to improve a holiday meal is to add homemade cranberry sauce. Please don’t make the mistake of associating this special treat with that jellied cranberry stuff that comes in a can. The two aren’t even related. Real homemade cranberry sauce is to canned cranberry sauce what freshly sliced garden-grown […]