A Trip to Our Friendly Neighborhood Dentist The scraping of metal on enamel, the sound of a high speed drill, the office filled with chairs that look comfortable and inviting but are actually the site of oral torture, these are the wonderful sights and sounds of the dentist office. For many people going to the dentist is a semi annual experience they would prefer to avoid at all costs. For us … [Read more...]
January 28, 2015 2 Comments
January 26, 2015 2 Comments
The 10 Year Rule – Fighting planned obsolescence
Our new home has introduced us to a people group very uncommon in the Northwest, the Amish. All roads from the college take us past one if not multiple Amish crossing signs. This is just one of the adjustments of western New York living that we enjoy and for the first month or so we were excited every time we saw one of those little buggies or their farms, sheds, Sunday gatherings etc. It's a … [Read more...]
January 21, 2015 6 Comments
Don’t Let Your Tax Refund Fool You
Every Year We Are Bamboozled The calendar has rolled over to January and a season of deception has begun, tax season. It is the time of year when millions of Americans think they are richer than they are, bamboozled by the U.S. government. Oh yes, we might be tempted to think that our government is being generous with us, giving us back taxes that they don't need. "How nice they are, how … [Read more...]
January 19, 2015 4 Comments
Financial Checklist for Your 20s
Your twenties can be the most eventful decade of your life. You may be a student, new to a full time job, a new renter or homeowner, married or single, a parent or even a small business owner. No matter what you’re experiencing, you’re likely rather new to managing your money. While no financial advice is the same for every situation, there are several common strategies that people in their 20s … [Read more...]
January 14, 2015 Leave a Comment
Creative Ways to Give Gifts When You Share a Credit Card
Do you and your spouse share a credit card and/or a bank account? Have you ever run into the trouble around Christmas or birthdays and found it difficult to keep them from seeing a charge or where you purchased the gift? This may seem like a trivial task, but as Jon and I shared a GRAND post about our goal of cherishing one another more through gifts, we have run into this problem. We're always … [Read more...]
January 12, 2015 6 Comments
The Value of Being Put in your Place
Our Most Humbling Blog Moment In May 2013 Krista penned one of our all time most popular posts, Why We Love Our Empty Fridge. It was one of our very early forays into blogging and got almost 1000 all time views. I can still remember watching the views pile up when she published it, it was thrilling. For a small blog it felt like a huge victory.The substance of the post was how we saved money by … [Read more...]
January 9, 2015
GRAND- Bacon, Fire Alarms and Living in Small Towns
Generosity In this GRAND post we're going to ask that you're generous with us as we adjust our post schedule. We've done three posts a week almost since this blog started. We had high hopes for GRAND posts but as our lives have adapted, this post has wound up veering way off the course we had originally planned for it. We sense that while an occasional GRAND post is fun and has news, a lot of … [Read more...]
January 7, 2015
Where Do You Get Your Financial Advice? Why?
Something Jon and I consider whenever we have a money related question is where the best source of information might be and who we most want to emulate in our decisions. When you choose to start a blog, you have a responsibility to understand what resources exist and I hope to be a resource, but what else is there? Where do you get your financial advice? Where should you … [Read more...]
January 5, 2015
When Your Ethics Cost You
A Big Change My first post for the new year shared our goals for 2015, and one of them represents a very big change for our family. This year Krista and I have decided to become selective omnivores, which simply means that when we do eat meat & dairy it will have to be grown and harvested in an ethical fashion from family farms. The change came about after Krista began reading Eating Animals … [Read more...]
January 2, 2015
GRAND-Welcome to 2015!
Generosity I find myself continually amazed at how being with the people I love most fuels the fire of generosity within me. This past week we were given a significant financial gift from someone close to us, completely unexpected but most welcome. When I thanked the person (which you always need to remember to do) they said to me "I know you have dreams you are working toward, and I want to be … [Read more...]
