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• What is the Envelope System?

You’ve probably heard the term “envelope system” or “envelope method” when it comes to budgeting your money. What exactly is it and how does it work? The first time I remember hearing about the envelope system was when I was a missionary in South Africa. As missionaries, we or our families paid our own way. […]

• The Purchases that are Breaking Your Budget (And they’re not the ones you think!)

My wife and I were discussing our budget and lack of money today. Our discussion let to some BIG decisions on how to turn things around in a major way (Sell cars, move to smaller house…). In the midst of our conversation I got an email from Facebook. Yes, Facebook. It said that a recent […]

• Planning Meals to Save on Grocery Costs

Gasoline prices are dropping, and that is great news, but has anyone noticed that grocery prices are unusually high? Perhaps it is my growing family of 7, but I think there is more to it. Just do a search for high grocery prices and you’ll see lots of articles that agree, food prices are on […]

• How to Hold a Budget Meeting With Your Spouse and Enjoy It

I’ve been wanting to take my wife out to lunch for a while now since I’ve been working from home. Now that Christmas is over, kids are back in school, and our baby is now 7 months old, it was a good time. We have tried to have “budget meetings” several times. I’ve tried different […]

• How I Could Have Saved $80 Last Week

Last year I got a gym membership for the first time in my life. It was great at first. My company was giving me $50 per month to spend on and thing health/fitness related. So I signed up for a very nice gym at $60 per month. It was great because I showed up early […]

• Where’s My Video?

In my last post I kind of hinted at the fact the I like movies. I also mentioned that I don’t currently have a DVD player plugged in to any of my TV’s right now. We have a pretty large DVD collection. Several years ago I built at site in PHP to keep track of […]

• Financing a VCR and a $3/hr Job

I grew up in the 80’s. I vaguely remember when we got our first VCR. My mom recently told me the story behind that purchase. My parents financed the VCR. It was $800! It is shocking to me considering what you can get for that these days – and how worthless VCRs are now. The […]

• The Plan

What is it you are trying to accomplish? Are you trying to get out of debt? Are you saving for a home? Whatever the goal is that you are trying to reach. What is your plan? Do you have a plan? Is it written down? If not, start writing it now. Get out a piece […]

• Losers Have Goals, Winners Have Systems

I was recently browsing through videos and I saw one titled “Losers Have Goals, Winners Have Systems”. Wow, that is a bold statement! A few years ago I would have rolled my eyes and looked right past it. My dad taught me the importance of goals and I grew up seeing how effective they can […]

• How to (Almost) Destroy a Perfect Vaction

My family loves baseball – so much so that we have 3 (soon to be 4) boys named after famous baseball players. The Atlanta Braves have been my favorite team for as long as I can remember. A few years ago my wife and I decided to go on a short trip for our 12th […]