Finances, For the Love of Family

Five Ways To Get Your Wardrobe Ready for Fall 2016

Happy Autumn. Cooler days and crisp nights, leaves changing colors, and endless personalized marketing  fuel  a desire for  a new fall wardrobe. New sweaters, tights, jackets and dresses in new fall colors have us dreaming. Changing seasons draw us in. We visit websites, we forgo the sale racks for the new impressive designs. Wearing new clothes offers a change, brings energy and gives a feeling of newness. For me personally, I feel beautiful and confident when sporting the newest and cutest! But…..appreciation, new energy and confidence can fade away with no plan in place, and unfortunately, even more so if […]

Finances, For the Love of Family, Raw Footage

Two Pair of Sandals for a Pair of Muck Boots (or when your financial coach gives in)

In my full-time job, I work for dairy farmers, and have the privilege of  visiting their farms quite often. Spring rain and snow in Colorado often necessitates the need for good shoe coverings or muck boots (muck, because you are in a lot of muck!). During one of my farm visits I encountered someone sporting cute muck boots. Immediately I knew these were a must-have item – for the benefit of my work, of course! After a short discussion on where and how much, it was decided. I must own a pair of CUTE muck boots. So off to the […]

Finances, For the Love of Family

How to Build Your Financial House – One Wall at a Time

At the very core of budgeting is taking care of the basic needs of yourself and/or family: shelter, food, transportation and clothing. If your spending plan (budget) is not working, start fresh, assuring that your basic needs are being covered. It is not unusual to pay the ‘loudest’ bill, and forget to take care of the very things that will provide security and a sense of control. The trick to preventing a crisis, is creating a haven of protection. If and when a financial crunch occurs, or when there is an unexpected interruption in income, security comes knowing the basic […]

Family, Finances, For the Love of Family

Ice Cream Truck Economics: Real Life Lessons

It’s summer! Enjoying the freedom of summer, sunshine and impromptu games in the yard, suddenly the familiar sound of the ice cream truck draws everyone’s attention. Run. Get your money. The ice cream truck is coming to the neighborhood. As I child I envisioned the wonderful life of city living, where an ice cream truck made daily stops in front of my home. How great that would be! Fast forward several years and reality hits: Living in a city, three children and the daily stop of the ice cream truck. Ice cream treats are $3 each, the inevitable fall of […]

Family, Finances, For the Love of Family

How Living with Boundaries Makes Life Better

I can’t remember the exact day or even time period of my life when it happened. But it was a conviction; a conviction that grew and expanded to infiltrate all of my life.  The conviction? God’s blessings come with boundaries; boundaries for our benefit and his glory. As Gary and I were climbing out of debt, and dealing with the temptation of using credit, I was slowly convicted. Although we lived fairly simply, our spending was beyond the boundaries of our income. It was probably an answer to some sporadically spoken prayer for contentment and ridding ourselves of materialistic and […]

Finances, Food, For the Love of Family

5 DIFFERENT Ways to Save on Food

I fall for it every time. Titles, images, call-outs that promise to save money at the grocery store lure me in. Call it an obsession, a trait, or simply being frugally conscientious, I’m clicking through to read the article. But the information tends to be the same, just recycled with new images and phrases. Yet, I read on. …because, when coaching an individual or teaching a class, fresh information is always welcome. The budget item that can be flexible and seems to get the most attention is food.  Most people tend to get their budget in balance by decreasing the […]