No one likes when an unexpected expense pops up and ruins their otherwise well-organized budget! So what do you do? Grab a credit card or dip into your emergency fund? NOPE…that’s what a Sinking Fund is for! Think of it as a big “Miscellaneous Fund” for things like Annual Bills, Holidays, and Home + Vehicle Repairs. I’m sharing what exactly a Sinking Fund is and how to set one up so these expenses won’t sneak up on you anymore.

Often times when we share our stories we share the cleaned up, pretty, packaged version of it. In the attempt to simply make the message easier to share we sometimes lose the messy ugly details. Those details are what makes us stronger. Those tears + struggles are what make us grow. Those details are what ultimately helps us to bounce back after we hit rock bottom.

I’m sharing why this messy middle is so important to embrace + the lessons my family has learned throughout our 5-year journey.

Here we are at the beginning of a new year, but before we move on to the next year we always have to recap our lessons learned from the previous year, right?

So, I wanted to share all of the lessons I learned throughout 2018 during my year of “balance”. I’m sharing why I chose the word balance, what it meant to me, + all of the areas of my life I was working towards balancing.

Plus, I’m sharing how I transitioned from “Balance” in 2018 to “Trust” in 2019…and all of the reviewing + prep work in between.

I wanted to share some of my favorite things that helped me through the past year! I've included all of the books that read, personal development resources I've used, a few handy apps, + a few random items that I fell in love with this year!

I hope that these resources are helpful to you on your own journey as well! 

There are so many different ways that homesteading can save you + your family money…whether it be with planting a few small herbs in a pot or replacing one time use products like paper towels. Erin Tannehill from The Tannehill Homestead is sharing her favorite hacks that will not only help you be more intentional + environmentally friendly, but also save you a ton of money!

Getting started with any new goal is usually the hardest part, but it doesn’t have to be if you keep it simple! I’m sharing with you 5 starting steps for your financial goals in the New Year…whether it be organizing your Bills, cutting back your Spending, paying off your Debt, increasing your Savings, or starting your Sinking Fund…it’s always best to keep it as simple as possible.

Reducing your food bill can sometimes sound overwhelming or even impossible, then add on a good-sized family and kids will food allergies…and most people just give up altogether. However, taking control of how much you spend on your meals is a crucial step to getting intentional with your money! Like it or not, we all have to eat…and multiple times a day…but you don’t have to go broke keeping your family fed.

Shelly from Dinner for a Dollar is sharing how she cut her family of 6’s food budget by $12,000 per year! Her system is realistic and down to earth and she has a passion for helping families reduce their food bill so they can accomplish their real financial goals – not just spend all their extra money at the grocery store. Shelly is here to bust the myth that you have to spend a fortune to eat whole foods and to share why cutting back your food budget is actually the fastest and easiest thing you can do to save money.

Spending money on food is just a part of life, we’ve got to eat…but we don’t have to blow our budget or be stressed out in the process. I wanted to bring my friend, Christine from The Mostly Simple Life, on the podcast to share all of her simple tips for meal planning, being intentional with your food budget, + making the most out of your grocery purchases.

Survival mode is such a dark and lonely place. You feel alone. You feel like you’re the only one who feels the way that you do. You feel like you’re the only one struggling. Well, I’m here to tell you that you’re not alone.

I often get asked how I stay positive + “sunny” all the time. Well, the truth is that I don’t! I’m a normal person with normal struggles, but I do have some words of advice + encouragement to share with you for the times that you feel depressed, defeated, and discouraged.

When you have big dreams for your life you don’t want to waste time working towards things that don't align with your goals. You want to be intentional with the precious life that you have been given and truly "cultivate what matters"!

Writing out your goals is a vital step to achieving your dreams and becoming who you were called to be. Setting good goals for your money is basically just like drawing out a road map of how you want to be intentional with your money. Without these goals we wouldn’t know what we were working towards and we’d just wander around, waste our money, and ultimately waste our lives not working on the things that matter most. 

It’s pretty common for there to be one spouse that’s the spender, and one that’s the saver. This can cause tons of disagreements when it comes to budgeting, saving, and planning out your financial future. Two people who are constantly arguing over the future of their money will never be able to reach their goals together!

Think about it this way...imagine you're both in a rowboat, and paddling in opposite directions, you're going to get nowhere fast! That's essentially what you're doing with your money if you don't realize that you're in the same boat....you're on the same team...and you should be on the same page about your money!

When most people start on a journey to financial freedom all they think about is the numbers and the money, but through my 4 years of experience on this journey, I have found that it’s about so much more. I’ve found that this is actually more of a personal development journey than anything else. I think that when we go on these journeys what we are really searching for, what we are screaming out for, is for our money to be aligned enough that we can reach our full potential...that we can be who we were called to be, that we can unlock the magic that is within ourselves. What we’re truly searching for on our financial journey isn’t “happiness”, it’s peace + fulfillment.

The way you do one thing is the way you do everything. I used to not fully understand this saying, however, the farther I’ve gotten into this journey the more I’ve found this to be true. I believe that intentionality is contagious, and it spills over into everything that we do. When you start being intentional with one aspect of your life, you'll start a ripple effect with the rest of your life...almost like magic. 

This might sound a little surprising, but my family actually got our start with Budgeting through Minimalism! I quickly learned that Minimalism spills into every aspect of your life. It’s about decluttering and simplifying your home, your calendar, your relationships, and even your budget! There are so many benefits to living a simplified clutter-free life, and gaining financial freedom is one of them!

Teaching your kids about personal finance isn’t always the easiest thing to do, especially if you’ve made your own fair share of financial mistakes. Most schools don’t include budgeting + personal finance in their standard curriculum, so it’s up to us as parents of the next generation to educate them the best we can.
...but where do we start? 
This week's guest, Alli Rosenblum, along with her co-author/best friend, Shelly Hawkins, have given us a great new resource, Not Another Money Statistic: Lessons We Wish We Learned in High School. This book is a MUST READ for any teenager, parent of a teenager, or honestly any beginning budgeter.

If you've ever felt like you're in over your head with your house, if you've ever felt like your monthly payment is too much, if you've ever felt like the cost of living in your current city is too high, or if you've ever felt like your home just doesn't align with your big vision...then this episode is for you! This week I'm talking about the ongoing debate in the financial world of Renting vs. Buying, and why we decided to rent instead of buying a home.

Time is such a precious thing, but there is one truth to it...you can't stop it! Time honestly doesn't care what you do, it's just going to keep ticking on. BUT we can use this to our advantage on our intentional living journey and be productive with the time that we have been given. 

In this episode I'm going to share the lessons I learned from wasting so many years procrastinating and dragging my feet about getting on a budget, paying off our debt, and just overall being intentional with my life.