by Jamie Jeffers | Jun 30, 2017 | Ways We Saved This Week
What a week. I decided to migrate my blog to Siteground. Everything was finished and ready to go, when I made a small adjustment….and broke the whole blog.
I was so frustrated! After a lot of back and forth between a few different sites, we finally got it working again. It took all day.
I guess the good thing is that I was able to test Siteground’s customer service on day one. I would certainly recommend them! They were very patient and helpful. (You can try them out for 3 months for free if you use my referral link!)
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by Jamie Jeffers | Jun 23, 2017 | Ways We Saved This Week
After a hectic May and early June, I’ve been on a mission to reclaim my home. It’s hard to keep up with the daily mess when you’re so busy!
Every time I try to clean and organize, I start to feel frustrated by my house. It’s a 1950s built home, and let’s just say that closet space wasn’t a priority for people in those days. My vacuum cleaner doesn’t really have an “in its place” place. Same for several other essential things.
Yeah, I let myself have a minor pity party about that for a while. Then I decided to take action. For starters, I went into my disastrous attic and emptied the entire thing. Then I sorted through everything and put things back in an orderly fashion. That gave me a bit of attic space to use as a closet.
I also took 7 trash bags of stuff (as well as several big items) to the Goodwill. I sent another 7 bags to the trash. I got rid of several baby items. (Which is kinda sad, but even if we do have another baby I won’t be using that pack and play anymore. It’s worn out!)
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by Jamie Jeffers | Jun 19, 2017 | Large Family Life, Saving Money
Inside: Considering renting a car from Hertz? Read this Hertz review to learn everything you need to know, from payment to pick up.
While I was not compensated for this post, the links here are affiliate links. Thanks for helping us get debt free!
One way we save a ton of money is by renting cars for long trips. Does that sound strange? We drive an 11 year old minivan. It’s getting up there in mileage, but I love the monthly payment ($0).
In the past, I might have looked for a reason to upgrade to a newer van. Taking a trip would be the perfect justification!
But the math doesn’t add up. New cars always cost more than you think they will. Then you have to add on extra insurance and tax costs. In the end, you spend thousands trying to avoid a bill of hundreds. That’s what Robert Burton called “Penny wise and pound foolish.”
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by Jamie Jeffers | Jun 16, 2017 | Ways We Saved This Week
We’re back from one of the more relaxing family vacations we’ve taken, and I’m so happy to be sharing another 5 Ways post with my favorite readers!
I spent the entire vacation reminding my family (and, let’s be honest, myself!) that this was a #yearofno style vacation. We’d already paid for the rental van and the vacation house (which we split with two other families to make it one of the most affordable stays possible for a family of 7). That left us with travel, hotel stays both ways (an 11 hour drive with 5 kids is too much for one day for us!), food, and fun to cover. I had cash ready to cover those expenses, and when it was gone, it was gone.
You might expect that to be stressful, but it was actually quite the opposite! We were more content this time, with less pressure to fit everything in to a one week trip. We ate out less, and that meant less guilt and more appreciation for the fresh seafood we were able to get.
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by Jamie Jeffers | Jun 9, 2017 | Ways We Saved This Week
We’ve been spending our nights in Rodanthe this week, and it’s been wonderfully relaxing! So today’s post will be short and sweet. When we return home I’ll write up all of the ways we made vacation for our young family work, even in the midst of serious debt repayment.
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by Jamie Jeffers | Jun 5, 2017 | Saving Money
The following is a special guest post from The Dollar Stretcher.
“I don’t really have a debt problem. Right?”
We all know the story about the frog and boiling water, right?
You can put a frog into a pot of water. Not boiling water…he’d know the danger and jump right out.
BUT…
if you turn up the heat gradually the frog won’t even notice. He’ll be boiled before he knows it.
That’s what your debt is doing to you.
You’d never borrow $10,000 with nothing to show for it, right?
But adding $100 or so to your credit card balance each month doesn’t seem like a problem. Until the water starts to boil…
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I'm Jamie, and I want to help you afford a beautiful life with your family. 
