Author: Laurie

July 27, 2015

Why You Need Multiple Streams of Income

A friend of mine wrote a post today asking if the 9-to-5 job was dead. I’m not sure if the regular day-to-day working job is dead, but one thing is for sure – the work environment of today is changing.

Years ago we got wise to the concept of multiple streams of income. We spent some time thinking about how interesting it was and about how we like for our family to gain some other income sources one day. At the time, he had a job in the manufacturing industry and I was a full-time stay at home mom. We were blissfully floating along in our financial ignorance, trusting that employers had the same faithfulness to their employees as Rick had to his employer. Read more

July 23, 2015

Sunshine Blogger Award!

I am so honored to be nominated by my friends over at Slowly Sipping Coffee to be a recipient of the Sunshine Blogger Award! Mr. and Mrs. SSC have the same kind of lifestyle goals that we do:; ditching debt, dumping the rat race and enjoying the peaceful life. Like us, they like to spread sunshine and laughter to the blogging world as they share their progress toward financial independence. We give a hearty thanks to Mr. and Mrs. SSC for this nomination. The rules of the Sunshine Blogger Award are simple: Read more

July 20, 2015

Dealing With Shame

Last week over on Fruclassity, Ruth wrote an AWESOME article in which she interviewed Leanne Brown about her book, Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4/Day. In Ruth’s interview, the author talks about her research into the world of food stamp recipients, and the struggles food stamp recipients often go through as they work to eat within the food stamp budget they’re given and at the same time deal with the shame that often comes upon people surviving on government assistance. Read more

July 16, 2015

Emotions and Food: How to Deal

I don’t often venture on this blog to the subject of emotional issues, but as we talked this week earlier about making better food choices for our bodies I can’t help but feel that I need to address the elephant in the room: emotions and food. For many, food is definitely an emotional subject. It’s easy for me to say “Eat healthier – it’s better for you.”, but when you’re super stressed out and needing a quick fix before you lose it, it’s not so easy to avoid scarfing down a bag of Oreos (my personal choice for emotional bingeing 🙂 ).

I spent years self-medicating with food. Read more

July 13, 2015

What’s in Your Food?

So, I don’t dwell too terribly often on the food that’s on our grocery store shelves (although I admit that I do bring it up occasionally), but for the past couple of days it’s been on my mind as I replay the events of this past weekend. Rick and I were at the store with our son, and we passed a food sample display counter. They were serving up protein bars; you know, the granola-type bars with the chocolate covering? Our son asked if he could have one, we said yes, and he reached for the chocolate-y delight. We don’t buy these things for our pantry, partly because they don’t fit in with our frugal grocery budget of $400 a month to feed our family of six, and partly because we do try and eat mostly whole foods. Sam was excited to have this treat, but when he ate it, his demeanor changed. Read more

July 9, 2015

The Greece Crisis: Could it Happen Here?

Most all of us have seen the photo at the right; the photo of a crying elderly man, hurting for his country, and upset because he could not withdraw his wife’s pension check due to the lack of cash pertaining to the Greece crisis.

Here is some of what the man had to say as he was interviewed about his collapse on the city streets of Greece: Read more

July 7, 2015

How I Make Money Writing for Blogs

Hey, Frugal Farmer friends! I wanted to share with ya’ll a little bit today about the income I make blogging and how I make money writing for blogs as well. Often times, when I tell people that I have a “career” as a blogger, they look at me with that look. You know: the “Yeah, I KNOW that’s a scam” look. As if I were part of a pyramid scheme in which a secret society finds some hidden, illegal route to making the big bucks and alienating family and friends in the process. 🙂 However, making money blogging and writing for blogs is a real and valid source of income for thousands and thousands of people. Read more

June 25, 2015

How I Saved 3 Years Income, Quit My Job, and Started my Blogging Business

Greetings, Frugal Farmer friends! Today we share the story of my freelancing pal Bill. It will inspire, encourage and motivate you to make your life your own. Enjoy!

”Better safe than sorry” –that has been my mantra in the past. I thought, “It’s always better to hold on to something I’ve got for as long as I can, than to take chances and lose everything.” I grasped the old me tightly with both hands, instead of giving myself room to grow. I knew it wasn’t supposed to be that way, I was not being me at all, but I persevered. Until I became too unhappy to function properly. Read more

June 22, 2015

Living on a Frugal Budget: Interview #2

In case you’ve missed it, we started a series over at Fruclassity on living on a frugal budget. We interview individuals, couples or families who are living well on a smaller income and on a frugal budget.

I am very honored to feature my lovely mother for this Fruclastically Frugal Interview. My mom was a huge role model for me when I was younger as I watched her persevere through some very tough financial times for us after her and my dad divorced. Above all, my mom taught me to put God first and to never, ever give up. She is one of the most kind-hearted people I know. Read more

June 18, 2015

How to Deal With Debt Fatigue

How to Deal with Debt Fatigue

When a person is overwhelmed with a large amount of debt, the thought of continuing on with a debt payoff goal is, at times, nearly unfathomable. This, my friends, is called debt fatigue. Most people working toward a debt payoff goal or any other goal toward financial success have to deal with battling debt fatigue at some time or another, so if you’re in the throes of dealing with debt fatigue and are feeling like giving up on your goal of being debt free, don’t despair. It happens to the best of us. We’ve been on our journey toward debt freedom now for nearly 2.5 years. I can’t count the number of times that one or the other of us have wanted to give up. Last summer, after a particularly hard month, Read more