Author: Laurie

January 19, 2015

5 Reasons I’m Choosing to Stay Out of Debt

Happy Monday, Frugal Farmer friends! Today we welcome our friend Sarah, from over at The Frugal Millionaire. Sarah’s going to share with us today her top reasons for avoiding credit card debt. Welcome, Sarah!

A little backstory: When my husband and I met, we were in about $7,500 of combined credit card debt. We didn’t want to be one of the many millennial couples drowning in debt, so before getting married, we decided to tackle this debt plus my car loan and his student loan, totaling more than Read more

January 15, 2015

6 Lies That Broke People Believe

I grew up poor. Really poor. Without the help of the welfare system, our income for EVERYTHING after the mortgage payment would’ve been $50 a month for my mom to raise 3 kids on. Being broke sucks. It’s tough, both on adults and on kids, not knowing where your next meal will come from or if there’s a snowball’s chance in hell that you’ll be able to pay the rent each month. Because of the turmoil I suffered as a poor kid, I resolved at an early age to never be broke. But I was broke, for a good portion of my adult life. I’m still recovering from the lies I believed and the mistakes I made regarding money. As such, I’ve finally pinpointed some of the lies that make and keep people broke. Today we’ll talk about the lies that broke people believe, and what to do about them. Read more

January 12, 2015

What is Your 2015 Homesteading Plan?

So, you want to be a homesteader, or you are a homesteader: what is your 2015 homesteading plan? Today we’ll talk about how, if homesteading is a goal of yours, you can determine a plan for your 2015 homestead. Even if you live in an urban or suburban area, you can put a plan in place to begin or continue your homesteading life. According to Wikipedia, the broadly-defined definition of homesteading is “to lead a life of self-sufficiency”. However, any homesteader or aspiring homesteader knows that this means different things to different people, depending on where they live and where they are in their homesteading journey. Read more

January 8, 2015

How We’ll Accomplish Goals That We Failed At Last Year

If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that we failed in 2014 to accomplish goals we set in terms of debt payoff. Although we, in total, spent less than we did last year, we didn’t put nearly as much toward debt as we did in 2013, our first year of working toward debt freedom. After diagnosing our mistakes, we’ve now got a plan in action to make sure we accomplish our goal of drastically reducing our debt. Here’s how: Read more

January 5, 2015

4 Debt Payoff Mistakes We Made Last Year

As I mentioned in our 2015 goals post, we didn’t put as much money toward paying off debt in 2014 as we would’ve liked to, and I’ve diagnosed 4 debt payoff mistakes that hindered us from performing as well as we could’ve last year. Here’s a list of those 4 debt payoff mistakes, and what we’ll do (and what YOU can do) to make sure we don’t repeat them in 2015. Read more

January 2, 2015

2015 Goals for The Frugal Farmer Family

It’s been an interesting year here goal-wise for the Frugal Farmer family. We did well in some areas, crappy in others. In my true over-analyzation style, I’ve been spending the last couple of weeks assessing our 2014 behaviors, analyzing what we did right, what we did wrong, and working to form a more successful plan for 2015. I’ve also been praying LOTS to God for wisdom in how we can do better. Read more

December 31, 2014

How We Fed Our Family for $200 This Month

Well, almost $200. $215.48 to be exact. But that was only because of the anarchy that ensued after we ran out of milk and fresh fruit about half way through the month. 🙂

You might remember that we made a goal for this month of spending only $200 for groceries in the month of December for our family of six as we worked to stay within our yearly budgeted goal for groceries. We wanted to challenge ourselves and prove to ourselves that we really could save money on food expenses. Well, we came pretty darn close, coming in at $215.48.

The government-collected numbers as of January 2017 shows that in order to feed a family of four (with two kids aged between 6 and 11) it is costing between $636.70 and $1268.70 per month for groceries

Our family of six has had approximately ZERO grocery months over $600 in the last five years. Yep, our monthly grocery bill has never reached even $600 in a given month.

Read on to find out how we feed our family for less than the lowest grocery costs for a family of four, and we eat healthy in the process. Read more

December 29, 2014

2014 Goals Final Update

Hey, friends! It’s time to close the books for the 2014 year, and update you on how we did for our 2014 goals. Some wins, and some losses, is the summary. Later on in the week we’ll share our 2015 goals. Read more

December 18, 2014

Are You Acting in Your Own Best Interests?

As you consider your 2015 goals, this is the question I want you to ask yourself. Are the decisions you make on a daily basis decisions that are in your own best interest? For instance, blowing your year-end bonus on shiny stuff might sound fun at the get-go, but it is really the best thing for you? Will you regret that shiny purchase later if you are unexpectedly laid off from your job or if you find yourself neck-deep in debt for some reason? Read more

December 16, 2014

The Best Sugar Cookie Recipe

It’s time for another of our favorite Christmas recipes. Today we’ll be sharing THE best sugar cookie recipe in town. Crisp, yet moist, buttery, sweet, but still light and delicious. And as a bonus, I’m sharing one of our favorite frosting recipes. I get regular compliments on this recipe, and you might be surprised at the ingredients in it. 🙂 Read more