When my husband and I got married in 2005, we had $70,000 in student loan debt. We promptly bought a duplex with an 80/20 mortgage for $150,000 and a used truck for $18,000. We had barely been married a year, and we were already looking at $238,000 in debt! Read the rest of my guest post on […]
Archive for the ‘Finances’ Category
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How I Made $200 in August
September 6th, 2012 
Jessica As most of you know, being a Stay-At Home Mom is not the most financially lucrative career choice. I find it so much easier to find ways to save money than to make money! So I was pretty happy when I earned $170 in the month of July. I am even more excited to report […]
Celebrating Birthdays on a Budget
August 30th, 2012 Jessica Most of the birthdays in Brad’s and my families are during the winter or summer months. This means that we are buying a lot of gifts from June to August and December to February. When you’re trying to “live like no one else,” it can be difficult feeling like you cannot give gifts or throw […]
How Changing My Morning Changed My Whole Day
August 27th, 2012 Jessica A few months ago, Crystal did a series of posts on how getting up early could give you more time in your day. I took those posts to heart, and decided to give it a try… Read the rest of my guest post on Money Saving Mom today! photo source
How much money does a blogger make?
August 18th, 2012 Jessica One of the questions that I often get, is “How much money do you make blogging?” My usual answer is, “Very little.” Although I have enjoyed my last 16 months of blogging at The Abundant Wife, I would be lying if I said that I am in it for the money. Earlier this week I […]
The Cost of Substitute-Teaching in California
August 15th, 2012 Jessica Brad and I both have a professional teaching background, his in math and mine in art. Later we both taught English in China. So it made sense to become substitute-teacher certified each time we moved as a way to earn additional income. We have now become certified in three states: Maryland, Minnesota, and California. Well, […]
3 Ways We’ve Lowered Our Utility Bill
August 6th, 2012 Jessica In the past few months I’ve been working on lowering our utility bill. Here are some of the improvements we’ve made with the help of PG&E: A few months ago we qualified for the income-based CARE program which lowers our monthly bill. About a month ago we signed up for the Balanced Payment Plan which […]
Getting to the Wedding (Or How We Raised $1200 in 5 Months): Part 2
August 3rd, 2012 Jessica If you missed Part 1 of this story, you can find it here. On June 10, 2012 my entire family was present for the wedding of my sister Kristy and her new husband Zach, in Maryland. Kristy and Zach both live in Kansas but they, and most of Zach’s family, made the trip to our […]
How I Made $170 In One Month
August 1st, 2012 Jessica Today I was surprised to look back over our balance sheet and see that I made $170 in the past month! Although I don’t usually make quite so much, I thought you might like to see some of my multiple streams of income, however small they may be: $96 Blogging: Yes, blogging does occasionally pay! […]
8 Financial Books for Beginners
July 30th, 2012 Jessica During the winter of 2010, we lived in a tiny upstairs apartment in Minnesota. Brad had to go to Colorado for 3 weeks for training, and I was left alone with 6-month-old Naomi to run our home and pay our bills. Up until then, Brad had always managed our bills. He taught math, and I […]
