Christmas is just around the corner which means it’s time to set up your Christmas Budget. We know how easy it can be to spend more than you have but with a budget in place you will be able to get gifts they love with money you have. In all honesty, Nate and I both LOVE Christmas. Both of us have moms that love Christmas and decorate beyond your wildest dreams. And in the past 5 years, I’ve finally started to understand my mom’s excitement for Christmas. Getting the perfect gift for a loved one is the BEST feeling. The anticipation from when you buy it, building up as they…
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October’s No Spend Challenge
This month’s money challenge is focused on changing your spending habits. Since October is the calm before the storm in regards to the holiday season, we thought it would be a good chance to implement a No Spend Challenge. Why We Do Monthly Challenges Humans are competitive by nature, especially us. We like to play board games, yard-games, Nate loves Fantasy Football and is always up for some Mario Cart. To help play on that nature and make your personal finances more than just another chore, I thought we could add some monthly challenges to the mix of getting your finances in order. Back in August, I had posted on…
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DC Vacation Budget Recap
Hi all! We are officially back from our week-long vacation/work trip and wanted to get our DC vacation budget out ASAP. But first, we needed sleep. Lots of sleep. This conference just sucked the life out of us. Especially when we were up until 3:30 am and need to get back to a conference session by 9 am. We had the best time, though, and we are pretty content of our overall spending for an 8 day trip to such an expensive city as Washington DC. Why Washington DC? We actually went to DC for FinCon 2019. This is an annual conference popular among personal finance bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers, etc.…
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How Credit Cards Make Money
Hello TTF Community! Today we wanted to shed some light on the credit card industry. Specifically, how credit cards make money off of consumers like you and how you can take precautions to avoid paying into their wealth. But first, we have a confession to make. It is something we have had a very easy time coming to terms with, but nonetheless, a confession it is. Ms. TTF and I are complete and utter deadbeats. I know, I know… how could we possibly be okay with this? And why in the world would we admit it to everybody in such a fashion? It’s simple, really, because we are deadbeats in…
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How We Can Save 50% on One Income
As you may know, I am officially working from home. After lots of planning and calculating, we are ready to hit the ground running. Even though the actual day we decided to put in my notice was somewhat unplanned, we had actually planned for the possibility of me leaving wage-paying work. We had planned to continue saving money and obviously be able to cover all of our regular expenses. So we wanted to dedicate this whole post to how the heck we are going from a DINK (dual income, no kids) to one salaried income and one stay-at-home blogger making $0 (SO FAR!). And yes, as the title suggests, we…
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What Our Fixed Expenses Look Like
Every month we review our expenses and we separate everything into Fixed Expenses and Variable Expenses. You can take a look at our post on tracking expenses to see more about the specifics! Today we here to reveiw what our monthly fixed expenses look like. These are the items we have to pay every month and come in a fixed cost so we can plan ahead. But first… TTF Family, how are you? It is hard to believe we are midway through July already. Less than half the year is left?! It is absolutely, positively incredible how time flies. Weren’t we just watching the ball drop in Times Square? Well…
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Car Buying Mistakes: Leasing
TTF Family!! Today, we continue on the beaten path of my Early Money Mistakes, focusing on my car buying mistakes. There are more mistakes? you ask. Yes, there are more and honestly, the more that I write about these mistakes the more that come to mind. So raise your glass and cheers to me learning the hard way (so hopefully you don’t have to), and we are off to another one of Mr. TTF’s fumbling face plants. Do you remember how I told you that my life has been a series of “one step forward, two steps back” scenarios? Well, I wasn’t kidding and here is yet another example of…
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Mr. TTF’s Early Money Mistakes Part 2
Alright TTF family. After an extended delay, I am back to talk about me falling on my face some more. Isn’t it funny how we say we never want anybody to fall on their face, but at the same time, we don’t always look away when it happens? So here is me falling on my face for your viewing pleasure. And for the greater good of you punching your ticket to FI sooner than I. Diving into the Records To prepare for this article, I had to knock some serious dust off of the old apartment leases. I have to give a huge shout out, and thank you, to Miss…
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How to Save Money and Stay Happy
Mr. TTF’s birthday was just a few weeks ago and we decided to spend it with family, away from work, at the Happiest Place on Earth. I feel like that might be trademarked because, well, it’s Disney. But we got a sweet little taste of FI, as we do with any trip to Disneyland. So we wanted to put together a quick post on how to save money and stay happy. As a disclosure, some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning, we can earn a commission on any purchases made through the link, without any additional cost to you! For me, vacations are always a must.…
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Mr. TTF Early Money Mistakes
Admittedly, this is a tough one to write about. I wish the title was simply “Money Mistake.” If you didn’t catch the difference, the current title is plural and not so singular (I wish). The current title also indicates “early” money mistakes which will means there were also more current mistakes. The truth is, to get to this point, which as we consistently remind you, we’re a long way from FI and I have made many mistakes along the way. The harsh reality too, is that I am probably not done making them. With that in mind, it is my Silver Lining that in writing about them, I can hopefully…
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Digit Review: Saving Money in Your Sleep
Just Dig-It! We have told you what FI is and what that looks like for us. Hopefully, you can see what that looks like for your future now, too. Now, don’t get us wrong, we are nowhere near our end goal. BUT, we definitely are closer than we were a year ago. And we want to get you that much closer, too. But, how do you even start on a path to FI? Doesn’t that require saving all your money. And aren’t we all terrible at saving? Don’t worry, so was Ms. TTF. She once ordered delivery for a glass of lemonade and room service for orange juice at a…
