Spending Update - July 2018

I'm happy to report we finally had another month where we came in well under budget. Read on to see the details.

Our Ultimate Guide to Baby Gear

Some of our friends are about to have their first child and they asked for baby registry advice on Facebook. Since we're experts on frugal parenting, I decided to write a post with our best advice on baby gear.

Spending Update - June 2018

Sorry for the lack of posts recently and the delay in our June spending update. It's proving to be a busy summer and I'm struggling to find time to blog. I can't really complain though; being busy due to fun family activities and travel isn't the worst problem to have. Anyway, here's what our spending looked like in June.

Spending Update - May 2018

I'm happy to report we came in under budget for the second month in a row, even with quite a bit of expensive travel. Read on to see the details.

Receipt Repository

Sorry about the long delay between posts. We've been pretty busy traveling and getting ready for summer. This post is a little silly, but some of you might find it useful.

Make Depreciation Work for You

Depreciation has been discussed a lot by financial types, but I recently sold our Mazda Miata and it got me thinking about it, so I'm going write about depreciation today.

Spending Update - April 2018

It's been a long time coming, but we finally have some good news to share on our monthly spending report! Read on to see the details.

Sometimes, You Get What You Need

Most people think you need to spend money to get the things you want. We've found that often all you need is a little patience, and what you want will come to you. Maybe we're just lucky, or have a lot of good karma saved up, but the universe has a funny way of providing. I've mentioned this before, but I'm going to go through a few recent examples to show you what I mean.

Removing Grass - The Best Investment Ever?

Here at Fiscally Free, we've made a lot of investments over the years. Most have performed well, but there's one recent investment that may just be our best--removing the grass in our front yard.

Spending Update - March 2018

I'm sad to say I failed to blog last week, but I have a good excuse, which I will get into below. This week I'm back on track with our latest monthly spending update.

Why I'm Selling My Miata

It's been a long time coming, but I've finally decided to sell my beloved Miata. I recently said it brings me lots of joy, but it isn't enough to justify keeping it.

Back to Budget Basics - Our Revised 2018 Monthly Budget

In our last post about our February spending, I mentioned some issues with our budgeting system and suggested I would update the budget to fix them. It was bothering me quite a bit, so I went ahead and tweaked the budget. Read on to see what it looks like.

Spending Update - February 2018

It might be a little late, but it's time for our second monthly spending report. We did pretty well last month except for one big expense. Read on to get the details.

Foolproof Investment Advice: Avoid Fad Stocks (Updated)

In general, picking individual stocks isn't a great idea for the average investor. There's a lot of risk involved and it is best left to the professionals on Wall Street, although, even they can't beat the market. However, there's one type of stock that you should be especially careful to stay away from, the fad stock.

Practicing What We Preach: Splurging

Almost everything I bought or borrowed to keep our truck running properly.

I recently wrote about when it's reasonable to splurge on something. The conclusion of that post was there aren't that many things worth splurging on, however, there are a few. This post is about putting our money where our mouths (keyboards?) are. Read on to learn about our recent splurging.

Our Budget Helps Us Spend More, Not Less

The vast majority of people who have created a budget for themselves did so to help limit their spending, or in other words, help them spend less. Fortunately, we have never really had a problem with spending too much, so when we were working, we never had a budget we tried to stick to. Now that we're "retired" we do have a budget, but I created it more to help us spend than to save. Read on to learn what I'm talking about.

Spending Update - January 2018

Just over a year ago, I claimed I would start doing monthly spending reports. That didn't happen, and I'm going to blame it on 2017 being a very busy year. However, this year is shaping up to be a lot more relaxed, so I'm going to try to get monthly reports up. I'm off to a good start with the January report, although our spending is off to a bad start. Read on to see the numbers.

How to Get a Free Activity Tracker (a.k.a. Fitbit)

Fitbits and activity trackers became trendy a few years ago and continue to be pretty popular. Chrissy and I each had one. We got them free through the HumanaVitality (now called Go365) program where I worked and used them to get more than $400 in rewards from that program. However, my Fitbit was recalled and Chrissy's died, so we lost our activity tracking abilities. I'm the first to admit tracking your steps isn't terribly important, but as an engineer, I appreciated having that data. That's why I was thinking about getting a new activity tracker, but I didn't want to spend any money. Luckily, I found a free alternative, Google Fit.

OnePlus 5 Quick Review and Case Comparison - Guest Post

Here at Fiscally Free, we don't like spending a fortune on cell phones (or anything, really), which is why we love OnePlus. They make great phones and charge a lot less than the competition. What's not to love? Chrissy and I both have a (used) OnePlus One, and even though it came out almost four years ago, it still works great. My friend and former coworker Mitch is also a fan of OnePlus, and he recently upgraded from a OnePlus One (OPO) to a OnePlus 5 (OP5). He offered to write a post about his thoughts on the new phone and several cases he got for it, so here it is.

I Fought the Law and I Won (Eventually)

Do you see a "No Parking" sign? No, because it isn't there. And yes, my Miata is beautiful (to me).

I recently had a (very minor) run-in with local law enforcement in the form of a parking ticket. I eventually got it thrown out, but it left me feeling a little suspicious of our local "justice" system. Read on to learn what happened.

Andy's Goals for 2018

With the all-important year-end financial summary out of the way, it's time for a post on my resolutions, or goals for the new year. Before I get into those, I need to review my goals from last year. Let's see how I did and what I have in store for the upcoming year.

2017 Spending Report

Now that we've all had our champagne and welcomed the new year, it's time for the best part of the previous year ending--tallying up our spending from that year and analyzing it to death. Our year-end post was pretty weak last year because we were ridiculously busy with a variety of things, but this one will be much better. Read on to see how much we spent in 2017.