I recently read a fantastic personal finance book that really had me convicted about tithing. Some people prefer to call it giving, donations or (my, ahem, personal favorite) “income redistribution.” While I don’t always talk about faith on here, I thought I would offer a disclaimer– even though I’ve certainly had my issues with the Church, I am a Catholic with a bit of an evangelical twist. What does this…
I love January. I know that makes me a weirdo but I really embrace the clean, new and cozy aspects of the month. Unlike Ohio where I grew up, the DC area has a milder winter that’s often sunny. Ohio’s Januaries are often dingy and grey.. Not here. Plus the DC area is super wimpy when it comes to snow, so snow days are sometimes abundant in the dead of…
The Gig Economy has gotten a pretty bad reputation in some circles and I just don’t understand it. While I may not agree with everything Dave Ramsey says, the notion of picking up as much extra work as you can when you’re in debt is one I can totally get behind. But, what if you’re not in debt? A pre-Covid article in the Atlantic featured interview of several millennials who…
I’ll be the first to admit it–I’m a major MAJOR germaphobe. I also grew up in a rather high-maintenance town full of people who would never, ever be caught dead rifling through others’ hand-me-downs. To say that 16 year-old-me would be horrified to learn that 35 year-old-me would be a thrifter would be perhaps the biggest understatement ever made. Fast forward to my first few years in the DC area.…
As I’ve mentioned before, I kind of hate the word “budgeting.” (I wrote a whole post about it HERE) I don’t know about you, but it can feel very restrictive. This is going to be a short post today because I think what I’m about to say is extremely straightforward. I’m going to call it the “2-3 Things Money Mindset.” Here’s how it works: ALWAYS Pay Yourself First So many…
Can you believe y2k can legally drink? I vividly remember the year 2000. My parents had a big party and I had my first taste of champagne, a Dom Perignon. If you wonder why I’m sometimes a bit bougie, you can blame my parents for this one! Anyway, that night my dad thought it would be hilarious to have some fellow troublemakers turn off all the lights when it was…
Before I even launch in to this, I want to give a disclaimer– I am not writing this toward any individual. I’m unlike most Midwesterners in that I’m what you might call “active aggressive” as opposed to the typical passive aggressive you see often in middle America. If I have an issue with someone, I don’t passive aggressively call them out in blog posts; I speak to them directly… So,…
When Covid cases started spiking again here in Montgomery County (Maryland suburb of DC), our county commissioner (who I’m not at all a fan of) implemented some of the most intense restrictions in the DMV. Perhaps the most annoying part of it is the restrictions at grocery stores, entailing often hours-long waits to even go inside. Seeing as people, myself included, need groceries from time to time, I decided to…
Anyone who’s ever taught knows that there’s something special about your very first teaching partner. Whenever I look back on my teaching years, I remember my very first year when Lizzie and I were both second grade teachers at a Catholic school on the DMV’s Virginia side. We dealt with all the things that first year teachers deal with– sweet students, great parents, crazy parents, troublesome students, exhaustion and poverty…
As many of you know, I come from a small business family. My dad owns restaurants in northern Ohio, my grandmother owned a travel agency and I work for a small business, have this blog and my reading intervention business. When Small Business Saturday became a thing, I was ALL in. My friend and I had an annual tradition to go up to Frederick (THIS is my favorite shop there)…