Joni Smith

Joni Smith

Joni is a 40-year-old wife and mother in Kansas City, MO. She started budgeting in 2013 and was able to quit her job as a computer programmer in 2017. Her family now has financial freedom, living comfortably on only her husband's teaching salary. (This includes 3 humans and 3 cats living under one roof.) These days, Joni enjoys finding simple ways to live the good life while saving money and the planet at the same time. Her hobbies include DIY projects, gardening, quilting, making self-improvement goals, and brainstorming ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Kid field trip return rate

[Field trip has ended and everyone is on the bus headed back to school.] Teacher: We’re all going to make it back safely. There was a brief disappearance by 2 kids, but we found them – separately. They gained teacher hand holding privileges for the rest of the time. Since our goal was 90% return rate, even if we didn’t find them it would have been within the margin of error.

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Find out the best Evergy rate plan to save on your electric bill

Which Evergy Rate Plan Saves the Most Money

Whoa, option overload! I don’t know when this happened, but I recently discovered that Evergy (my area’s electric company) now has 7 different rate plans for customers to choose from. 7 Evergy rate plans is a lot to choose from. Evergy’s rate plan options: For more details, read about them all here: https://www.evergy.com/manage-account/rate-information-link/plan-options After I read up on all of these plan options, I found that there are really only 5 that my family could or might want to switch…

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Leftover Ham Soup Recipe

Easy Leftover Ham Soup

If you bought ham on sale for Easter like we did, you may be finding yourself with a lot of leftovers right about now! We bought a big spiral sliced ham for $1.49/lb at Aldi last week- a great deal on meat! I like to eat it in 4 main ways. One, obviously eaten as slices of ham with sides. Two, as ham sandwiches. Three, in cheesy ham and egg casserole. And fourth, ham soup! In this post, I’m sharing…

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Our Family Budget Results on My Fifth Quitting Anniversary

Our Family Budget Results on My 5th Quitiversary – 2022

The year 2022 was not a good year for our budget. I was so optimistic last year when I reviewed my family’s budget for 2021. I mean, who wouldn’t feel good after seeing a savings of around $2,000/month! But by the time we got a few months into 2022, I was back to full blown panic stressing about whether we could continue to make ends meet if I didn’t get a job. When I reveal our 2022 budget stretchers, you’ll…

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Is the Evergy Time of Use Plan worth it?

Is the Evergy Time of Use Plan Worth It?

Update February 2023: Evergy has even more plan options for customers now. You can check them out here: https://www.evergy.com/manage-account/rate-information-link/plan-options However, you should still read this post so you can learn how to do the math to determine which plan option is best for you. Evergy’s Time of Use plan for electric bills is offered as a way for customers to save money. Evergy is the electric company where I live in Kansas City, Missouri. They offer customers a Standard Tier…

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Our Family Budget Results on My Fourth Quitting Anniversary

Our Family Budget Results on my Fourth Quitting Anniversary – 2021

Four years after quitting my job, I am the happiest I’ve ever been. This past year was the year that I finally started to release all that guilt from quitting and really feel at peace with my decision. In fact, I think I started feeling a real, all-encompassing joy in just the last couple of months. And tracking our budget results has made that possible. It has been freeing!

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