Income Outcomes

I’ve been budgeting and handling my family’s finances since 2013. The results are inspirational.

Our Family Budget Results on My Sixth Quitting Anniversary – 2023

January 16, 2024
Joni Smith
Finances, Income Outcomes

Mint is getting rolled into Karma this month (January 2024) so it’s making me get my butt into gear and not procrastinate on doing my yearly budget review. Mint has been an amazing budgeting tool for me these past 11 years and I’m so bummed that it won’t be available anymore. I’ve downloaded my data so I have a backup of the last 10 years of transactions. And I’ll be checking out Karma soon. But from what I’ve read, there…

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Our Family Budget Results on My Fifth Quitting Anniversary

Our Family Budget Results on My 5th Quitiversary – 2022

March 2, 2023
Joni Smith
Finances, Income Outcomes

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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Our Family Budget Results on My Fourth Quitting Anniversary

Our Family Budget Results on my Fourth Quitting Anniversary – 2021

February 28, 2022
Joni Smith
Finances, Income Outcomes

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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Our Family Budget Results on My Third Quitting Anniversary

Our Family Budget Results on my Third Quitting Anniversary

January 29, 2021
Joni Smith
Income Outcomes

On my one-year quitting anniversary, I reviewed our family budget, and the results proved that my efforts to budget within our new one-salary income every month was working! We didn’t dip into our savings, and we actually still saved money that first year.

Then I was able to replicate those successes in year two, despite even bigger unexpected expenses! Across those two years, we saved about $750/month.

So, in keeping with this tradition, I’m reflecting on the past year’s budgeting for our family and sharing it with you for the third time.

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Our Family Budget Results on My One-Year Quitting Anniversary

Our Family Budget Results on My One-Year Quitting Anniversary

September 11, 2018
Joni Smith
Finances, Income Outcomes, Life

My last day working in the corporate world as a salaried employee was August 31, 2017. I can’t believe it’s already been a whole year! That means I officially made it to my one-year quitting anniversary. My husband called it my “Quit-iversary” because he loves portmanteaus. ? He has also been the sole breadwinner for our family this past year because of me. As an elementary school teacher, he was pretty concerned about this situation, and the added pressure on…

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why we love our electric vehicle

Our Nissan Leaf is electric! (Boogie woogie)

September 29, 2017
Joni Smith
Income Outcomes, Life

We have owned an electric lawn mower for more than a decade and it continues to be one of our greatest larger purchases ever. (I go on and on about why it’s been so great in this other post.) So, when we unexpectedly found ourselves in need of a new vehicle, we were naturally interested in electric vehicles. Unsurprisingly, this month we bought a pre-owned electric vehicle! I’m in love! And it’s only been a few days. Here’s why it…

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What The Total Money Makeover Did For Me

What The Total Money Makeover Did For Me

September 20, 2017
Joni Smith
Finances, Income Outcomes

This book, The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey, changed my life and the financial trajectory of my family. I first read it back in September 2013 when I knew something needed to change for me because I was so unhappy at work. At that time, I couldn’t just quit because I had a family with financial obligations, and I wanted to retire someday, preferably earlier than the norm! For any chance of that, I felt we needed both mine…

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31 days of Living Well and Spending Zero #LWSZ

August 31, 2017
Joni Smith
Cleaning & Organizing, Income Outcomes

Earlier this month, I decided that September was going to be the month that I finally tried Ruth Soukup’s LWSZ program. Since I won’t be getting a paycheck, it seemed like a logical step to me. It’s an opportunity to show my family that we are going to be alright financially, and see what we can save with a month like this every once in awhile. I’ve signed the commitment form: And my husband and I have talked through the…

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