Guest post by Lindsey Hale, author of the recently-released book, Lifted: How to Ditch the Fear, Obligation and Guilt and Live Your Best Life, available now!

The World’s “Okayest Life” is not okay.

How on earth does she get everything done? Is it really possible to have a healthy body, marriage and family, organized home, and run a little side hustle without cloning yourself? Maybe you are like the old me who thought that “successful women” who “had it all” must be super heroes or at very least born lucky.  I would start towards a goal, like getting debt free, I’d do all the research, get the budget all set up, and then I would hit a major bump in the road and that was it! I quit! These kind of goals aren’t for people like me! Guess I’ll just keep on getting by and living the world’s “okayest” life. 

Guest post by The Former Mrs. Jones

It was 11:30 at night when I swiped my Discover card through the credit card slot at the gas pump. I remember feeling nervous because I wasn’t sure if little screen would read back “card declined” or “see attendant.” I was pretty sure there was at least $80 of credit left on the almost maxed out $5,000 credit card, and all I needed was $20 in gas so my husband could get to work the next day. The screen read back “select fuel” as I breathed a sigh of relief and began pumping 4 gallons of gas into his truck. It was in that moment that I was “sick and tired of being sick and tired” as Dave Ramsey says. I felt so stupid. Here I was leaning against his $23,000 truck while my $16,000 car sat in the drive way of our $155,000 home and mixed in with all that was our 8 month old baby sleeping in a $300 crib and I couldn’t even scrap together $20 of my own money to buy gas. I had no idea what I was doing. We made too much money to be this broke, and yet we were. This is the start of our debt free story.
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Guest post by Julie Chittock of Domestic Contessa

In my kitchen, I have always enjoyed making as much as possible from scratch using real food ingredients. This includes everything from hummus and salad dressing to coffee creamer and granola bars.

But it wasn’t until about 5 years ago that I realized that I should do the same thing in other areas of my home. My closets and cabinets were chock-full of all sorts of dish soaps and detergents, toilet bowl cleaners, shower cleaners, kitchen cleaners, window cleaners, laundry detergent, fabric softener, hand soaps, creams and lotions, facial cleansers, body washes, shampoos, conditioners – I could go on and on and on…. I was amazed to learn that so many of those expensive and unnecessary products could be replaced with mostly basic ingredients that I already had in my pantry!

So with no further ado, here are 4 products that I will never buy again (and what I’m using instead). I’m also including a super quick and effective 2-ingredient recipe for a laundry stain remover that really works! 

Guest post by Christy of The Simple Homemaker

Christmas is just around the corner. While your kids are enjoying sweet dreams of stuffed stockings and presents under the tree, you’re suffering through nightmares about your budget shattering like Humpty Dumpty on an off day. It’s a legitimate fear. Through some strange twist of cosmic irony, people who are religiously responsible with their finances eleven months out of the year, often ditch reason and overspend when Christmas temptations roll around.

Not this year!

If you’ve been reading Stacy’s blog for any length of time, the following money-saving principles should be firmly ingrained in your head. Nevertheless, I’m going to ingrain them a little deeper this December to help ward off holiday-induced budgetary dementia and financial frazzle. [Read more…]