Frugal Babe

I’ve been working on our taxes for the last few weeks, and I’m just about finished.  But I haven’t filed yet, because I’m still trying to decide what to do with our IRAs for 2006.  We didn’t max out our contributions in 2006, so we still have an opportunity to put in money before April [...]

I didn’t do our net worth calculation last month.  I just did it on Monday, and we’re at $70,906.  That’s an increase of over $1000 since December, although that’s primarily from our retirement accounts.  We’ve put $800 into those accounts since December, but they’ve increased in value (on paper) by over $2000.  Our cash accounts [...]

When you’re a frugal person, it can be a challenge to spend money - even when you know it will benefit you to do so.  Sometimes I feel like my habits of saving and being thrifty are so ingrained that I have a hard time letting myself spend what I consider to be a lot of [...]

I just spent the whole morning varnishing the new shelves and doors we put in our new living room.  My parents have gone home, so we’re on our own now.  We’ve managed to do some work on the project every day, although we’re a bit slower than my parents.  We’ve put in the baseboards and [...]

I finally decided to start keeping track of our business expenses on the computer instead of in a notebook the way I’ve done for the past four years.  It’s been a tough habit to change.  My husband bought me Microsoft Money, and he’s spent quite a bit of time teaching me how to use it.  [...]

I did our taxes over the weekend.  Tons of fun, as usual.  We’re considered independent contractors, and every insurance company we represent sends us a 1099 (or two, if we’re both contracted with them).  That adds up to about 15 1099s for income, plus two for our mortgage interest, one for our ING account, and [...]