Frugal Babe

My husband and I both currently work full-time (probably more than full-time if we were to actually keep track).  We don’t make a huge amount of money, but it’s plenty for us.  I know we could be earning a lot more money if that were our primary focus, but we decided a long time ago that [...]

Yesterday we officially maxxed out our HSA for the year.  $5650 is the IRS limit on contributions for a family, and we hit that mark - a huge milestone for us.  It puts us well on our way to having enough money to pay for our baby’s birth and to meet our deductible on our [...]

Last night, during the “quiet your mind” part of yoga class, I came to an epiphany about how to solve our HSA vs HELOC dilemma (good thing I’ve never been able to quiet my mind during that part of the class). 
When we first set up the HSA, we were planning to use it primarily as [...]

As of this afternoon when I deposit our paychecks for December, we will have paid off more than $1000 in principal on our HELOC.  Doesn’t seem like much, but it’s a big deal for us.  We’ve had our house for nearly five years, and this is the first time we’ve ever paid down the balance [...]

We decided a few weeks ago to make our HSA a priority, ahead of retirement accounts for the time being.  HSA’s double as retirement accounts if you don’t have to use the money for medical expenses, but the same is not true in reverse.  And we have our HSA invested in a great growth fund, [...]

After my husband made an appointment to have his knee examined, we read the details about the doctor he was going to be seeing.  Turns out that he’s a world class elbow and shoulder doctor, but knees seemed like more of a side thing for him.  We decided that if my husband is going to [...]

Back in May, my husband hurt his knee in a unicycling mishap.  We have a friend who’s nearly finished with medical school and he determined that none of the major ligaments were torn, but thought that there might be some damage to the miniscus.  My husband has been doing intensive rehab at the gym all [...]

Yesterday I read an article in a magazine about people who had been getting by just fine until a serious illness put their finances into a tailspin.  (sorry, I can’t remember what magazine I was reading - it was during my break at the library and I looked at several) Every one of the people [...]

Last fall, my husband and I, along with my parents and my siblings, spent a weekend getting my parents’ old house ready to sell.  They have moved every few years for the last 38 years - they love to fix up old houses, live in them for a while, and then move on.  We spent that whole [...]

We have not had dental insurance since we worked at Enterprise Rent A Car.  Two years ago, we paid nearly $5000 for my husband to have a bridge replaced.  We paid for it over a 12 month period (interest-free, thankfully), but it still sucked.  Earlier this year, when I got promoted at the library, one [...]