This weekend I enjoyed an evening with my family at the small amusement park located at the Columbus Zoo called Jungle Jack’s Landing. The park is geared towards young kids, and it’s never been busy any of the times I’ve been there. Continue Reading
A Question for You & Practicing Gratitude
11 Jun
Another week has come to a close and you may have noticed something a little different here at Ex-Consumer. I haven’t been that regular in posting my Friday Favorites over the past several weeks.
Things have been busier than usual around work and home, but the real reason I haven’t been posting my Friday Favorites is because I was begininning to feel a little redundant. Continue Reading
When Time is an Investment in Personal Happiness
08 Jun
There is a feeling of discomfort that often follows free time. Many times, we’ll try to fill our free time with activities, and then later resent the busy schedule we’ve created for ourselves. What if we made it a point to create some unscheduled time to just breathe? Continue Reading
Memories that Appreciate & Tiny Beach Vacation Rentals
06 Jun
Our oldest after catching a wave at Ocean Isle Beach, NC last summer.
I mentioned last week that we weren’t sure if we were taking a beach vacation this summer. Thanks to all of your comments and feedback, we’ve decided to plan a low budget (for us) beach vacation. Continue Reading
Debt Elimination Update – June 1st
02 Jun
June is here, you know what that means…it’s time for a debt elimination update!
At the end of January, I had $25,629.00 in consumer debt. Let’s take a look at how the debt ditching plan is working out as of June 1 on the chart below.
How to Fix a Leaky Roof
31 May
If you’ve ever owned a house, chances are at some point you’ve had to deal with a leaky roof. Having water start dripping into your home is both stressful and alarming. And you can almost always bet it won’t be cheap to have a professional roofer come out to repair the leak.
In Ohio, we’ve had far more rain than usual this spring. A little over a week ago, our roof sprang a little leak, right in the family room.
Luckily, Kirk was a professional roofer for a number of years when he was younger. This comes in pretty darn handy when we have a problem with our roof — like a leak!
Kirk climbs out the office window to access the roof.
Cheap Minimalist Birthday Party for Kids
26 May
Many of you seemed interested in the low cost minimalist birthday party we threw for our son’s seventh birthday this past weekend. Thank you so much for all of the wonderful feedback and ideas! It was so comforting to have all of your creative suggestions to fall back on if at anytime the party started to drag.
These are the cupcakes my son had me make for his party. Lemon cake with a meringue-type frosting. Simple and delicious!
Less Me, More We
23 May
Well, May 21st came and went and we’re all still here. I’ll admit I wasn’t worried that we wouldn’t be, but you never know.
Speaking of the anticipated rapture, I was reading a post written by Laura from Smash Your T.V. and Have Adventures this weekend. It was about an end-of-times sale she spotted on Craig’s List where a few nonbelievers were putting out a request for people’s worldly belongings. There was a common theme throughout the ads that indicated the *stuff* the believers would be leaving behind would be gladly taken over by the nonbelievers placing the ads. Continue Reading
Birthday Party Confessions
20 May
Hey guys. It’s Friday, but instead of my usual round-up style post I’m want to make a confession. I’m teetering.
I’m teetering on the brink of minimalism and — in my area — normalcy. I just picked up my almost seven-year old son from a birthday party a little bit ago. The party was at a place called SkyZone, which is basically a huge room full of trampolines. Continue Reading
Saturday Recap and Round-Up
This has been a crazy busy blogging week. On Monday I was guest posting over at Fighting Back Financially with a post about emergency funds. Tuesday Amy from Nomadtopia published an interview about my thoughts on becoming location independent. Then, on Wednesday I was guest posting over at And Then She Saved.
Whew. I’m tired just writing about all of it! Continue Reading