Frugal Babe

A rich life without a lot of money

The Cost Of A Car

By

In my last post, I mentioned that I’ve only driven my car 10,000 miles in the last three years.  A reader asked whether I’d considered getting rid of the car all together, and I thought that our conversation deserved its own post, in case some people had missed it in the comments section.  This was… Continue Reading

Bogleheads

By

I wanted to share a good forum with you all.  Some of you are probably already regular visitors to Bogleheads, but if you aren’t, I highly recommend it.  The tagline of the forum says “investing advice inspired by the example of Jack Bogle” (Jack Bogle started Vanguard), although the topics discussed extend beyond just investing… Continue Reading

Our New Retirement Accounts

By

Back before we became self-employed, my husband and I each worked for a large company, and we both had 401k accounts.  When we quit our jobs, we rolled those accounts over to IRAs, and that has been our retirement savings ever since.  In the early days, we didn’t contribute anything at all, but gradually worked… Continue Reading

Don’t Fake It Till You Make It

By

We were cleaning last night, getting the house ready for a meeting with our new Realtor this morning (it went great, she’s great, life is great).  When I was cleaning the floor in my husband’s office, it struck me that he still works at the same small desk he had when I met him, eight… Continue Reading

Turbo Tax Give Away!

By

For all you readers who haven’t filed your taxes yet, I have another give away.  Yes, I’m just full of good stuff this week.  Turbo Tax is giving two of my readers web cards with a prepaid access code (includes one free federal + state preparation + efiles) for Turbo Tax Deluxe Online (approximately $65… Continue Reading

Cross The HSA Off The List!!

By

We maxxed out our HSA today.   $5800, done and done.   That feels so good.   A whole lot better than shopping sprees and dinners out.   We maxxed out our HSA last year too, but we did it in the last week of the year, and it was a struggle.   I much… Continue Reading

Home Improvement Progress and Taxes Filed!

By

We didn’t get our floors finished this weekend, but we did make a lot more progress on our house.   We’ve finished the hallway, which involved lots of funky angles and doorways.   Last night  we finished putting the baseboard molding down in the guest room/office, so it is officially complete.   We had been… Continue Reading

Taxes Done!

By

I just finished our taxes.   It’s the culmination of probably 40 hours of work over the last several weeks, and it feels pretty darn good.   I spent $125 to get one hour of consultation from our accountant, but other than that I did it all on my own.   I finished the state… Continue Reading