a merry life

Whole30 Reflections 1 Year Later + Recipes I’m Loving

These days I’m moving my online business and personal finance content to penniesnotperfection.com since that has grown into it’s own brand and business, but I’m craving a place to still share my favorites in the world of health and food. Those are the topics I started blogging about forever ago and while I come and go, I still love sharing about these things!

Today I wanted to go over my favorite…

Gulf Shores Beach Vacation Vlog & Budget

We went to the beach for a week as our vacation for the year in beautiful Gulf Shores.

We’ve been saving up for months to be able to afford this trip with zero debt and pay for it in cash. Trying to find the perfect balance between paying off debt but still enjoying life and taking vacations is important to us.

We had a bit of a set back when we were robbed and they stole some of our cash, but we…

10 Reasons To Get Out Of Debt

Debt hangs over people. For most of us we can push it to the back of our minds, but it rarely leaves us untouched mentally. We still feel the stress and anxiety of having debt lurking around in the background.

Getting out of debt offers freedom from the burden and stress debt brings into our lives. It makes managing your money less stressful and it gives you the chance to do more with your life.…

July 2019 Online Income Report

Since May when I realized more online income could keep me from going back to full time hours, I’ve tried to squeeze as much work into online income generating activities as possible. In June that didn’t necessarily pay off in income earned but it set a good foundation for coming months.

Growing my online income is so important to my current financial goals and that focus matters so much to my…

Should You Go on Vacation While Paying Off Debt?

Should you take vacations while you are paying off debt? If you are focused on getting out of debt is it worth it to take a vacation?

This week I’m at the beach on our vacation with my mom, but I haven’t forgotten about paying off debt! I’m sharing my reasons why we took this vacation, ways to make it cheaper and ways to make it work while paying off debt.

I plan on taking vacations and enjoying…

How Much YouTube Paid Me For 2 Million Views

Today I’m sharing EXACTLY how much I made from 2.2 million views on YouTube. (Hint: I’m not YouTube Rich yet.)

I’m sharing how much YouTube paid me for a million video views and how exactly YouTube advertising works.

I’ve had a lot of my YouTube subscribers ask questions about how YouTube ads work and hopefully this sheds a little bit of light on how YouTubers generate income with ads on their…

Common Sinking Fund Categories You Need To Use

Sinking funds can change your life, but what sinking funds should you start?

This is where many people stumble in the beginning but this list of common sinking funds can help you determine which funds you need to make your budget work.

What are sinking funds?

Sinking funds are accounts with a purpose.

They are accounts you save into regularly for spending on expenses that are irregular expense,…

How to Setup Sinking Funds | Sinking Funds 101

Sinking funds were a financial game changer for us. We waited far too long to set up sinking funds and I regret it! They’ve eliminated financial stress and made budgeting much, much easier.

What are sinking funds?

Sinking funds are accounts with a purpose. They are accounts you save into regularly for spending on expenses that are irregular expense, non-monthly expenses, unpredictable or big one…

June 2019 Online Income Report

Since May when I realized more online income could keep me from going back to full time hours, I’ve tried to squeeze as much work into online income generating activities as possible. In June that didn’t necessarily pay off in income earned but it set a good foundation for coming months.

Growing my online income is so important to my current financial goals and that focus matters so much to my…

How To Budget & Save For Christmas

Hey everyone welcome to Christmas in July!

Today I’m going to be sharing the ways we are planning to have a debt free and stress free Christmas this year. This video is a collab with Kate over at Kate Kaden and Christiana at Well Behaved Wallet. These ladies are sharing their own ideas for getting through the holiday season without debt and ways to cut your Christmas budget in half.

I love…

End of June Paycheck Budget

While it’s crazy to think we are already planning for the rest of June this year, but getting our budget priorities on paper helps so much with planning out the rest of the month.

Paycheck to paycheck doesn’t necessarily mean a bad thing! I always look to my monthly budget to create the paycheck to paycheck budgets we do that are our guide for how we will spend our paychecks.

I planned based on…

Fisher Price Activity Jumperoo Baby Bouncer Review

After almost a year of use with this amazing Fisher-Price Activity Jumperoo I’m ready to review it!

For less than $100 this has been one of the best baby purchases and the longest and most used item so far besides her crib. It has been a life saver for keeping her occupied while I’m making dinner or if I just need a safe place for her for a few minutes.

As you can see from the video – she loves…

I love free stuff. Who doesn’t enjoy getting things for free?

Even better is when I can get A LOT of stuff I need for free. That’s why I love the Amazon baby registry – they give you $100 of free baby stuff for using it!

Today I’m sharing my experience redeeming the $100 Baby Bucks bonus for the Amazon baby registry.

The links I’m sharing in this post are affiliate links, which means at no extra…

May 2019 Online Income Report

In May I had a huge realization that more money is the key to most of our dilemmas and I personally could earn more money. At first I thought I needed to go back to work full time and hit the overtime hours but my husband reminded me that the time I have with Penny at this age is precious… and I can earn more online than I can selling my time at my day job.

Growing my online income is so…

Blogging, Birthdays & The Arts Weekend Vlog

Last weekend I decided to try to vlog more so that I could work on my video editing skills! It’s an area that needs a lot of work so vlogging is a fun way to share what we are doing and work on those skills.

Last weekend our weekend was super packed with activity like always but I wanted to bring you guys along!

Blogging & Affiliate Marketing

I spent a couple hours reading about affiliate…

April 2019 Online Income Report

While this online income report is a bit delayed, I have gone back to doing monthly income reports. Creating and growing my online income is so important to my current financial goals that I need to focus on it each month.

Why Share An Online Income Report

I’m sharing my online income reports as a YouTuber (my main priority these days even though I started years ago as a blogger) to show people…

June Budget & Cash Envelopes

I realized recently that even though I’ve been doing monthly budgets and paycheck to paycheck budgets for months, I hardly ever share them over here on the blog. Budgeting and getting our financial house in order has been such a big part of the last two years and I want to share that more. So today I’m sharing my June monthly budget and our first paycheck to paycheck budget of the month.

I’ll…