One of our spending categories that we’ve had the toughest time mastering is our food budget. Neither of us loves to cook and convenience often wins the day when dinnertime rolls around. But when I looked back at our food spending for last year

Before You Retire: Powerful Lessons from Mini-retirement

Jan 9th, 2018 6m 18s

I can’t believe that we’re already six months into our one-year mini-retirement! It feels like just yesterday that I was packing up my belongings at work and at home as we flipped our life upside down to try something crazy.Listen to the arti

Stop Depriving Yourself and Get What You Really Want

Dec 26th, 2017 5m 15s

From the outside-in, frugality and minimalism often look like acts of self-deprivation. After all, eating out is easier and tastes better than a home-cooked meal and getting a new gadget or outfit puts a smile on your face. Why would we deprive

What a Pizza Cutter Taught Me About Frugality and Minimalism

Dec 19th, 2017 6m 20s

Earlier this year, we experienced a culinary tragedy - our pizza cutter broke. Our initial reaction was to go out and buy a replacement, but we were in the middle of our Nothing New Year challenge so we held off. A few days passed, then a week,

Should You Trust the Machines With Your Money?

Dec 12th, 2017 6m 38s

The personal finance world has been abuzz with talk of automation. It started with automated bill-pay and has grown into automated savings, robo-advisers, and algorithm-based investing. We dream of letting the machines take care of our finances

A Marriage Lesson from a Mini-Retirement

Nov 28th, 2017 9m 32s

Ok, so my husband, Chris, has officially been on his One Year Mini-Retirement since July first. And as of September second, he started working here on Keep Thrifty full time. We are still early in this whole mini-retirement thing, but it feels

Patience is the Ultimate Passive Income

Nov 21st, 2017 5m 33s

Patience is a virtue, but it’s more than that. It’s an incredible source of passive income. OK, maybe not income in the traditional sense, but at the end of the day, patience leaves you with extra money in your bank account for doing absolutely

Our Mini-Retirement Budget

Nov 14th, 2017 4m 7s

Before our mini-retirement, we were focused on building our finances. We were prepaying our mortgage, saving for vacations, contributing to a 401K, and building our emergency savings fund. Then we decided to temporarily step away from getting a

Beware the Frivolous Purchase Threshold

Oct 31st, 2017 4m 39s

Do you ever get to the end of the month and wonder where all your money went? There’s a negative force at work against your journey to financial freedom called the Frivolous Purchase Threshold. It’ll steal your money and leave you with worthles

The Most Powerful Factor for Creating a Mini-Retirement

Oct 24th, 2017 8m 9s

There’s one phrase we’ve heard over and over again since revealing our mini-retirement: “I mean, if you can make that work, it sounds amazing.” It pains me to hear because the person assumes that achieving a mini-retirement isn’t possible for t

Shred Your Debt with a Snowball or an Avalanche

Oct 17th, 2017 9m 22s

If you’ve got a mountain of debt, there are two awesome ways to shred it - the Debt Snowball and the Debt Avalanche. Read on to learn how to choose which is right for you and what to do if you can only pay your minimums. If you’re already well-

I Used To Suck At Money Management

Oct 10th, 2017 3m 1s

Today’s article is a special one folks - you’re getting an awesome article from the one and only Mrs. Keep Thrifty - better known as my wife, Jaime. Going forward, you can expect to see her writing here about once a month as a great way to chan

Trading Financial Freedom for Mini-Retirement

Sep 26th, 2017 5m 36s

Who doesn’t want financial freedom? Getting to the point that your passive income can cover your expenses buys you opportunities and time in a way that most people can’t imagine. Despite the allure, I took an active step away from financial fre

Bring Back Your Childhood Dreams

Sep 19th, 2017 5m 52s

Some people have great clarity of what’s on their bucket list - the things they want to accomplish with their life. But others struggle, not even knowing where to start. If you’re struggling with finding big dreams worth chasing, consider seeki

If You're Not a Paying Customer, You're Probably the Product

Sep 12th, 2017 5m 28s

UPDATE (Decemeber 11, 2017): After trying out Patreon for 3 months, we weren’t able to get the traction we had been hoping for. We’re still going to keep this site free of ads and sponsored posts, but we will be bringing in a small number of af

Rate