March 2017 – little money bee

finance quotes, goals, military life, our life

finance quotes – Epictetus

March 29, 2017 No Comments

I have begun creating some “inspiring quote” images to share on the Facebook page for the blog, and I figured I would also take some time to write about the quotes and the financial interpretation of them. Today’s quote is “Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants,” from Greek philosopher Epictetus. This quote seems silly, especially as you think about “well, if I was wealthy, I could buy…” but I want you to consider a different type of wealth. Think about the wealth of options. The wealth of financial freedom. If I am not tied […]

budget, goals, military life, our life

the most important start – an emergency fund

March 27, 2017 No Comments

I know not everyone is aiming for early retirement, and that’s totally understandable. However, I have one suggestion that everyone should be working toward regardless of where you are in your financial life: an emergency fund. The amount of your emergency fund may vary based on your life circumstances. Conventional budgeting suggests that you maintain 3 months income (or 3 months of your expenses) as your emergency fund in case of job loss. However, as an enlisted military family, it seems very unlikely that Eric would lose his job unexpectedly at no fault of his own, so we can reasonably […]

goals, meal plan, our life, recipes I love

weekly goals + meal plan

March 19, 2017 No Comments

Ahoy! Sorry this is going up later on this Sunday evening. The Bee family is having a crazy week! We’re buying a house here in Connecticut. After walking through a home in Thursday, we decided we loved it, and placed an offer and just confirmed with the sellers. It’s been a stressful weekend. Anyways, last week’s goals were to sell the highchair and reconcile 3x. The highchair is still in the garage, and I reconciled twice. We did order pizza out on Friday, and had lunch in the Ikea Cafe today, but ate at home other than that, which is […]

frugal, goals, meal plan, military life, our budget, our life, recipes I love

reducing expenses – groceries

March 19, 2017 No Comments

Good morning, moneybees! I received a message from a friend that stated that she loved the blog, but she was having a hard time keeping her grocery expenses low. As I’ve mentioned, the Bee family grocery budget is about $400/month, occasionally over that, and she stated hers was about $600 per month (or $300 every pay period). She asked how we keep our grocery expenses low and if I could share some tips. I’d love to! Some of the biggest influences in my success in sticking to a grocery budget: Shop weekly and meal plan. I’ve been using Plan to […]

goals, our budget, our life

mid-month budget update

March 15, 2017 No Comments

I don’t plan to do this all the time, but I just wanted to give a quick update as to where we are in our budget in the middle of the month. I use YNAB (You Need A Budget), which is really great, but when looking back at past months, it’s hard to see how I was doing in the middle of the month. Am I living like a prince in the first half of the month and like a pauper the rest of the month because my categories are empty? So here’s how we’re doing in the middle of […]