I was a guest blogger on "And Then She Saved"!

I'm a personal finance geek, I love to read about ways people save money, not necessarily just articles on investing.

Last year was especially hard on us financially.  We had a baby, enough said, right?  Lots of money to spend there, furnishing his room (what was the least of it), out of pocket medical expenses, and daycare expenses (ouch) since we both work full-time.

We finally bought a new car, a 2011 Subaru Forester.  The last new car I bought was my 1994 Toyota Tercel.  It's been a great car, but it's getting old.  We had to have the engine rebuilt the year before, and it's only a 2-door car.  Not easy for getting a baby seat in the back. 

Our biggest expense though was buying a house to rent to my Mom.  The housing market was at an extreme low, my Mom's rental (which she'd been in for about 15 years) was beyond gross and worn down, and the landlord did nothing to make repairs or improvements.  Plus my Mom has had breaks between jobs (she's a self-employed transcriber for marketing focus groups) that made it hard to make her rent on time.  We figured we could be better landlords, and give her cheaper rent.  So far it's working out really well, but coming up with the 25% down payment hurt. 

So we absolutely have to buckle down and really stick to a budget.  No more buying taxidermy, art, vintage jewelry (me), or bikes (Julian).  At least not for a while. 

I LOVE personal finance blogs...which leads up to my guest blogger post on "And Then She Saved", a fantastic personal finance blog.  I even saw Anne Newell Jones on the Nate Berkus show last Friday when I was home sick, talking about her "spending fast" and how she got out debt.  Please check out my post!
http://www.andthenshesaved.com/and-then-she-saved/6-ways-to-save-money-with-a-baby-on-board.html