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Being Cheap in Your 30's

If you've followed us for a while, you know that when Kevin and I first got married at age 25 we had $100,000 of student loan debt that we paid off in 2 years. Then, by the age of 28 we had bought our first house, and were back into debt. We had a baby, sold our house and moved into one that cost about $150,000 more than our first...so we were...you guessed it...still in debt.

As it stands today I am now 31 years old. We do still have a mortgage, so we are debt about $80,000 as of right now. (Notice I didn't say... "we are debt-free...except our mortgage." As I hate that phrase. Debt is debt, and you owe money...and that's it. I'll discuss that later.)

With our lofty goals of having our mortgage paid off about 1.5 years from now...we still make a point to put as much money as we can towards our mortgage as often as we can.

We are using the exact same process as we used for our student loans, but things look a little differently for us being in debt in our 30&#…
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Our Favorite Airport/Travel Strollers for Each Stage of Parenthood

It seems that every stage of parenting we are looking for a new travel stroller for our airport trips and family vacations. The tricky part about finding your perfect travel stroller, is you want a stroller that allows you to easily glide through TSA, maybe allows your children to nap on the go to allow for more sightseeing on your trip, and still work for your daily needs once your outside of the airport and exploring your destination.

Here are a few things we look for in a travel stroller:

-Compact
-Lightweight
-Easy to fold
-Few parts (less chance of breaking)
-Allows little ones to nap easily (as easily as you can while traveling)
-Under stroller storage available 
-Ideally a cupholder or some place I can set a couple small things (my phone, Lorelai's half eaten granola bar she just handed me etc.)

Each stage requires something a little different. Sharing a few of our favorites!



One Child, Age 0-12 months A car seat caddy is your absolute best friend. These are incredibly light, snap …
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Airplane Safety with Babies and Kids

I never would have thought the scariest flight I've been on thus far would have been one of our regular Denver-Omaha flights, a trip we take multiple times each year.

The turbulence we experienced this week was nothing like what I had experienced before.

I found myself curled up around my 4 month old, while telling Kevin to grab a hold of our 2 year old. I knew in reality we probably weren't going to fall out of the sky, but we were being tossed around so violently, with long sudden drops, I was worried about losing my hold on my infant. The main turbulence only lasted 5-10 minutes, but it felt like forever. Even after, we had a rocky flight the rest of the trip too.


Once home, I decided to do some research. Have infants been harmed from turbulence? What should you do as a passenger in the event of turbulence? What should we be doing to keep our kids safe?

In short, the answer to my first question was yes...children have been harmed from unexpected turbulence, especially if no…
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Travel Tips: Getting the Cheapest Flights on Southwest

Southwest has been our preferred airline for a few years now, especially because of their perks like 2 free checked bags, family boarding, and their frequent flyer program. You may have seen us mention we've earned the coveted "Companion Pass" early 2018 which goes through the end of 2019. The companion pass allows me to bring a named companion for free on any flight of mine on Southwest. Kevin has been my primary "companion" and we've determined to have saved over $4,000 in the less than 2 years we will have earned companion pass.

Even without companion pass, we are somewhat experts in the cheap flight game, especially with Southwest. This year alone we've repriced tickets to get over $300 back on our flights, we also picked up $49 tickets to/from Chicago, and have booked almost $10,000 worth of flights the last 2 years, paying only about $1,800 out of pocket. Here are a few of our tips for how to get inexpensive flights on Southwest! 

Be flexible with y…
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How to Ask for a Professional to Volunteer

This post is a little out of the ordinary, but I know a lot of my readers are very passionate about their causes. We volunteer because we care, perhaps you serve on a board or you volunteer your time to help the unfortunate, or maybe you organize an event every year. Whether you do it simply because you love the cause, find it fun, or for professional reasons...a lot of us find ourselves in a position where we need assistance in one of our causes. 

First, let me just say how much I LOVE being able to volunteer. I've spent a year now as a board member of our city's library...and I really love and care about what libraries have to offer our community (shout out to the Gretna Library...we love it!) . I also work regularly as a volunteer photographer for Child Savings Institute, where I have the absolute pleasure of taking photos of children in the foster system, who are looking for homes that would love to encourage and nurture these amazing kids. The photo shoots are awesome, th…
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Enchanted Kingdom: Omaha Children's Museum

Lorelai and Pepper have a new favorite exhibit at the Omaha Children's Museum! They to visit the new Enchanted Kingdom exhibit last night, and it was a huge hit!

Right off the bat, we knew it was going to be a good exhibit because of the large animatronic dragon at the entrance to the exhibit! Although Lorelai was unsure, Pepper could have watched that dragon all day long.



The exhibit is full of hidden learning gems, all wrapped up in a big princess fairy tale. A few of Lorelai's favorite sections were:

1. The DIY bubble wand with fountain
2. The caste with slide
3. The mini market
4. The unicorn nursery where you can feed and brush your unicorns, which also include an animatronic unicorn



Other awesome sections were the library, mirror maze, kitchen, and gem mine! There is a special reading area where one of the dragons assist in telling a story. There is a rock climbing wall for older kids, along with many other exhibit highlights!


The museum is going above and beyond with th…
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Family Dinners

This month we've decided to implement the "family dinner". I'm not committing to this long term yet...but I'm giving myself 30 days. It is a manageable goal for us, in hopes the habit will stick and we will see the long term benefits.
First, our normal evening often looked something like this:

4:00p- Mom arrives home from work and Lorelai wakes up from her nap
4:30p- Mom starts eating dinner, and Lorelai has a snack while playing/reading
5:30p- Lorelai has a more substantial snack/meal either while playing, in the car on our way to run errands/go to library, or if it is a messy dinner, in her high chair
6:00p- Dad has dinner
7:00p- Lorelai has another snack because she probably didn't eat any dinner.

This is how we've always managed dinner, even before kids because of our schedules.

So why change? I've read countless articles on a few of the supposed benefits of having family dinners together. Here are a few points that stood out to me:

It doesn't …
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