Hi, I’m Natalie!
Welcome to Family Makes Cents! I’m Natalie and I’m a wife to a public servant and a mother to the world’s cutest little boy. We are currently on our debt free journey working towards financial freedom. I have a passion for making more with less and finding new ways to save. I love sharing tips and tricks to save money, get out of debt, and build a financially independent future!
Oh, I don’t drink coffee and I’ve only been to Target once in the past 2 years. Hope that’s not a deal breaker!
About Us
I met my husband in January of 2012 and we got married in January of 2015. My husband worked in community service and construction.
I was in college full time while working as a marketing intern, student worker, and a Spanish tutor – all at the same time, earning just enough to pay for my school commute, along with the occasional chai tea latte and study abroad trip.
After a job loss and a short stint in the rent’s basement, we moved closer to family when my husband got a full-time job as a police officer. I was able to focus solely on my remaining semesters and growing the little human inside of me.
At 3 months pregnant, I graduated summa cum laude with my bachelor’s degree but none of my studies prepared me for the hardest job yet: being a stay at home mom and the wife of a police officer.
About Family Makes Cents
The dilemma most have is time vs. money. You either have the time to do x y z, or you have the money to pay someone to do x y z. Take cooking vs. eating out for example. Cooking costs time. Eating out costs money. If you don’t have/want to spend time (or energy) cooking, you’ll have to pay someone else to cook your food.
Starting out as a young adult or couple, you probably have neither. You spend a lot of time working and you don’t make a ton of money. We’ve attempted to find some sort of balance.
My husband and I decided early on that we wanted me to stay at home when we had kids (husband: money, me: time). With the nature of my husband’s schedule, it would be really difficult to juggle childcare between the two of us if we were both working outside the home.
Once you subtract taxes, child care, and work expenses from my would be paycheck, the time spent away from my kids would not be worth the pittance left over. Knowing I would stay home with the kids, we needed to make one income work for our family.
I decided to start Family Makes Cents for a few different reasons: to share tips, document progress, build community, and provide encouragement.
To Share Tips, Tricks, and Hacks.
When starting out as a young married couple, you’re not exactly raking in the dough. Unless that dough is debt. We’ve been working our way out of debt while doing this whole single income budget thing for a while now and I’ve picked up a few hacks along the way. I want to share those with you!
Here at Family Makes Cents, I share my secrets on how to travel while still maintaining a budget. Personally, traveling is a priority for us and in order to keep it in the budget, we have to sacrifice other areas like the clothing or fun money budget, but I am one thousand percent okay with that. I personally love shopping at thrift stores– tag along virtually in my YouTube video!
Whatever the “must keep” category is for you, we will walk through sustainable money saving approaches by first being intentional and setting a goal.
I’ll show you how to hunt around for deals without extreme couponing, though coupons don’t hurt! Sometimes the cheapest option costs more money in the long run so we’ll explore when to shop quality vs. quantity.
To Document Progress and Hold Ourselves Accountable
Currently, we on our debt free journey. Our goal is to pay off all our debt in ONE year! After we’re debt free, we will work towards financial independence. Documenting our progress, journey – including setbacks and mistakes because we’re not perfect – adds a layer of accountability.
I can’t very well share tips for living within your means while racking up thousands of dollars in credit card debt every month, that would ruin all credibility.
When we started our debt free journey, we found ways to boost our income. I help watch kids a few hours a week and my husband picked up a part time job stocking shelves. We throw 100% of that income towards debt, with the occasional diversion to travel. After the debt is crushed, we want to continue saving and avoid lifestyle creep.
To Build Community
Being a stay at home mom can get lonely. Add to the mix a husband that has long shifts and crazy weird hours, and you get the equivalent of a married single mom or a solo parent. On a tight budget. The beauty of the internet is that I’ve connected with those going through the exact same thing!
We are creatures created for community. It’s in our makeup. Finding others to commiserate with and encourage along the way is a necessity. My hope is to build a community at Family Makes Cents for those trying to get not only their finances but also their lives in order, and a community of people rooting for you.
If those around you think you’re crazy because you can rattle 10 rice & bean recipes off the top of your head, or you walk to work to save money on gas, hang around here at Family Makes Cents. We won’t think you are weird.
5 Ways to Save Money on Groceries
Check Your Subscriptions | Money Saving Challenge
18 Ways to Stay Warm Without Turning up the Heat
Stop Buying Coffee | Money Saving Challenge
How to Stay Cool Without Air Conditioning
To Provide Encouragement
When browsing social media, it’s very easy to compare your life with what’s on the screen. Social media is a highlight reel. You’d be hard pressed to scroll through a feed without stumbling upon a post about so and so’s new car, new house, or haul from a shopping trip.
And there’s nothing wrong with sharing things you’re excited about! But, you don’t necessarily see the real side: the hours of hard work or the mountains of debt that went into those purchases.
Getting out of debt and staying out of debt doesn’t happen by accident. You don’t always see the sacrifices needed to reach financial goals publicized on social media so it can be easy to think that getting there is a breeze for others. But it’s not always glamorous.
I want to be open in hopes to show that you are not alone. Yes, we only have *gasp* one car, and no we don’t have the budget for regular nights out but we can still enjoy life! I want to encourage you in whatever journey you’re in: paying off debt, living on a tight budget, or working towards financial independence.
Why Financial Independence?
Why are we trying to get rid of debt when debt is normal? You’ve probably heard it said many times, “you will always have a mortgage, car payment, student loans, etc.”
Well we’ve made a decision that we don’t want those draining our budget for the rest of our lives. We want to build a financial independent future which means we work because we want to, not because we need to.
Family time is very important to us (hence FAMILY Makes Cents) and we crave that freedom to spend time together on our terms. Months have gone by where our working schedules are so busy that we’ve been ships passing in the night and that will continue to be our reality for the foreseeable future.
But, we’re buckling down with our finances now so that doesn’t have to be our reality forever.
“Live like no one else so you can live like no one else.” – Dave Ramsey
How?
With such a tight budget, how is it that we’ve never gone hungry? I remember turning to my husband that first year and saying, “I just want to go one month without overdraft fees.” (which was partly due to poor planning on our part.)
The first year we filed our taxes jointly, I got an email saying something to the effect of, “hey, you are pretty broke. Here is the government assistance you would qualify for.” We declined and were still taken care of.
Fast forward a few years later and we make ends meet every month with extra left over to pay down more debt, save, and even travel. How? Sometimes I ask myself that same question but then I remember this verse in the Bible:
31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Matthew 6:31-33 (ESV)
This is the reason for it all. This is how we can survive and save on one income, despite still making less than the “U.S. Median Household Income”. We believe that we have a God that provides for our needs. We have clothes on our bodies, food in our bellies, and a roof over our heads.
Anything more than that is just a bonus!
Ultimately, budgets aren’t boring and frugal is fun! Arguably one of the most important, and simultaneously one of the most difficult things to achieve on a financial journey is balance.
Here at Family Makes Cents, I want to show you that you can still have fun and enjoy life while being responsible with your money. Yes, that even means cruising on a budget.
Join the newsletter, and follow me @familymakescents on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for that little dose of real life and real budgeting in your feed. So happy to have you around!
