Mini Thoughts

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Category: Mindset & Lifestyle

  • Post Fair Overview: Too Spendy, Just Right, or Depriving my Children of Fun?

    We set a $100/day goal for our family of five at the local county fair, but between advance passes, concert tickets, and food refills, how did the final bill stack up? Here is the full breakdown of our $1,030 Labor Day weekend spend—and why it might actually be a frugal win.

  • Frugal Friday September 4th, 2026: Fair-ly Frugal

    A quick Frugal Friday check-in on keeping fair weekend costs under control with pre-bought tickets and daily food budgets, plus a tip for PC gamers looking for discounted Steam keys.

  • Would You Choose a Bulk Discount Over 10% Growth?

    Is taking a multi-year discount on recurring state fees actually worth it, or does it cost you money in missed investment returns? By prepaying five years of vehicle registration in Ohio, we saved $50 upfront plus credit card cash back—but locked up $430 that could have compounded in the S&P 500. Here is a breakdown…

  • Frugal Friday August 28, 2026: Find Deals for Large Purchases

    Frugality isn’t about avoiding spending money altogether—it’s about maximizing value when large, necessary purchases arise. By pairing military/veteran discounts, manufacturer accessory bundles, credit card cash-back rewards, and cross-platform price comparisons, we managed to secure a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and a Lenovo Legion Go while saving over $600 off retail prices.

  • Posting to Post

    General short update with very little meat.

  • Frugal Friday August 21, 2026: Cooking vs Eating Out!

    A bulk meal prep run broke down to just $1.33 per person per meal for our family of five. We carried those savings right into a weekend birthday celebration by skipping the restaurant and picking up a whole top sirloin roast from Sam’s Club—getting 12 thick-cut steaks custom-sliced by the butcher to feed 11 people…

  • Meal Prep August 2026: 5 Months of Meals?

    With my wife’s second knee surgery scheduled for September, we went all-in on our biggest bulk meal prep yet. Here is the full breakdown of how 80+ protein bases turned into 120 total meals—enough to cover our family’s dinners for the next 5 months.

  • Back From Vacation!

    A rainy week with the kids and an unannounced Cloudflare outage threw off our mid-month blogging schedule. Here is a quick life update on house projects, family time, meal prepping wins, and getting the debt tracking articles back on schedule.

  • When Discipline Slides

    Writers’s block is rough, can an X argument find a spark?

Monthly Dividend Progress

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