Intentional Living

To “live intentionally” means to live according to your values and beliefs.  I believe when we commit to being more thoughtful in how we spend our time and our money we can overcome the overwhelm, reduce financial stress, and live a more purposeful life.

Intentional living allows us to take better care of our minds and our bodies, and in turn, better care of those around us.

Here you’ll find content to help you spend less time and money on the things that matter less so you can create margin in your life and your budget to spend more on the things that matter most.

Woman looking very upset and in pain holding her head in her hands

She’s Raising Two Kids Alone While Her Husband Is in Rehab, Can’t Find Stable Work, and Is Running Her Car Into the Ground by Taking Every Gig Job Available Just to Keep the Lights On

She’d signed up for a gig work app to try to fill the gap, but the income coming from it was completely unpredictable week to week. One stretch might bring three jobs, the next twelve, then nothing at all the week after that. That kind of volatility makes budgeting nearly impossible, since there’s no way…

Young woman holding a cord looking annoyed

Contractors Used Her Personal Electrical Outlet to Run Power Tools, Lights, and Industrial Dryers for Three Weeks Without Asking, and Her Property Manager Says a $20 Credit Should Cover It

She works from home, so a spike in her electric bill wasn’t something she was likely to miss, and this month’s bill came in noticeably higher than usual despite nothing changing in her own routine or usage. Her own habits hadn’t shifted at all, same work schedule, same appliances, same everything, which made the increase…

Woman looking upset as she looks at a bill

Her Water Bill Spiked From 3,000 to 38,000 Gallons With No Explanation, No Leak Inside Her Apartment, and the Utility Company Said She’ll Still Owe Part of the Bill No Matter What Caused It

She normally used somewhere between 2,500 and 3,000 gallons of water a month, unsurprising given she lived alone in a small one bedroom apartment and spent most of her waking hours at work. Two years in that same unit had given her a pretty consistent baseline, low usage, no surprises, nothing that ever stood out…

Young woman sitting on a couch looking at her phone

She Got a $1,500 PayPal Transfer From a Stranger Who Begged Her to Refund It Immediately Because Their Grandchild Was Stranded, and When She Called PayPal She Found Out the Sender Had Already Filed a Dispute

Her PayPal balance suddenly jumped by $1,500 from someone she’d never heard of, with no context and no explanation attached to the transfer itself. Not long after, an email showed up from the sender explaining that the money had been meant for their son instead, sent to the wrong email by accident, and that their…

Couple arguing with mother-in-law

She’s Sick of Her Future In-Laws Who Have No Retirement Savings, Live Rent-Free in Someone Else’s House, and Spend Money on Designer Purses and Lash Appointments While Claiming They Can’t Afford Her Wedding

She’d recently found out that her future in-laws weren’t actually retired in the way she’d assumed. She’d always figured they were simply enjoying their later years while helping watch her fiance’s sister’s kids, but the real picture was different. Her fiance’s brother-in-law was wealthy and owned the house his in-laws lived in outright, having stepped…

Middle-aged couple arguing in the kitchen

He’s Sick of Footing the Bill for His Son’s Family After 15 Years of Free Housing and Says His Wife Shuts Down Every Attempt to Introduce Any Financial Accountability Whatsoever

He’d married his wife more than 30 years ago and adopted their son not long after. He’d poured himself into that upbringing, supporting him through Boy Scouts Troop 175, through a high school swim league that made it all the way to Georgia state competition in its first year, through Philmont Scout Ranch, and eventually…