New month, new thread
Can anyone explain to me what is happening in the 6th photo?? Is that the straw you mentioned? Wow
Yes why would you do that?
People do that when they have just put down grass seed.
I don't think that's what she's doing. It's almost like she's trying to use the straw as a form of mulch given how thick it is. I've put down straw after grass seed plenty of times, but it's just a thin layer. You want to make so the birds can't easily get to the seed, but you still need some light and water to get through. And I don't think she'd be growing grass around those plants.
It looks very strange. And whatever the case, I'm sure she spent a lot more do it that way.
It looks awful. This looks to be in the front yard? And does it need to be said to clean out the beds before planting something new? They look like they're full of old dead leaves with a random new plant stuck in the middle.
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What is the point of Hope's newest post? The cost of groceries has gone up? Yes it has...riveting content.
It’s a microcosm of her whole life. She was craving something so she bought 6x more than she needed, nothing on sale. None of it is particularly nutritious or good for diabetes. So random and not something I would share
Not one box of store brand in the picture she showed either. It’s expensive when you buy name brand everything. She also posted about doing a lot of activities that cost money while she was in Texas. Her mom’s health is poor, I understand her wanting to make the visit, but she didn’t need to be doing lazer tag and all the eating out.
Also, you want cereal and you’re single? You buy 1 box, not hit the shelves like you are on Supermarket Sweep. Because you won’t finish the box. The other thing is even if you are going to the store, you buy the one that’s on special you like not blow $25 on cereal because you have cash.
She is infuriating. She didn't spend all of the money she had budgeted towards groceries, so instead of saving it for a week when costs will be higher, or paying extra towards the tens of thousands she owes on her credit cards, she splurges.
And then she wonders why the same money problems keep happening to her.
She needed a splurge, it’s not like she just had a vacation or anything. Oh wait……
So can I interrupt the Hope snark to ask: what is going on with debt-free mom??! She kind of vague booked about having some freak out about hating her rental house and now she has launched this car detailing business. It's just really interesting because Carly is one of the smuggest humans alive. She just seems to always justify every decision she makes as the best decision ever while secretly I think there's always a lot of chaos going on.
Like remember last summer when she just sort of randomly decided she was going to buy a used car the very next day and then chaotically drove around town trying to find enough Banks to give her enough cash. Did she decide that she's finally done living in a rental despite justifying it six ways to Sunday about how this is the best financial decision she's ever made and now she's going to desperately start buying a house
We had to buy a car recently and just went to our bank and got a cashiers check. Most banks put a max on debit withdrawals per day period so I thought that was super weird.
It really was such a crazy impulsive decision she was just driving around to atms maxxi g out cash withdrawals. And live updating us. I get they live in a low crime area but that didn't seem like something id want to tell the internet live that I had thousands of dollars in my car
Where is she writing about all of this? Tried searching around but haven't found it.
She has a podcast and talked about it in the one about her money story. He’s basically had 2 jobs 1- barista and 2- at a Christian Youth Camp.
https://www.debtfreemom.co/podcasts/the-debt-free-mom-podcast?page=2
Thank you - I've heard her talk about the youth camp but I didn't know about the barista (though it makes sense with his obsession with good coffee). He seems to be applying to positions above his experience imo.
She says they aren't "panicked" financially but they didn't do well this year and she's taking on these side hustles (cleaning homes and detailing cars). The husband is suddenly job searching for a full time position now too. Apparently he's applied to a huge amount of jobs (like 75+?) But it also sounds like he's still being picky. I haven't been following her long so idk what his education is - but she makes it sound like his only job experience was at a children's camp? But he's only applying to remote positions that seem like he's probably not qualified for. Helping with Instagram and creating custom budgets does not equal professional qualifications. But please someone correct me if I'm wrong and he does have actual education in these areas.
Her background was being a special education teacher.
I don't follow her stories every day so I knew she had a huge tax bill. I imagine the custom budgets are time intensive so it's harder to make it profitable
What is his background in? I don't remember exactly what roles he was applying to but it was similar to marketing, etc. Something a company would surely want a candidate with education and experience in. Their unexpected tax bill was over $4,000.
I don’t know this person but am unimpressed by any financial blogger who is surprised by a tax bill and goes into a panic over only 4K 😂 (That sounds snotty/privileged but truly 4K should be manageable for a dual income family with financial savvy? Like 40K, yes that would make me panic)
I don't really remember what job he's had. I think it's something techy
Am I blind or were there 2 posts Hope just had up about vacation and some else?
Vacation and lawn mower purchase.
Lawn mover is still there for me, I don't see vacation.
Just checked now , vacay post is gone. It was about going to TX to visit family and pics of her kids and sis and Mom.
It’s on her Instagram. I think she mentioned she was going to texas and her dad was paying. Going by her photos I’d say her mom isn’t doing too well and any time they can spend with her is important
On Hope's IG today: "our family story is a colorful tapestry woven from threads of acceptance, love, and the vibrant hues of our rainbow-colored, God-chosen, foster-adopted journey." Why does she always have to point out the "otherness" of her kids? If my mom repeated over and over that I was fostered, it would make me feel anything but accepted. And I'm not even going to comment on the "rainbow-colored" description.
"woven from threads of acceptance"--that's mighty big of her to accept her own children, although she obviously has favorites. The rest is just virtue signaling. You're just the bestest, Hope!
Is Hope traveling again or are those old pictures? It would be like her to think she needs to take Princess on a vacation for her birthday.
It looks like a photo dump. I don’t think they took a trip.
You will never know the truth because she doesn't tell the truth.
So Hopes bare bones budget requires 3200 for monthly living….. and this month she put 2700 on her credit card. Unless you can now charge your mortgage…. Methinks there’s some unplanned spending going on. But you know, not on things like eyeglasses.
Ummm.... Math?
That's the minimum payment, not what she plans to pay.
Aww! Ok. I’m new to these parts, but isn’t a safe bet she won’t mention this again and it will still be there in September.
Just that one credit card, with a monthly payment of 131, will take her five years to pay off. Is she really clueless enough to not understand that she's paying 96 A MONTH in interest?
Do you really want us to answer that?😂. Best part her poor kids are taking her advice.
She doesn’t see beyond next week. I also think she buys heavily into prosperity gospel. If she’s a good person and says her prayers God will provide and her problems will be solved.
Yes she is that clueless.
She's putting car insurance on her credit card, I guarantee there's a fee for that nonsense.
I’ve never paid a fee for using a credit card for that. But if anyone can find a way to, it’s Hope.
There’s a fee for paying utilities and insurance by credit card where I live. It’s fairly standard.
I have USAA for insurance and a USAA credit card and there is no charge to put insurance on the credit card- only interest if you aren't paying in full. Which I imagine Hope isn't paying in full every month.
Oh it's the insurance company's card, that makes sense then!
Hope has also been patting herself on the back about food choices. She posted a pasta dish that looks like something I would cook in 6th grade - literally. Cheese and white sauce, a minimal amount of a red veggie, a sparse amount of black pepper. Ok… I wouldn’t post a pic of that online, but you do you. And then she posted some Sam’s Club sushi, to which she says #makingbetterchoices. If you say so? I guess financially it’s a better choice than a restaurant.
What happened to her veggie garden?
What have they been eating if that is supposed to be elevated cooking? And wipe off the stove before you take a picture, gross.
That pasta dish and her diabetes together are definitely not a good choice. And sure, sushi from Sam's Club is cheaper than eating at a restaurant but she can't afford to do either one.
You are saying what I felt I couldn’t. But seriously, carbs on carbs. The rest of us are going for half a plate of veg!! Come on! We are adults!
It still amazes me that for someone with diabetes, she never includes medical costs in her "budgets" - doesn't she need insulin, testing equipment, etc? Maybe she's still on that fake Christian healthcare plan - but even then, wasn't there a premium?
She's probably on metformin for type 2. I've known more than one T2 diabetic insist they can eat whatever they want as long as they "cover it" with enough meds. Want to stuff your face with cake? Just double the metformin! Easy peasy! (nb: do not do this).
And even if she was on metformin, wouldn't she need to have doctor visits and prescription renewals...how is she paying for all this 
Metformin is cheap. It's like 5 dollars a month. Generic meter is cheap; I think ours was $16. The test strips are where they get you. I don't know how she pays for the doctor visits, but Hope isn't exactly honest about her spending. She probably buried those fees in with some unrelated category.
She has said before she’s not on insulin, but she should still be checking her blood sugar at home and getting regular A1C checks at the doctor, neither of which are cheap. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s just ignoring it.
So like does she go to the doctor and pay cash? Or is she paying for a premium and co-pay? She'll never address so we can speculate wildly for fun!
My guess is she’s not getting regular check ups or testing at home. Test strips are about $1 each if you are paying out of pocket. You can ignore Type 2 for a while, but it will eventually catch up to you and it won’t be pretty. Much better to keep it in check and monitored, but when has Hope ever planned ahead?
That stovetop has not been cleaned in months. Gross.
Super gross
Hope patting herself on the back for teaching her kids such great money management skills. Gymnast has a $19k car loan at 12% interest, I wouldn’t call that a great financial decision. Meanwhile Hope has seven open credit cards, five of which have nearly 30% interest rates. Once again she’s counting her chickens before they hatch, she is so sure this contract is going to be extended.
well we know she's not blowing money on clothes. That dress looks even cheaper than $14 on IG.
I'm sure that any good money management skills that her kids developed have come from them doing the complete opposite of whatever they saw her do.
Didn't she claim to be saving all of the money she was earning from her fast food gig?
She paid off a credit card and turned around to immediately use it again.
Prudent Homemaker had a busy week with a wedding, death, and births. She went into detail about the friend who died and the wedding, but nothing about who had a baby. Really hope it wasn’t Winter again.
How many has Winter popped out, so far? I haven't kept with Prudent Homemaker for a while.
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Marissa Lyda (the budgeting wife)pulling from her emergency fund to paint the whole house a single shade darker white is bonkers to me.
As we like to say in the South - she has been living high on the hog for months now. If she is pulling money from her emergency fund for this - smells like money problems.
I started following her when she was pregnant with Peter. Her spending has gotten a lot freer for sure.
Debt Free Mom had a mini meltdown in her stories last night about how much she hates her rental house and how it's old and it has ants and its not perfect and she doesn't like living there. I was cackling remembering how she decided to sell their house and move to a rental last year in about a 24 hour time frame because of some beef with a neighbor that she refused to elaborate on. Why was an immediate move so imperative? People in the comments told her to slow down and she just verbally smacked people down about how this choice was best for their family and she let the mask slip waaaaay off yesterday about jut how unhappy that decision has made her. Also her husband quit his 9-5 to work on her debtfree mom website and business has not been as good this year as in previous and she got real about being stressed about that too. Interesting........
She has now decided to use her side hustle experience of cleaning houses, to make extra income to make up for how poor business has been for her. Her husband seems to not be worried about anything, and they give me brother/sister vibes. He should be looking for a real stable income job with health insurance for their children, while she does whatever DFM does. I also do not understand how she is going to Paris and London during the Olympics, and yet complains about the cost of groceries or vital life things like her children's dental care. She is traveling to Europe during peak season (summer) in addition to it being the Olympics.
She and her husband do seem to have such a strange relationship. She definitely appears to be carrying a majority of the household and childcare duties even though she's running the debt free mom thing and making personalized budgets, etc. She posts a ton on IG which I'm sure is very time consuming and her kids are all young. His hobbies appear to be expensive coffee and being out of the house as much as possible.
And being upset that there 5 year old son has sensory issues (flapping his arms, biting his shirt, sucking on his shirt until it is soaked). She posted about providing a sensory redirection option for him and showed a photo of him using it. She has a background in childhood education and put it to great use in my opinion. She posted about how it is upset Kyle because he "does not know how to handle it".
Yes! When she described her little guy chewing/sucking on things and arm flapping and her husband's only response "stop doing that!" But she immediately found a better solution that he seemed to love. I know we only see what she shows us on IG but he never even seems to be around or when he is, just seems like a dud.
Did anyone see her garden? What's with the straw?