Its so true! My husband and I had a very small wedding about 2wks ago and it was less than $1000, it was beautiful and perfect!

Financial solidarity can be such a strong bedrock for a marriage. It truly can eat away at marital satisfaction and can steal joy from family life. Great topic!

We did Dave Ramsey our first year of marriage and loved it. Quarantine also was a blessing in disguise with finally getting us to fix more meals at home and meal plan better!

I love learning about finances! I just became debt free in December 2020 and it feels so good. 💜

I have cut my husband's hair since July 1970! 😳 Can you imagine how much money we have saved because of that?

Great points Heather. Contentment is key to living on one income or any kind of budget. Once I became content with what I had my desire for more (fill in the blank) dwindled.

You are awesome, Heather!! The sacrifices you make as a mom being debt free and faithful to Christ are not unnoticed. Your children are blessed to have you as parents! What a gift!!

I’m a fairly new Catholic and a mom this was super helpful thank you!

Loved your tips. Everyone budgets a little bit different. My husband and I got married September 2021. I got married at 37 and my husband 35. We are currently working on starting a family. We are both debt free including the houses and cars. I started my debt free journey many years ago and my husband has always been debt free. It feels great and I have such a security that I don't have to work. I want to be a stay at home mom and wife and being debt free makes it possible for us. Pray for me hope to become a mom soon.

It is astonishing how many Americans are in debt.

Financial security is also important for big families.... I am from India , where people are afraid of having big families because of their poor income.youare blessed because you have good house 🏡 enough income to brought up more kids ... god bless you more and more because of your generosity to welcome more kids ... hats off .

My wife and I have a budget similar to yours. Our problem was overspending on the fun money with online purchasing being so easy now days. Our solution was to put poker chips in an envelope every month equal to our fun money budget and pull the appropriate chips out whenever we buy or spend anything in the fun category. It really helped us control the budget. In the worst case we may have to wait a few months to buy something we want.

You ladies are such an inspiration. We have been praying a Rosary Novena to help us with our debt. Thank you Heather for introducing us to the 54 Rosary Novena. Thank you for your video!

To get out of the house, I would often take my young kids to the library. We'd play games there and then take home books and DVDs. We'd also get clothes, puzzles, games and books from the thrift store. It saved a lot of money and it was always super fun

I love when fellow stay at home moms discussing budgeting! It’s so helpful ♥️

What a beautiful video. So simple and so humble ❤️ I wish more families were like this.

Thank you so much for sharing this Heather and for introducing us to Hellen. Absolutely love the concept of " fun money " 😊 Could you possibly do a video / videos touching on: 1.Tips for a simple beautiful low budget wedding, perhaps sharing about yours. 2.What work you used to do before ( if you don't mind sharing ) 3.How you transitioned as a Woman from working outside the home to working inside the home, being a stay at home Mum. The good things, the challenges, tips to help with someone who may be transitioning soon. Conversations you had with your spouse before marriage about this and during marriage. 4.Affordable date night ideas you can do at home.

I love this video! My husband and I are currently debt free except our mortgage. A paid off house is a huge goal of mine. We have a discretionary budget each month for extras (clothes, treats, special outings, decor, etc) and what we don’t spend goes towards the mortgage. Having a chart keeping track of each payoff milestone has really helped keep me motivated!

Thanks dear, this is amazing, I also save much by having a list of what I need in order of priority, prevents me from overspending

Just found your channel because of your collaboration with the Frugal Wife. New sub. With so many families having high debt and no savings for retirement, we love channels like your sharing your story and practical advice for others. Love the wedding money to pay off cars!!!! We are financially independent and recently retired at age 55 and plan to travel the world and document our adventures. We hope to inspire those of your generation to save, invest, and live within their means so that they can live their best lives in retirement. Glad we found you and hope we can inspire you as well. Blessings to you and your family, John and Bev

Thanks Heather, some great ideas here! You've inspired me!

God bless you Heather and your beautiful family ... stay blessed🙏

This was very informative so glad to learn this. I especially love the idea of having saving accounts for different things

I love the idea of the multiple savings accounts with different purposes! What a great idea; thanks for sharing!

When my kids were little, every Friday was pizza and movie night. We would do a homemade pizza and rent a movie. They absolutely loved it and enjoyed inviting friends to share our evening. We also eliminated paper products when my kids were little, which has been more than 30 years ago. No paper plates, napkins, tissue, or paper towels. I purchased hanky and cloth napkins and cut up thrift store towels to replace the paper towels in the kitchen. Very few “single use“ items are cost-effective. I have reusable dusting and mopping pads for my swiffer and a reusable covers for my handheld swiffer duster. Cleaning cloths are old T-shirts that have been cut up so they can be washed and reused. Vinegar and water with a few drops of essential oil is very inexpensive for cleaning countertops , bathrooms, etc. A few years ago I bought a small, handheld steam cleaner. It works great and eliminates the need for most cleaning products … just steam an area and wipe it with a clean cloth. It actually makes cleaning kind of fun.

Beautiful. You are spending on your values!

This is a good video. I think it is absolutely imperative that young Catholic families become financially literate as soon as possible to take one stressor out of their lives. As you mentioned, getting off the car payment treadmill is a huge way to illuminate wasteful spending. From my experience there is very little to be gained from having newer cars versus older ones. Certainly it is not worth the price tag! One thing I see people neglecting is to consider the total cost of their job. A long commute takes away valuable time and costs lots more in mileage and wear and tear. You need to be compensated more if you are going to have a long drive for your work. Another trap is when Catholic moms in particular feel that they can handle some income by participating in multi level marketing programs. There may be a lot of you reading this comment now that have participated in them work like we do so. Obviously it must work for some women, but I know far more women who have been burned by the experience being stuck with inventory Or putting in a lot of hours and getting very little pay for it. Not to mention the products being sold are usually highly overpriced and I feel it is not always fair to use social pressure to move expensive products on people may also be financially struggling. Some side hustles that work very well are things like selling off stuff you don’t need on eBay. This year during Covid lockdowns I said goodbye to my childhood Pokémon card collection and pocketed $1500. They were nostalgic, but not worth $1500 to me! Also, if you get to a point where you have an emergency fund, you can take advantage of savings account offers that give you $100-$300 bonus just for opening an account and putting a significant amount of money in the account. The same thing happens all the time for direct deposit checking accounts as well. I think I average two new bank accounts a year and usually earn $800 or more in free money just from doing a little bit of paperwork and being diligent. It’s a great way to fund a holiday for some fun money for a pleasure you can’t otherwise afford. Last thing I do that may or may not apply to people in other states or places is a shop for my electric and gas utility supply companies. My state ( Pennsylvania ) has registered websites that allow you to shop for lower cost providers. Often times I can pay for 100% renewable energy that is actually slightly cheaper than paying the power company the base rate. It takes minutes every few months just to check the prices and pick the best suppliers.

Great Video! Going to try a few of your tips🙏

Hi Heather, I am probably banned, but if you get to see this, one thing I do to contribute to your budget is to sit through ads here. I give up at more than three minutes, but I listen to ads for you and no one else!!

Very insightful video! Thank you!☕️😃

Thank you for sharing this with us ❤️❤️

Needed this reminder!! I was all about Dave Ramsey before I got married and my husband had never heard of him… I didn’t bring it to our marriage in a healthy way… we both were almost 40 and had older kids so we’re very stuck in our ways more just out of habits… please offer up a Hail Mary for us to get on the same page with this!! ♥️

Time to take notes! Thank you for this

I don't know if there are any single men watching this program, in search of serious relationship/wife, however one can discern how religion and attending church can help with giving a person a language and mindset and some interpersonal skills and insights that might help one attracting a partner.

I love Dave Ramsey’s debt free guide

I love all your videos, can you post meals you prepare for your kids, I have two very picky eaters, need some ideas on what kids eat freely???

Really great ideas.

Look into biweekly payments for your mortgage. You end up paying one extra month a year. In 7 years, don’t forget to ask for PMI to be removed.

*Now I'm Happy. I was waiting for your next video. Let me make Popcorn before I was your video. God bless you. Greetings from Texas*

Thank you for sharing!!!❤🙋‍♀️

Good afternoon Catholic Mom Heather. Greetings from FILAM Nonna. We are on the same boat. When I became jobless due to the closing of all the companies that I am assigned with, my retired husband and I depended on his retirement and pension. In God's grace, with so many changes in our lifestyle and financial priorities, we were able to live with our meager income. Surprisingly, we are debt-free on our car, other debts and we are also mortgage-free. Yes, with our great faith, miracles do happen surprisingly. God bless you and your family always !

Awesome tips!

I know I’m late to the game here, but you are doing so many things right. We’re an older Catholic family and are expecting our first grandchild this year. We did so many of these same things-haircuts at home, date nights at home, and I cooked all the time. You are right-it’s much healthier! An added benefit: our adult children all love to cook! They got used to it and started cooking as teens and even away at school. So you are probably guiding them to do the same!

Heather, you are the Proverbs 31 woman. Great job!

When my children were your children’s ages, we did the same: every pay was carefully budgeted, right down to the cents! My mother brought me up with the saying “Mind your pennies, and your pounds will look after themselves”. We tithed too, and then mortgage, then other outgoings. It was pretty hard when the kids were young, and often they battled envy of their friends clothes or holidays, or going to Macdonalds, etc., but now they are all good with money as young adults. Things were easier for about ten years, but now with the cost of living crisis, it is back to tricky again, but when you have learned to live on little before, you can do it again. And compared to most people on the planet, we are still very well off.

I agree. It feels so great. We're now hoping to pay the mortgage off in less that 5 years!

This is really helpful and inspiring for me looking forward to marriage in the future! 😊

Some good tips thanks

Hello Friends! How do you and your family save money? And Here is my friend Helen's Channel 'The Frugal Wife' make sure to check it out, she has great wisdom! kzfaq.info/get/bejne/j7Wdardzy5_Zlo0.html

Glad the “new” school is working out. I know it can be quite a commitment no matter how long you choose to stay.

Loved this video.... yes we can do it! Prov 31,10

I'm not into complicated budgets, but I love the idea of fun money for husband and wife. I don't budget...just try to only buy things that are needed.

Everything that help save my household money im down 👌😘me too i love being debt free 👌😘 im teaching my daughter too .and i gave back to charity while taking care of my family 👌😘thank you for telling people who judged it's doable 😂😂😂😂😂.you just have to plan your finances.another great video girl👌😘❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️my mom thought me budget and she is great at 👌😘❤️❤️❤️❤️and sharing your way is👌😘people need this

A must watch

I needed this video. I am in dept

Love your videos. God bless

Good morning 🌞 your topics are great it's about life and it's great you found a partner that understands it's about team work, thanks for sharing......🤺💕🌹🦁🙏

Some1 having a great hair day!😊

I love it! These are awesome budgeting & saving strategy tips. I will incorporate some as a single person until my Divine sent husband come along ❤

I watch some of Dave's videos but do use credit cards. I try and usually pay them off in full as I use them and had about 300.00 in points to use toward gifts this year. Knowing where money goes is smart because we all have those "I spent how much on coffee or shopping" moments. What does your husband do for a living? Mine was a police officer and worked at home and part time until they were all in grade school. Loved it.

We use a too good to go app for groceries. You can order a box from there for a little amount and you can eat a few days from those boxes

Thank you so much

“He will not be outdone in generosity” Truth

When my husband and I got married we had many, many debts many open credit cards.! One day he decided to consolidated them all.! And we pay all our debts., he’s so good with the planning and saving thing.! For years we didn’t touch our income tax return nor his annually bonus, we saved all that money we can at the point that our 2 college students sons have all the money to cover their college tuitions for 4 years including dorm and meal plan.! thank God they didn’t ask for a student loan., and when we want/need anything for us, house or whatever we use the credit card just because we get cash back and wherever amount we spent we pay it right away.! So in like four yr using that credit card we have more than $2,000 in cash back which is ours, thank God with all our savings and 401K we have the money we need for when he retires, we have a mortgage debt but that’s our only deb.! I praise God for He’s so good.! We as well have only one income and he really works very hard.! And we’re not rich we just sacrifice a little and we don’t spend on things we don’t need.!

All of our children are grown now, but we are trying to save money for retirement so we don't go out to dinner much either. What I do once a week is make my own pizza dough. It takes minutes to make and so much cheaper than buying a pizza or frozen pizza. There are recipes all over KZfaq. I make my own sauce which is also very very cheap in comparison to jar sauce and rotate toppings to make it a little different. By the time covid is over I will be able to open my own pizza parlor (just kidding). I suggest you give it a try. You would probably need two pizzas for your crew but I bet you would never go back to store bought again.

I need to get better at this! My husband and I are hoping to buy a home soon and I know we will have to be much more organized with our money after! It's so hard to resist picking up food from a restaurant when I've had a busy day, but I do it about once a week and I would like to cut it down to once a month! Do you do a lot of meal prep or freezer meals for days that are just crazy?

I’m working towards only using federal loans to pay for college, my parents suggested private loans for living expenses but I think I’m leaning toward living more frugally during college and ONLY using federal loans since not using federal loans isn’t feasible for right now. I have a five year plan to pay it off but I’m looking to pay it back faster than that. Knowing this, do you still suggest 10% to the church? Or would you recomend a smaller tithe for now?

My library has lots of free movies too🙂

thanks for the video, can you please resend the link on the Frugal Wife.it's not working

yay MN :) i live in TC area

How did God reveal that to you? What did that look like?

Do you really have five separate savings account? How does that work is it all at one bank?

Debt is a form of slavery. We had wedding debt, and debt from moving across the country for work and God helped get rid of all of it for us. I am so grateful. Now I am the biggest saver! Romans 13:8 "Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law." Proverbs 22:7 "Be not one of those who give pledges, who put up security for debts. If you have nothing with which to pay, why should your bed be taken from under you?"

We live in an old small house. That is literally how we will be able to afford Catholic school on one income. It’s a huge sacrifice and I honestly struggle with jealousy sometimes. It seems like everyone we are friends with and our family have really large houses or new construction houses. But it’s a choice. In order for me to be a stay at home parent as well as be able to put the kids through private school while not shorting our retirement the old small house that’s outdated is the only way we can afford it.

I know this is an old video but I’m rewatching this and was wondering… is saving for retirement part of the 10% or do you do that separately?

We are trying to become debt free! During this pandemic we didn't use both our cars a whole lot so we managed to sell one of the car that was paid off. That saved us a lot. Now we are relocating to another state and will settle in an apartment for some time until we can decide on a home. I'm fine with an older home which is cheaper but hubby sees the future and says newer home is better when it comes to investing. Please help. How did you buy your home?

Budgeting is so important if you want to take control of your financial destiny. This is how Tom and I manage our family finances and include our financial goals. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/qMpois6p27OloZs.html xCC

Can u do a video on singlehood and staying positive and waiting to meet your person?

Friday penance (simple meal) saves money (but that's not the reason we do it of course!)

Hi I enjoyed other video of yours with subtitles. However this video one doesn't have subtitles i cannot understand you. Could you please add it? 🙏 thank you

what do you do if you can’t tithe the full 10% we are only doing about 3% because otherwise we would go negative or not be able to pay on our month debt. We are still paying on debts. :(

Hi Heather! Can you please share how you maintain your hair? Do you use a box dye or get it done? If box, please share the details so I can mimic? I am your age and the whites are coming in ;-)

Investment is the key to sustaining your financial longevity. And not just any investment but an investment with guaranteed returns. Also do proper research and invest with the right approach. Stocks, real estate, Hedge funds and ETFs are good investments as well.

I went to catholic school and never paid? Im also canadian though

And cut out Amazon, it can be dangerous

Teaching children not to be wasteful (e.g. with food or toilet paper etc) can save money. Or you could use family cloth.

For the algorithm

A mortgage at today's rates should not be paid off early, but stretched out as long as possible. You are earning a negative interest rate on any money you put in your house rather than, say, a 401K or Roth IRA plan. Imagine all the money lost by those who put more into their house instead of their retirement over the last 12 years. They could have earned an annualized return of over 8% (over 10% if you also reinvested the dividends) on even a very conservative investment in diversified S&P 500 fund. So you would have given up a potential 10% return to save 3% mortgage interest -- a negative return (minus 7%). And that's why mortgage debt is different than other debt.

Love our church gives us FORMED free as well. Catholic based movies and shows.

I have always been confused on the paying yourself after tithing. So you give 10% to God (charity) Then 10% to yourself So if you make $1,000. You would give God $100. But this is the part that confuses me. Do you give yourself $100. also (from the $1,000.) or 10% after God deduction which would be $900. left so pay yourself $90. ? Or do you pay yourself $100. because your net amount of take home was $1,000. Susan

You know love to hear you. But i do that at my lunch break. Can you shorten the topics a bit.

It’s way more doable when you’re living for God and not for yourself. Remember that we’re only curators of things here on earth and that all of our possessions will instantly become worthless to us at our moment of death.

I don’t understand how you pay for two cars in 3 months…. You must make really good money every month

Your husband must make tons of money to do this. Tons.

Wow 2 whole months to be debt free. Not reality for most of us.

How much does your husband make a year in order for you to not have to work.

Happy day for the USA today #biden

Love your video... but I don't think you are debt free if you still have credit cards.

I'm confused because you are not debt free? You have a mortgage and 2 car payments. You need to re-do your plan so your paying your debt off with your fun money... :/

SO, meaning that I will NEVER have a husband, because I will never be debt free - God has made SURE that I remain IN DEBT and homeless and with NO JOB and CURSED. So, Why Pray??