How to Cheaply Decorate a Kid's Room When You're Renting

I'll be honest- it is pretty hard for me to get motivated about decorating because we are (A) renting and (B) still in a phase of life where we seem to be moving every two years. Consequently, I tend to decorate in cheap ways that leave us with few holes in the wall to fill when we move out. (If you really want to decorate, like Lisa, check out this post.)

Enter Operation: Make Child's Room Less Prison-Like. 

1. I picked up some

Basic Guide To Getting Out of Debt (the SNL way) and Are You Prepared For a Financial Emergency?

Whether you’re losing sleep over how you’re going to make your next house payment or dodging calls from bill collectors, being in debt is stressful. It affects every part of your life and health, but not all is lost. With the right determination and plan, you can rise above your debt and breathe easy again.

 Step 1: STOP INCURRING ADDITIONAL DEBT

Stop borrowing and don’t buy

Money Hip Friends: Budgeting with a Plan

Remember this post where I said we were trying to get our smart friend to write a guest post for us? Here it is. (And for those of you who don't know her, Paige is one of those people that is always #1 (usually literally) at whatever she does, so she's a good one to listen to.)

Paige, Lisa, and I are good friends from the BYU accounting program. She's a young mom of two little girls (2 ½ and 7 months), so life is busy, but having a budget and financial plan in place really helps her to simplify. She also loves to help others with their budgets and help them gain the peace of mind that comes from being in control of your finances.

I think I’ve made a budget, now what? Budgeting with a plan

From my experience, one of the main reasons that people fail at budgeting is because real life doesn’t always fit into an identical monthly mold. After you have worked and drawn up your first budget draft, there are three things to consider to make sure that you have a real, complete budget and sound financial plan:

DIY Upholstered Headboard with Nailhead Detailed Arms

Update--WHERE I GOT MY SUPPLIES FROM:

I keep getting asked, so I'm putting all the links right here. Comment if you have any questions and I'll get back to you ASAP. Good luck! -Lisa
- Foam Pad <--so much cheaper than buying custom foam! (p.s. That's the foam pad I used, but if want a more plush looking headboard, you could get this one).
- Buttons <--(you'll need 30 buttons, so get 2 packs)
- Batting
- Upholstery nails/tacks (smooth finish) <--You'll need 5 packs to get 500 tacks (I used about 480 tacks).
- Upholstery Needle
- Staple Gun
- Fabric (Yep, that's right. I used IKEA curtains. Note: On one side of the headboard, I had less than an inch of extra fabric to spare, so if you're risk-averse, you could just buy regular fabric.)
- Bottle of Downy Wrinkle Release

It's done! I saw this tutorial for a DIY Upholstered Headboard back in January, ordered all my supplies . . . then proceeded to have morning sickness/lack of energy for the next several months. Plus, my handsome carpenter (hubby) was out of town for months, so he didn't have time to get the initial frame done. But alas, we finally got around to it and it's done!

 

I thought the tutorial was very helpful (she answered so many questions in the comments, so search there if

Best Birthday Freebies

For you frugal people out there, you know the best part about birthdays is the never-ending stream of freebies! To take full advantage, you need to sign up far enough before your birthday to make it into their databases in time. I signed up around my birthday last year, so this year I just had to sit back and wait for the freebies to roll in. And now for y'all, I've compiled a list of the best of the best. You're welcome.

Pin this image to remind yourself to sign up:

Note: Before signing up, you need to have an older e-mail account that

Introducing Money Hip Mamas & $25 Amazon Giveaway

Welcome to Money Hip Mamas!

From back in the day---here's when we were "hooded" for our Masters Degrees: Lauren (left) and Lisa (right)

Hello!

We are ridiculously excited to introduce our blog to you!

We’ll start right off with two confessions. 1. We are accountants. 2. We love ourselves a good mommy blog.

Back in April, Lauren and I were talking about how we’ve noticed the blogosphere is filled with a million mommy blogs about cooking, fashion, parenting, etc., but hardly any about money and personal finance. And the relatively few that do talk about money seem to focus almost exclusively on the small stuff (*cough* couponing) and never mention the big stuff--the things that really affect your financial health ("Hey! Are you maxing out your employer's 401k match?--that's free money!" "Do you have enough life and disability insurance?" "Are you taking advantage of