How it started

4 months ago DH and I came to the startling realization that we spend significantly more than we make. We’ve been lucky over the past year with timely promotions, wedding gifts, and economic stimulus checks keeping us afloat in the sea of bills, but the giving well was running dry and we had to make significant changes.

It was a timely realization with the weight of making monthly mortgage payments and credit card payments on a belated honeymoon starting to pile up and the lack of an emergency fund becoming an added burden. Working for a bank caught in the thick of the mortgage crisis, was the kick in the butt we needed to start making changes. We started putting money aside in an ING savings account, I started reading financial blogs, and applied the Latte Factor to our regular purchases. For the first time since our move to CA over 2 years ago, we spent less than we made and were able to put money aside!