Hi! LH asked me to pop on over for the day because my husband and I are buying a new home. That’s not too special except this will be the second home we have bought in 6 years and we are choosing to have it built rather than using our cash on hand to pay off our current mortgage. In the personal finance world, that is a little nuts.

I love residential architecture and researching the history of old homes. One topic that’s piqued my interest over the years is mail-order “kit” homes. From homes purchased through the Sears Catalog to Lustron homes to present day Tumbleweed homes, I seem to be obsessed with kit homes.

Who doesn’t daydream about winning the lotto, inheriting a fortune, or coming into a windfall? Of course, most of us don’t rely on this happen stance to fund our future and we make financial plans accordingly (ie. we save for a rainy day and fund out retirement accounts.)

I love the idea of a backyard, but I hate the idea of yard work. I guess you could say I want the best of both worlds; the beauty of the outdoors without the work. Thankfully, having a backyard doesn’t necessarily mean hours of back breaking labor every weekend.

This month has presented itself as monetarily challenging; our car needed a major and unexpected repair, a tax bill showed up, and my sister’s wedding is just around the corner. Needless to say, I’m not going to make my savings goal this month.

Joe Mihalic, the blog owner, shared his journey of paying off $90,000 in college debt in under 10 months. Obviously, that’s incredibly impressive and makes for a great headline. But I don’t want to get into all the details of how he did it, you can read that on your own by checking out his story.