We created this page for you to be able to easily access some of our favorite resources that pertain to what we discuss here on Thinking of Someday. We hope that you find this page helpful and check back often as we will update it as needed.
Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links, which means that we may receive compensation if you click on those links and make a purchase or sign up for a program. This is at no additional cost to you and helps support the blog. You can read our affiliate disclosure here for more information.
Our Budget Template
We’ve been using our budget template for several years now. It’s an Excel spreadsheet where all you have to do is put in your income and expenses, and everything will automatically be calculated for you. You can get a free copy of it when you subscribe to our blog. And if you’re interested in doing a budget, but don’t know where to start, you can check out How To Get Started With Doing A Zero-Based Budget.
Personal Capital
We started using Personal Capital (you can sign up for free) a year ago to track our net worth. You can check out our blog post, Should You Be Tracking Your Savings Rate And Net Worth, where we discuss if you should be tracking your savings rate and net worth and how we track both using Personal Capital and an Excel spreadsheet.
Fidelity
We have some of our investment accounts and our child’s 529 account with Fidelity. We’ve been with them for a couple of years now, and their customer service has been great and useful. If you’re wondering about whether or not you should be saving for your child’s future college education, then you can check out, Why You Should Save For Your Child’s College Education, where we discuss the importance of it.
Books
Here’s a list of books that have been helpful and inspiring to us on our journey to getting out of debt, staying out of debt, and pursuing complete financial independence.
- The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
- Retired Inspired by Chris Hogan
- The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko
- The Richest Man In Babylon by George S. Clason
- Your Money Or Your Life by Vicki Robin
- Financial Peace by Dave Ramsey
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki
If you haven’t already, don’t forget to check out what lead each of us to want to live a debt free life – Omar’s story and Kim’s story. For further inspiration, you can also check out these Success Stories, where we have 3 different interview series where people share their stories in regards to doing a budget, their journey to getting out of debt, and being debt free.
Amazon Prime
We’ve shopped on Amazon for a long time now. We decided to give Amazon Prime a try using their free 30-day trial when I wanted a case for my camera. The problem was that we were going on vacation and the camera case wasn’t going to arrive in time unless I had Amazon Prime because you can get free 2-Day shipping with it for some items. So, we gave it a shot and have been signed up since then. We use it for everything from buying shoes and toys to household items such as paper towels and toilet paper.
Southern Savers
Southern Savers is a website that was referred to me when I was on a quest to be a couponer. The site gives you full details on how to coupon. It also has a list of grocery stores (as well as other stores), and when you click on the link for a particular grocery store, it’ll take you to a page where you can see all of the deals and weekly ad in one place. Per their website, they post only the lowest prices matched with all of the coupons. Although I’m not an active couponer, I still like to use their website to make my grocery list because they post only the stuff that’s on sale at their lowest prices.
Evernote
I started using Evernote a long time ago as a way to “write” down ideas and always have them with me (as long as I had my cell phone on me). I’ve used Evernote to plan our home updates, plan parties, and plan blog posts. The nice thing about Evernote is that you can share notes with other people that have Evernote.
Favorite Baby Items
In this blog post, we share some of our favorite items that we were either given or purchased ourselves as first-time parents. The products mentioned in the post are mommy and daddy tested and approved!
On our journey to starting and maintaining our blog, a lot of research was done. We have a blog post that goes into more detail (Starting A Blog + Tools To Help), but here’s a quick list of the companies and tools that we decided to use and we like and recommend them.
Getting Started
- Namechk: used to see if our desired username and vanity URL was available on popular social media sites
- GoDaddy: used to buy our domain
- HostGator: used to host our blog; you can use this link to save up to 30% on all new hosting packages with code: SNAPPYDAY.
- StudioPress: used to buy website theme in a bundle, which included the Genesis Framework and Beautiful Pro Theme.
- MailChimp: used to send out new post notifications and keep track of email subscriber list (used this YouTube video to help set-up MailChimp)
- Creative Market: used to buy the font for our logo. Can also buy other things such as stock photography, WordPress themes, and other digital goods
Writing Content
- Evernote: used to “write” blog posts and ideas
- Hemingway Editor: used to edit blog posts first
- Grammarly: used to edit blog posts second
Pictures / Visuals For Each Post
- Camera + Phone: Sometimes I use my camera to take blog post pics and sometimes I use my cell phone.
- Smartphone Tripod Adapter: used to attach cell phone to tripod
- Tripod: used to achieve reliable stability when holding cell phone or camera
- Bluetooth Camera Shutter Remote Control: used to be able to take pictures handsfree
- PicMonkey: used to edit and/or create pictures for blog posts and used to create blog logo