FROM: STELLA

TO: LAURA

1. My family has decided to do a few creative things for gift giving this year. On my side, we are doing a $20 cap for presents and on my husband’s side, we are doing presents for our nephew only. Very excited that both sides of the family are on board to save money this year. We’ve got great budget finds (and splurges too of course!) on all of our gift guides if you are looking for ideas!

   

2. Very excited that Chris Peach and his wife just started a new YouTube series about Money, Sex and Kids. Already loving the episodes they’ve posted so far.
3. Since moving to Los Angeles almost 8 years ago, I’ve had a slew of random things happen to my car, mostly hit and runs while it’s been parked but a few bumps here and there while I’ve been in the car as well. My dad helped me install a dash cam this week and I am so pumped about it. We did a lot of research and decided that the two most important things for me were to have a dual set up (front and rear of the car) and to have it hard wired so that it would run even when the car wasn’t running to catch those pesky people that hit and run. I chose the Thinkware brand since it’s the one my dad uses and already had a good experience with.
4. I made this delicious breakfast cake with lots of leftover Thanksgiving ingredients early this week and brought it into the office. It was a huge hit. Looking forward to making it again before cranberries go out of season and also trying the blueberry-lemon version she talks about it the post.

FROM: LAURA

TO: STELLA

1. This week’s Ali on the Run Show podcast episode covered all things confidence, including (very helpfully!) some concrete steps to improving it. I obviously love this podcast, but especially enjoyed this episode. The point of “stop focusing on worst case scenario, and switch it for the best” rang particularly true for me.
2. A great in-depth look at the Trader Joe’s fan world, this week’s Freakonomics podcast asked the question, ‘Should America Be Run by… Trader Joe’s?‘ While there’s some definite snark in the title, they actually made some fairly good points about budgeting/supply and demand, focusing on what they do best (and not wasting time or money on what they don’t — like marketing, sales, and loyalty programs), and how the company coaches its employees in interacting with customers. I think we can all take some life lessons from that last one.
3. I caved and bought my first maternity clothes this past week. I grabbed these pants and these dresses [1], [2] from Old Navy, along with this sweater. And also did some Poshmark dealing for some additional tops.
4. I started following the Money Middletons blog this week and am so far really enjoying all of the content they aggregate. Specifically this week I really appreciated their linking to Chief Mom Officer’s ‘How To Go From $22k Per Year To Six Figures — A Real Guide‘ article. It is super in depth (set aside a good chunk of your Sunday morning for this one!) but covers so much and gives solid and employable tips on how to increase your income.
5. All about the podcasts this week! Seriously loved CYG’s ‘Money Money Money‘ episode! I started reading Refinery29’s Money Diaries series when it first started (and credit it with a decent amount of my interest in personal finance) and loved hearing from its editor. Also some good life hack money tips in here!