Posts by Katy Willis

Your 26-year-old is eating cereal out of a bowl you bought, wearing headphones you paid for, and stepping over a trash bag that’s been sitting by the door since Tuesday. Nobody sat down and agreed to this arrangement. It just became one, a little at a time, until it was normal. You’re not imagining that […]

The box says “kitchen misc, $2 each.” Underneath a stack of mismatched lids is a hand-crank tool nobody at the sale can name, a glass measuring cup with a strange greenish tint, and a cast iron gadget with a wooden handle worn smooth by somebody’s grandmother. Most of what’s in that box is genuinely worth […]

You don’t need another list telling you to open a high-yield savings account or go buy a rental property. If that’s what you wanted, you would have looked it up yourself, and if you already have money sitting in an account or a brokerage, that was never really the problem you were trying to solve. […]

Back-to-school clothing gets expensive fast when summer growth spurts leave last year’s jeans too short and the sock drawer somehow contains six unmatched socks. The smartest buys are the basics that can handle school, gym class, daycare, and the inevitable midweek laundry delay. Walmart has several useful multipacks, uniform pieces, and clearance layers under $10. […]

Your 18-year-old walks across the graduation stage, hands you the cap and gown to hold, and climbs into the passenger seat of the car you still insure, holding the phone you still pay for, already planning what to stream tonight on the account that’s still under your name. Turning 18 legally makes someone an adult. […]

A four-year degree is not always practical when you have bills due now. Yet plenty of short training programs seem to lead straight to low-paid work with shaky hours. Many adults in mid life or beyond just don’t have the resources or the desire to retrain for four long years. Understandably. But that doesn’t mean […]

Small homes rarely need one giant organizing system. They need a few targeted fixes for the cabinet with wasted headroom, the drawer that barely closes, and the closet door doing absolutely nothing. Dollar Tree has several low-cost organizers that use vertical space, contain small items, or fold away when you are done with them. The […]

You find it in a box of school supplies at an estate sale, dented on one corner with a thermos rattling around inside that doesn’t quite match the box. Before it goes in the donate pile, check what’s stamped on the back panel. Some of these boxes, the ones kids carried to school between the […]

Can you believe we’re almost in August already? It doesn’t seem possible. And yet… here we are. The kids are still enjoying all that summer fun, but as well as paying for their outdoor entertainment and boredom busters, you’re also thinking about that mountain of back to school stuff they need.  Luckily, Aldi’s late July […]

The littles are growing at an alarming rate, fuelled by sunshine, playtime, and alllllll the snacks. Those hungry little monsters are eating you out of house and home at this point in the summer. Yikes! Late July can turn the kitchen into a relay station. One person needs a camp snack, somebody else needs dinner […]