My name is Karen. I used to write about money — particularly how to balance frugality with a little luxury. Now I write about family and health and simplicity and sometimes money, too.

When I started this blog, I was a 20-something newlywed who was madly in love with my grad student husband and broke as a joke. Now I’m a 30-something mama to two beautiful boys. I’m still madly in love with my husband, who is now a professor of English. We’re not broke anymore, but we’ll never be rich, either.

I’m a writer and a teacher and a graduate student of social work and a lover of wine, nonfiction, and quick wit.