The Money Enthusiasts

01/27/2026

Our 10-year-old leveled up recently and opened her first checking and savings account. 💵🏦🏧 She has been earning money along side her sister as a dog sitter and asked if she could finally open up her own bank accounts to keep her money in.

It was such a fun and meaningful experience for her! We try always to make clear to our kids that the amount of money you have is not what’s most important, but rather how you steward it before the Lord.

Just as we emphasize with her older brother and sister, we want her to understand these 4 simple things:
⭐️Be wise. Don’t spend more than what you have.
⭐️Be generous. Tithe first and be willing to share.
⭐️Be humble. Be grateful for what you have and don’t compare.
⭐️Be intentional. Money’s not free. You have to get out there and earn it.

Building a solid financial understanding for your kiddos is key 🔑 to raising solid financial stewards!

12/26/2025

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! ♥️✨🎄🙏🏻

12/12/2025

Dads, this is a great community to be part of!

🎄 Dads, Traditions, and Togetherness

In our most recent Zoom Into Dad’s Mental Health, we shared stories, laughter, and memories that remind us what the holidays are really about — family, gratitude, and connection.

Here’s what we talked about:
🎮 Childhood memories of growing up with early tech, typewriters, and video games
🎅 Christmas traditions — from tamales and posadas to Secret Santa and nursing home visits
🎥 Favorite holiday movies like Home Alone, Elf, A Christmas Carol, and even Die Hard
✨ Creating meaningful moments for our kids through giving, volunteering, and family time

We also shared exciting updates — including a Christmas collaboration with Chick-fil-A Pharr on December 20th (1–3 PM) featuring Santa, a live reindeer 🦌, and festive activities for families.

RGV DADS continues to grow — welcoming new fathers, celebrating local events, and encouraging each other through life’s ups and downs.

📲 Join us next time! Be part of a supportive community of dads building strong families, lasting traditions, and positive change in the Valley.

12/12/2025

The mundane things of life can feel different when you look at them through a different lens. 🙏🏼

12/09/2025

This is a cause we always try to participate in every year. I love the cold weather, but can't stand feeling cold. I can't imagine not having access to shelter or something to throw on to keep warm with. Let's help the Persistence in Adversity Foundation reach their goal of 1,000 blankets!

12/07/2025

Lately I’ve reflected a lot on how the meaning of Christmas can get hijacked by the goal of aesthetics.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the lights (team white lights all the way here), the trees, the warm hot chocolate, the baking, the nativities, the sparkle, the snow fall (mostly imaginary for us in the RGV), the beautiful poinsettias, and adorned wreaths. But none of that is what really MAKES Christmas Christmas.

Truly, Christmas is Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love in the simplest form. It is the acknowledgement that God came to Earth in the most humblest of ways to draw near and to save.

I have always wanted a beautiful advent wreath to set out, but over the years just haven’t found the right one. This year as advent approached, I realized I still had not found a wreath. I had some candles though and thought I would temporarily set them out on a small paper plate.

We sat around our dinner table last Sunday, lit the first candle and did the reading. When it was all said and done, it occurred to me that we did not need an elegant, lovely looking advent wreath to receive the message of hope that day. I decided I was not going to replace my paper plate “wreath” because it’s not about how it looks, but about the hearts that sit around it reflecting over the 4 truths of advent and seeking one who came to save.

Jesus did not come into this world with great outward adornment and we do not need any of that to truly see or experience Him this Christmas. Enjoy the aesthetics and have fun with it, but don’t let it steal the holy beauty and wonder of Emmanuel, God with us.

12/02/2025

Passing on knowledge and skills to our kids matter so much more than making sure they’re wearing the latest styles or using the newest gadgets. We GET to pour into them and that is something we don’t take lightly.

Last week a friend from church stopped by to give Jaime some tips on electrical work. He’s a master electrician so Jaime is always happy to learn from him. This time, we pulled Isaiah in. He not only got to learn a bit, but got in on the actual installment of outlets. It was cool to see him taking on the things he learned and applying them.

Hopefully one day when he walks through the butler’s pantry we’re currently working on, he’ll look at that outlet and think: “I installed that.” 😊

Giving kids opportunities to be part of a family project or goal is so important and validating for them! Our kids know that our financial budget and goals depend on us ALL, not just mom and dad.

We ALL clean the house so we can save on hiring someone.
We ALL keep our budget in mind so we can say yes to the things that matter.
We ALL have to be mindful of utility use to keep the bills down.
We ALL have to keep our wants in check so there’s not bickering about things.
We ALL pitch in where we can on projects to help carry the load (figuratively and literally).

A family is a team and we win when we all pull in the same direction! And, our kids will win because we are setting them up with knowledge and skills that they can carry into their future!

09/19/2025

Birthday season is upon us here in the Farias household! We have 5 out of the 6 of us turning a year older all within September to December. It’s celebration time! 🥳🎂😵‍💫

Here’s what we AREN’T doing:

🧁Buying expensive gifts. Since our kiddos were young, if we threw them a party, that was their gift. Now as they are older, I do surprise them with 3 small items that they have been wanting/needing the morning of their big day. No other gift besides the party - IF they choose to have one.

🧁 Throwing elaborate parties. I get it. I started my motherhood journey in the age of Pinterest-worthy parties. I’ve had a few perfectly themed, coordinated menu and decor, and matching outfits kind-of-parties in the past. Fortunately those days, and that pressure, did not last long. These days we keep things simple!

🧁Ignoring our budget. We still keep boundaries in place for special spending like birthdays. Honestly, birthdays do not have to be expensive. Why on Earth would we work so hard early in the year to maintain financial peace only to sabotage ourselves now?

🧁Using debt to cover the cost and worrying about it later. No. Just no. Absolutely no.

🧁Comparing our ways of celebration to others’. Everyone’s income and budget looks different. It’s wasted mental space to compare and try to achieve the same outcome of someone who carries a few extra zeros in their paycheck. Be happy to attend those parties and be content with the ones you can throw.

🧁Forgetting to be grateful. This is for us as parents, and our kiddos really. Detailed parties are for sure fun, but that’s not what makes the experience special. Being surrounded by people who want to celebrate your life (or your child’s) is the best of all!

Of course there are those years that come around where we will plan to do some things a little differently. Maybe it will be a special outing, a singular bigger gift in lieu of the rest, or maybe just cash instead of a party. We allow for flexibility with these things, but never skip on the budget, contentment, and gratitude. 😉🫶🏼🎉

09/12/2025

It was just shortly after I had dropped off my keys with Sam’s tire department that I got a call asking me to go back.

This was a first, but surely it was no big deal. Much to my disappointment, it actually was a big deal. They said my tires were severely low on the tread and I needed all four replaced.

I shot a quick message to Jaime letting him know about the situation, but he was on a plane at that moment so I had to make a quick decision. We have always had our work done at Sam’s when it comes to tires so I didn’t have any real reason not to trust them. However, it was going to be a big expense - $719.29. 😵‍💫

Typically, we keep funds in our vehicle maintenance account. This is for routine care and insurance that we gradually save for. Well, we just paid our vehicle insurance so that account was at its minimum and would not cover what we needed for this.

Fortunately, we still had our emergency account. I cannot tell you how many times it has made such a difference in our ability to take what feels like an emergency and treat it as an inconvenience. I quickly transferred the money from our emergency account into our vehicle maintenance account and paid for the tires on the spot.

I felt relief knowing that we were able to get the tires because realistically there was no way I could drive my family around in that vehicle with the tires as is.

Did I love dropping that much money on tires? Absolutely not. Did I have to worry about where it was going to come from or what bill I wasn’t going to pay so we could cover it? Nope.

Regardless of how long the process may take, make it a goal and be intentional about funding your own emergency account. I can think of years where the money has just sat there untouched, and then other years where we have dipped into it way more than we would have liked. Of course, we then had to be intentional about refilling it. At least in the moment though, we had what we needed when we needed it. Who wouldn’t want that?

08/25/2025

In a marriage, when BOTH people are carrying the load and heading in the same direction it makes it easier to get over the bumps that life can bring.

05/21/2025

🙈😅

05/12/2025

To all the moms out there, thank you for all you do! 💐💕