10 Things We Learned While Writing and Editing The Purse This Year

2025 was a big year thanks to all the wonderful Purse readers!

Before I dive in to today’s newsletter, I want to remind you that we still have tickets available for our first event of 2026! We’re hosting a vision-boarding party with our friends at Copilot Money on Sunday, January 11, between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. Tickets are $30 and admission includes drinks, snacks, and all the crafting supplies. Get your tickets here!

Also, Copilot Money is offering a special deal to Purse readers: You can get two months free when you use the code THEPURSE. Plus, they’re offering 26% off your first year when you sign up at copilot.money (new users only).

As the year winds to a close, we wanted to take some time to look back at everything we produced this year and pull out some of our favorite nuggets of wisdom.

We’ve heard from many readers who said they learn so much not just from all of our writers, but from the comments section, too, and that couldn’t make us happier. One of the many reasons Lindsey and I love doing this work is because we also learn so much in the process, whether a new savings strategy or outlook on life. Discovering how other women and families earn, save, and spend their money—and why—is always illuminating. And it might even inspire a few changes in your own financial lives.

With that in mind, here are 10 things we learned from our coverage in 2025.

-Alicia

1. Solar panels can be a great investment.

The doctor who wrote Home Economics #41 shared that she spends about $80 a month on gas, despite a 60-mile roundtrip commute to work. The reason? She drives a hybrid car and charges it at home, which is free thanks to her solar panels. Her electricity bill is just $24 a month—the account maintenance fee.

Yes, the installation cost $43,000, so it’s not exactly like she’s making money. Still, with electricity prices going up across the country, it’s an interesting equation.

Not completely sold? Home Ecs #26, #35, and #40 also featured homes with solar panels, and all of those women have notably smaller electric bills.

-Alicia

2. We need to talk more about the economic impact of grandmas (and grandpas) stepping in to provide child care.

I personally benefit from my mom helping me raise my son. She’s been our number-one child care provider since the day Freddy was born. And I’ve always known how valuable that care is—not just in money saved but also time. (Though I like to tease her that there’s no such thing as free child care, and I pay dearly in other ways!)

This year, grandmas (and some grandpas) have been popping up as essential caregivers throughout Home Economics and Division of Labor, and they are saving families tens of thousands of dollars. I shouldn’t be surprised that we see it so often. A 2023 Harris Poll found that two in five working parents (42%) rely on grandmothers for child care.

I was struck by two quotes that popped up in Home Economics and Division of Labor that sort of sum up how vital this kind of care is. In Home Economics #35, the writer, a mom of two young children, shared, “I am incredibly privileged to not have any child care costs. My family would not be able to afford our life with that extra expense.”

On the flip side, Stephanie Chamberlain, a professor who was featured in Division of Labor #18, wrote about how she’s sad not to be close to family and enjoy the benefits of having grandparent support.

“My parents live a four-hour flight away, and my husband’s family is a nine-hour flight away. It is tough because our siblings all live close to our parents and get a lot of child care and support. It feels strange to feel jealousy in your 30s and 40s about that support, but I would be lying if I said I don’t feel jealous. After a string of long weekends, PD days, sick days, and no child care, I long for my mom to come and play with my kids for an hour to give us a break. We are working on building more of a village, but it takes time.”

-Lindsey

3. There are countless ways to save.

So many of the women featured in Home Economics have sizable savings accounts and have managed to accomplish other impressive financial goals, from buying homes to paying off student loan balances. And as each story shows, everyone accomplishes their goals in unique ways. One takeaway for me is that it’s all about finding which financial methods work for you and where you’re at, rather than trying to conform to a single type of budget or standard.

I was really inspired by the writer of Home Economics #38, who saved up 20% for the down payment on her condo by 29. She did it in an unconventional way: On top of her 9-to-5, she had a side hustle working as a nighttime manager for a guest house on a college campus. The job included lodging in an apartment connected to the guest house, and she had to be home by 9 p.m. on weeknights to start her shift. She got to live there for free, which allowed her to save up a lot of money that she eventually put toward her down payment.

It’s not exactly something I’d be thrilled to do, but it paid dividends for that writer, and now she’s a homeowner. It’s a reminder that embracing creativity and unconventionality in how we approach life and our finances can go a long way.

-Alicia

4. If you can afford it, outsourcing support can make your life a lot better.

Even if you have grandparents living nearby, paying for additional help certainly helps lighten the load. In early December, economist Corinne Low and her wife, Sondra Woodruff, shared their Division of Labor, and I was immediately struck by how much support they outsourced, and how open she is about it. And she encouraged others to rethink their views on paying for support:

“The key framework I want women to have for outsourcing is that not outsourcing a task means hiring yourself to do it. Can you afford to hire yourself for everything that needs to be done?... If we assign value to women’s time, it makes us think about outsourcing differently!”

This is a topic I want to dive into more in the new year—why we need to start looking at paying for help as an investment and how that reframe might help us feel less shame. I personally delight each time I read a Home Ec or Division of Labor and the writer shares a dreaded task they’ve outsourced, whether it’s Mary Catherine Starr (DoL #14) paying for a “laundry goddess” who folds and puts away her family’s clean clothes or Stephanie Chamberlain (DoL #18), who pays someone to come pick up the dog poop in her yard.

-Lindsey

5. Tithing is pretty common.

I’m not particularly religious, so I’ve been surprised by the number of Home Economics that feature women or families who tithe each month or annually (of the 24 we published in 2025, seven mentioned some form of tithing). Even when a household’s budget is tight, or the money could go into savings, tithing is important enough for many that they do it regardless, often forgoing other pleasures or a robust personal financial safety net in the process.

Some do it because it is expected of them, while another wrote that it’s a way for her to feel invested (literally) in her church and foster community. Another woman commented that tithing keeps away a mindset of scarcity, allowing her to be more grateful for what she has.

While I don’t have a recurring tithing practice, I do donate regularly. But these entries always have me wondering if I could be doing more. And it’s given me a new perspective on religion in America and the influence it has on many peoples’ lives, financial and otherwise.

-Alicia

6. Marriage is endlessly complicated.

Division of Labor #20, in which a 50-something woman explained that she and her husband do not share housework equally, but that she’s still happy in her marriage, has stuck with me since it was published back in August. After years of conversations and a near-ending of their marriage, the writer, Marie, still does 70% of household tasks. But all of her partner’s good qualities—“he keeps my life open and fresh,” she writes—make up for the lack of help around the home.

“Where I struggle is the judgment that the marriage is fatally flawed if the man isn’t doing his share. I internalize that and feel like I’m weak or being taken advantage of,” she writes. “But there are advantages to my situation. I’m in control of the finances, the household is run in a way that feels comfortable to me, and if he were to die or leave, I’d already know everything about how things are done.”

-Alicia

7. I’m an obliger, but that’s not (necessarily) a bad thing.

In early September, I wrote about the inspiration I found reading Gretchen Rubin’s book Better Than Before. She offers her audience a quiz where they can learn about the “four tendencies” and which category they fall into. According to the quiz, I’m an obliger, a word that I dislike. But as I’ve transitioned to making The Purse my full-time job, it’s been really important to consider what motivates me, and I was surprised how Gretchen’s book and knowing my tendency has made me think differently about the way I work.

I’ll admit that I don’t give myself enough credit for just how self-motivated I am. You can’t build a media business from scratch if you don’t have at least a little ember of ambition burning within you. But I also know I’m someone who thrives when someone is holding me accountable, and I’m lucky to have added two accountability buddies this fall. Working with both Alicia and my business coach, Steph Dolgins, has been such a game-changer for me.

I may not have mastered the art of social media or completely adapted to time-blocking (though I am working on both) as I set forth in September’s essay, but The Purse continues to grow in amazing ways, and I’m growing along with it.

-Lindsey

8. We should think about financial support differently.

I loved Home Economics #36 by a single 46-year-old living in Brooklyn on $179,500. Throughout her entry, you can tell that she and her family are generous with each other, which is something I aspire to—I always say my mom is one of the most generous people I know, and I hope to embody that as well.

I was especially inspired by how she is thinking about helping her niece financially. As Lindsey wrote recently, family financial support is hard to talk about because it’s so emotionally loaded. But as the Home Ec writer shows, it can be a beautiful, intentional act of love, a way to give our kids or other family members the support we wish we had gotten. Isn’t that what financial education is all about?

“For my niece’s 22nd birthday, I gave her money to start a Roth IRA. She works full time, but she isn’t pulling down enough to live on her own, and I wanted her to start thinking about her future earlier than I did. I also gave her a copy of I Will Teach You to Be Rich to help demystify investing, and she said it’s been really helpful in understanding her money mindset. Every year on her birthday, I give her a couple hundred dollars to ‘match’ her regular contributions to the IRA. She is my primary beneficiary for all of my assets, so someday I will be the rich old aunt who leaves her a fortune when I die.”

-Alicia

9. The time versus money conundrum haunts all of us, but more often than not, time wins out.

Of course, it costs money to outsource support, and often making that money takes us away from home and loved ones. Since leaving corporate media and launching The Purse, I’ve spent a lot of time asking myself the question, “What is enough?” When is it worth it to sacrifice a high-paying career in order to simply have more time?

In June, I asked some very wise women to share their best advice for 30-somethings for an edition of Group Chat. The whole thing is a great read, but a quote from Sehreen Ali Noor really stuck with me:

“You’ll learn that time, clarity, and care are also currencies. That your ambition doesn’t have to cost you the things you hold closest. You’ll work less, live more, and still make enough.”

-Lindsey

10. It was a tough year, but this is a cozy corner of the internet thanks to you.

It seems like every week (every day?) there is another bit of breaking news that is either completely heartbreaking or completely insane. I loved the meme someone shared lately that after how completely nuts 2025 was, no one is saying out loud, “2026 is going to be my year!”

The world might feel like a giant dumpster fire most days, but I feel so proud of the community we’re building at The Purse. And when I say “we,” I don’t just mean me and Alicia, but all you amazing readers who regularly show up and share in the comments. I’m always blown away by how kind, thoughtful, and smart you are! (You’re pretty and stylish, too! And good moms, aunts, friends, sisters, daughters, and pet owners! Oh, and most of you male readers are pretty great, too!) I learn so much from you each week, and we really do appreciate the knowledge you share!

As Alicia mentioned in the intro, we get such delight when we hear from readers what they’ve learned from reading The Purse. Will you share in the comments? We want to hear it all!

-Lindsey