One of the driving forces behind the birth of Frugalwoods was our desire to leave the city and buy a homestead in the woods. That happened in May 2016 and let me tell you, we had A LOT of preconceived notions about what it would be like to live rurally, some of which turned out to be true and some of which… not so much. It’s easy to gloss over the specifics when you’re dreaming...
April is the ninth anniversary of Frugalwoods! Hard to believe I’ve been doing this for so long yet am still invigorated and excited to type words at you and help people with their money!!!! This is–by far–my longest tenure at a job and I’m not ready to quit or fire myself! To celebrate, I’m going to write a series of reflections on my own writing over the past nine years. Do I agree with my...
I have a hectic relationship with clothing. In my 20s and early 30s, I worshipped it. I stuffed the closets of our various rental apartments with beaded slip-on loafers I bought at an outdoor market in Strasbourg, France; a vintage bubblegum-pink stewardess dress I liberated from a Goodwill in rural Kansas; a red Banana Republic raincoat I found (with tags on) at a consignment store in Boston. Recently, a number of readers–mostly also young (am...
Knowing where your money’s at is the first step in financial planning. Before you can set goals, panic about having no money, or compliment yourself on your ability to buy a new back scratcher, you’ve got to know: What you earn What you spend Your debts Your assets In other words, your overall net worth! Lucky for us, there’s a FREE service that’ll do all of this for us. It’s called Personal Capital. I talk...
It’s rare to be a beginner as an adult. As kids, “beginner” described our lives. Everything a kid does is new. They’re inexperienced and unafraid of grabbing a sweet potato and peeler for the first time ever and skimming the blade over the peel without hesitation. But as adults, we almost never put ourselves in the position of not knowing how to do something. We drive our cars via muscle memory, we do the laundry...
Environmentalism, frugality, and minimalism are intertwined. They form a complementary, interconnected system that goes something like this: Need less, buy less, use less, consume less, spend less, deplete less…. and finally, want less. Today, I want to discuss how these three values can work in concert to save money, reduce stress, and inform choices. Much of frugality, environmentalism, and minimalism is encapsulated by doing less. It’s more compelling to buy into expensive “solutions” engineered to...
Today’s goal: Make it easy to do the right thing with your money. The January 2020 Uber Frugal Month Group Challenge* ends today. Congratulations to everyone who participated! A major focus of this month-long challenge is enshrining healthy money habits for the longterm. It’s not good enough to do good with your money one month, you’ve got to do good with your money all the months. That’s the only route to true improvement. Frugality can...
I’m ruthless about how I use my time and money. They’re both limited resources and how I deploy them dictates the type of life I lead. That doesn’t mean I never waste money and time. In fact, it was two recent failures–a $78.59 shopping spree at the co-op grocery store and a dirty upstairs bathroom–that prompted today’s reflection. My Priorities = How I Use My Time and Money When I analyze how I spend my...
I was pregnant or breastfeeding for four years. Starting in March 2015, when I got pregnant with Kidwoods, straight through to April 2019, when I weaned a 14-month-old Littlewoods. There was a one-month hiatus in 2017 after I weaned Kidwoods and before I got pregnant with Littlewoods. Other than that, my body’s been in full-time mama territory. Today is an exploration of how my relationship with my body–and by extension, with clothes–evolved as a result...
I have a complicated relationship with stuff. My grandfather grew up during the Great Depression and instilled in his children–my mom included–the ethos of never throwing anything away. Of reusing, of finding good deals, and of making do with what you have. These were valuable lessons for me and they form the basis of my frugal worldview. However, the dark side is that this approach can engender a scarcity mindset. It can make me feel...
