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 about moving to the country. It becomes very much about the specifics when you lose power and water for a week in the dead of winter thanks to an ice storm. It’s those specifics–those powerful details–that have shaped our lives out here.

A gargantuan assumption was that we’d grow all of our own food.

Before so much as starting a single tomato plant, I nurtured an idyllic vision of us growing all the fruits and vegetables we could ever want each summer.

Continue reading We’ll Grow All Of Our Food! And Other Misconceptions I Had About Rural Life at Frugalwoods.

In 2022, my family of four spent $10,209.68 on groceries. That averages out to $850.81 per month, which is $212.70 per person. We are two adults (ages 39 and almost-39) and two kids (ages 7 and 5). Today I bring you an exposé, a deep dive into what we eat, where we buy it, how we prepare it and how much we spend on it. Ever wondered what I eat? Wonder no more!!!

Do You Actually Know What You Spend on Food?

I walk around with an idea in my mind about what we eat and how much we spend on it, but I wanted to interrogate that assumption. Did I actually know what we spent last year? And how much that was per person? NOPE I did not. Despite rigorously tracking our spending with Personal Capital each month–and sharing it here on Frugalwoods for the world to judge–I haven’t been in the habit of tallying up our annual expenses by category.

Continue reading We Spent $10k on Groceries Last Year: Here’s What We Ate at Frugalwoods.

What’s not to love about a potluck? You make food, other people make food, you bring that food together and then you eat! Potlucks are a bedrock of frugal living, of community-centered living, of family-oriented living, of social living, and of living for people who like to eat. How could something so inherently frugal–so inherently about food–not be talked about on Frugalwoods until now? We cite the oversight and seek to remedy.

To all you Frugalites out there, keeping the frugal real while detoxing from the overconsumption and commercialism of the holidays and trying to forget about your uncle asking you for the fourth time at Christmas dinner why you drive a car that’s ten years old, know that you are not alone.

Kick back on your Craigslist couch (yes, I know you washed the removable cushion covers before you brought it home), cozy up with that afghan you knitted (no one notices the dropped stitches, I promise), put your feet up on the coffee table your friend handed down when they moved to California, pour some boxed Malbec into the wine glass you found for free on the side of the road, and scroll on down.

Continue reading Potlucks: They’re Great at Frugalwoods.

My Quinoa Lunch has been described as rice-n-beans 2.0. And for good reason. Four years ago, I brought you our epically frugal rice-n-beans recipe, which is what we used to eat for lunch.

Over time, Mr. Frugalwoods and I grew tired of the rice-n-beans routine and craved something novel. We’ve eaten many a thing for lunch over the years and will surely continue our culinary explorations in the future.

For now, I’ve landed on a winner–Quinoa Lunch–which combines the three core principles that guide my life:

1. Healthy
2. Easy to do
3. Inexpensive

I was going to say that these are the three tenets of our food philosophy, but I actually think this trifecta applies to everything we do. So today, join me as we venture into the land of Quinoa Lunch.

I’m going to put the recipe right here because I HATE (yes, actually loathe) when I have to scroll for nine years before finding the freaking ingredients.

Continue reading My Frugal, Healthy, Easy $1.15 Quinoa Lunch Recipe at Frugalwoods.

Try not to faint. Today I bring you a RECIPE. That’s right. Your pleas, your emails, your notes, your requests have not gone (entirely) ignored. You all want frugal food. Specially, you want MY frugal food. The last time I shared a recipe was January 2015, which was, uh, over four years ago… So apparently I’m on the one-recipe-every-four-years schedule. I have good reason for this, people! I am not our household’s–nor anyone else’s household’s–cook. Mr. Frugalwoods is our chef-in-residence and he is a master of frugal + healthy + delicious. But he doesn’t cook from recipes. And he doesn’t write down his creations.

Truth be told, his meals are different every single time he cooks them, which we love, but which makes recipe writing nigh on impossible. The massive downside of this approach is that he sometimes forgets stuff he cooked and when I ask him to make it again, he has no idea what I’m talking about.

Continue reading My Healthy Oatmeal Pumpkin Bars Recipe + How I Get My Kids To Eat Kale at Frugalwoods.

You didn’t think I’d let a holiday sneak by without weighing in, did you?! Impossible! I am a known lover of holidays and above all, the trifecta of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. I live all year for these three. I moved to Vermont so that we could have picturesque fall leaves and snowy white Christmases.

I have a giant fir tree in my yard and, the other day, my older daughter looked out at it–covered in snow as it was–and exclaimed, “is that a Kimiss tree, mama?!” I’ve succeeded in parenting.

Since it’s not Kimiss season quite yet (not until this Friday, thank you very much, at which time I will most definitely be putting up our Christmas tree), let’s delve into the scrumptiousness of Thanksgiving!!!

Thanksgiving is in my top three holidays for the following reasons:

1. There’s no gift giving!

Continue reading Reader Suggestions For A Deliciously Frugal Thanksgiving at Frugalwoods.

Food, glorious food! This month’s Reader Suggestions is devoted to none other than the very favorite, the preeminent, the most-discussed, most-loved/hated aspect of frugality: FOOD! Specifically, bringing food with you wherever you go. We all know it’s expensive and (often) unhealthy to buy our lunches out while at work, or run through the drive-through while running errands, or stop off for coffee in the afternoon.

And yet… I hear from many of you that this is the #1 challenge you face in bringing yourselves to the next level of savings every month. We just did the Uber Frugal Month Challenge together as a group in January and many of you cited food–specifically food purchased while at work or out-n-about–as the biggest hurdle you overcame.

People were busting their previous savings rates JUST by being more mindful about what they ate! Not only is this the epitomization of frugality, it’s also healthier!

Continue reading Reader Suggestions: What To Pack For Lunch (And How To Remember It)! at Frugalwoods.

You know how I always talk about the fact that we cook at home every night? Well, I think it’s time for me to come clean: we actually don’t. But don’t panic, we’re not getting takeout or going out to eat. I promise! Not to mention the fact that exactly zero restaurants deliver to our rural home… Rather, we have a hack we’d like to share.

And I say “we” because, as most of you know, Mr. Frugalwoods is our sole home cook. My chief contributions to cooking are that: 1) I eat it and; 2) I write about it. See? I’m so helpful! I dabble in the odd baked good, including baking our sandwich bread every week (although I cheat and use a hand-me-down bread machine, so I’m not sure that really counts for much… ). Otherwise, food prep is solely the domain of my husband. So really, this hack is his, but since this is my blog, I get to make it sound like it was my idea.

Continue reading The Dirty Secret Behind How We Cook At Home at Frugalwoods.

Welcome to my monthly Reader Suggestions feature! Every month I post a question to our Frugalwoods Facebook group and share the best responses here. The questions are topics I’ve received multiple queries on and my hope is that by leveraging the braintrust of Frugalwoods nation, you’ll find helpful advice and insight. Join the Frugalwoods Facebook group to participate in next month’s Reader Suggestions!

It’s harvest time! As I shared in last week’s installment of This Month On The Homestead, early fall is the time to preserve food for the winter. I am a brand new devote of preserving food (also known as canning or putting up or freezing or storing or whatever you want to call it) and so my knowledge is commensurately minimal.

Before moving out here to the woods, Mr. Frugalwoods and I never preserved a single foodstuff, so this is a whole new world for us.

Continue reading Reader Suggestions On Frugal Preserving, Canning, and Otherwise Putting Up Food at Frugalwoods.

Eating out, take-out, restaurant meals, dining out, take-away, delivery… whatever you want to call it, not preparing your own food is the #1, top, chief, primary, far and away most commonly cited roadblock to frugality. Without fail, this is the most frequent question I get from readers. Without deviation, this is cited as the largest area for budgetary improvement. And without alteration, this is the toughest thing for people to modify in their quest for all-encompassing frugality. And I feel this pain keenly–it was the most challenging thing for Mr. Frugalwoods and me to give up as well! What is it about food prepared by other people????!!!!

Welcome to my monthly Reader Suggestions feature! Every month I post a question to our Frugalwoods Facebook group and share the best responses here. The questions are topics I’ve received multiple queries on and my hope is that by leveraging the braintrust of Frugalwoods nation, you’ll find helpful advice and insight.

Continue reading How To Stop Eating Out According To Frugalwoods Readers at Frugalwoods.