May is Mental Health Awareness Month

May happens to be Mental Health Awareness month and April marked the ninth anniversary of Frugalwoods! Given that confluence, it seems like the perfect time to reflect on my 2018 post, “How A Diagnosis Of Postpartum Depression Changed My Life.” This one struck a serious chord, as evidence by the 433 comments and abundance of emails and messages I’ve received since. Many of you told me that reading that post prompted you to seek help, to finally go to the doctor, see a therapist, start taking the medication you’d been prescribed and stop blaming yourself. I’m glad it helped. I hope it still does.

You can check out my first two Frugalwoods nine-year retrospectives here:

• Reflecting on Nine Years of Frugalwoods
• Revisiting My 2015 Beauty Manifesto: What I Got Right, What I Got Wrong

I Still Have Depression and Anxiety!

Continue reading An Update On How Postpartum Depression Changed My Life at Frugalwoods.

As I shared last week, April is the NINTH anniversary of Frugalwoods! To celebrate, I’m typing down memory lane with reflections on some of my most influential old posts. Nine years is a long time to do anything and I’m curious to see if I agree with my old self or if my thoughts have changed in the intervening years.

Old Me vs. Current Me: A Showdown

The first post I want to reflect on was a real zinger when it came out and generated quite a bit of controversy and discussion (288 comments!). Published July 27, 2015, it’s my oft-cited “Less Makeup, More Confidence: My Frugal Beauty Manifesto.“

When I wrote this, I was 31 and didn’t have any kids. Re-reading it now–at 39 with two young children–my thoughts have changed. First of all, the writing is bad.

Continue reading Revisiting My 2015 Beauty Manifesto: What I Got Right, What I Got Wrong at Frugalwoods.

Oh yes, we’re going there today. The “pink tax” refers to the fact that women often pay more for goods and services marketed to them. A 2018 study found that, “…women pay as much as 13 percent more for some categories of products (source: NPR).” Not cool, ladies, not cool at all. This insidious increase in price has been documented in everything from women’s razors to women’s clothing. In some instances, we can just buy men’s stuff instead (such as the men’s overalls I recently purchased), but there are plenty of products created for–and needed by–women alone.

While a number of states are working to repeal taxes on menstrual products, many states still have such taxes in place. Since I can’t change this sexist public policy (yet), I can convene you brilliant folks to share how you combat it. Today, thanks to the insightful readers of Frugalwoods, I’ve compiled a massive list of how to save money on the sometimes taboo, sometimes annoying, always necessary aspects of being a woman/woman-identified person.

Continue reading Reader Suggestions On How To Fight the Pink Tax from Birth Control to Bras at Frugalwoods.

Today, I’ve gathered sage advice from Frugalwoods readers about frugal beauty routines because I’ve always been stumped by beauty routines. When I turned thirteen, I felt like I should do something to my body in the area of beauty routines using beauty products. What that was exactly remained a mystery. I was overwhelmed by the beauty section at Walmart, which was the only store we went to that sold such things. It was off in a corner behind the pharmacy, and it smelled of womanly things. Floral, heady, foreign.

I’d wander those aisles while my parents bought toothpaste and toilet paper. I’d read the labels on body spray, trying to discern if you were supposed to spray it on your body during or after showering. Because then there was also body wash and body lotion. Did these all work in concert? Or were you supposed to use just one of them?

Continue reading Reader Suggestions: Beauty Routines Of The Frugal And Fabulous at Frugalwoods.

I cut my hair. A lot of my hair. Most of my hair, in fact. Yes indeed, today I am writing about hair. I will cover other thrilling topics such as the sunk cost fallacy and paralysis by analysis. But mostly, this is a post about my hair. With more pictures of my hair than is reasonable.

Mr. Frugalwoods told me I should tell you this at the outset because he felt that people should be forewarned they were about to read about hair. I countered that in the past, I’ve written missives on a screen door, bananas, and popcorn. Hair does not feel like a departure from these high-brow topics. I hope you agree.

Me + My Long Hair = A Dying Love

I loved my long hair two times a year: 1) When I had a photo taken (see photo at right, taken by Mr.

Continue reading Sunk Costs, Paralysis By Analysis, And Why I Finally Cut My Hair Short at Frugalwoods.

Mr. Frugalwoods needed glasses. After years of competing over who could discern distant signs on roadtrips first, age finally caught up with my mountain/computer man.

Both of his vocations–software engineering and forestry management/homesteading–require the ability to see clearly. As does, you know, life in general.

Last year he started getting headaches and complained of blurry vision and so, the time had come. I sent him to the eye doctor. Verdict: his vision isn’t terrible, but it’s enough that glasses make his life better. And who doesn’t want a better life?!

A LASIK Sidenote

Longtime readers will recall that I, oh haver of terrible vision since middle school, got LASIK surgery exactly four years ago, which I still consider one of the best things money ever bought (second, of course, to our marriage license and the co-pay for Babywoods’ birth).

The full rundown on my LASIK story is here: Why LASIK Surgery Is The Best $4,225 I’ve Ever Spent.

Continue reading How We Bought Inexpensive, Awesome Glasses Online at Frugalwoods.

As I lay on the operating table with a laser moving towards my eyeball, I knew I’d made the right decision. Ok, maybe I didn’t know it in that precise moment of mingled excitement and low grade terror, but I certainly knew it about an hour later when I could see without glasses or contacts for the first time in 16 years.

A little over two years ago, I decided to take the ocular plunge and get LASIK surgery on my eyeballs. It wasn’t cheap. But, it was the best money I’ve ever spent (other than whatever our marriage license cost, expenses related to adopting Frugal Hound, and our upcoming co-payment for Babywoods’ birth). But seriously, it’s up there with noteworthy life events.

Mine Eyes

At the tortured time of seventh grade–just when my pimples were at their zenith, braces adorned my teeth, and my self-confidence was abysmal–my eyesight began to deteriorate.

Continue reading Why LASIK Surgery Is The Best $4,225 I’ve Ever Spent at Frugalwoods.

I’ve stopped wearing makeup entirely. Well almost entirely–I still don mascara and the occasional lip gloss, but otherwise, my face is makeup free. While undeniable that it’s frugal not to buy makeup, this decision wasn’t solely motivated by my desire for the extreme frugality lifestyle. This choice is more about my drive for a simpler, less stressful existence that’s centered on what brings me joy–not on things I think I “should” be doing.

For years, I felt that in order to make a superb impression, succeed, and be well-liked, I needed to wear makeup, style my hair, and spend a fairly righteous amount of time and money on my appearance. I cringe when I think of just how much of those two precious resources–time and money–I wasted on something as insignificant as my physical appearance. My devotion to how I look was spurred on in equal parts by insecurity and the pressures that our culture mercilessly levies on women to reach increasingly unattainable levels of perfection.

Continue reading Less Makeup, More Confidence: My Frugal Beauty Manifesto at Frugalwoods.

Today is my 31st birthday. That’s right, I’ve aged right out of striking distance to my youthful 20s and am careening towards middle age. But you know what, I’m glad. Getting older has been good for me.

Aging has enabled me to let go of caring what people think about me and instead focus on who I really am and what I want to accomplish over the course of my life. Sure, I still want to be seen as a helpful, productive, creative, humorous innovative, nice (sort of, but not too nice) person, but I’m not caught up in society’s judgements of me.

For your amusement, I’m including photos of myself on a few recent birthdays. You’ll note that I’m wearing what appears to be the same outfit in a few photos–that’s because it is the same outfit and I do wear it a lot, apparently, on my birthday.

Continue reading How I Let Go Of Caring What People Think at Frugalwoods.

Mr. Frugalwoods gave me a haircut last week and, as I shared on Twitter: 1) we’re still married and 2) it looks really good! I’ll admit, we were both a bit nervous and there were a few tense words, but it worked out just dandy. In other news, I’ll be nominating him for husband of the year (is that a real award? it should be) shortly.

There are a number of guides out there on how to cut your hair yourself and huge props to anyone who accomplishes that feat (Simple Cheap Mom has this excellent guide for DIY haircuts). I considered cutting mine solo, but since Mr. FW was game to help me (partly because I’ve been cutting his hair for years), we decided to try it out.

Hence, these steps are written with two parties in mind, but, I think you could just as easily pull the hair forward and cut it yourself.

Continue reading Final Frontier Of Frugality: My Husband Gave Me A Haircut at Frugalwoods.