Sara is a PhD student in English Literature at a university in the midwest. She’ll graduate with her doctorate this May and would like our help determining what to do next. Sara notes, “In addition to the poor job market, I’m skeptical of academic work culture, and uncertain if I want to commit myself to a life of 80 hour work weeks and unending pressure to publish and produce. I love teaching, my intellectual community,...
August transitioned us to fall, to school, to a more sedate pace. The guests all went home, the kids are back to their regular and rightful bedtime and I pulled out my tacky fall decor. Don’t Forget about Property Taxes! Last week I shared the details of our mortgage pay-off and this week brings our annual property tax expense. For truly, the gifts of home ownership never end ;). Property tax is one of those...
Two sizable pieces of Frugalwoods-relevant news occurred this past spring: We paid off the mortgage on our primary residence in Vermont! Mr. Frugalwoods retired! These both happened amidst the flurry of the pandemic, our stint as unintentional homeschoolers and, of course, maple sugaring season. I promised to share the details once the sap stopped flowing, we got vaccinated and the kids went to in-person school (PRAISE BE). These two events are correlated since we didn’t...
Eve and her husband Gordon live in Lakewood, Colorado–a suburb of Denver–along with their two young sons and one guppy fish. Eve works part-time as a marketer and Gordon works full-time as an engineer. Four years ago they began working towards financial independence and an early semi-retirement. They’d like to have more time to spend with their sons and in the outdoors! Eve and Gordon are now debating selling their home and buying something cheaper...
July 2021 Well, this is it. This is the month I transform from Frugalwoods to Spendywoods. The post-pandemic celebration of being alive continued in July and WOW can you tell from our expense report. I’m embarrassed to publish our expenses on spendy months because I feel like I’m supposed to always show up with the lowest expenses, the best frugal tips and an espousal of the joys of never spending money. But that’d be disingenuous....
