Parenting often feels like walking through water with all of my clothes on. Everything is damp, I’m moving more slowly than I ever thought possible, I’m more exhausted than I ever have been, and I just can’t seem to get anywhere, let alone to my destination. Come to think of it, I’ve completely forgotten what my destination even was to begin with. I’ve gone hours before having the chance to go to the bathroom. Days...
Although I’m having trouble believing it, seeing as I’m looking out over a landscape of snow (and actually we’re in the middle of an ice storm at the moment… ) summer is coming! For the first time since way back when I was in school, summer has an actual meaning this year. Now that our oldest daughter is almost 2-and-a-half, she has a fairly packed schedule during the year. She goes to preschool two mornings...
We finally did it. We didn’t want to do it, we delayed it, we put it off, we even bought a Subaru instead. But the realities of rural living caught up with us and we finally capitulated to the fact that… we needed to buy a truck. And so, this month, we did. I don’t have anything against trucks except that they’re so BIG and non-fuel efficient and, well, truck-like, which is exactly why we...
March makes very clear that we had a baby! Our co-payment for Littlewoods’ birth as well as a few doctor’s appointments and her birth certificates are all reflected in March’s spending. While we frugalize nearly every aspect of child-rearing–from sourcing all used clothing, furniture, and baby accoutrements to creating simple, inexpensive holiday celebrations–there are some immutable costs of having a baby (such as buying copies of their birth certificates!). I love that most of Littlewoods’...
It’s back to the Big Apple for this month’s Reader Case Study for a conversation with Lauren, a psychologist in Manhattan with a love of dogs and the arts. She has questions about planning for possibly adopting a child and potentially buying a condo in NYC. Case Studies are financial and life dilemmas that a reader of Frugalwoods sends to me requesting that Frugalwoods nation weigh in. Then, Frugalwoods nation (that’s you!), reads through their situation and...
March 2018 Early March, with its balmier temperatures and reluctantly melting snow, set our minds towards spring. We foolishly began to discuss impending blooms and said reckless things like, “maybe we’ve had our last snow of the season.” Overhearing our misguided words, March retaliated in an effort to prove how wrong we were and dumped a righteous amount of snow. It snowed daily, weekly, heavily. With gusto and vigor, the landscape was newly coated and...
