May 19, 2023
Reader Case Study: What Should We Do In The Last Decade Before Retirement?
Jane and her husband Joe live in the midwest with their two teenaged children and one parrot. Recently, Jane retired from her 24-year-long career as a college professor and loves the new lifestyle she’s carving out for herself. Joe works from home and the family enjoys spending a lot of time together. Jane’s question at…
May 15, 2023
A Used Guitar And Other April 2023 Expenses
My husband and I are committed to learning new things. It’s a goal of ours to consistently make ourselves beginners in different capacities. Putting ourselves in a beginner mindset enables us to keep our brains limber, opens us up to creativity and new experiences, keeps us humble and models lifelong learning for our kids. It…
May 9, 2023
An Update On How Postpartum Depression Changed My Life
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…
May 4, 2023
Reader Case Study: Veterinarian and Physician Seek Their Next Home
Johanna is a veterinarian, her husband Matt is a physician, and they live with their two young children on a small island off the coast of the Northeastern United States. The couple previously lived on the Navajo Nation Reservation and greatly enjoyed the close-knit community they had there. While the East Coast is where their…
April 18, 2023
A Museum Visit And Other March 2023 Expenses
The kids had the last week of February/first week of March off school, so we went on a few local family day trips! First up: Skiing at Burke Mountain We’d never been to this ski area before and figured vacation week was the perfect time to try it out. The mountain has a “Wicked Wednesdays”…
April 13, 2023
Reader Case Study: High School Teacher and New Homeowner… at age 27!
Aurelia is a high school teacher at a public school in Boston who recently bought her first condo and is thrilled to be a homeowner at the age of 27! Tempering that enthusiasm, however, are her new competing financial demands of house maintenance costs, retirement, saving for Invisalign braces and paying off her student loans….
April 11, 2023
Revisiting My 2015 Beauty Manifesto: What I Got Right, What I Got Wrong
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…
April 7, 2023
Reflecting on Nine Years of Frugalwoods
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…
March 29, 2023
Reader Case Study: Self-Employed Single Mom
Jess is a single mom of two young daughters living in northern California along with their opinionated four-year-old Siamese cat. Jess works for herself as a freelance writer/public relations consultant, which is a job she loves. After getting divorced in 2020, Jess went on to buy her own home and chart her new life as…
March 24, 2023
Littlewoods’ Birthday And Other February 2023 Expenses
I promise I will talk about what we spent last month in a moment, but first I want to tell you that you can now… Schedule a Free 15-Minute Call with Me! If you’ve been thinking about hiring me to do a financial plan for you, if you’re curious about how my consultation process works…