September 24, 2021
Backpacks And Other August 2021 Expenses
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…
September 15, 2021
Mr. FW Retired and We Paid off Our Mortgage: Frugalwoods FIRE is Complete
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,…
September 7, 2021
Reader Case Study: Living in Lakewood, Longing for More Space and Time
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…
September 2, 2021
Tractor Repair And Other July 2021 Expenses
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…
August 20, 2021
These Three Months On the Homestead: May Flowers, June Berries and July Chickens
May, June and July 2021 I have not disappeared into the woods. Or lost my internet connection. Or forgone my enthusiasm for inundating the internet with chicken photos. I’ve just been…. busy! Not even an interesting or original excuse, but the plain truth. I didn’t anticipate or prepare for the fantastic upending of our routines…
August 4, 2021
Reader Case Study: Full-time Dog Trainer Needs More Space for… Dog Training!
Birdie and her husband Allan live in Gaithersburg, Maryland where they both own their own businesses and work from home. Birdie is a dog trainer and, at present, their condo is not cutting it in terms of space and outdoor access. Birdie specializes in a board-and-train model, which means she and Allan have a delightful…
July 30, 2021
A Haircut And Other June 2021 Expenses
June was the month of post-vaccination celebration! And yes, I realize it’s almost August and I’m just now writing about June, but we’ve been a tad busy, in a wonderful way. All manner of family visited in June (and July), we hosted, we dined, we went out to restaurants (!!!!). It was glorious. After the…
July 16, 2021
Reader Case Study: Working to FIRE in Finland
Jen and her husband Marc live on the west coast of Finland along with their two-year-old son. They recently bought their dream home near the sea and are enjoying their new lifestyle outside of the city. While Jen likes her job as a product champion engineer, she has aspirations to reach FIRE (financial independence, retire…
June 23, 2021
Reader Case Study: Stay Married on Paper or Finalize the Divorce?
Adrianna is a 40-year-old mom to two teenage boys who lives in Richmond, VA. She and her husband recently separated and she’s in the process of figuring out if it’ll make more sense to stay married on paper or finalize their divorce. Along with this question, she’s wondering about beefing up her retirement investments and…
June 15, 2021
The Ballet and Other May 2021 Expenses
May 2021 was the month of the fully vaccinated! Mr. FW and I both got our second shots of the Moderna vaccine, waited the requisite two weeks and then were FULLY VAXXED! The feeling of freedom, the feeling of normalcy creeping back in, the gratitude to the amazing scientists who made mRNA technology possible, is…
June 9, 2021
Reader Case Study: Stuck in Chicago, Longing for Life in The Basque Country
Katie and her husband Jon live in Chicago, IL with their two-year-old daughter Amaia. But Chicago is not where their hearts are. Jon is originally from the Basque Country and the family longs to return. After a brief stint of living there in 2019, they were forced back to the States in order to find…
June 2, 2021
How to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill with an MVNO: I Pay $12 a Month
One of the easiest and best ways to save money is to switch your cell phone provider to an MVNO. Cell phone service is one of those things most of us skip over when we’re trying to reduce our spending. We figure it’s a fixed amount, the same no matter what provider we use. Today…