You mean Christmas is over?!

Update 1/2/18: We had some technical difficulties here at Frugalwoods, Inc yesterday (could be due to the fact that 1/2 of our tech team is a greyhound… ) and some folks reported they were unable to sign-up for the Uber Frugal Month Challenge. The horror! And so, I’m keeping registration open through 11:59pm EST tonight (1/2/18) to allow everyone to sign-up. If you’re having trouble with the sign-up boxes below, go to this link. As long as you sign-up before 11:59pm EST, you’ll be on track with the January Group Challenge as you’ll receive two emails today (days 1 and 2). Apologies for the inconvenience!

Hanukkah happened, Christmas occurred, the New Year rang in and you’re glumly thinking that all the festivities are over. How wrong you are! They’re just getting started here in Frugalwoods-land! Because today is the first day of the ultimate, the epic, the life-changing, the mind-blowing (your words, not mine… ) Uber Frugal Month Challenge!!!! Oh yes, that’s right, today is the day we begin a journey–together!–to transform our relationship with our finances and, in the process, save more money than we ever thought possible. For serious.

The Uber Frugal Month (UFM) is a 31-day Challenge during which I send you a daily email containing an action item, a mantra, a tip, and links to recommended reading, all of which are designed to help you: 1) identify your longterm goals; 2) figure out how your money is helping or hindering you in reaching those goals; 3) understand your spending; 4) learn how to save more money every month than you’d ever imagined possible. And more! I don’t want to give away the whole thing here; you’ve got to sign-up and see for yourself!

Uber Frugal Month Challenge Signup

We all need encouragement and inspiration on our financial journey! Signup to receive an email a day from me for 31 days starting January 1, 2018. Every email has a tip, a mantra, an action item, and recommended reading, all designed to help you transform your finances.

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This Is Your Last Chance!

In the past, the Uber Frugal Month Challenge was available to take any old time. Now, however, the UFM will go on hiatus after this month in light of a few mega life events looming on my personal horizon: 1) our second baby, who is due in February, and 2) my first book, which publishes in March!!! All that to say, after today you won’t be able to sign-up for the UFM. So don’t delay! If you’ve always wanted to take the UFM, or have already taken it but want a refresher, or forgot to sign-up in the holiday melee, put your email address in that box now. The UFM will return at some point in the future, but for now, consider yourself warned! As long as you sign-up before 11:59pm EST tonight, you’ll be all set to take the Challenge with us this month. Did I mention that this is a free Challenge? It’s a free Challenge! So no excuses.

Uber Frugal Month Challenge Signup

We all need encouragement and inspiration on our financial journey! Signup to receive an email a day from me for 31 days starting January 1, 2018. Every email has a tip, a mantra, an action item, and recommended reading, all designed to help you transform your finances.

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The Accountability Challenge

The theme for this particular UFM is: accountability! We are taking the Challenge as a group in order to provide built-in accountability, but this is also an opportunity to invite another person to take the Challenge with you and serve as your real life accountability partner. Think about it: you can text each other updates on how much money you’re saving! The emoji possibilities alone should have you excited about this.

December sunrise over our backyard

In addition to serving as a source of inspiration and support for each other, this is also a chance for you to help out a friend in dire need of a financial makeover. It’s a low-stakes, non-confrontational way of encouraging that one friend or family member you know is struggling with debt/overspending/savings to take a positive step in the right direction. After all, the advice isn’t coming from you–it’s from me! Ergo, you can totally blame me!

I find it’s often tough for close friends or family members to accept financial advice from me, but if it comes from an outside source, it’s a lot easier to stomach (even if it’s the exact same advice… ). So consider this your golden opportunity to do some outreach and shoehorn in a few financial wellness lessons for anyone in your life who is struggling with their money. The Challenge prompts a great deal of soul-searching and contains a lot of questions related to longterm planning, so it’s a wonderful facilitator of difficult financial conversations. In particular, it’s a great program to take with a spouse or partner as it’ll guide you through a number of different financial meditations and exercises on what you what your life to look like. One of the most frequently asked questions I receive is, “how do I get on the same financial page with my spouse/partner?” And one of my best answers is: take the Uber Frugal Month Challenge together.

Join The UFM Conversation On Facebook

Snow-capped winter berries

If you can’t coerce con find anyone to take the Challenge with you this month, don’t worry! We’re taking the Challenge together as a Frugalwoods family and will have daily discussions on the Uber Frugal Month Facebook page. Join the page here and join the conversation with likeminded frugal weirdos from all around the globe. We’ve had Challenge participants from Prague, the Netherlands, South Africa, Finland, Romania, Poland, Germany, Australia, Ireland, England, Wales, Canada, Scotland, Denmark, New Zealand, Estonia, and many other places!

So wherever you live, know that you’re not alone in undergoing this transformative journey. There are many of us who want more out of life than simply slogging through it as mindless consumers. Let the Uber Frugal Month community buoy your spirits and provide you with the motivation to get going and keep going on your journey to financial wellness.

For more information and details on the Challenge, check out the following posts:

Are you joining us for the Challenge?

Uber Frugal Month Challenge Signup

We all need encouragement and inspiration on our financial journey! Signup to receive an email a day from me for 31 days starting January 1, 2018. Every email has a tip, a mantra, an action item, and recommended reading, all designed to help you transform your finances.

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58 Comments

  1. I may sign up again with my friend’s email so she could get notices for UFM as well. Or forward each one to her. Sounding like a better plan after you mention the fact that it is harder for close ones to remain effective when it comes to financial advice.

  2. For anyone still sitting on the fence about participating, I cannot encourage you too strongly. My own UFM ended two days ago because I enrolled on a whim on 30 November 2017. And as I said in an email to Liz, it was transformative. One big aspect was certainly recalibrating life goals.

    But the other one was an amazing discovery trip into what I already have, which continues as I write – in my various cupboards and storage closets (and my entire apartment is only 650 sqft big), I found: a package of unopened gourmet coffee (yum!), maple cream and maple syrup (yum yum!), a nearly full bottle of Cointreau, half a bottle of port, almond flour and various other baking ingredients which made for a luxuriously frugal Christmas, lots of candles, batteries, saved seconds of double-packs of LED bulbs, a fitting for my favourite table lamp which I must have bought with a notion to repair it (which I did – result: a beautiful lamp designed by Irish ceramic artist, Stephen Pearce, repaired and with a new LED bulb for all of €2.75, and me totally stoked since re-wiring lamps is really not my everyday trade!), two books on how to clean cheaply with baking soda and vinegar, and finally touch-up paint for my bedroom, bathroom and kitchen which will save me a trip to the hardware store. And I consider myself already frugal! And I am not that much of a hoarder, what with my lack of space!

    In total, I had one or even several major savings experiences Every.Single.Day of my Uber Frugal Month. And it gave me a total kick to see how resourceful I could be. It really was an adventure in the most positive sense! So don’t delay, sign up! 🙂

    1. Congratulations on completing the whole month Stephen!

      I am also commenting to encourage people to join if they are on the fence. I’d like to think of myself as frugal person, and I still got some valuable insight by joining the Uber Frugal Month earlier this year. Some of the daily challenges focus on changing your mindset, which can be the most difficult part of revolutionizing your finances. The Frugalwoods do a great job of mixing practical and philosophical tasks to help you achieve your goals.

    2. This is awesome Stephen!

      I tried to follow along in july, but I didn’t have huge success, but i’m pretty motivated this time around 🙂

  3. Thank you for this opportunity. I do enjoy reading your emails. My thoughts are with you as you await the birth of your second child. All will be well!

        1. You can sign-up by putting your email address into one of the boxes located in the body of the post above, or you can sign-up by clicking on this link.

      1. I swear I’m not technologically-challenged, but I have opened this page in two different browsers and I still don’t see this sign-up box you have referred to. Where exactly on the page is it?

        1. You can sign-up by putting your email address into one of the boxes located in the body of the post above, or you can sign-up by clicking on this link.

  4. Thank you Mrs. Frugalwoods for doing this challenge once again! It’s my third time. You are near and dear to my heart. I love your blog and learn something new about my finances each time I do this challenge. I’m now retired and need this more than ever.
    Happy New Year-I’m with you all the way!

    1. You can sign-up by putting your email address into one of the boxes located in the body of the post above, or you can sign-up by clicking on this link.

  5. Mrs Frugalwoods, I found your website rather last minute. I just signed up not sure I am too late as I am at the other side of the globe 🙂

    Happy New Year !
    Jenny (Malaysia)

    1. You can sign-up by putting your email address into one of the boxes located in the body of the post above, or you can sign-up by clicking on this link.

    1. You can sign-up by putting your email address into one of the boxes located in the body of the post above, or you can sign-up by clicking on this link.

    1. You can sign-up by putting your email address into one of the boxes located in the body of the post above, or you can sign-up by clicking on this link.

    1. You can sign-up by putting your email address into one of the boxes located in the body of the post above, or you can sign-up by clicking on this link.

    1. You can sign-up by putting your email address into one of the boxes located in the body of the post above, or you can sign-up by clicking on this link.

    1. You can sign-up by putting your email address into one of the boxes located in the body of the post above, or you can sign-up by clicking on this link.

    1. You can sign-up by putting your email address into one of the boxes located in the body of the post above, or you can sign-up by clicking on this link.

    1. You can sign-up by putting your email address into one of the boxes located in the body of the post above, or you can sign-up by clicking on this link.

  6. how do we sign up? I’ve scoured your site! I tried to do this last year but failed. this year I will try again!

    1. You can sign-up by putting your email address into one of the boxes located in the body of the post above, or you can sign-up by clicking on this link.

  7. Hi There! I’m doing this UF challenge for the second time, yippee for me!! I don’t use facebook but know that I am hanging with all of y’all as we go on this frugal journey together. First off, no grocery shopping this week, I’m just gonna use my pantry and freezer. Last year I saved hundreds of dollars, looking forward to the same this year. Thanks and best wishes to you as you approach the arrival of FB2

    Karen

  8. Hey there! Since I don’t use facebook, thought I’d give you an update! This week’s total spending is a frugal $66 dollars, that is gas, groceries and snowmelt–wow! I’m also following a mealplanning bootcamp that is motivating me to skip the grocery store and use up freezer and pantry supplies similar to a clothing challenge, (wear what you already have) so I’m eating what I already have–believe me it is a lot! All money saved goes to speed up my savings goals for this year including closing out a HELOC debt and daughter’s final year of undergraduate tuition. Knowing the “why” for the challenge is key, giving purpose to every dollar is the strategy that works best for me. Thanks and hope we can keep inspiring each other.

  9. So excited! My husband and I set our 10 & 20 yr goals without having any idea real indicator of our current net worth. After doing the challenge today, I’m happy to say that our current net worth is higher than expected and, we’re almost half way to our first goal. So inspiring. Thanks for doing this – we’re loving it!

  10. We completed the challenge last July and it was amazing! Since then we’ve happily maintained not going out to eat, checking out books from the library, and I’ve been religiously tracking our finances. Through doing this challenge, we were able to make a large extra payment to our mortgage without having to dip into our savings. That extra payment allowed us to get rid of the awful PMI we had been dragging around – what a waste! Thanks Liz!

  11. Hey there, I don’t post on facebook so I was wondering if there is going to be a wrap up post to mark the end of uber-frugal challenge this month. And if I can just keep behaving like every month was uber-frugal month, I would be really proud of myself. My cash outlay was cut by 60% following the uber-frugal challenge this January 🙂

  12. Hi, I am from Brazil and I enjoyed very much the uber frugal month! Actually now it is over, I miss your emails!
    Thank you very much for sharing <3.

  13. Dang. I was reading old posts that had the ‘sign up any time’ message and hadn’t seen this. Are you going to be running UFM again later in the year? March would have been easier for me to do – I’m going to be having two weeks of forced inactivity in the middle, so no walking up and down the grocery store aisles looking to see if there are specials on products we normally buy. 🙂

  14. I just learned about the uber frugal challenge! is there a way to do it by following the steps in the ultimate guide?

  15. Please say we are doing this in Jan 2019. I did it in July 18 and it was an eye opener. Been looking forward to no spend Jan since. 🤞

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