Author: Mrs. Frugalwoods

19 Jun, 2018

The Uber Frugal Month Group Challenge Is Back: Join Us Starting July 1!

Get ready, get set, and get excited because the much anticipated, the much adored, the much money-saving Uber Frugal Month Group Challenge is BACK!!! Back again! Oh it’s back, tell a friend. Sign-up to join me–and thousands of other Frugalwoods readers–for this free 31-day total revamp of your finances! The Uber Frugal Month Challenge (UFM) is designed to help you save as much money as you possibly can in a single month and–more importantly–prompts you...

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Reader Case Studies

13 Jun, 2018

Reader Case Study: Inside A Financial Circus (No, Really, The Finances Of An Actual Circus!)

IT’S A DOG CIRCUS! I could not possibly be more excited about this month’s Case Study if I tried. We are headed under the big top to chat with Jana and Dextre, a married couple who run their very own circus along with their adorable rescue dogs!!!! Jana is a longtime Frugalwoods reader and she very sweetly mailed me a Christmas card last year featuring a photo of her family circus and I was in...

This Month On The Homestead

8 Jun, 2018

This Month On The Homestead: Project Perennial Food

May 2018 I’m thrilled to report that it did NOT snow during the month of May. It’s the little victories we live for around here. Spring’s tendrils took hold, tentative at first given the frozen earth they were supplanting. Slowly, crocuses poked up through still-snowy ground. Next, daffodils made a slightly more confident approach and finally, yellow and orange globe flowers busted out with wild abandon. And then lilacs! Oh the lilacs! As snow lost...

Monthly Expense Reports

1 Jun, 2018

A Flame Weeder And Other May 2018 Expenditures

We bought blueberry bushes! And cherry and currant and Saskatoon and honeyberry bushes! Lots and lots of perennial berry bushes found a home on our homestead this month, as you’ll see in the below expense report. Garden fencing, fertilizer, the notorious flame weeder, and soil test kits rounded out our garden-palooza of spending. I’m going to give the full rundown on how all of these berry beasts were planted in my next installment of This...

Marriage & Money / Reader Suggestions

24 May, 2018

Reader Suggestions Of Practical, Useful Ideas For A Wedding Registry

Next month, Mr. Frugalwoods and I celebrate TEN years of wedded bliss! Our marriage is, in many ways, the backbone of our frugality and journey to financial independence. Over the years, I’ve written about the role that our partnership plays in our financial decisions and the importance of being on the same financial page with your partner. But today, I want to discuss the lighter, fluffier side of getting married: the wedding registry! Apparently a...

This Month On The Homestead

16 May, 2018

This Month On The Homestead: Woodshop Woodworking

April 2018 Remember how I said last month that the snow was receding? Well, it must’ve overheard my hubris and felt the need to prove me wrong. April was, uh, pretty snowy. Although our winters are indeed long up here in Vermont, this winter took it to the extreme and overstayed its welcome. The snow would melt, tempting us with a glimpse of bare earth, only to jealously cover the nascent grass with a colorless...

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Reader Case Studies

11 May, 2018

Reader Case Study: How A Cancer Diagnosis Changes Everything

We’re headed to Arkansas in this month’s Reader Case Study for a discussion with Emily and John, a young couple with a two-year-old and two dogs. Unfortunately, it’s a cancer diagnosis that prompted Emily to request a Case Study, but I’m optimistic that the Frugalwoods community can offer this young couple support, advice, and insight. Case Studies are financial and life dilemmas that a reader of Frugalwoods sends to me requesting that Frugalwoods nation weigh in. Then,...

Monthly Expense Reports

9 May, 2018

A Baby Tent And Other April 2018 Expenditures

Well, if you’ve ever wanted to feel good about your spending vis-a-vis my spending, then THIS is your month!!! April was absurdly expensive around here. ABSURD, I tell you. As I shared the other week, Mr. Frugalwoods and I finally broke down and bought a used truck in April, and since we paid cash for the full amount of the truck, that accounts for the vast majority of our spending. I have several posts detailing why...

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Featured / Kids

30 Apr, 2018

I Look Like Somebody’s Mom. Probably Because I Am. And I’m OK With That.

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...

Reader Suggestions

27 Apr, 2018

Reader Suggestions Of Cheap And Fun Things To Do This Summer

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...