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 15-month drought of isolation, which involved not seeing any of our family members, this summer is a warm balm of...
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 early). She’s also interested in pursuing a real estate portfolio, starting by renting out the cottage on their property via...
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 transitioning to earning a full-time income on her own. She enjoys her part-time, work-from-home position as an administrative assistant, but...
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 almost overwhelming. My first action as a fully vaccinated individual was to take Kidwoods out on a mommy daughter date!...
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 better jobs. Now, they’re on a three to five-year trajectory to retire early in Spain. They’ve asked for our help...
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 we dispel that myth with the wonderful world of MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators). MVNOs are re-sellers of name brand...
Erik is a true Renaissance man who turns 60 this year and finds himself at a turning point. He has a PhD in Dramatic Art, a Master’s in astronomy and an MFA in acting. Erik lives outside of Boston and currently works at a world-class scientific institution focusing on a large data archive for astronomy and astrophysics. In his free time, he builds telescopes, writes poetry, listens to jazz music and spends quality time with...
April was prep month. Prep for the garden, prep for the chickens, prep for the summer, prep for the bulk food orders. The Chicken Coop! Mr. FW began construction on the chicken coop for our twelve chicks, which arrived last week (peep peep!). We also rounded out our chick supplies with a 50lb bag of starter/grower feed and a metal trash can for food storage to prevent rodentia incursion. Also got a bag of pine...
April 2021: The End of Sugaring Season Final maple syrup count: we made 19 quarts this year! Our sugaring season is over, thanks to the weather warming up, the trees starting to bud out and–crucially–the fact that we ran out of the filters we use to sift sediment out of the syrup. We boiled sap much later in the season than in past years as the gradation in syrup color reflects. We canned five different...
Did you know you can buy prescription glasses online? You can! And did you know they are WAY cheaper than glasses bought in a store? They are! Buying glasses (and sunglasses) online is one of those super easy to implement frugal substitutions I love talking about. A frugal substitution is when you find the same product (or service) for a drastically reduced price. This is my favorite type of frugality because you don’t have to...
