Author: Mrs. Frugalwoods

93

Monthly Expense Reports

7 Aug, 2020

Washable Markers And Other July 2020 Expenditures

Buying Household Supplies In The Time Of A Pandemic We’ve started ordering all of our household supplies online to limit our exposure to stores. Unfortunately, this seems to be more expensive due to the lack of generic options online. In non-pandemic times, we buy the generic Walmart brand of almost all household supplies, but the generics aren’t always (or ever) available online, so we’ve had to buy name brand laundry detergent, baby wash, floss, hand...

81

This Month On The Homestead

29 Jul, 2020

This Month On The Homestead: Who Wore It Best? Plus a Fire Pit and Some Radishes

June 2020 The first of the first comes ripe in June and oh how we feast. Or rather, oh how the kids feast. If anything actually makes it inside, it’s a summer miracle. Here’s what the girls ate straight from the garden in June: Snap peas!!! Ya’ll, I am on fire with this garden. I mean, on water? To be clear, fire is not ideal for a garden. I’ve been babying our pea pods for...

70

Monthly Expense Reports

24 Jul, 2020

Binoculars And Other June 2020 Expenditures

I can feel the pandemic vibes coming through in last month’s spending. Notable is the line item “Beer, marshmallows, graham crackers, and Cheetos.” I regret nothing. The Truck This month’s “more expensive than our mortgage” award goes to our 2010 Toyota Tundra truck. A dubious honor, to be sure. The truck needed a lot of mechanic-related intervention, including: new rotors, calipers, a state inspection, an oil change and an ABS diagnosis. Cool. The upside is...

91

Reader Case Studies

17 Jul, 2020

Reader Case Study: Canadian Family Plans For The Future (and yes, hockey is involved)

Beth and Brad live north of Toronto, Ontario with their young daughter and old cat. With retirement 15 years away for Brad, the family wants to better prepare and get a handle on their approach to money. Brad and Beth were a money mismatch from the start, but after 14 years of marriage, they’ve been able to find a path forward together. Unrelated Update: I’m doing a Facebook Live thing tomorrow with Brad from ChooseFI....

125

Featured / Frugal Homestead Series

6 Jul, 2020

Want To Move To The Country? 15 Things To Consider

Moving to the sticks is all the rage right now. At least, that’s what I gather from the number of questions I’m getting about septic systems. Or, you all are just really interested in becoming rural waste management engineers. Assuming it’s the former, let’s talk about what it’s really like to live rurally. I’m no expert, I’ve only been here for four years, and I’ve only lived in Vermont, but I’ve devoted a lot of...

74

This Month On The Homestead

24 Jun, 2020

This Month On The Homestead: The Full Garden Rundown Including Building Raised Beds

May = Plants-In-The-Ground The vegetables we started from seed back in February were booted from the warmth of the kitchen into the wilds of the garden. For weeks, we took our plant starts outside for field trips to feel the breeze and learn about the sun. Finally, in mid-May, we nestled each nascent veggie into hand-dug reservoirs of fine dirt (except for the ones the kids planted, which were jammed into the soil with negligent...

85

Featured / Monthly Expense Reports

18 Jun, 2020

Dirt And Other May 2020 Expenditures

Boatloads of Dirt May was the month of the raised bed. Mr. Frugalwoods designed, built, and installed four enormous raised beds to serve as our kitchen garden. I’ll give the full rundown in my next This Month On The Homestead installment, but for today’s purposes, know that these beds required dirt. A lot of dirt. 5.5 yards of dirt, to be precise. And as I learned, dirt is not just dirt. At least, not when...

122

Reader Case Studies

15 Jun, 2020

Reader Case Study: From South Africa to Tennessee, Now Planning a Move to Europe!

Brenda, who works at a non-profit, and her husband Kyle, a firefighter and nurse, live in Tennessee with their two daughters and one dog. Brenda is from South Africa and their dream is to move abroad after Kyle’s retirement (in six years) from the fire department. Today, they’d like our help figuring out the financial and social/educational aspects of such a move. What’s a Reader Case Study? Case Studies address financial and life dilemmas that...

33

This Month On The Homestead

29 May, 2020

This Month On The Homestead: Stumps, Tractors, Cookies, and a Balance Beam

April is the month of anticipation. It’s not yet spring, there’s still snow, we can’t DO much, but it’s the month our faces turn to the nascent sun and realize our eight month Vermont winter will end. Someday. April is a liminal space at odds with my desire to Know Things. To know if I should wash everyone’s snow pants and pack them away, to know when warmth will spread across our woods and we...

75

Coronavirus Pandemic / Reader Suggestions

27 May, 2020

Reader Suggestions: What to Cook During a Pandemic

Cooking at home is not new for the frugal crew, but cooking at home during a pandemic is a slightly different proposal. Many of us aren’t going to the grocery store as often as we did in the Before Times, some ingredients can’t be found on the shelves, and many folks are looking to decrease their grocery expenses as we watch the economy do a weird and unpredictable downward spiral (check out my Uber Frugal Week:...

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