Category: Monthly Expense Reports

Our basement, as previously disclosed, is undergoing a vast improvement plan. Our Cambridge, MA home (the one that’s now a rental) has a delightful panoply of built-in shelves in its basement, which suited our needs just fine. Here in our Vermont home, however, the basement is a huge, empty, concrete-floored cavern. A cavern I’m very thankful for and which I love, but a blank cavern nonetheless. Beholden to my commitment of waiting at least one year before...

June was a glorious month punctuated by a visit from my in-laws, which is always a welcome and wonderful event. I won the in-law lottery and Mr. Frugalwoods’ family is, in a word, superb. I’ve always felt lucky to have them as my second set of parents and that feeling is magnified now that they’re incredible grandparents to Babywoods. They even tolerate our extremely frugal ways! Anniversary Trip (with free hotel!) To give you some...

May was expensive. No mincing words, it was one of those pricey, pricey months. Heading up our expenses this month were the airline tickets we purchased for a trip to the west coast this August. My parents are celebrating their 50th!!!!!! wedding anniversary this summer and so my family is gathering at their home in San Diego for a celebration and family reunion. Then, I’ll fly from there up to Portland, Oregon to speak at the Lola Retreat...

As the snow receded from our land, allowing bare earth and grass to take its place, we quickly realized we’d need a new outdoor baby conveyance solution. All winter long, Mr. Frugalwoods and I snowshoe hiked by towing Babywoods behind us in this game sled, which sailed over pillows of snow, up mountains, and across frozen streams with ease. I tested the game sled out on mud and grass and that was a non-starter. Literally. Backpacking A...

While snow storms raged outside all March, inside we planted the seeds for this summer’s vegetable garden. In a cold climate like Vermont (we’re in plant hardiness zone 4 for all you gardening aficionados), it’s necessary to start growing vegetables from seeds indoors. The reason for this is that it won’t be warm enough for a long enough period of time for the veggies to ripen if they’re planted outside. It’ll be too cold too late in the...

February was a rather inexpensive month, by which I mean you can tell we spent most of the month either sick or clearing snow, or both at the same time. It was a simple month–comprised mostly of flu followed by croup followed by bronchitis followed by a double ear infection–but as I shared last week, it wasn’t without its sweet moments. And in between coughing fits, I was interviewed on this podcast, which was a...

There’s never a perfect time to start living frugally. There’ll never be an ideal month or optimal moment to decide you’re ready for frugality. Waiting until that ephemeral, non-existent ‘perfect’ time is a good way to ensure you’ll never actually kick-off a frugality regime. Why am I saying this at the beginning of my monthly expense report? Because Mr. Frugalwoods and I spent kind of a lot of money last month during our Uber Frugal Month Challenge....

December rounded out my season of favorite months, with a stellar Christmas and even a New Year’s Eve celebration (by which I mean we stayed up until 9:30pm and managed to each drink a glass of champagne… ). Mr. Frugalwoods and I delighted in our frugal Christmas and spent the holiday week alternating between snuggling by the wood stove and snowshoe hiking around our property. Mr. FW has opened up a trail that circumnavigates the boundaries...

November was a month of merriment. From hosting Thanksgiving to lots of snow, we’re loving winter (ok technically late fall) on the homestead. Date Night! Since my fabulous in-laws were here for the whole Thanksgiving week, they graciously offered to babysit Babywoods one evening. And so, Mr. Frugalwoods and I went out for our very first date since before Babywoods was born! Considering she’s a year old, we were pretty excited. We–gasp–went out to dinner,...

After last month’s bonfire of the expenses, it was frugally comforting to return to a sane spending level in October. Nothing dramatic happened (other than our slightly premature snow) and nothing terribly expensive happened either. This is an illustration of why frugality is a longterm proposition: spending fluctuates–along with savings rates–and success only occurs when you maintain a frugal arc over time. The key is that on the whole, Mr. FW and I save vastly more than we spend....