This Month On The Homestead: Mud, Trellises, and The Land Trust
If you’re just tuning in, this is a recurring series in which I document each month of our lives out here on our 66-acre Vermont homestead. After leaving urban Cambridge, MA in May 2016 to chart this wholly different life, we’re experiencing a constant learning curve of exploration (and plenty of stupid novice moments). Check out…
Our Thrifty And Simple Baby’s First Birthday Party
Babywoods is a year old! Ok actually she’s almost 15 months old, but sometimes Mommywoods doesn’t get around to writing articles exactly on time…. At any rate, our bebe crested her first annual milestone in late November and we feted her in style. Frugal style. Once again, I’m here to divest everyone of the commonly…
Checked Luggage And Other September 2016 Expenditures
Brace yourselves for an expense onslaught: September was our priciest month on record. By far. Yes indeed, we’ve royally outdone ourselves this time. Fueled by travel, a dishwasher, and our property tax bill–among other things–we spent a gigantic amount of money this month. But, it was (mostly) all for good. And, I am (mostly) unconcerned….
How Insourcing Strengthened Our Marriage
Do you fight with your partner over who’ll do the laundry? Mr. Frugalwoods and I used to. But fear not, our consumer culture has created a way for us to resolve just about any marital spat: pay someone to do it for you! Don’t Fight, Hire Out! Arguing over who’s going to clean the house? There’s an…
Weekly Woot & Grumble: Snow On Snow On Snow
Woot We are undergoing what could only be described as an unprecedentedly gigantic amount of snow here in the Boston area. The total stands at 71″ (aka over 5.5 feet) in the past 19 days with more predicted to fall. In case you were wondering, this quantity of snow yields snowbanks taller than two Frugal Hounds stacked on…
Weekly Woot & Grumble: Palm Trees vs. Blizzards
Woot Our week began with palm trees and ended with a blizzard, so Mr. Frugalwoods and I feel we’ve had a genuine bi-coastal experience over the past few days. We were in San Diego all of last week visiting my family–many of whom have now dubbed themselves “frugal-family member name” for example: Frugal Grammy, Frugal Sister,…
Weekly Woot & Grumble: Why We Celebrate Christmas In January
Woot Mr. Frugalwoods and I are epic proponents of off-peak travel. Anytime other people are not flying, that’s when you’ll find the Frugalwoods at an airport. One of our best tricks is to travel cheap by being Thanksgiving weirdos, and a close second is celebrating Christmas in January. My parents, siblings, siblings-in-law, nieces, and nephew all…
Weekly Woot & Grumble: Take a Walk & Stay Home
Woot The humble walk–is it even worthy of a woot? I believe so. Arguably the best part of my day is the evening stroll I take with Mr. Frugalwoods and Frugal Hound. On a typical weekday, one of the humans arrives home from work before the other and sweet Frugal Hound works herself into a frenzy of excited greyhound rooing in…
Refinishing Gold Mirrored Closet Doors
One of the, shall we say, special aspects of our master bedroom were the gold-framed, sliding, mirrored closet doors. I knew they had to go as part of the master bedroom revamp…or did they? I conducted a great deal of research into options for replacing them and everything I found was super expensive. Closet doors are not cheap…