Frugalwoods

Jamie lives in the Netherlands and recently completed his degree as an all-around construction worker, with training in welding. He’s currently switching jobs to become a full-time welder and has two job offers he’d like our help deciding between. Additionally, he and his girlfriend dream of living and working abroad some day. Jamie lost his father when he was just 13 and has been working and helping his mother financially since then. At just 21...

Alice and her wife Ann live in a small northern New England town with their two sons and two dogs. Both Alice and Ann are educators and enjoy their work. Their children were adopted from the foster care system and both have significant early childhood trauma. Due to this, they have intensive needs and Alice and Ann have organized their family life around addressing these needs. Practically, this means Alice is the primary at-home parent...

Kate lives in St. Louis, Missouri with her husband Dan in a condo she bought back in 2013. She enjoys her job in marketing and Dan likes his work in manufacturing. Kate is in the process of considering the purchase of a marketing firm with her business partner, which means she’s paying extra attention to her personal finances these days. She and Dan maintain completely separate finances as that’s the system that works best for...

Kay and her husband Max recently moved to rural town an hour south of Minneapolis with their two young children and three old cats. Kay works as a financial operations manager and Max is a government attorney. The couple was able to lower their cost of living by making this move–most notably in the areas of daycare and their mortgage. As they relish this lowered spending, they want to ensure they’re allocating their “extra” money...