We don’t want to reach 40 or 50 and realize we’ve wasted our best years behind a desk. To that end, in 2017 we’ll both quit our 9-5’s and move to our yet-to-be-purchased homestead, hopefully on 30+ acres of wooded land in rural southern Vermont. For instance, Mr. Frugalwoods plans to continue consulting a bit for his current company and imagines he can turn his love for welding into a side gig. Mrs. Frugalwoods is passionate about writing and might try to do some freelance writing and editing from the comfort of the homestead. Right now, she crams in blog posts at 6 am before rushing to work. The couple has figured out that they need to work until 2017, saving as much as possible along the way, in order to retire and live on their nest egg for the rest of their lives.
- He retired early, and I left my unfulfilling job to focus on helping people like you.
- She also taught high school economics for six years, which helped.
- Right now they figure they could rent their Cambridge house for $4,000 a month, which is double the mortgage.
- Groceries and menu planning are the most commonly discussed topics amongst Frugalwoods readers.
- In her book, Elizabeth advises readers to borrow it from the library rather than purchase it.
You, the parent, are in charge of buying and preparing foods. You, the parent, are responsible for determining the diet your family will eat. It is not the role of a child to demand, threaten or beg for certain foods.
Mr. Frugalwoods worked at the school art museum as a photographer and Mrs. Frugalwoods was a tutor at the campus writing center. And if you’re seeking general personal finance advice, you might enjoy the Demystifying Personal Finance series as well as the monthly Reader Case Studies. This was made financially possible by the fact that we’d always lived well below our means and that we’d continuously increased our salaries over the years, while saving ever higher percentages. In 2014, we’d been saving our money together for almost 8 years. We took a look at our finances and realized that if we embraced extreme frugality–and maintained our decent salaries–we’d be able to make this dream a reality much sooner. After college, Mr. FW and I worked hard to advance in our careers.
The family arrived with a pair of used cars — purchased with cash for a combined $21,000 — and with rental income from their Cambridge home of $4,400 a month, according to Elizabeth’s book and blog. Your baseline spending is what you have to spend every month in order to survive. And then from there, you make elective, conscious choices on what to spend on top of that.
Frugal Confessions
So we’ll plant our little plants this year and maybe remember to weed and water them. And I might can a few quarts of apple sauce. We shop approximately twice a month and don’t buy all of this stuff each time. Rather, this is the total overview of everything we buy and our bi-weekly lists change as needed. Plus, this doesn’t account for specialty meals, such as at Christmas and for birthdays. The cost spreadsheet (below) does include those meals, but I didn’t put the ingredients here since they’re infrequent and sporadic.
- All in all, with the rental properties and potentially a little income on the side, plus the generally low cost of living on the homestead, they expect to essentially break even for the foreseeable future.
- Elizabeth recognizes that people’s financial circumstances evolve.
- To save money for their move, the Thameses — aka Mrs. and Mr. Frugalwoods — examined expenses and reduced costs in seemingly every aspect of their lives.
- She’s probably best known for her thrifty recipes and her series on how she spends $200/month on groceries for her family of six.
I often articulate that there are two sides of the financial independence equation–income and expenses–and that the more you earn, the more you can save. Through the application of frugality–coupled with good incomes and judicious financial management–my husband and I have created a life frugalwoods that we love living every single day. It’s not a life beholden to consumerism or the drive for material perfection or the incessant clarion call for more. Their parents helped them pay for school, they had scholarships and they both worked campus jobs to help cover living expenses.
Rural Assumption #1: We’ll Grow and Raise All of Our Own Food!
On her website, she provides a breakdown of the family’s monthly expenses. It makes for interesting reading, while also helping Elizabeth and her family stay on the frugal course. But it’s no longer a race to ultimate homesteader for me. I’ve realized that the pressure for perfection isn’t limited to school or traditional jobs–it can take over anything.
We avoided incurring debt from undergrad through a combination of attending an inexpensive state school, working while in college, scholarships, and–most crucially–financial help from our parents. I feel like before we had kids we had those things called “hobbies.” Now I’m wondering if changing diapers counts as a hobby? When we do carve out “hobby” time, we love to hike, travel (uh, mostly without our kids… ) and read.
I’ll help you understand your entire financial situation, set goals, and provide practical solutions to manage your money. Frugalwoods (est. April 2014) is a living documentation of the accelerated final three years of our journey to financial independence and a homestead in the woods (more on that in #2). We’ve been frugaling it up together for ten years, but this is our most intensely-focused sprint of frugality. Barring unforeseen calamity, we’ll enter early retirement in 2017 at age 33.
Meet The Frugalwoods
The book has received substantial press attention, including pieces on National Public Radio and “The Today Show,” as well as articles in U.S. and British newspapers. Some reviewers have questioned Elizabeth’s transparency in describing how she and her husband were able to make their move to Vermont. They also came with jobs, at least one of which is high paying. The Frugalwoods admit that saving money on outsourcing can lead to imperfect work.
Meet Liz
We avoided incurring debt from undergrad through a combination of attending an inexpensive state school, working while in college, scholarships, and–most crucially–financial help from our parents. On a daily basis, we let our kids have a “treat of the day,” which can be whatever they want and isn’t linked to a meal. Treats are consumed after school during our family “tea time” when we sit down and share about our days. For instance, the couple toured more than 270 open houses over the years, enjoying the opportunity to take leisurely strolls through different neighborhoods and snoop through other people’s homes. They also learned real estate lingo and what they were looking for in a home, which was helpful when they were ready to buy. “We’ve really created substitutions for anything we used to pay for,” says Mrs. Frugalwoods.
Buy This Stuff
Chickens have to be fed and cared for, garden seeds have to be purchased and planted and maintained, and canning is a real pain. I do these things because I enjoy them, certainly not because they save money. Potentially this could save me money over the VERY long term.
The reason I think it’s a gift is that if you have an income high enough to be able to choose to be frugal, that’s an incredible advantage to you. You can do so much more with your life just by reducing your spending. The main consideration with any spending decision is whether it will help you achieve your long-term financial goals.
“We’ve given up on the idea of perfection,” says Mrs. Frugalwoods. “There’s an element of whimsy to our lifestyle.” “It’s a really joyful cycle, to gain a new skill and have an experience,” says Mrs. Frugalwoods. “It’s kind of become a game for us and we really enjoy the challenge.”