August 31, 2015
Guilt Is A Wasted Emotion
Let’s banish guilt. Far too often, I turn myself in knots trying to quell my feelings of guilt over not doing something quickly enough or frugally enough or environmentally-friendly enough or creatively enough. Why do I torture myself? There’s always room for improvement in every endeavor in life–I know this–and guilt only serves to steal my…
August 28, 2015
The Ultimate Guide To Frugal Boston Living
It is 100% possible to live frugally anywhere. Of this, I’m convinced. I often hear folks bemoan our high cost-of-living city as thwarting frugal endeavors, to which I say preposterous! For all of our post-college years, Mr. Frugalwoods and I have lived in notoriously expensive locales: New York City, Washington, DC, and Cambridge, MA (twice). And we’ve…
August 26, 2015
That Time I Went To Grad School For Free*
*well sorta, keep reading… So what’s a frugal weirdo to do when you want something that costs money, but you don’t want to pay for it? Get creative. I wanted to go to grad school. Since graduating from undergrad in ’06, I had this overwhelming desire (delusion?) to get my master’s degree. I like school and…
August 24, 2015
Frugality Gives Us Options
I’m willing to bet that your goal in life isn’t to move to a homestead on 20+ acres of wooded land in southern Vermont by the time you’re 33 (although if it is, email me since clearly we have a lot in common). But I’m also willing to bet that you have a higher purpose guiding…
August 21, 2015
Clothing Care For People Who Don’t Buy Clothes
Clothes! We’ve all gotta wear them, but we don’t have to spend a ton doing so. While I don’t think Mr. Frugalwoods or I have any clothes quite as ancient as our venerated 19-year-old Frugalwoods-mobile (whose virtues I extolled earlier this week), we certainly have some, ahem, mature threads. Since not consuming is a huge part of both our…
August 19, 2015
Ode To An Old Car: Our Money-Saving Machine
Oh Frugalwoods-mobile the oft-mentioned, but rarely glamorized, work horse of the Frugalwoods family. Today, I dedicate a post to you. Fear not, this isn’t a eulogy for she’s not dead (yet), but rather this is a reflection of gratitude for the tremendous schlepping performed by this fossil of a vehicle. While certainly it would be thriftier to…
August 17, 2015
How We Avoid Cable And Watch Free TV Online
Greeting fair Frugalwoods friends! It’s Mr. Frugalwoods here, making a rare appearance as author. I’m usually your trusty behind-the-scenes tech guy, but today I want to share our strategies for securing gratis TV. “Hold on, you don’t have cable?!?” Yep. Don’t have it. Never have and probably never will. We’re a cable TV executive’s worst nightmare….
August 14, 2015
The Frugal Snack Hack That Always Has Your Back
One thing we hold dear here at ye olde Frugalwoods HQ (aka our house) is snacking. Indeed, snacks are hallowed whether we’re hiking, biking, lounging, plotting against the consumer industrial complex, or just generally annoying Frugal Hound with our presence. The pursuit of frugal snacks has led us to quest far and wide–from the aisles of…
August 12, 2015
Frugal Hound Sniffs: Shoeaholic No More
A note to new readers: while we often delve deeply into financial topics (such as How A Year Of Extreme Frugality Changed Us and Strategic Luxury: The Difference Between Frugality And Miserliness), we also like to keep it irreverent and downright silly. Because hey, who doesn’t need an investigative interview series conducted by a dog?! And so, I…
August 10, 2015
Strategic Luxury: The Difference Between Frugality And Miserliness
Our lives here at Frugalwoods HQ are luxuriously frugal. For us, frugality isn’t about deprivation or hardship, it’s about spending money only on what truly matters. The point of our frugality isn’t merely to save as much money as possible, the point is to create lives we love living. There’s no martyrdom or pain in our lifestyle…
August 7, 2015
The Great Homemade Seltzer Discovery of 2015
Sometimes frugality is about giving stuff up. Other times, it’s about being clever. Mr. Frugalwoods and I are known seltzer addicts. Indeed, we can scarcely make it through a day without our bubbly water fix. And we have zero intention of ever giving it up. Pure, unadulterated seltzer (just water and gas, no sugars or…
August 5, 2015
The Joy That Comes When Less Is Enough
Welcome to any new folks joining us for the first time after our feature in Forbes yesterday. We’re delighted you’re here and we hope you’ll frugal on with us. Feel free to say hi in the comments! Ours is a culture of excess. The relentless barrage from the media tells us that our happiness is dependent upon…