Meet the Frugalwoods

Achieving Financial Independence Through Simple Living

De: Elizabeth Willard Thames

Narrado por: Ann Marie Gideon

The deeply personal story of why award-winning personal finance blogger Elizabeth Willard Thames abandoned a successful career in the city and embraced extreme frugality in order to create a more meaningful, purpose-driven life and retire to a homestead in the woods at age thirty-two with her husband and daughter.

In 2014, Elizabeth and Nate Thames were conventional 9-5 young urban professionals. But the couple had a dream to become modern-day homesteaders in rural Vermont. Determined to retire as early as possible in order to start living each day—as opposed to wishing time away working for the weekends—they enacted a plan to save an enormous amount of money: well over seventy percent of their joint take home pay. Dubbing themselves the Frugalwoods, Elizabeth began documenting their unconventional frugality and the resulting wholesale lifestyle transformation on their eponymous blog.

In less than three years, Elizabeth and Nate reached their goal. Today, they are financially independent and living out their dream on a sixty-six-acre homestead in the woods of rural Vermont with their young daughter. While frugality makes their lifestyle possible, it’s also what brings them peace and genuine happiness. They don’t stress out about impressing people with their material possessions, buying the latest gadgets, or keeping up with any Joneses. In the process, Elizabeth discovered the self-confidence and liberation that stems from disavowing our culture’s promise that we can buy our way to ""the good life."" Elizabeth unlocked the freedom of a life no longer beholden to the clarion call to consume ever-more products at ever-higher sums.

Meet the Frugalwoods is the intriguing story of how Elizabeth and Nate realized that the mainstream path wasn’t for them, crafted a lifestyle of sustainable frugality, and reached financial independence at age thirty-two. While not everyone wants to live in the woods, or quit their jobs, many of us want to have more control over our time and money and lead more meaningful, simplified lives. Following their advice, you too can live your best life.

Excellent

Beautifully written, outstanding narrator. Very helpful and inspiring. I'll be reflecting on this story for a very long time! Thank you.

An enjoyable listen.

A nice story, it was inspiring, and funny. It was not a guide book.

Inspirational for Meaningful, Simplified Life

This book starts off slow with the first few chapters about the author's first job after college. The author laments about the grind of working in New York, seeing abject poverty next to conspicuous luxury, and counting every cent she can spend. After they decide to be financially independent and create a plan on how to make it happen within a few years, it gets interesting. They give up a lot - both extravagant (expensive haircuts) and basic (eating out on the weekends). The couple is extremely disciplined and hardworking. Most people couldn't be financially independent in their 30's. Still, this is an inspirational story of how giving up short-term materialism can lead to a more meaningful life.

thoroughly enjoyable

the story was read with such inflections that it made it entertaining and easy to listen to. the story itself was entertaining with a lot of good advice and a lot of good practical thinking

Adorable

This book had a great storyline. Fun to hear about their personal journey and how they learned what truly mattered for them. It gave me plenty to mull over.