Meet the Frugalwoods

Achieving Financial Independence Through Simple Living

By: Elizabeth Willard Thames

Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon

Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

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 Vermont woods at age 32 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 70 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 66 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 32. 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.

©2018 Elizabeth Willard Thames (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

Excellent

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

Made me think before I use money! It gets better!

The very beginning of this book was a little hard to get through, but the story was very thought-provoking. It made me rethink spending. Though I don't think I will be going as extreme as her, I value financial independence and now see frugality as a source of power instead of boring. The book is a good story about her journey to becoming uber frugal as well as a book on how to be financially independent so that made it fun to read. The book stayed with me long after I read it. This would be great for an open-minded recent grad or college kid to read before choosing a spouse, having kids, buying a house, and getting a bunch of stuff. Now I follow her blog too.

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.

I Was Blown Away

I imagined it was going to be fluff that I had already heard from the FIRE community. It was far from that. A key mindset shifting book that I will absolutely relisten to and pass on to friends.

Awesome! And fun

It took me a few chapters to get past what felt like the whining of an over privileged millennial, but I’ve heard their podcast and as a huge FIRE fan, I had to hear it. I really enjoyed how she made their true story seem like an entertaining novel. Well done and a nice change from my consumption of personal finance, business books and self development “blah blah blah” books. I’d highly recommend it.

Great Life Lessons

This back will not teach you how to be “Achieving Financial Independence Through Simple Living” but it can help you see that the way you live is not the way you want to live and that living the way you want is always possible if you are ready to forgo the cultural “musts”.

I think “Achieving Financial Independence Through Simple Living” is perhaps not worth the struggle for most but for them it was and now they get to live the life they wanted because they were focused on what was truly important to them and wrote off 100% everything else.

So!?

What really matters to you? How can you achieve it? What will you need to stop doing in order to achieve it?

MUST READ BEFORE DIE

I'm 27 years young and I am so glad I read this book. This book gives me a totally different view and definitions of financial freedom. It gives me hope that I don't have to be a millionaire to achieve financial freedom. It confirms my thought that I can retire young without being a slave to money.