Meet The Frugalwoods: Achieving Financial Independence Through Simple Living by Elizabeth Willard Thames

Meet The Frugalwoods: Achieving Financial Independence Through Simple Living by Elizabeth Willard Thames

"I enjoy the Frugalwoods blog so much that I was thrilled to find out there would be a book! I even paid for it!" one reviewer wrote. In her book, Elizabeth advises readers to borrow it from the library rather than purchase it. By saving as much as 80 percent of their annual income, according to Elizabeth's book, their plan for a country life was realized. In May 2016, the Frugalwoods and their infant daughter, dubbed Babywoods, moved to Vershire, where they bought a house and 66 acres for $389,000, according to town records. 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.

Over the last few years we’ve converted all our investments to low cost index funds. We’ve always needed to be able to have a nest egg to walk away from clients we just didn’t want to work with. I preordered your book on Amazon because I thought the title was intriguing.

I have been waiting for you to write a book!! I hope you feel like signing three more bookplates. Thanks to you and your family for all you do to add positivity, simplicity and frugality to the world.

Basically that anyone who relies on any of these things is a worthless, shell of a human that can never know what feeling good about themselves means or contribute in a meaningful way to the world. All this vitriolic hate is written behind the 'shield' of her continually telling us what an awesome feminist she is. I had never understood some women's refusal to identify themselves as feminists until now.

Meet the Frugalwoods: Achieving Financial Independence Through Simple Living

They will love it, and will be very proud of their mom! Thanks a lot for sharing the journey of writing a book.

This book was an interesting read but there were a lot of things that annoyed me. I like their blog a lot which offers a lot of good advice about being frugal. It was interesting to get the story about how the Frugalwoods changed their way of living. Elizabeth points out how privileged they were starting out and she also said that she is aware for a lot of people being frugal is the only way they can afford to live.

Now I get to see how the adventure continues. I got it Saturday and finished it this morning (Monday). I’ve been following your blog since shortly before you had your baby & moved to the homestead. I can’t remember where I found your blog but once I saw Gracie I was in love!

I put in a request right away and my library has ordered the book! Can’t wait to learn more Frugalwoods wisdom (my husband has gotten quite good at giving me what he calls a “Frugalwoods haircut” 😀 ). It’s so great that your book is going to have a lot of material that’s NOT in your blog. I’m very interested in learning more about you, your backstory, and the Frugalwoods journey. I am super excited to hear this announcement.

• We only write about, and promote, products that we believe in.
• None of the things that they did to become financially independent is really that radical or new, unless maybe you are a millennial.
• I just preordered it and am looking forward to reading it and adding it to my personal library.
• This book was a quick and easy read for the most part.
• While frugality makes their lifestyle possible, it’s also what brings them peace and genuine happiness.

I wrote while nauseous during my first trimester with Babywoods 2, while tired, while traveling, while happy, and while mad. This was a humbling process and one that, I hope, made me a better writer. Since I write all the time, both for Frugalwoods and in freelance capacities, I went into writing my book with the naive assumption that it would be easy.

I mostly enjoyed their story, although the writing was sort of cheesy and I would have gained more from it if they would have been more transparent about actual finances and numbers. It was much more about their frugal philosophy than concrete advice. She writes that her frugal philosophy is "about liberating yourself from reliance on the salary that your job provides." But what about all those people working low-income jobs out of necessity? What about the impact you have on the service providers you are no longer supporting when you encourage an entirely DIY approach to the home? She shares the story of her daughter's birth that resulted in an unexpected surgery, extra hospital time and several days for her daughter in NICU--and nary a word was mentioned about access to health care and health insurance.

This book is unlike others about finance because this one reads more like a story which I really enjoyed. The author seems to be really aware of her privledge and address it well.

But what if people don’t like the book? My self-doubting side still questions. I’ve decided that I want to live my life boldly.

We realized we couldn’t buy our way to happiness and that we had to restructure how we lived, what we spent our money on, and how we used our time in order to achieve deep fulfillment and lasting contentment. After moving to New York City to become a Broadway actress, Stefanie O'Connell faced one of two inevitabilities when faced with unemployment--spiral into debt or learn how to effectively manage her money.

We’re not rich or famous or geniuses or even particularly good-looking (although we have our moments). We’re just some average, middle-class kids from the Midwest who decided we wanted something more out of life than what our consumer culture sells us.

I have preordered your book and will have to check Mary Karr’s book out of the library. I think my favorite books in the writing sub genre are Bird by Bird, On Writing, and The Writing Life by Lamont, King, and Dillard respectively and pretty well in that order.

I was never a shopaholic but I now question all purchases and look to see the value in each one. I am sure your book will more than pay for itself and so look forward to it’s arrival and then lending it to my children. Writing a book is a huge achievement. The world needs to understand that raising children can be free from so much stuff.

So, I was excited to read her book. For some reason I thought it would be more of a lifestyle book. Maybe some frugal living ideas, recipes, etc. Meet the Frugalwoods is a book I’ve been looking forward to. About 2 years ago, a friend on Facebook who runs a group about finances recommend a blog in her group- The Frugalwoods ( for anyone interested).

I had to quit reading because this was making me too angry. I read your book in two days this weekend and although we already live frugally compared to most reading your story has me wanting to recommit to even more frugality (in the name of living our true values) in 2019. I am also in the middle of writing a book proposal after many years of blogging and so this is VERY encouraging. Thank you so much for sharing a bit about the behind the scenes and realities. I will remember this as I edit, re-edit, delete, and re-edit.