Affluent but Frugal

Freshly cut soap Do you ever see the fancy handmade soap at craft fairs? You can make your own at home! I've seen them for up to $6 a bar at craft fairs but I make my own for less than $1 bar. A couple of years ago, my friend and I bought a Groupon for a soap making class. It ended up being one of those Groupons where they tried to make something that should take an hour take three hours so you felt like you got your money's worth. On the bright side, it got us past the idea that making soap was hard and we left with a couple of bars of soap after a fun afternoon. You can make soap by yourself but it's really fun to have a one or two friends over for soap making party and share the soap wealth. We've tried a few recipes (hint: buttermilk soaps are a pain!) and we like this one the best: 21 oz olive oil 8 oz palm oil (will be semi-liquid at room temperature) 8 oz coconut oil 5.20 oz Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH, also known as Lye) 13 oz distilled water 2 oz...

What do you think this mansion rents for? One of the key pieces of information when evaluating a rental property before you buy it, is how much rent you think you can get for it. This is a little bit of an art and a little bit of a science. This is the process I went through for our first rental and what I do now when looking at potential properties online for #2. Quick and dirty estimates If I am looking online at a property and I want to see if it's in the ball park, I will check two places. The first is the rent estimate from Zillow . I assume this is based on the attributes of the house from the listing information and some sort algorithm but I couldn't tell you what...really it's just a quick check to see if you can get at least1% of the purchase price in monthly rent. If the house is priced way over that, I don't bother looking further; not that the listing price is the sale or offer price but hey, there are lots of other houses, I want to be in the range ...

I think it is important to be aware that my fiance and I are lucky; for us frugality is a conscious choice. We were both born into middle class families with loving parents who have supported us. We are both college educated, in fact we both hold advanced degrees (though mine came with a lot of student loan debt) and we are both employed in good jobs. It was a struggle to get here, we both graduated around the beginning of the economic crisis in 2008, but we are still very fortunate to be where we are. Even though we have struggled at times, we are still luckier than a lot of other people because for us living a frugal lifestyle is mostly a choice. One we have made in part, in response to economic insecurity in our past but also for other reasons, so why do we live the frugal life? Frugality gives us choice and reduces stress I don't find living below our means to be a deprivation, in fact I feel like it opens up a lot of choices for us. A frugal lifestyle allows us to save ...

Right before we ordered our invitations, we received an invite to another wedding with the absolute worst DIY invitation. The paper was cheap, the printing was crooked and the font was such a tiny script you couldn't read it. It made me feel like they did not really put any thought into it. Even though I didn't want to break the bank for our invitations, I still wanted them to look nice, fancy even. I had used vistaprint several times for business cards and such and always found them to be the cheapest option for a mid-range to nice product. I looked at invitations from several other online companies that specialized in wedding invitations and vistaprint beat every one of them on price for a similar looking product. Plus I was more comfortable with vistaprint because I had used them before. If you have time, I highly recommend ordering a free sample kit  to see what the different paper types are like. It was really helpful, I did not have it for my Save the Dates but ...

Cute house right? This is what I dream of...but didn't buy. The single largest expense for most people is their home. Reducing housing expenses are key to keeping a budget under control. Here is how we kept our housing costs low and saved a bunch of money using house hacking. The first step is to buy a house that doesn't max out your budget. Seriously, I know this is hard but do not trust the bank when they tell you what you can afford, you will end up house-poor which is not where you want to be. I have gotten pre-approved for a house three times (two primary residences & 1 rental). The first time, the lending officer recommended for me to put my student loans in deferment so I could qualify for a larger loan and then take them back out after the closing (seriously, who suggests this?). This would have left me stretched to pay the mortgage and I am so glad I ignored them. The second time I asked for pre-approval for 150k and the gave me 175k, I still bought below ...

Last year we spent a fantastic week in Barcelona and traveling a little by car through France and we only spent about $1500 total for flights, hotels, food and shopping. The sad thing is, we could have spent less if we hadn't rented a car which sucked up a lot of our funds (tip: don't rent a car in France). Here's what we did and how it all worked so you can do it too! Plan in Advance The key to traveling on the cheap is advanced planning. No, I'm not talking about booking early because we all know we should do that when we can but when I know I'm taking a trip, I will try to rack up as many miles and credit card points as a I can up to a year before booking a thing. If you have a history or problem with credit card debt, this tip is not for you. This only works if you can control your spending and not pay any interest charges! You want to look online for the best credit card point offers and maximize what you can get for free. For this trip, I relied...