Category: Frugal

Cost Analysis of a Sabbatical Summer in Medellín

Although I wrote this post in July, I had to wait until today to edit it as I was finishing up writing a book for y’all (more on that in a future post). And that whole moving thing has been consuming my time of late. But now that I’m about 2/3rds of the way done unpacking, I can return to the world of blogging.

Folks, there’s a reason why people who’ve been to Colombia—especially Medellín—get all excited and animated when they start talking about these places. It’s because this city of eternal Spring is incredible! DH and I were talking recently, saying we thought last summer was amazing. But this summer has easily been one of the best summers of our lives.

Since people have been asking me how much our Sabbatical cost, I thought I’d do a blog post with a detailed analysis for anyone who is not only interested in a Sabbatical in Medellín but perhaps considering Geo Arbitrage for long term living down here. Continue reading “Cost Analysis of a Sabbatical Summer in Medellín”

How to Get a Good Price on a Vehicle (Without a Male Accompanying You)

The fact I even have to add that second part onto the title tells you how far our misogynistic society has yet to change. You see, I recently went out and purchased a truck by myself for our family. Posting about this on social media caused quite the flurry. “You went alone? What was that like? How did you do it? Why didn’t your husband go with you—are you guys not getting along?”

This last question is probably still lingering in people’s heads as I’ve been writing this post while traveling in the U.K. with my son (when childcare falls through, you make lemonade. Or change a trip to your sister’s wedding into a mother-son one like I did). So to reiterate what I posted on social media: DH and I are just fine. Actually, we’re better than ever, but that’s a subject of a future post about how awesome FIRE can be for a marriage.

To get back to the matter at hand, it’s possible for a female to not only buy a vehicle by herself but to get an excellent price on it as well.  Continue reading “How to Get a Good Price on a Vehicle (Without a Male Accompanying You)”

How to get a FREE GAP YEAR for your kid

What if I told you there’s a way to get your high school age child a FREE GAP YEAR OVERSEAS—all while they’re given an allowance and provided with paid trips around the country they live in?

All you basically have to do is buy their airfare.

For realz folks! Read on to find out more! Continue reading “How to get a FREE GAP YEAR for your kid”

How to Save Money on Apple Products

Now that my month of technological nightmares are behind me, I’m more than happy to share with you what I’ve learned since mid-December. As you could probably guess from my dearth of blog posts lately, I have had serious IT issues which resulted in me spending days—yes, days—at the Apple store/on the phone with them.

Continue reading “How to Save Money on Apple Products”

How to throw cheap(er) birthday parties for kids

1) Be “that” mom and refuse to join in on the birthday party peer pressure to throw huge, over the top parties. Just think, you can put the money you save towards the kids’ therapy bills later on. 😉 Continue reading “How to throw cheap(er) birthday parties for kids”

Minimizing our “Out’s” (Where we choose to spend less money)—Part II

I was talking with a physician friend of mine about this two-part blog series. She said I was writing about I’s and O’s. This is medical talk for “In” and “Out.” In other words, what doctors monitor in hospitalized patients: how much liquid they took in and how much they put out.

After having spent years borrowing money just to eat (hello undergrad (for me) and med school for both of us), we’ve focused on frugality, so more money stays in then goes out.

Last week I talked a little about how we consciously choose to fight the American consumer trends by consuming less and how we are beyond blessed in our current life circumstances.

We’ll pick up today where I left off about how we are counter culture and how this gives us more freedom to choose how we spend our time:

Continue reading “Minimizing our “Out’s” (Where we choose to spend less money)—Part II”

Minimizing our “Out’s” (Where we choose to spend less money)—Part I

My Dragon Lady (whom I swear I will write a blog about soon) advised me I should do a post about our “standard of living.” To quote her: “describe the difference between your lifestyle and a typical doctor’s lifestyle (2 doctor household actually). It will be good for your readers to know you live well below your means, that this a major reason you can do what you’re doing now. A lot of people may read your posts with a twinkle in their eyes, but would never be okay making the necessary changes to do it for themselves.”

Continue reading “Minimizing our “Out’s” (Where we choose to spend less money)—Part I”

How a Physician slashed her spending

 

We had an 85% savings rate in 2017, which beat our 63% savings rate in 2016! It wasn’t easy. At all.

I know—you’re asking how this was possible and how did we calculate this? And lastly, why would anyone want to save so much money in the first place? (#YOLO crowd, here’s looking at you!) 😉 Continue reading “How a Physician slashed her spending”