Retired in 2013 at age 33. Life is Good.
June came and went and treated us very kindly. Somehow we spent next to nothing, and had a fabulous month of investment income.
At $9,611 in total income during June, we more than covered our monthly expenses of $830. And then some. And then some more.
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Summer is here. Are your kids bored yet? They shouldn’t be. There are dozens of ways to keep your family busy and having fun without spending much money. Here is what we do to prevent ourselves from getting cabin fever.
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For those following along with my early retirement monthly updates, you’ll know the Root of Good family is heading north to Canada for the summer. At the end of June, we will pack our kids (age 2, 7, and 9) and a trunk full of gear into our trusty fourteen year old Honda Accord and set out on a 2,300 mile trek through the US and Canada for about a month.
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In May, we had a nearly perfect month financially. We spent very little and our investments gained a lot of ground due to excellent stock market returns. At $3,575 in total income during May, we
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In a previous article, I shared one month of grocery purchases in great detail. On food items alone, we spent $448 for our family of five. For those that spend two or three times this amount, read on. I’m about to share how we keep grocery costs down without dumpster diving* or coupon clipping. We keep costs down yet eat a relatively varied diet filled with fresh produce, meats, and dairy.
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Over the course of a month, we buy an astronomical amount of food. It takes a lot of food to provide 450 meals per month for our family of five. I wanted to show what we put in our grocery cart in a typical month to produce those 450 meals.
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April left us slightly wealthier due to a small amount of stock market gains and very moderate spending. Our year to date spending is back within our budgeted levels four months into the year.
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I consider myself frugal in most ways, but not really “cheap”. Sometimes I approach that thinly drawn line between frugal and cheap and dip my toe over the line to the dark side of cheapdom. Last week an editor from Business Insider contacted me and asked me to highlight a few specific items where it makes sense to be downright cheap.
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March proved to be another great month for our early retirement finances. Our investment portfolio went up slightly. I had a fair amount of income from this blog and other online writing. Spending in March
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Not having a full time job was very convenient the past few months. Here in North Carolina, when it snows, everything shuts down. Including the schools. It snowed a few inches and schools were closed
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