Author: Laurie

February 12, 2016

Northpointe Bank: 5% Interest and $50 Bonus

Here in the Frugal Farmer family, we’re big fans of local banking. Instead of using the large conglomerates, we do all of our banking at small local institutions. The reason for our patronage of smaller banks and credit unions as opposed to national or worldwide banks are threefold:

Personalized service and appreciation of our business
Competitive products
Support of small business

As small business owners ourselves, we’re constantly on the lookout for ways we can support other smaller and local businesses. Of course, we only support businesses that show exemplary management, products and services.

This is why we whole-heartedly support Northpointe Bank, located in Michigan and with lending centers in both Ohio and Indiana, Northpointe Bank offers banking, home mortgage lending and insurance as well.

I want $50 + 5% checking! Read more

February 8, 2016

Superbowl Ads: How 4.5 Million Dollars Could Change the World

I love watching the Superbowl. And I love that we live in a free market society. I think it’s amazing that nearly anyone who wants to start their own business here can do so, regardless of money or experience. When I started my freelance writing business, it cost me only Internet access to get it up and running – and that’s free at most local libraries. I say these things to preempt that this post is not meant to be a slam against the Superbowl, against advertising and media or against the free market system, which I thoroughly support.

However, every single year when we watch the big game, I can’t help but think about how much money is going out of corporate pockets, and how much bigger of an impact that money could have on the world than it does via a 30-second ad. In that vein, I thought I’d share what 4.5 million dollars (the cost of one 30-second Superbowl commercial) could do for those who are suffering in this world.

Who knows: maybe one day corporations will start matching the money spent on their Superbowl ads with an equal amount of money donated to a worthy cause. Read more

February 5, 2016

Finding My Frugal Farmer in Spain

Finding Love and Farming Joy in Spain

Greetings, my frugal friends! Today we’re featuring a fun and heart-warming post from life coach Lisa Hoashi. Lisa shares about the hard work and also the inevitable joys of living life on a working farm. Her words will bring a smile to your face and warmth to your heart. Enjoy!

How I Met the Love of My Life

I didn’t set out to find love. Truly.

The reason why I quit my job and gave away most of my possessions was because I’d long had the dream to travel for at least a year, unfettered and carefree. Sure, as I talked about my plans with my other single friends, they often looked at me with a twinkle in their eye. “You’ll be sure to meet someone when you’re traveling,” they said. Read more

January 26, 2016

Before You Go to College

Read this BEFORE you go to college

Last week I heard about a recent study conducted at the University of Minnesota showed that a full 20% of U of M students there had, at some point, worried that they wouldn’t have enough food to eat. Frankly, this statistic stunned me. Why on earth would a student choose college when they couldn’t even afford food to eat? Read more

January 21, 2016

My Unintentional No-Spend Challenge

One more step toward success

So, if you’re a writer, you’ll understand this. As I was writing my post for Fruclassity -the site I own along with Ruth from Prudence Debt Free – this week, I started to get super passionate about the subject of saving money. Before I realized it, I was issuing a challenge to readers to spend as little as they could for 30 days. That’s a good idea, I thought to myself after I’d written it.

Then I realized I couldn’t very well offer a challenge like that to our readers without committing to participating in it myself. Oh, crap. I didn’t mean it. I DIDN’T MEAN IT!

A secret you may or may not know about me is that I’m pretty good at pushing myself- within certain limits. I’m a total type-A that goes, goes, goes all the time. But there’s a strict circle around my “pushing myself” that never treads into the waters of “scary” or “highly uncomfortable”. Read more

January 18, 2016

Gardening for Self-Sufficiency – Our 2016 Plan

Gardening for self-sufficiency is different than gardening for fun. When we lived back in the suburbs, we had a small 10×15 or so garden plot, and each year we’d sit down and talk about what “fun” types of things we’d attempt to grow for the year. Preservation had that same “fun” theme, as we’d can pickles for the purpose of always having one of our favorite foods around, and we tried freezing green beans simply because we wanted to learn the process.

However, one of our goals in ditching suburbia for the sake of country living was that we wanted to begin to really turn our garden into a serious source of food for our family of six. What started out as a fun hobby is slowly becoming a vital source of food for the entire year. As such, the gardening we do now is vastly different than the gardening we did back in the suburbs. Read more

January 15, 2016

Perspective in Debt Payoff

As we navigate through our debt payoff journey, sometimes I find myself falling into some self-pity modes.

Why did we get ourselves into such a mess?

Why don’t we make more money? Read more

January 11, 2016

The Frugal Farmer 2016 Goals

2016 Goals

Setting goals is something I do personally and we do as a family every single year. Usually, I look forward to these goal-setting session with great anticipation. This year, not so much. It’s been an exhausting year here from a personal standpoint, and although we are praising God that we came through the many bumps in the road that we experienced with success, I’m Just. Plain Tired. Although I can’t share all of the details of our hurdles, they were intense to say the least.

Have you ever had a year like that? No need to share the details, it’s just that, in spite of the many tribulations I’ve experienced in my life (see more on that here, here and here) I’ve usually come out with a victorious attitude. This year I just feel kind of like I escaped certain destruction by the skin of my nose and I’m darn worn out. Read more

January 7, 2016

What to Do if You’re Serious About Getting Out of Debt This Year

Hey, frugal friends! As I wrote on Fruclassity on Monday, I’ve got a serious itch to dump the remainder of our consumer debt this year and to lower our mortgage as well. Not sure what’s prompting it, but the urge has been going strong for three straight weeks now. The conspiracy theorist in me tells me it’s because America is headed for a nasty financial meltdown, but I’ll spare you from that rant for now. 🙂

Meltdown or no meltdown, it’s always good to get out of debt and to take advantage of those times when your motivation is strongest. So, in that vein, here are some rock solid tips for dumping debt if you’re really serious about becoming debt free. Read more