• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
The Frug: Live Lean. Work Lean. Travel Lean.

The Frug: Live Lean. Work Lean. Travel Lean.

  • Home
  • Start Here
  • The Frug Recommends
  • Resources
  • Archives
  • About

Origin of the Frug

07/13 by The Frug Leave a Comment

Frug=less

Origin of The Frug
by Brad Beckstrom

I was given the nickname “The Frug” by my beautiful wife Kelly. She has a blog, kellysuperficial.com from here on out “SuperK” as that’s how lazy of a typist I am. She writes about celebrities, makeup, and fashion. Sometimes she uses her blog to complain about me and my frugal ways! (when I am merely trying to dissuade her from spending our kids’ college education funds at Target, Nordstrom,and Sephora!)

I think she’s got at least 100 blog posts that mention “The Frug.” Anyway, I thought, “why do I deserve this nickname?” By all appearances, we are certainly not that frugal. In fact, I believe we spend more than most families on what I call “family T&E” or as SuperK calls it “Family Fun Time.” (I think she is being sarcastic, but what do I know?) It’s our biggest budget item. This blog is mostly about our journey from spending on “stuff” to spending on adventures.

Regardless, the name stuck so I decided to really start living it. A few years ago, I registered the domain name “thefrug.com” but never got around to starting the blog as I was too busy dealing with, you guessed it, “stuff.” I think when most people hear the word frugal they think of a penny-pinching coupon clipping recluse. I’d like to redefine the term.

Let’s start with the Wikipedia definition of frugality:

Frugality is the quality of being frugal, sparing, thrifty, prudent or economical in the use of consumable resources such as food, time or money, and avoiding waste, lavishness or extravagance.

I like to think of it this way Frugality = Less and Less = More. So this blog is really about enjoying life more by consuming less. Especially less stuff.

The formula is pretty simple, by consuming less we free up time and money to spend on life’s experiences, instead of stuff. And if we can develop lean spending habits for travel, for work, and for life in general, everyone benefits. I’ve been working on this for years and I want to encourage people to join me in the War on Stuff . I also want to share everything I’ve learned in my long journey towards a lean lifestyle.

So, what am I going to be talking about? Mostly, this blog will be about improving your personal economy and enjoyment of life through living lean, working lean and traveling lean. Many personal finance blogs spend a lot of time focused on the economy, the stock market and the general insanity of the day-to-day world of finance. That’s not for us. We know we have no control over that and most of the advice is contradictory or flat out wrong.

My goal is to guide you towards financial independence so you can be free from worrying about the news, the market and your 401K balance.

Let’s get started.

You May Also Like

Filed Under: Live Lean, Start Here Tagged With: financial independence, Frugal, less equals more

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Sign up for The Frug Mailing List

* = required field

Follow The Frug

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Medium
  • LinkedIn
  • Google
  • RSS Feed

Categories

  • Live Lean
  • Start Here
  • The Frug Recommends
  • Travel Lean
  • Work Lean

Recent Posts


  • How to Banish Worry and be Thankful Everyday.


  • 10 Frugal travel hacks we used for our week in Portugal.


  • Frugal versus Cheap


  • How to Talk Yourself Out of a Boat or RV Purchase, Every Time You Get That Itch.


  • Let’s Clean This Mess Up.


  • This Street is Closed. Travels During a Pandemic 2021 Version.


  • Words That Matter


  • Are you drowning in news and social media content? Here are 8 ideas that will make you smarter.


  • The Case for Getting Outside.


  • The School of Life

Popular Posts

  • George Carlin - Stuff
    George Carlin - Stuff
  • How to Talk Yourself Out of a Boat or RV Purchase, Every Time You Get That Itch.
    How to Talk Yourself Out of a Boat or RV Purchase, Every Time You Get That Itch.
  • “One Man’s Trash”  My 5 year experiment with Craigslist
    “One Man’s Trash” My 5 year experiment with Craigslist
  • Everyone under 25 needs to read this story.
    Everyone under 25 needs to read this story.
  • Most people misunderstand life.
    Most people misunderstand life.
  • Feed The Pig
    Feed The Pig
  • Getting rid of GAS. Gear Acquisition Syndrome.
    Getting rid of GAS. Gear Acquisition Syndrome.
  • 750 Words will get you writing.
    750 Words will get you writing.
  • We Forget to Give.
    We Forget to Give.
  • Living Small. How The Tiny House Movement Found Me.
    Living Small. How The Tiny House Movement Found Me.

Archives

© 2022 The Frug. All Rights Reserved. Live Lean | Work Lean | Travel Lean.