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

Happy Fridays From the Frug’s Basement Bar

Sharing some Frugal beer finds and a few other things.

Over the past few years, I’ve been having some fun with old coasters, postcards, matches, photographs, and other various items I find in my travels. I tend to accumulate these things from different bars, restaurants, and hotels that I stumble upon. I’ve always enjoyed the creative effort that goes into some of the simplest things, like the logo for a new craft beer or an unusual coaster or postcard.

I keep a small stack of these items in my office. When they get to a certain height, I spread them out with some old photographs and other random things on a card table and photograph them with an iPhone. Since these are essentially Friday happy hour images, I’ve always added a nice cold beer which I enjoy at the end of the photoshoot. So far, there are 16 in the series and you can see them here on Flickr, or occasionally popping up on my Instagram feed.

This year I’m adding a new twist. Lately I’ve been finding some good quality imported and craft beers at our nearby ALDI and Trader Joe’s stores where we do most of our shopping.

The prices are great, for example, $4.95 a six pack for a great quality IPA or $6.49 for some solid imported brands. The first of which I’m sharing here today. Kinroo Blue a Belgian White Ale.

Frugal Beer Finds — Happy Friday from the Frug’s basement bar. 16th in the series. Today I’m trying Kinroo Blue a Belgian White Ale that’s light-bodied with some nice orange and spice notes. A great beer to compare with Allagash White for half the price at ALDI. Sharing #beer #Art #Travel #Photography #Traderjoesfinds #aldifinds and some places I’ve traveled. 5 countries represented in this image. Guess which ones.

When I come across a new beer I like I save it in the Untappd app along with some tasting notes and ratings. It’s also a great way to find great beers nearby.

Look for more of these Happy Friday images to occasionally pop up here or on social media along with a brief beer recommendation.

The Frug

Financial Independence through Living Lean, Working Lean, and Traveling Lean. Follow me on Twitter, Facebook , Flickr , or Instagram

Think Big, Live simply. Our Five-Year Plan to Go Big by Traveling Light.

01/20 by The Frug Leave a Comment

By Brad Beckstrom

I know, I tend to get excited about things. I’ve always been like this. Periods of intense interest in something that wanes over time, then comes back full force months, sometimes years later. Minimalism is one of those things.

Minimalism often shows up in different places in my life. It could be frugality, architecture, lean investment strategies, work, art, even fitness. When I write about it I like to call it living lean.

One thing I’ve noticed is that minimalism sometimes gets painted as a movement for people who aren’t interested in success and the financial, social, material trappings that come along with it. Then I’ll see an article in the New York Times talking about how minimalism is now conflated with self-optimization and the rich who can afford to leave things alone.

To some extent, it’s both. If you’ve ever watched the show Billions, you’ll notice the minimalist offices and penthouse apartments of the hedge fund traders in the show. They are using their money to save time by minimizing distractions. Using money to skip lines, travel in private jets, have an empty desk in a spotless office. All of the “little things” are taken care of by staff and assistants. However, with minimalism, there is something deeper going on.

[Read more…]

The Secret to Running The Business of You.

01/20 by The Frug Leave a Comment

By Brad Beckstrom

“Have a small nut; that’s the key to life.”
Graham Parker.

What’s an aging rock ‘n roller to do, the once big recording contracts, the limos, seven-figure tour revenue all start to trickle away? Graham Parker, a British punk rock pioneer, knows exactly what to do: enjoy life, have a great time, and keep making music. Graham’s quote “Have a small nut; that’s the key to life” sums up one of the core principles of financial independence. The small nut he’s referring to is not assets, but monthly expenses. Rock stars, athletes, entrepreneurs, everyday folks all hit the same wall. We hear these stories all the time, from the extreme, like Mike Tyson blowing through $400 million and ending up homeless, to the highflying salesperson that overextended themselves, justifying their current expenses on future income fantasies, only to be chop blocked at the knees by a corporate reorg or downsizing.

Professional athletes know this story all too well. The average career in the NFL is about four years. In major league baseball, it’s a little over five years. Knowing this, it seems crazy when you see young athletes, blowing their entire signing bonus, borrowing against it before they even get a check. The secret is to do the opposite, save the entire bonus along with any windfalls, and keep your monthly expenses to a minimum. [Read more…] about The Secret to Running The Business of You.

Are We Happier When We’re Uncomfortable?

11/19 by The Frug Leave a Comment

By Brad Beckstrom

I walked down a dark alley in a foreign city I’d never been to, walked up to a stranger and took this picture. Why in the world would I be wandering around a foreign city taking pictures of strangers. I do it because it’s uncomfortable. It’s a way to get out of my shell, meet people, and try to see new things.

Anything new, a major break from your normal routine, can be uncomfortable. It’s exactly this kind of discomfort that can make us happy, help us grow.

The Perfect Life?

[Read more…]

The Frugal Reader

10/19 by The Frug 1 Comment

Finding the best free books in any format, audio, digital, paper.

By Brad Beckstrom

I read a lot. Maybe not compared to some folks, but more than I ever thought I would. Not sure how I got hooked on it. It might’ve been in the early days of Borders Books or stumbling upon some great books on Amazon back in the late 90s when that’s all they sold.

I remember a quote from Kevin Kelly, the founding editor of
Wired Magazine:

Read one book a month and it will change your life.

He’s right.

It took me a little longer to figure out that libraries and independent bookstores were a better place find good books. Sadly independent bookstores, or even bookstores in general, are getting harder to find. I live just outside of Washington, DC and they’re even getting harder to find here. The closest bookstore to me when I ride my bike into Georgetown is owned by, wait for it….Amazon.

Luckily technology is making it easier to find a good book and the key to enjoying reading is finding good books. You’ll often go through a lot of duds or books that start out like gangbusters than just drag on.

So here, in no particular order, are my secrets to finding good books, often for free. If you’re not sure what you even want to read, see below for some tips on getting book ideas.

[Read more…]

What Are the Odds of You Existing?

09/19 by The Frug 1 Comment

Before you achieve anything today, you are already a very successful 850 Centillion to one shot. Vikings, Pilgrims, Veterans and Vagabonds. Your odds of even existing are oh-so-slim.

That’s right, the odds of you existing right now are about 1 in 10^2685000. That’s a 10 with a couple of million zeros after it.

If we go back just 10 generations, the number is still far north of 1 in 100 Centillion. That’s 100 with 303 zeros after it.

Once you get past 100 Centrillion, there’s no need to keep counting the zeros unless you’re in a lab somewhere at MIT. Other folks were smart enough to crank these numbers for us. See infographic below.

Why did I bother to look this up? Over the years, various relatives have collected some interesting family tree information. A few years back, I took some time and put all of this info into ancestry.com. Ancestry.com is a great way to research and link your family history. Once you put in the basic data, grandparents great-grandparents etc. your family info is cross-referenced with millions of genealogy records worldwide.

Sometimes you get lucky. A distant cousin, or someone with similar records, put in additional information dating back many generations. Some family histories are already very well documented. You can now even submit your DNA to the database and match the location and ethnicity results against a global database. Talk about putting it all out there!

For example, my grandmother on my father’s side was a Horton. This side of the family is so well documented there are actually books written about them! I found well researched records allowing me to match siblings up with parents and birth records through the generations to provide matches on one side all the way back to a 9th Great Grandfather — William Million born in Middlesex, England in 1600.

Wars, famines, plagues

I started thinking about all the things, wars, famines, plagues, and even low sperm counts over 10 generations since 1600 that could have precluded my existence. This is only one quarter of the picture, what about the Irish on the other side of the family or my grandfather’s family origins in Finland and Sweden, no doubt descendants of Vikings. The odds of me or my family being here just keep getting smaller and smaller.