You must be ERE level of frugality if you think the Frugalwoods are not frugal. That's pretty mindblowing to me.
Their title is basically perfect for their situation. They ARE frugal. They DO live simply. And they're at least close to FI, if they're not there yet.
Your nitpicks are kind of getting ridiculous. Can't own a wood splitter when living in the snowy wilderness because it's a toy? That's how we know you're just grasping at straws here. Crabs, buckets, etc.
Hold up.
I never said anyone couldn't own anything. When you're purchasing something (60 acres of land, farm equipment, etc.) in pursuit of living out a fantasy though, I don't think it's out of left field to call it a toy. This is coming from a grown man who spends a good deal of time playing with toys (video games). It's not pejorative. It just is what it is.
I never strictly said that they weren't frugal either. True, I did say that they seem to spend quite a bit. And they do. Their spending looks about in line with a median household. FWIW, my spending is in the same ballpark. Probably even a little higher. I'm able to save a lot too, because I make good money. Just like they did/do.
This is what I mean when I talk about frugality not being as germane to the broader story.
It's easy to paint yourself as hyper-frugal when you whip up imagery of a family eating out 4 nights a week and driving a brand new car. But the reality is that the average age of a car on the road in the US is 11 years. The middle 20% of households spend about $160 eating out per month.
Here's a challenge. I assume most of us have models or spreadsheets that we use to track our time until financial independence. Try shifting $160/month out of savings and into spending and see how it affects your FI date. Chances are that if you're high income/high saver, the impact is small. And that represents a cut from ~median US restaurant spending down to zero. Even FW isn't at $0.
This is what I mean when I talk about frugality not being as germane to the broader story.
Based on my reading, they don't discuss their income in terms of hard numbers. But given age (early 30s), spending (discussed above), and inheritance ($0), it's a reduced to a mathematical exercise to impute the rest. If I were to ball-park it, I'd say, in excess of 3X the median household income.
And that's the story. It's about income + the recognition that marginal change in happiness per dollar spent is relatively low when you're at first world levels of spending already. They deserve credit for both the former, and the latter, but we should recognize that the latter is really about not dropping five figures on stupid shit on an annual basis. It's not about rescuing a lamp instead of buying one at WalMart. It's not about cutting each other's hair to save $20 at Super-Cuts.
It's about income, and I view this kind of as an empirical fact.
The great news is that everyone wins. They get to live and share the boutique lifestyle that they earned. Readers get actionable tips on how to save a buck. I just happen to feel that the narrative that "tips to save a buck" => badass alternative lifestyle is a bit oversold. I think I've done an effective job of explaining that in this thread. I resent the implication that I'm grasping at straws when I've done such a thorough job of explaining myself, while also exhibiting patience with those who write it off as jealousy, bitterness, nitpicking, and so on.
Various references:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/261881/average-age-of-light-vehicles-in-the-united-states/https://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2010/food/pdf/food.pdf