Treat your savings like a bill and watch your money finally stick around. In this Living Dirt Cheap episode, a debt‑free family saving 50–60% on one income shares the simple “pay yourself first” system with no apps, no extremes, just realistic budget tips for real families. Debt‑free, realistic, and doable for any family.

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We are a debt-free family living on one normal income in rural Southwest Virginia without feeling deprived. After paying off all our debt, we realized real freedom didn’t come from earning more; it came from needing less on purpose. We treat our home as an asset and use traditional skills to solve modern money problems.

Join us each week as we share the practical financial strategies, frugal habits, and "inflation shields" that allow us to live a rich life on a small budget. If you want to escape the rat race and build wealth, you're in the right place.

Visit us at https://linktr.ee/thecannycouple or email us with questions/suggestions thecannycouple@yahoo.com

The Canny Couple

PO Box 464

Duffield, VA 24244

We already save 50–60% of our income on ONE normal paycheck by living dirt cheap… but in 2026, we’re pushing our savings even higher without feeling deprived. In this episode, we walk through the exact changes we’re making to our one-income family budget to fight higher costs, live even more dirt cheap, and boost our savings by another 5%. In this episode, we break down our 2026 plan: grocery buffers, a new “Household Stock System,” maxing our Roth IRAs, and opening a brokerage account so we’re not totally locked up until retirement age.

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We are a debt-free family living on one normal income in rural Southwest Virginia without feeling deprived. After paying off all our debt, we realized real freedom didn’t come from earning more; it came from needing less on purpose. We treat our home as an asset and use traditional skills to solve modern money problems.

Join us each week as we share the practical financial strategies, frugal habits, and "inflation shields" that allow us to live a rich life on a small budget. If you want to escape the rat race and build wealth, you're in the right place.

Visit us at https://linktr.ee/thecannycouple or email us with questions/suggestions thecannycouple@yahoo.com

The Canny Couple

PO Box 464

Duffield, VA 24244

We’re back! After a quiet season dealing with a major health journey, Aaron and Julia (The Canny Couple) are officially relaunching the podcast as Living Dirt Cheap. In this episode, we share the “why” behind our name change, a candid update on Julia’s battle with New Daily Persistent Headache (NDPH), and how our frugal systems literally saved us during our hardest year yet.

We’re shifting our focus from pure homesteading to the bigger picture: Practical Frugal Living. We’re talking real-life budget breakdowns and how to build a life that costs less without feeling deprived.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• Why “Reliance” is now “Living Dirt Cheap”
• The health scare that paused our content and what we learned about financial margin
• Our 3 pillars for 2026: Money Systems, Food Savings, and the Frugal Mindset
• Why the garden and canning are still in our “frugal toolbox”

What this podcast is all about:

• Real-life budgets from a debt-free, one-income family
• Frugal Living Tips you can actually stick with
• Grocery and pantry strategies to cut your food bill
• Using homesteading (gardening, canning, preserving) to support living on one income.
• Mindset and contentment when no one around you lives this way

If you’re tired of money stress and want simple, realistic budgeting and how to save money strategies for a normal family, this podcast is for you.

Whether you’ve been here since the beginning or you’re looking for a fresh, debt-free start for 2026, welcome home. Let’s build a life that costs less, one small change at a time.

_________________

We are a debt-free family living on one normal income in rural Southwest Virginia without feeling deprived. After paying off all our debt, we realized real freedom didn’t come from earning more; it came from needing less on purpose. We treat our home as an asset and use traditional skills to solve modern money problems.

Join us each week as we share the practical financial strategies, frugal habits, and "inflation shields" that allow us to live a rich life on a small budget. If you want to escape the rat race and build wealth, you're in the right place.

Visit us at https://linktr.ee/thecannycouple or email us with questions/suggestions thecannycouple@yahoo.com

The Canny Couple

PO Box 464

Duffield, VA 24244

On this week's episode of Rural Reliance, Aaron and Julia share how they handled their 2024 goals and how they are approaching 2025 differently. With a laser focus and determination, you can reach your homestead or frugal objectives as well.

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The Canny Couple is a small homestead family in rural Southwest Virginia. We work every day on being more self-reliant by living a frugal homestead lifestyle. We live a simple, debt-free life. We hope to achieve our goal of self-sufficiency by reducing our costs, merging frugality, homesteading, traditional skills, and modern enhancements into our everyday life.

We hope you will join us as we continue to forge our homestead, where we work hard, live simple and enjoy life.

Visit us at https://linktr.ee/thecannycouple or email us with questions/suggestions at thecannycouple@yahoo.com

The Canny Couple

PO Box 464

Duffield, VA 24244

Trends come and go, but traditional homesteading is here to stay. In today's episode, Aaron and Julia share what they do a bit differently on their homestead and how it works best for their family.

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The Canny Couple is a small homestead family in rural Southwest Virginia. We work every day on being more self-reliant by living a frugal homestead lifestyle. We live a simple, debt-free life. We hope to achieve our goal of self-sufficiency by reducing our costs, merging frugality, homesteading, traditional skills, and modern enhancements into our everyday life.

We hope you will join us as we continue to forge our homestead, where we work hard, live simple and enjoy life.

Visit us at https://linktr.ee/thecannycouple or email us with questions/suggestions at thecannycouple@yahoo.com

The Canny Couple

PO Box 464

Duffield, VA 24244

Did you meet your financial goals for November? Today, Aaron and Julia share what went right and wrong with their November budget and how they go into the winter months with a clear financial plan.

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The Canny Couple is a small homestead family in rural Southwest Virginia. We work every day on being more self-reliant by living a frugal homestead lifestyle. We live a simple, debt-free life. We hope to achieve our goal of self-sufficiency by reducing our costs, merging frugality, homesteading, traditional skills, and modern enhancements into our everyday life.

We hope you will join us as we continue to forge our homestead, where we work hard, live simple and enjoy life.

Visit us at https://linktr.ee/thecannycouple or email us with questions/suggestions at thecannycouple@yahoo.com

The Canny Couple

PO Box 464

Duffield, VA 24244

As a mom and perfectionist, Julia understands that feeling of wanting to control as much around her day to day life as possible. But this is an unrealistic and unreasonable expectation we put on ourselves. Today, she shares her strategies to embrace and handle the chaos that comes with life.

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The Canny Couple is a small homestead family in rural Southwest Virginia. We work every day on being more self-reliant by living a frugal homestead lifestyle. We live a simple, debt-free life. We hope to achieve our goal of self-sufficiency by reducing our costs, merging frugality, homesteading, traditional skills, and modern enhancements into our everyday life.

We hope you will join us as we continue to forge our homestead, where we work hard, live simple and enjoy life.

Visit us at https://linktr.ee/thecannycouple or email us with questions/suggestions at thecannycouple@yahoo.com

The Canny Couple

PO Box 464

Duffield, VA 24244

Frugality is about more than saving money, it is also about spending money on the items or experiences that bring you joy. Julia shares her own personal struggles with how she handles spending money on larger purchases without feeling regrets afterward.

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The Canny Couple is a small homestead family in rural Southwest Virginia. We work every day on being more self-reliant by living a frugal homestead lifestyle. We live a simple, debt-free life. We hope to achieve our goal of self-sufficiency by reducing our costs, merging frugality, homesteading, traditional skills, and modern enhancements into our everyday life.

We hope you will join us as we continue to forge our homestead, where we work hard, live simple and enjoy life.

Visit us at https://linktr.ee/thecannycouple or email us with questions/suggestions at thecannycouple@yahoo.com

The Canny Couple

PO Box 464

Duffield, VA 24244