Frugal Living For Dummies

Deborah Taylor-Hough

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780764554032
• eBook ISBN: 9781118069691
• Edition: 1

Feel like you're trying to dig out from under a mountain of debt without a shovel? Tired of working your tail off just to break even? Is the high cost of living taking all the joy out of life? Unless you're one of the top two percent of wealthiest Americans, all of the above should sound painfully familiar. While they're trying to decide between the ski lodge in Telluride and the Tuscan villa, for the rest of us, it's an endless litany of corporate lay-offs, stagnant wages, crushing credit card debt, skyrocketing medical costs, exorbitant utility bills, the high cost of higher education.... And they call this "the good life." Is there a better way to live? Can you get what you need and what you want without killing yourself to get it? "Absolutely, " says frugal-living guru Deborah Taylor-Hough, and in Frugal Living For Dummies, she shows you how.

In this warmhearted guide to living the good life on less, Deborah shows you how to live within your means and enjoy doing it. Among other things, she shows you how to:

• Eat like a king on a peasant's budget
• Take the sting out of gift-giving
• Dress well on a shoestring
• Save big bucks on family expenses
• Slash household expenses
• Save on medical expenses
• Involve the whole family in saving money
• Save more for the things you want

From basement to attic, cradle to grave, Frugal Living For Dummies covers all areas of life with common sense advice and guidance on:

• Working with your partner to achieve financial goals
• Going to the grocery without being taken to the cleaners
• Quick and thrifty cooking techniques
• Providing kids the basics on a tight budget
• Putting kids through school without going broke
• Looking good and feeling good on a tight budget
• Frugal holiday fun year round
• Saving money around the house and driveway
• Finding quality in pre-owned merchandise

Packed with tried-and-true techniques for cutting costs and stopping the insanity, Frugal Living For Dummies is the ultimate financial survival guide for the rest of us.

Part I

Getting Down to Basics

In this part . . .

I f your idea of a savings account is a full change jar in the kitchen, or if you find money slips through your fingers and you never know where it all goes, you should read the chapters in this part. Part I includes practical ideas on the basics of frugal living, including setting financial goals, living on a budget, and dealing with spendthrift loved ones. You find some easy ideas for getting started on a new, less expensive lifestyle.

Chapter 1

Living Frugally in a Spendthrift World

In This Chapter

Demystifying frugal living

Deciding why frugal living is right for you

Eliminating attitudes that breed discontentment

Changing habits for a more frugal you

S pending more money than you make each month is so easy in a consumer-driven society. Just pull out the ol’ credit card and buy that new sweater, or golf club, or that $5 cup of ice cream. But eventually the bills come due, and, like it or not, the bills have to be repaid at some point—unless you’re thinking personal bankruptcy would be a nice little addition to your résumé or credit report. But trust me on this one—you don’t

Defining Frugal Living

Frugal living is making the necessary choices to live within your means. By living within your means, you keep yourself and your family from the bondage of consumer debt. Living frugally isn’t the same as living a miserably unadorned, Spartan lifestyle. And being frugal isn’t the same thing as being cheap or chintzy. Frugal living is simply being economical in the use of your resources. For example:

My house is filled almost to overflowing with my favorite Victoriana décor—purchased at garage sales, thrift stores, and retrieved from Grandma’s attic.

Our family of five dines in fancy restaurants on special occasions—often with coupons or during special offers.

We see nearly every current movie we want to—by waiting for it to hit the cheap theaters, by allocating some of our entertainment budget for a movie splurge in a first-run theater (eating before we go, of course, so we aren’t tempted by $3.50 sodas and $4.50 bags of popcorn, and going early in the day to a discount matinee showing), or by waiting for the video release.

My three kids are dressed in fashionable, brand-name clothing—usually purchased secondhand or from the clearance racks at their favorite stores.

We eat high-quality, delicious foods at home—lovingly prepared from sale items at the grocery store.

Don’t slip into the extremes of saving or spending money, but find a balance that works for you and your family members. Sometimes money’s so tight that you have no choice but to be a miser. Other times you need the comfort—and the therapy—of a nice restaurant dinner with your spouse, far away from the kids and the pressing responsibilities of life.

To Be or Not to Be: Reasons for Living a Frugal Lifestyle

“To be or not to be.” Hmm. Well, Hamlet may have been dealing with bigger issues than whether or not to spend his money on gourmet coffees, but deciding to live a more frugal lifestyle in the midst of commercialism run amok isn’t necessarily an easy decision. I mean, after all, what will the neighbors think if your family is still driving the same old car five years from now?

Keep in mind the reasons you live a frugal lifestyle: getting out of debt and then staying out of debt, living within your means, saving for college or a down payment on a house, affording nice vacations, or living through a financial crisis (such as a job loss) without losing your shorts. If you’re satisfied with the choices you’re making in your life, don’t worry about what other people think about your frugal lifestyle.

For many families today, frugal living isn’t so much a matter of choosing not to join the consumer spending spree as it is a matter of necessity. The rising cost of living, stagnant wages, unexpected corporate layoffs, compounding personal debt, and high medical bills all contribute to the modern family’s financial difficulties.

Whether you need or choose to adopt a frugal lifestyle, living frugally can help you achieve your financial goals and live through financially tough times.

Saving money and meeting financial goals

Whatever your personal or family goals may be, cutting back on regular expenses can help free up money for other, more highly valued, purposes. For example, if your family wants to take an exceptionally nice vacation next year, but you don’t want to work an extra part-time job to pay for it, what can you do? Well, an easy solution is to cut back on your regular expenses throughout the year, and then save the difference for your dream vacation. Europe, here we come! (See Chapter 2 for goal-setting advice and Chapter 3 for budgeting advice.)

Dealing with stagnant wages or low income

It’d be great if every job provided regular raises, adequate medical coverage, and cost-of-living increases, but unfortunately, not all employers are able to provide these benefits for their workers. But by cutting back on personal and family-related expenses, a family may be able to continue living within its means, even if the cost of living creeps higher than wage increases. For example, if you’re spending $700 per month on groceries to feed your family and then you cut that amount in half, your family just received a $350 per month raise. (Don’t think cutting your monthly grocery bill by a few hundred dollars is possible? Check out Chapter 4.)

Some families value having a parent stay at home while the kids are young. In today’s economy, however, two full-time incomes are almost a financial necessity just to afford the rent or mortgage and other basic needs of life. But by tightening your money belt and keeping true to your personal priorities, affording a stay-at-home parent can become a reality for your family.

Living through a job loss

A major job loss can be devastating for any family. To make matters worse, many families are living so close to the edge financially that even a brief period of unemployment can be just enough to send their house into foreclosure and make their utilities unaffordable. If you’re unemployed right now, a drastically reduced spending plan for your family can mean the difference between drowning under a load of debt and staying afloat until the current crisis passes.

Even if you haven’t lost your job, discovering how to live frugally can help you build up a financial cushion that will carry...

Table of contents

• Title
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part I : Getting Down to Basics
• Chapter 1: Living Frugally in a Spendthrift World
• Chapter 2: All in the Family: Establishing a Frugal Front
• Chapter 3: Eliminating Debt and Setting Up a Budget
• : Part II
• : Eating Like a King with a Peasant’s Purse
• Chapter 4: Going to the Grocery without Being Taken to the Cleaners
• Chapter 5: No More Macaroni and Cheese, Please! Creating Frugal Meals
• Chapter 6: Quick and Thrifty Cooking Tips
• Part III : Funding the Frugal Family
• Chapter 7: Cutting Kid Costs: Providing the Basics on a Tight Budget
• Chapter 8: Putting Kids through School While Protecting Your Pocket
• Chapter 9: Looking Good and Feeling Good on a Tight Budget
• Chapter 10: The Family That Plays Together, Stays Together: Frugal Family Fun
• Chapter 11: Frugal Holiday Fun Year ’Round
• Chapter 12: Celebrating Special Occasions, Frugal-Style
• Part IV : Enjoying a Frugal Home and Hearth
• Chapter 13: Saving Money around the House and Driveway
• Chapter 14: Cutting Utility and Service Bills
• Chapter 15: Saving Money on Big-Ticket Items
• Chapter 16: Calling Secondhand Rose: Finding Quality in Previously Owned Merchandise
• Part V : Part of Tens
• Chapter 17: Ten Frugal Ways to Tell Your Sweetheart, “I Love You!”
• Chapter 18: Ten Frugal Gift-Giving Ideas