I have a soft spot for books on frugality, so when I spotted America's Cheapest Family on the shelf at my local bookstore, I had to read it. In a nutshell, it's a lifestyle guide to frugal living, one that I was happy to see come out because there simply aren't that many strong books on frugality.
Right off the bat, the entire purpose of the book is laid bare, as it gives you three principles for getting you right on the money:
Avoid debt like the plague. Debt means that you take your hard earned money and just hand it to someone else in exchange for nothing but instant gratification. Rather than using credit to buy things, you should save up the cash and let the interest work in your favor, not in the favor of some banker willing to lend you money - and take back even more money.
Live below your means. This book believes strongly in the concept of the written budget, something I'm not wholly sold on. However, I do agree that you should spend less than you take in every month, and the greater the difference between the two numbers, the better off you'll be in the long run.
Embrace the thrifty lifestyle. The authors pitch living thrifty as being like a game, one in which savings in time and in money are the prize. Every time you can do something that saves you money or time, you're winning, even if it seems like a pain to get started. I agree: that kind of attitude will win some serious rewards over the long run.
Let's dig in deeper.
In each chapter, I'm picking out a "best" tip. This isn't the most money-saving item in the chapter, but the one that stood out to me as being quite interesting.
Chapter 1: America's Cheapest Family
The first chapter is basically just an introduction to the book and to the general idea of frugality and how it fits into the overall scheme of personal finance. Some of my readers eschew the concept of frugality for various reasons, mostly because it's not fun and it doesn't get you "rich." Well, if you're interested in getting rich rather than getting your finances healthy first, this book probably isn't for you. As for the "not fun" part, I agree with the authors that it can be quite fun if you turn it into a game where you win if you figure out ways to save a bit of time or a bit of money, and all of those little wins add up to some serious cash over time.
Best tip in the chapter: If you actually buy a book to learn from it, don't be afraid to mark the thing up, take notes, etc. I generally find that if a book is good enough for me to want to do this, it's a keeper, one that I'll probably return to several times in the future, and it becomes more valuable for me if I do that. This book has huge outer margins so that you can scribble notes all over the place, something I actually did in places.
Chapter 2: Groceries - Savings by the Bagful
The real frugal advice begins in chapter two. An average family of four in America spends $8,513 a year on groceries, about $709 a month, or $177 a person. If that same family could knock out 20% of their food bill, they could bank $1,702 a year.
It turns out that the biggest money gobbler in the grocery store is impulse buying - things that people buy that they didn't plan for when they walked in the door. Their biggest tips for reducing that are to reduce the number of trips you take to the store to as little as once a month (they recommend starting off with just weekly visits), careful meal planning so that you know what ingredients you need, the development of a shopping list from that meal plan, selecting coupons that match the shopping list, and making and utilizing leftovers for future meals. As for us, we actually use Excel for our meal planning and ingredient listing, but we often end up assembling our actual grocery list by using Remember the Milk.
Best tip in the chapter: Buy bread at a bread outlet store and stock up big when it's cheap (even freezing excess loaves). I wish we had a good bread outlet nearby; we have one, but every time I visit they're either basically empty or their prices are almost the same as the grocery store, so it's not worth the time.
Chapter 3: Budgeting - The Cornerstone of Family Finances
I basically believe that religiously following someone else's budget plan is a sure way to failure, and I basically advocate that when people start out on the road to financial recovery that they not create a budget for a while, but instead look at ways to reduce spending and also record every single dime they spend for a while. Thus, when I read the title of this chapter, I expected to disagree with much of the content. Interestingly, the authors actually agreed with my philosophy for the most part - they don't present a ready-made budget for people to follow, but instead guide people towards how to create your own budget. It's very straightforward, but it's a good "how-to" for budgeting if you've never built one for yourself before.
Best tip in the chapter: If you make "guesses" to estimate how much you spend on a category in a given month, it's usually way off. I know this was true for us - we overestimated our food spending, but vastly underestimated our entertainment spending. It became clear very quickly where we needed to trim some fat.
Chapter 4: Cars - Cutting Car Costs
It boils down to this: buy a late model used car, pay cash if at all possible, and never lease. Basically, the general philosophy is that you keep driving a car until you can write a check for the next one, then sell off the old car (don't trade it in). This method basically ensures that you'll maximize your dollars with a car and you'll always have flexibility and options. For me, I have no personal qualms with driving my current vehicle into oblivion, and until then I'm parking some cash away to pay for the next one.
Best tip in the chapter: If you're trying to sell your own car, park it on a busy street corner with a "For Sale" sign in the window and contact information. It'll sell quickly. Just make sure it won't get towed.
Chapter 5: Housing - Home Sweet Home
The first part of this chapter deals briefly with the home purchasing process, but the meat of this chapter is written directly for homeowners, juggling property taxes, home improvements, and the like. Their general advice is to pay off a home as quickly as possible, something I find myself agreeing with more and more as our home purchase draws closer. Owning a home and no longer having monthly housing payments makes life a lot easier and gives you a lot of flexibility.
Best tip in the chapter: If you're looking at getting central air installed, the best time to bid is in the late fall, when business is really slow for air conditioning dealers. You can often get an amazing deal because it's so out of season.
Chapter 6: Utilities - Shut the Door, Turn Out the Lights
The Department of Energy reports that the average American home spends 6%-12% of their gross income on utilities. That's a lot of cash; even a 10% reduction in utility usage could save you 1% of your annual gross income. The chapter is split up into several subsections, each focusing on a particular utility: electricity, telephone, water, and so on. Most of them are great tips, but a few are kind of quirky: one family has a programmable thermostat that basically just turns on their central air at 5 AM and runs it nonstop until 9 AM, which is when the utility company raises the rates for the day to the higher daytime usage rates. At 9 AM, it goes off until the next day at 5 AM. During the day, they leave ceiling fans on to keep things as cool as possible, then in the evenings they cool off with a cold swimming pool or a cold shower. That's one way to save energy!
Best tip in the chapter: Trick your toilet into saving more water by tossing a filled water bottle in the tank. My parents did this with a 32 ounce soda bottle. If you have a house with a lot of toilet users in it, this can save a substantial amount of water (multiple tanks worth over a day) and it becomes noticeable on the water bill.
Chapter 7: Debt - The American Dream Turns Into a Nightmare
This chapter features a nine step plan for escaping the debt monster. Here they are, in order:
1. Acknowledge the problem
2. Make your list and check it twice
3. Cut spending to a bare minimum (this is the tricky one, I think)
4. Put the cards away
5. Get more money (by selling stuff around the house you don't need)
6. Earn more (ask for a raise)
7. The battle plan (like the debt snowball)
8. Communicate with creditors
9. The big payoff (plan a big celebration when you finish it)
Best tip in the chapter: If someone suggests paying for something by borrowing, just say no and wait. There is nothing in life worth going into debt for outside of education and a home. If you're going into debt for anything else, you're choosing to drown.
Chapter 8: Medical - Keeping Your Body Healthy and Your Wallet Happy
This chapter focuses on multiple ways to cut down on medical bills: good insurance (or at least knowing clearly what your insurance covers), prescription tricks, and preventative tips. I found the preventative tips to be the most interesting, but that doesn't mean they pass for solid medical advice or that you won't get sick. Mostly, it's things like drinking plenty of water, keeping clean, and getting some regular exercise.
Best tip in the chapter: Ask your doctor for larger supplies at a time than just one month of a maintenance prescription; that way, you pay only one co-pay per period.
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