The Frugal Way, Book 1
Smart Budgets for Busy People
By Maria
Zannini
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2012 Maria
Zannini
All rights reserved.
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For other
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Acknowledgements
The Frugal Way series
is my passion, but I couldn’t call it finished without help. I’d
like to thank Renee Miller for being my second set of eyes and for a
Canadian point of view. Renee made me realize that even when we speak
the same language—sometimes we don’t.
And a special thank you to
Melina Lima for letting me bounce off a million ideas before we
settled on the final cover shot. Who knew there’d be so many ways
to say FRUGAL?
For Greg
The Frugal Way: Book 1
Smart Budgets for Busy People
The Frugal Way is a series of books that will put you on the path to solvency and smart living. The first book, Smart Budgets for Busy People sets the stage on which to build your super-easy frugal empire.
In this guide you will find:
• No hard math. (Math makes my head hurt.)
• No fluff. I don’t have time for that. Neither do you.
• Actual life experience
• Tips and examples to help you visualize your fierce frugal side
• Lots of links to useful resources
Table of Contents
The First Step: Design Your Budget
Adjustable and Nonnegotiable Expenses
The Psychology of Spending and Saving
The Frugal Way is everything I learned in the school of hard knocks. I won’t be telling you anything I haven’t already experienced and survived.
My mission is simple. I want you to be solvent, self-sufficient, and smart. We have enough poor people in the world. If you want to improve your situation, I want to help you.
Throughout the guide, you will see True Tales, a short side story about a personal experience relating to that section. (This is where the School of Hard Knocks comes in.)
In Smart Budgets, The Frugal Way will take you step by step and show you how to assess your current situation, how to look into the future to determine your needs, and how to create the perfect budget for your unique situation.
In between budgeting, we’ll cover saving tips, ways to make money without opening a vein, and alternatives to keeping more of your cash in the bank.
I’m going to prove to you that anyone, even someone with giant dogs, zombie chickens, and a husband who can spend money like a Rockefeller can save money without robbing the mint.
From here on out I want you to put your game face on. I don’t want to hear any crying or whining that saving is hard, and don’t email me with a million excuses on why you can’t budget. Living frugally is as much a mindset as it is a lifestyle.
You can do this. You must. It could mean the difference between living comfortably and hiding from creditors.
Most of you will be just like me; perpetually short of cash and high on dreams. But dreams can come true if you’re patient and smart.
My husband and I did it on minimum wage and no wages. We did it with one spouse working and one spouse saving. We paid off our first house in seven years. We paid off the second house in ten years. We sold the third house and bought our “last” house, and that should be paid off in LESS than two years.
A lot of experts tell you to get rid of your credit cards, but if you trust yourself, they can be a convenient asset. It allows you to write one check at the end of the month, paying off the balance every month. Using a credit card also keeps your credit score high.
But credit cards are tricky business and you can get into trouble fast unless you’re practical with spending and diligent about paying.
Other than a mortgage that we’ll pay off shortly, we have no debt. We own two homes, acreage, and a healthy savings account. We’ll retire while we’re still in our fifties. We did all this on a single principle. We lived below our means.
Did we sacrifice? That depends on your definition of sacrifice. We never, ever felt deprived, and I’m married to a man who’s an electronics junkie.
What we have, and what you can learn is FOCUS. There are tricks and tips to saving money and I’ll share all I know throughout The Frugal Way series, but ultimately it’s up to you. You have to be the grownup and decide whether to splurge on a pair of shoes you’ll wear twice a year or pay off a credit card.
Do you want a mortgage-free home and no debts? Or do you want expensive shoes that will hurt your feet in a couple of hours?
If you or your significant other is a little weak when it comes to saving, wean him into it gradually. Instead of eating out four times a week, eat out twice. Instead of buying an entire outfit, buy the shoes.
Make it a challenge. For example: How long can you brown bag it without feeling deprived? How long can you go without buying a new gadget or toy? How often do you watch cable TV? Be honest. If you're constantly switching stations, maybe that $60 to $120 a month isn't as good a deal as you think. A lot of shows can be watched on Hulu and movie rentals are free at the library, or $1 at the Red Box kiosk in places like Walmart.
We are creatures of habit and mimicry. Habits are habits. You can just as easily replace a bad habit with a good one using the same principles.
I think the most fun my husband and I ever had was when we were poor. We walked. We explored the city. And we spent hours at the library, museums and zoo. We enjoyed each other's company.
But our savings really started to jump when we lived on one paycheck—my much smaller paycheck. I was making $12,000 a year back then, painfully close to the poverty level. Yet we paid our mortgage, remodeled our home, ate well, and raised five dogs, all on my pittance of a salary.
In the meantime we saved every penny of my husband’s check, some going to our house fund and the rest going to the emergency fund. It put us way over our goal of raising twenty thousand in cash and paying off our mortgage early. Twenty thousand might sound nominal, but this was the early 1980s and that was serious savings back then.