Book Review: Be Thrifty (Not Cheap!)

Be Thrifty (Not Cheap!): How to Live Better with Less by Pia Catton and Califia Suntree (c) 2010 by Workman Publishing.


Awhile ago I was watching (well trying to watch) the Today Show on NBC while trying to get my kids up and ready for their day. I was half listening to a segment about money, household tips, or something of that nature when I heard the title of this book. I shook my head, giggled, and served up breakfast.

Later that week during one of my rare down times when both kids were napping at the same time, I tried to find the segment on the Today Show's web site. I didn't have much luck, but I did find the book on Amazon.com which had their Look Inside feature to see some of the book. Even after "seeing" the book on the Web, I still wanted to hold it in my hand to look through before purchasing. After a week or so of searching I couldn't find it in any book stores, second hand book stores, or big box stores. I took a big gamble and just bought it (used) through Amazon and tried to wait patiently for it to arrive by mail.

I always get nervous when purchasing books blindly on the Internet, but I'm glad I bought this one!

The format of the book makes it very reader friend, especially for this mom who is constantly getting interrupted and can hardly ever finish reading a page in one sitting. I liken the page format to that of a newspaper or new magazine; short blurbs or articles, stand out boxes for quick information, etc.

I am only on the third chapter, but already I've jotted down page numbers for some really useful information. I'm sure that with lots of searching, filtering, and time I could have found these tips, hints, and useful information somewhere on the world wide web, but I don't have that kind of time and for the most part I never thought about most of these things.

A lot of the information that I've read so far has been somewhat new to me or a refresher course to those lessons that my Depression-era grandmother tried to teach me when I was a little girl. There's also a bit of a refresher course of things that I'm sure my Home Economics teacher taught, but this brain of mine lost a long time ago.

I just finished the page about making bread and all of it's terminology. I've always wanted to bake all of the bread that my family eats, which is at least a loaf or two a week. I don't know if I'm up to snuff, but this book makes me at least want to try my hand at it!

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who's looking to save money and wants to stop outsourcing a lot of tasks that can be easily done yourself.

Article Submission: Updated Envelope Method

I was reading an article on http://www.moms-living-debt-free.com/ and posted a comment to one of their articles on budgeting (Budgeting Percentages; Recommendations for Each Major Household Budget Category). My post hasn't been accepted yet, but I still wanted to share the information with you as well as the original article. Enjoy!

I'm always looking for free money (I'm constantly looking for coins on the ground!) and for ways to make my money work for me, yet be quickly (within 3-5 days) accessible as well.

I opened/created accounts at three online banking institutions which are FDIC insured, their interest rates are much better than the brick and mortar banks in town. I named each account and then set up automatic deposit so that every paycheck a chunk of money goes into the different accounts and accrues interest. I just happened to use three online institutions mainly due to already having an account with them or even getting free money deposited into my account after making a minimum years worth of deposits.

I created accounts for Property Taxes, Insurance Bills (Life, Home, & Vehicle), Clothing Fund, Vacation Fund, Home Projects/Fix-Ups, and most importantly an Emergency Fund. For those accounts that I know I won't (or shouldn't) be dipping into very often I make sure that the money is in a higher yielding interest account. For those accounts that I know I'll dip into 3+ times a year I don't really worry myself about the interest rates since I know I'm getting a better one than at the stand alone banks in town.

So now instead of wondering how I'm going to pay the property taxes on our house I can go into that account and have the money transfered into my main banking account (for free). If the kids need new clothes I can transfer money from the clothing fund and pay off the credit card (that has rewards) that I used to purchase the clothes with.

Before doing single accounts per category, I tried to lump all the money into one account, hoping to take advantage of making even more interest on the large balance in the account. However I found it much too difficult to keep track of what monies were for what, even with my spreadsheet to help me keep track.

It's really just personal preference on the number of accounts and I choose to keep the hair on my head by not pulling it out trying to figure out how much money I had left in my vacation fund!