365 Ways to Live Cheap
YOUR EVERYDAY GUIDE TO SAVING MONEY
365 WAYS
TO LIVE
CHEAP
TRENT HAMM
FOUNDER OF THESIMPLEDOLLAR.COM
Copyright © 2009 by F+W Media, Inc.
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ISBN 10: 1-60550-042-9
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CONTENTS
The Ten Biggest Tip$ for Living Cheap
CHEAP TACTIC$ FOR:
A QUICK QUIZ
WHERE DOES YOUR MONEY REALLY GO?
Do you know where your money goes? Are you really aware of every red cent you’re spending, or does a lot of it slip right through your fingers, leaving you wondering at the end of the month how you’re going to make ends meet? Knowing where every penny goes is one of the key principles of living cheap. Take this quick quiz to find out how your dollars stack up.
1. When you look at the receipt after leaving the grocery store, you:
A. Feel shocked at the total and express disbelief that you could have spent that much.
B. Feel alarmed at the rising grocery prices, but feel that you made sensible purchases.
C. Smile happily at your tiny total, knowing that you got the food you needed for the week at a minimal cost.
2. When you sit down to pay bills, you:
A. Hope that there will be money in your account to cover the checks.
B. Get through the task as quickly as possible, but don’t worry about having enough money to pay the bills.
C. Look for ways to trim a few dollars off every bill you pay.
3. When an unexpected bill comes in the mail, you:
A. PANIC!
B. Calmly take a little out of savings and a little out of the checking account and pay the bill, then use the credit card to cover regular expenses for the next week.
C. Fire off that payment without thinking twice thanks to cheap living and an emergency fund.
4. It’s Sunday afternoon and time to go grocery shopping. You:
A. Jump in the car and head straight to the supermarket.
B. Make a grocery list.
C. Use the grocery store flyer to plan your meals for the week and then make a list from that meal plan.
5. How much money is in your checking account right now (without
peeking!)?
A. I have no idea.
B. I know within a few hundred dollars.
C. I know within a few dollars.
6. How much money did you spend on entertainment and hobbies last
month?
A. I don’t know—a lot?
B. I know pretty close to the amount, but it’s more than is probably healthy.
C. Ten bucks or so.
7. A friend calls up and wants to do something fun. You:
A. Go out with your buddy and drop at least $100—or whatever the evening requires to “have fun.”
B. Go out with your buddy, but just spend $20 or so.
C. Suggest twenty or so different things to do, none of which cost much of anything at all.
8. Your kids are bored. You:
A. Load ’em up and take them to the mall.
B. Load ’em up and take them to the park and then out for ice cream.
C. Pull out board games, play catch in the yard, and spend the afternoon together at home.
9. When you open up your cell phone bill, you:
A. Grumble loudly about overage charges, extra text message fees, and out-of-plan-area calls, but pay the bill anyway.
B. See a few small additional costs, but pay the bill without sweating it.
C. Rarely see an extra cost, but if you do, call up the cell phone company and make sure it doesn’t happen again.
10. You see a new toy/gadget/clothing item you really want. You:
A. Whip out the plastic and buy it immediately.
B. Don’t buy it right then, but go home and plan how you can afford it, then buy it next week.
C. Go home and see if it fits in your budget. If it doesn’t, put it off until a later date when you really can afford it—if you still want it then, that is.
Scoring
For every A answer, give yourself 3 points.
For every B answer, give yourself 2 points.
For every C answer, give yourself 1 point.
Do you know where your money goes?
25 TO 30 POINTS:
Your money flutters through your fingers and blows away in the wind. Time to buckle down and learn how to live cheap.
18 TO 25 POINTS:
You know some of the tactics for living a financially sensible lifestyle, but too much of your cash still slips through the cracks. Time for a tactics refresher.
10 TO 17 POINTS:
You’re a thrift machine who knows how to save money— and knows the usefulness of discovering new ways to save a penny.
THE TEN BIGGEST TIP$ FOR
LIVING CHEAP
1 Take Little Steps, Not Big Ones
2 Realize That You’re Not Alone in This Journey
4 Calculate How Much You Really Make
5 Record Every Penny You Spend for a Month
7 Master the Thirty-Day Rule, Too
9 Talk about Your Money, Especially with Your Partner
1. T
AKE
L
ITTLE
S
TEPS
, N
OT
B
IG
O
NES
Making changes to your everyday lifestyle is hard—that’s why so many people try diets and eventually fail. They start off believing that they can make dramatic changes to their life and it works—for a while. Eventually, though, they fall off the wagon and all of that weight they lost comes right back. Cutting back on your spending is much the same. If you go at it with a high level of intensity at first, eventually you’ll rebound and go on a spending spree. The best route to success then is to take little steps, not big ones. Find one tactic in this book and focus on just that tactic for a few weeks, incorporating it into your life. Then try another, and then another. Soon, you’ll have made that big change you dream about and it will fit as naturally as a glove.
2. R
EALIZE
T
HAT
Y
OU’RE
N
OT
A
LONE IN
T
HIS
J
OURNEY
Some people spend money like it is going out of style, racking up five figures in credit card debt, multiple vehicle loans, student loans, and mortgages, too. If you’re struggling with debt and making ends meet, know you’re not alone in this experience and that there are people out there who can help you through this, whether it is your family, your friends, or people online who are sharing their experiences. Don’t give in to the sense that it is hopeless—there is hope, and there are people who want to help you.
3. S
PEND
L
ESS
T
HAN
Y
OU
E
ARN
Your primary goal each month should be to spend less than you bring in. If you do that consistently, over and over again, your financial situation will improve. There are a lot of ways to make sure you’re doing this—an old-fashioned budget, complete abstinence from credit cards, putting some of your income into savings immediately before you even begin to spend it—but they all come down to one rule: Spend less than you earn. The tips in this book will help you with spending less so that you can achieve this goal every month.
4. C
ALCULATE
H
OW
M
UCH
Y
OU
R
EALLY
M
AKE
Many of the tactics of living cheap seem like a waste of time to many people. “I’m not doing that to save five dollars!” is a common thing to say. If you feel that way, try this experiment:
First, calculate how many hours you work in a year. But that’s not all . . . add to that the hours spent driving to and from work, the hours spent working on stuff at home, the hours spent entertaining and supporting coworkers, the hours spent shopping for work supplies, and so on. If you spend even a sliver of time on a task for your job, count it.
Next, calculate how much money you earn in a year, including your benefits (you can get that off your paycheck stub). From that, subtract taxes, the cost of commuting (gas, oil changes, wear and tear on the car, and other maintenance), the cost of work clothes, the cost of child care, the cost of other supplies you need to purchase, and so on. Anything that you buy for your job, subtract it here.
Then, divide the amount you actually earn by the number of hours that you really work. This can be a painful process.