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| Miserly Moms |
| By Jonni McCoy |
Jonni shows you how to get your whole family (even kids!) on the path to frugality. The rest of the book is jam-packed with literally hundreds of cost-saving tips, strategies, techniques, and recipes that will help your family cut your budget and lower your expenses without feeling deprived or left out.
Below is the Table of Contents AND and excerpt from the book!
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Preface
1.
Coming Home Stories--What Some Moms Say About Their Decision
2.
The Eleven Miserly Guidelines
3.
Guideline One: Don't Confuse Frugality With Depriving Yourself
4.
Guideline Two: Remove Little Wasters of Your Money
5.
Guideline Three: Keep Track Of Food Prices
6.
Guideline Four: Don't Buy Everything At The Same Store
7.
Guideline Five: Buy In Bulk Whenever Possible
8.
Guideline Six: Make Your Own Whenever Possible
9.
Guideline Seven: Eliminate Convenience Foods
10.
Guideline Eight: Cut Back On Meats
11.
Guideline Nine: Waste Nothing
12.
Guideline Ten: Institute A Soup And Bread (or Baked Potato) Night
13.
Guideline Eleven: Cook Several Meals At Once And Freeze Them
14.
Special Needs
15.
Some Great Recipes
16.
Be Wary Of Warehouse Clubs
17.
Stretch the Season
18.
Dinner On Meeting Night
19.
Birthdays, Holidays and Special Occasions
20.
The Baby (diapers, baby food, clothes, baby-sitting)
21.
The Cost of Working
22.
Clothing
23.
Help For The Working Mom
24.
The Husband
25.
Ten Ways To Get Your Kids To Save
26.
Miscellaneous Tips: photo developing, gas, milk, bread machines, coffee,
decorating and furniture, hair care, cosmetics, credit cards, vacations,
tools and appliances, paint and varnish, legal advice, check charges and
bank fees, long distance phone carriers, seasonal savings chart
27.
Medical Expenses
28.
Utilities
29.
Crafts for Kids
30.
Safer and Cheaper
31.
An Easy $10,000
Appendix
A: Menu Plans
Appendix
B: Substitutions, Equivalency Tables, Metric Conversions
Appendix
C: Additional Resources
Index
Excerpt
WHY
THIS BOOK IS DIFFERENT
When I first wrote this book, our family lived in one of the most
expensive areas in America--the San Francisco Bay Area. Most families were
spending half of their income just to pay the high rent or mortgage.
Consequently, most families needed both parents to work, just to get by.
We were one of those families. According to statistics, my husband and I
were a middle-income family, with my job providing half of our joint
income. I was a career woman who received much joy from her work.
After our first child was born, I began to feel God tugging at my
heart with the message that I needed to stay home to raise our family. At
first, I thought I had not heard the message correctly. We couldn't live
in this area on half of our joint income. At least that's what we
believed. Trying to interpret God's message, I arranged a job-sharing
program where I worked part-time. We continued that lifestyle for several
years. Once it became clear that the part-time arrangement was not God's
plan, and that I was suppose to stay home full-time, we were back at
square one.
We thought that we would have to move to another less expensive
community to live on my husband's salary alone. So that's what we decided
to do, but things changed at the last minute. We made an offer on a house,
and someone had made an offer on our home. One night I realized that I
didn't want to have my husband commuting 2-3 hours each day, and I didn't
like being so far away from our church and friends. So we got out of both
house offers with no penalties. But, I had already quit my job. So, there
we were living on half of our income in an expensive area.
Our choices were for me to go back to work or to somehow reduce our
expenses. I knew I was supposed to stay at home with my family. Instead of
bringing in a salary, I began to research how to make our money go
farther. This opened my eyes to the hidden costs in the way we lived, and
I questioned whether some people could even afford to be working.
When we had calculated what our loss of income would do to our
budget, we didn't realize how many hidden costs would disappear once I
stopped working. Working is very expensive. Given the cost of daycare,
taxes, gasoline, parking costs, convenience foods (since we were often too
tired to cook after work), lunches out, office clothes, and all of the
other amenities associated with working, not much of our salaries were
used at home. I wasn't alone in this realization. I read that some
financial experts had calculated the cost of working as $9-25 per hour. I
was stunned! This meant that many of us working folk were actually paying
for the privilege of working.
I was inspired by the challenge of reducing our budget instead of
trying to increase our salary. Therefore, I am not filling this book with
ideas on how to make money at home. Many other books have done a fine job
of that (I've listed a few of these books in my resource listing (Appendix
C) for those interested in pursuing this option).
Many books have been written on how to be thrifty. Some are
theoretical in their approach, filled with interviews with other frugal
people and impersonal statistics. Some are focused on a specific way to
save, such as reducing credit card-debt or using
grocery
coupons. Others try to be broad, but are too extreme, cutting in every
aspect of life, whether it is cost-effective or not.
There is nothing theoretical in this book. It is a testimony of our journey. We were a two-income, yuppie family that chose to make a lifestyle change. We lived out all of the advice I suggest.
I look at saving money as a means to an end. It is a job I perform in order to afford my staying at home. I don't do the things that I share in this book just for fun. I enjoy my luxuries if and when I can afford them. Some people take pleasure in being frugal as a hobby. I, however, must be convinced of the savings return before I do something. For example, I find little profit in reusing envelopes or dryer lint. Those activities may save a penny or two, but that would not be a good use of my time. If you only have a little time to invest in saving, it might as well be put to use in the most effective places.
I believe in putting your efforts to work where they will save you
the most. That is why the book is organized as it is--from the greatest
savings opportunity to the least. Groceries are the first and largest
topic that I discuss, because it is where families can save the most. We
were able to save $250 per month in this one category alone. I discuss
other topics where we also achieved significant savings. When added
together with the elimination of working expenses (the cost of working),
we made a large dent in what we spent—the savings adding up to what some
people might earn at a job.
Some people already have thought of the ideas in this book,
especially those with parents or grandparents who lived through the
Depression. Those people knew how to make what was necessary and live
without the unnecessary. Their wisdom has been lost, and many think we
shouldn't have to live without the things we desire. But others have asked
for help with creative ideas to cut costs in their lives. It is for these
people that I wrote this book. My desire is to get their creative juices
in motion, so they can start thinking of ways to save and meet their
goals.
Your spouse doesn't have to be earning a high wage for you to live on one income. I know several families (including my own) who willingly lived on less than half of what the average family in their area earned.
We have added a member to our family. We have pets. We go on
vacations. We even buy nice things for our kids and ourselves.
These principles really can make a difference.
What do you have to lose?
Be
sure to read the rules governing all material in this site.
Copyright © 1992-2004 Jonni McCoy
ENDORSEMENTS
"I don't think there's another
writer on the frugal scene that can tell it like Jonni can. She's an
excellent teacher with a knack of putting across
the reasons instead of just the facts. That's what makes her books
invaluable to anyone who wants to live a more frugal life."
Pat Veretto
About.com, Guide to Frugal Living
"In her true fashion, Jonni has captured the heart of those who are
seeking
help in stretching their dollars. Every chapter has loads of ideas to try to
maximize their spending efficiency. The first few pages will be well worth
the purchase of her book. A real winner."
Emilie Barnes
author/speaker
More Hours in My Day
"...this book offers much-need
encouragement to families who are tired of hearing society's endless whine about the
impossibility of mothers staying home to raise their own children. The fact is, it can be
done, and it is being done, with ingenuity and good cheer... Her 'Eleven Miserly
Guidelines' are completely practical, and at the top of the list is the most important:
'Don't confuse frugality with depriving yourself.'"
-Ginny Silva, In a review for Christian Parenting Today
"Let Jonni McCoy by your guide through the jungle of 'hidden' costs, misleading
purchasing assumptions, and costly habits. She leads you out of the murky water of living
up to the unrealistic standards of our society into the calmness of balanced checkbooks
and a peaceable home life."
-Jill Bond, author of DINNER'S IN THE FREEZER