Author of The Blackout Book and the online course Bloom Where You’re Planted
The needs of readers have been changing lately. COVID has caused economic difficulties throughout the country (and honestly, the world.) People are losing their jobs, taking pay cuts, and prices are going up. As preppers, we have been watchful and noted these things were coming for quite some time…but once it hit, it became a whole lot more real.
Even if you’ve been living frugally for years, it may be time to tighten that belt even more. At the same time, I want to keep this website focused on what it’s always been about: preparing for emergencies and hard times, keeping abreast of the events that affect us, and being more self-reliant.
So I’ve started a sister site that will hopefully appeal to folks who are preppers as well as those who aren’t interested in becoming part of the preparedness world. I’d like to introduce The Frugalite. If you’ve noticed I’ve been a bit quieter lately, this is why. I’ve been hard at work with my development team to bring this site to life.
What’s The Frugalite all about?
With this website, I wanted to take away the preconceived notions that frugality has to be boring, unpleasant, and a life of deprivation. I want to show people the amazing things you can accomplish when you focus your money on the things that are the most important to you and cut out the fluff. I also want to help if you’re dealing with a time in your life where you’re flat broke – where you can’t pay your bills and you’re wondering how to feed your family.
You can live a wonderful, full life when you don’t try to keep up with the Joneses. Frugality has given me freedom and rewards I never could have achieved while spending the way most folks do.
Let me know what you think!
This is NOT a prepping website but I think the two disciplines of preparedness and frugality go hand in hand. I hope that at some point I can introduce some preparedness concepts there and bring new folks to the world of preparedness.
Please check out The Frugalite and let me know what you think!
Great idea.
One of the best feelings is being debt free (or really dang close to it).
The wife and I have a saying,
“Wants vs Needs.”
Unfortunately in American, marketing and advertising like to make us think that shiny Plastic Pumpkin (i.e. useless item that serves no real purpose or has no real added convenience to ones life) is a Need vs a Want.
One thing about COVID19 when it first arrived and the economy shutdown, was looking at various sites of people trying to off load stuff to make money to make the rent, pay the bills or for food.
Suddenly, game consoles, big screen TVs, laptops, those useless dust collecting tchotchke were flooding eBay, Craigslist etc.
When push came to shove, what was once, “I need that!” impulse buy, became, “I can do without that!”
Not everything is useless. Good books, quality hand tools, quality cook ware, quality clothing etc.
But you would be amazed at how futile it is when ” . . . you don’t try to keep up with the Joneses.”
Yeah, sure you may not have that 2400+sqft home, the new car, big screen TV in every room.
But living frugally, you have economic security.
YMMV.
Exactly. When I was in my early twenties I bought an old house. My father in law told me, “Pay your house off as soon as you can. When I owed on my house I was always broke. If you pay it off it is like you just got $1000 pay raise. You’ll always have $100 in your wallet.” This was in 1981.
I followed his advice and now live on a beautiful river in a place I built myself. I haven’t had payments for 25 years and retired in my mid fifties. Five years of wood heat under cover, a years worth of spuds in the ground, all our vegetables grown at home and a freezer full of salmon. Stores, tools, fasteners, welders, and materials are a given when living in the country. What I don’t have a friend will. Needs and wants, simple concept. Stay away from debt and pay cash. If you pay with cash you don’t make stupid purchases.
I so believe that prepping and being frugal go hand in hand . I started off being frugal or thrifty and ended up into prepping . Going to check it out now !!
Love the site, Daisy, and it is a great time to launch it.
We’ve always lived below our means because of advice from my father-in-law; “it’s not how much money you make, it’s how much you save.” That simple mantra followed has given us economic security and freedom from discord over finances. I added a corollary to that advice. “You don’t often have time and money at the same time; learn skills now so you can save money later”.
Good job – Love the new website! I’m a frugal girl and I love reading what works for other people.
Nice work, Daisy! The new website looks clean and easy to navigate, the headings are cute and descriptive, the vibe is cheerful and optimistic. Nice color choices, nice high quality photography. I’ve been flat broke a number of times in my past and was raised poor, now that I’m doing better (most of the time) this is a GREAT reminder of how not to let things get out of control so if hard times hit again I’ll be better prepared. I’ll be putting this on my “regular reading list.” I hope great things come to you with it.
Is this where all the disruptive “I don’t have to put on a mask” Karens hang out?
Let me expand on commenter Fina’s two thoughts:
“it’s not how much money you make, it’s how much you save” and
“You don’t often have time and money at the same time; learn skills now so you can save money later”
Frugality is a highly useful acquired skill and habit, but it does have its limits. It can’t teach you what to do with that money you’ve saved, nor can it teach you how to transition through the various stages of earning. I might suggest two of Robert Kiyosaki’s books (Rich Dad, Poor Dad as well as his CashFlow Quadrant) to explain why if possible to transition from merely trading your hours for dollars (as most employees do) at a rate determined by your employer … to learning how to create value for your own customers, partners or investors.
It’s also not a bad idea to learn how a local community computerized barter network can be set up and operated in case of hyperinflation. Think Venezuela…
The most frugal way to access both those books is via a free interlibrary loan request. The rule of thumb is that once a book has passed the six months point past its publishing date, it’s fair game for a free interlibrary loan request (excepting some reference books or really expensive books).
Frugality also can’t teach you how to defend your earnings from the dishonest money system we’ve had since the closing hours of 1913. Since that time the US dollar has lost roughly 98% of its value — which is why mere saving doesn’t accomplish what it did in the 1800s. If you occasionally monitor this website
https://chapwoodindex.com/
you can track the much higher cost of goods and services averages for things that real people purchase — in contrast to the phony and artificially low government-published BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) inflation numbers used to cheat citizens on obligatory payouts, such as Social Security, eg.
So whatever mix of (1) savings, (2) money spent on learning to improve your money earning skills, (3) money spent to acquire capital assets (to earn money as well), and (4) money converted into something like precious metals as insurance against the US dollar losing its global reserve currency status from uncontrolled spending (counterfeiting), and finally (5) money invested so that it earns for you instead of you having to exert your efforts is a mix that will be unique to every individual’s circumstances and best judgments.
The point is that frugality is an invaluable starting point, and not merely a destination.
–Lewis
This is a great idea Daisy – and certainly badly needed in our consumer society where people are encouraged to spend every penny to keep the economy running. Might I suggest another article for this website that spells out how to recover money that is lost and perhaps not even known about.
I have written what follows and I pass it out to lots of people. You may freely use this if you like. Following these instructions, I have helped people and businesses I’ve worked for recover money in the six figures range. Give it a try yourself.
For some reason, people can be hard to find and that leaves businesses across the country with uncashed checks that are returned to them in the mail. These checks can be for wages, dividends, and assorted other things, but all of it is considered unclaimed funds, and the government requires businesses to turn it all over to them if there has been no success in locating the owner/employee.
It is possible for you or a business to quickly determine if your funds are being held by state government. Simply visit a website or two, the first of which is: http://www.missingmoney.com
This website covers about forty of the states, and simply by entering your name or business, you can find out if governments are holding your money. There will be a last known address given and a little thing advising if it’s more than or less than $100.00. If you find your name and a familiar address, all you have to do is claim the money.
When you have completed your search in your state of residence, then you should take the following additional steps:
• Enter your name in any previous states where you have lived.
• Enter any previous names you may have had. (Maiden names, etc)
• Enter any business names you may have owned. (Enter in last name field)
• Enter family member’s names.
• Enter deceased family member’s names. This one produces quite a lot of “hits” and you may be the beneficiary or next of kin who can claim these funds.
Be creative in your entries. If you have an uncommon name, entering just your last name should be sufficient. If you have a common name, you might start by entering just the first initial of your first name to thin the list out. If your business name is Acme Widgets and Doodads, Incorporated, try entering just Acme Widgets or Acme Doodads. Also try misspelled words like Acmy Widgets or variations of your name such as Johnson vs. Jonson or Johnsen.
Since this site only covers about forty states, then if the state you are interested in isn’t part of this site, you should do an Internet search using words something like the following: “Unclaimed Funds CA.” Most of the states run these programs through their departments of commerce, so you should be watching for a site like that.
You should not pay any third party for this service. Your tax dollars already fund this process and the states should not charge for returning your hard earned money to you.
I claimed money through the WI unclaimed property government website for my business. It was a misdirected insurance claim and even though my registered corporate name is on the payment, WI has denied my claim because I cannot prove the business was ever located at the incorrect address. Unbelievable!
That would be the government for you! Making it as hard as possible. But at the same time, I can understand how they need to be careful so people who shouldn’t get it DON’T get it.
Try some of the other bullet points above, and I’ll bet you come up with something else. Most people who visit this site find something either for themselves or someone they know, and there are multiplied billions of dollars out there just waiting to be picked up.
When you do find something, that can be used for further prepping.
Working in security, always be observant and aware of your surroundings
sorry I meant that comment for the 10 lessons from the business world, I’ll repost it there, but I really like the new site, it looks like it has some really helpful ideas
So ad-cluttered here can’t tell what is legitimate content.