I've been reading this book lately: "The American Cheapest Family". I watched the family being interviewed on the news one day for their frugal lifestyle. Turned out they wrote a book so being a frugal one myself, I opt to borrow the book from the library instead of buying it. :P Below are some of the useful lessons I got from the book:
a. Contentment: Learning to love your life
- Don't look into others' people "bag of life." When we focus on what we don't have, what we do have seems blase, worthless, and undesirable.
- What do I really need?
- Real needs bring on real creativity: asking other for help, borrowing an item, buying used merchandise, or waiting for a while
- The Maximum Lifestyle: by establishing a limit on the size of our house, spending on a car, food, clothes, & other things -> minimizing our discontentment -> gratefulness & contentment.
b. The Cheapest Family attitudes on money:
- To avoid debt like a plague
- To live below your means
- To never pay retail if at all possible;
- To plan & save in advance of all purchases;
- To realize that there is always someone who wants to get rid of the very thing that we need- find the person and we will find a deal. It's even easier now with craigslist.org
