Saving

Just Save $1 per Week

Don't know where to start? Read about how frugal accomplishments add up, and take the $1 Per Week Challenge. Using the articles below, try to find a new way to save $1 every week. If you do this for a year, you'll have saved over $1300. Imagine what would happen if you found $5 or $10 extra in the budget every week!

Saving

Frugality is more than just saving money. It is defined as the opposite of being wasteful. It is being resourceful and making the best of what you have. Worried about impact that frugality may have on your social life? Read this first: Frugal Vs. Cheap.

Saving money allows you to earn less at a job and therefore pay fewer taxes, which is the biggest line in the budget. When you learn to live well below your means and set aside money, you won't worry about losing your job. Lastly, all of those savings can be invested to generate bigger and better returns over time. Here's how it works:

Intro to Money Skills
Money Skill #1: Earning
Money Skill #2: Saving
Money Skill #3: Investing

From $5 to $167,573

The effect of learning frugal skills is cumulative. For example, foraging will save you $1.92 per week on herbs, $1.44 in home decorating, and probably a few dollars in food as well. Foraging every week will save $278.72 per year. The amount of income tax and sales tax required to buy $278.72 worth of stuff per year would be roughly another $100. Thus, the skill of foraging alone would pay $378.72 per year. Invested into mutual funds giving a 6% return, this skill would earn $5969.57 if practiced from age 25 to 35. Practiced from age 20 to 70, the savings would grow to be $167,573.25. .

Articles about frugal cooking and gardening are too numerous for this page, so I've given them their own separate pages.