Eleven Miserly Guidelines to Saving Money

Here are the eleven miserly guidelines that are the core principles covered in Miserly Moms: Living Well on Less in a Tough Economy (remember, I profiled the author the other day):

1. Don’t confuse frugality with depriving yourself.
2. Remove little wasters of your money.
3. Keep track of food prices.
4. Don’t buy everything at the same store.
5. Buy in bulk whenever possible.
6. Make your own whenever possible.
7. Eliminate convenience foods.
8. Cut back on meats.
9. Waste nothing.
10. Institute a soup-and-bread or baked-potato night.
11. Cook several meals at once and freeze them.

A few comments:

• She uses “miserly” as a replacement for “frugal” and she means it as a positive term (versus what some of us might consider “miserly” to mean — similar to “hoarding.”)
• Most of these guidelines have to do with food-related purchases because that’s the category she initially focused most on reducing (since it was large and not fixed.)
• I’ll share details on many of the tips above, so before someone comments that buying in bulk isn’t always a good idea or that shopping at several stores wastes gas/time, you may want to wait until I have a chance to cover it in a future post.
• I like the fact that she recognizes small spending is a budget killer.
• We’ve cut back on meats ourselves, but mostly we’ve cut back on the quantity of meat eaten at each meal, not what she (and others) suggest — having more meatless meats.

That’s it for now. See anything that really sparks your interest?