Book Review & Giveaway- Frugillionare:500 Fabulous Ways To Live Richly And Save A Fortune.
This giveaway has ended. It’s time for another book review and giveaway, and I think some of you guys are really going to be interested in this one! Frugillionaire: 500 Fabulous Ways To Live Richly & Save A Fortune by Francine Jay is a book about just that – being frugal, learning how and where to save money, and how to live a more rich life without spending a lot of money. Celebrating frugality as a lifestyle choice and not something to feel deprived by, the book has inspired me to look for even more ways to be frugal with my money. I thought I was being frugal, but there are so many more ways I could be doing more! As defined by Ms. Jay, “Unlike millionaires and billionaires, frugillionaires aren’t defined by the number of zeroes in their net worth, or the haute couture in their closets. They don’t have personal assistants or private planes. They don’t summer in the Hamptons, winter in the islands, or fly to Paris for the weekend. Quite the contrary: frugillionaires master the art of frugality – living richly while saving a fortune.” Well said, and exactly the way I try to live my life and preach here almost daily. I am no more concerned with being wealthy than I am with who is on the cover of tabloid magazines this week – I am interested in neither. I just want a comfortable life that means something more to me than what is in my driveway! So while I have been working on being frugal with the money I do have, this book definitely opened my eyes to even more possibilities. From saving money on entertainment, travel, children, holidays and food, it is quite a valuable resource for those looking to be more frugal with their money. 500 more ways! I totally recommend to anyone to pick up this book if you can – it’s worth every penny. But luckily for one of you, I have a copy to giveaway to a lucky reader…for free!
So, how can you win the copy of Frugillionaire? All you have to do is leave a comment (using a valid email address so I can contact you if you are the winner) telling me one frugal thing you have started doing lately. That’s all! From all legitimate comments, I will use a random number generator to choose the winner. Only one entry allowed per person/email address/IP address, and the winner must be a resident of the U.S.. Book will be shipped via media mail through the USPS. The giveaway closes Thursday morning, August 13 at 7am MST, and the winner will be notified soon thereafter. Good luck to everyone, and if you don’t win, be on the lookout for another giveaway soon! This giveaway has ended.
You might also like:
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- Book Review & Giveaway: Nobody Wants A Million Dollars.
- And The Winner Of “Frugillionare” Is…
Related Websites:
- The Key To Living Frugally
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We recently turned our our DirecTV subscription and only watch DVDs of shows we enjoy. That has saved us around $75 each month and has led us to be almost debt free (we will be by the end of 2009).
I started using the library instead of buying books, and it is awesome! They have books, DVDs and CDs…and it’s FREE! Sure, you have to return everything, but that just helps keep my clutter to a minimum! At my library you can reserve books online from any local branch and they will transfer them to the location nearest you for pick up. Excellent!
Interesting concept of a “frugillionaires”. While I would love to be a millionaire, living frugal would still be something Id emphasize even if I had money raining from the skies.
We go garage selling every Saturday morning to get the household essentials, such as clothes for our 2-year-old son and other home essentials. We have been saving so much money on childrens’ clothing this way.
Sounds like a great book! I look forward to reading it!
One frugal thing my family and I have been doing lately is creating our own homemade pizzas.
By far, going out to Pizza Hut was our daughters’ favorite thing to do. Now that I have been able to create my own delicious homemade pizza (recipe to follow in a future article on my blog) we have just as much fun staying in and creating our masterful pies!
Thanks for sharing the book and the opportunity to win!
Regards,
Ben
My wife and I have signed up for free movie screenings. We average about three new movies a months, thus saving around $60-80 on tickets.
Plus we get to see films before most anyone else does!
-jlb
Recently, we have been trying to use coupons on our grocery purchases. It has defiantly made a difference.
Thanks for the giveaway.
Lately, I’ve been embracing the “money is money, regardless of source” tenet. From pennies on the ground to cash back rewards from my credit card (don’t worry – I don’t abuse it), I simply deposit them.
This is opposed to before, when I would get roughly $100 cash back per quarter which was “free money” to spend.
The increase in savings has been significant.
Best,
Tim Gritzman
One frugal thing I’ve been doing lately: Not using the AC (at all!) even while it’s gotten into the 90s with high humidity in the northeast!
to keep my kitties cool while i’m at work, i close off access to the upstairs, run 3 fans, put ice in their water bowl and a frozen milk container filled with water in front of a blowing fan. I also leave access to the cooler basement open.
Great book! We’ve been trying to live more frugally by planning meals so that we go to the grocery store with a list. Meal planning also means fewer last minute trips to pick something up when we are at a loss.
Book sounds AWESOME!
The new rule on eating out – nothing but water!
I have been trying to meal plan for every day of the week. I have also been trying to buy some convenience food (on sale and with a coupon) to have on hand. So when I am tired from working all day and don’t want to cook what I have planned, I have a back up. In the past, we would have gone out instead.
Recently, within three months, I obtained one of those debit cards that accumulates points when you use it without your pin (sign for purchases) and in this time period I’ve accumulated almost 10,000 points. I use it for everything. So eventually I’ll get something for almost nothing as there is a yearly “subscription” fee for this service.
One frugal thing I’ve started doing lately is entering online contests to get free reading material.
I stopped buying coffee and started drinking the free stuff at the office. I get the caffeine buzz for a lot less. Also, their coffee isn’t as bad as I remembered. (At one point I think the coffee was an experiment in synapse lubrication.)
My husband is required to have a cell phone for work, so we have a family plan so that our calls to and from each other don’t use any minutes. We recently realized that we almost never use our land line phone to make calls and only get about 5 calls on it a month. We decided it wasn’t worth the monthly cost and had it disconnected and will use just our cell phones from now on. This will save us $35 a month.
I got rid of my landline phone entirely. I had only been keeping it because I had dsl for my internet connection, which was cheaper than getting cable.
Talked my neighbor into letting me get onto his cable internet.
He was needing to go wireless in his house with a new laptop and asked me to set it up for him. I ended up donating my router, did the work to set it all up, and he let’s me piggyback on his wireless cable internet.
He’s not too tech savvy, so I take care of everything. He gets free tech support. I get free internet.
It’s a win for both of us.
And it saves me $60/month.
We signed up for the weekly newsletter for cheaper movies on Thursday at the movie theatre.
Once or twice a month our family has No Money Weekends which we find fun things to do without spending money. A great way to educate the kids.
I started gardening this summer and have had several squash to show for it!
This summer I started an exchange program with people in my neighborhood where I offer the time to water/tend their gardens while they are on vacation or just really busy, in return they share their produce with me all summer long. This has already saved me lots of money plus I have gotten enough to do some canning/freezing for winter. I rent a flat in a house so can not have a garden of my own.
This summer I have been line drying all our clothing, only using the air when it is in the 90’s, unplugging stuff, turning lights off, shopping sales with a list, making my own laundry soap and many more things. Not much work in Michigan so we have had to tighten down lots. At first I was in shell shock I think but it does not bother me any more. I get weak some times and want to go out and buy stuff just to buy it but I tell myself NO, you don’t need that. It is only a want!
I’ve started a policy of not throwing away food. If we don’t eat everything at one meal, and it’s not enough for leftovers the next day, I make a soup out of it by adding chicken broth and some rice to whatever it is. Some toast with it, and it’s a filling lunch for just pennies. I had forgotten about making watermelon rind pickles until just recently (hadn’t made them in 15 years or so), so I was even able to make use of the watermelon rind from last night’s fruit dessert. There are versions of the recipe that don’t require canning, but I’m canning mine for Christmas gift baskets and winter snacking.
My wife and I have been taking showers together to save on our hot water bill. It also allows us to spend a few minutes more together in the morning at the start of our morning routines prior to leaving for work. The added benefit is you have someone who can help you wash your back once in a while.
I recently canceled my gym membership, lowered netflix from 3 movies to 1, and pack my lunch every day
I take a calculator with me to the supermarket and add up the cost of each item as I put it in my cart. That way I can decide of I “really” need that $7 bottle of maple syrup (this week, alas, I had to put it back) and I do not get any unpleasant surprises at check-out.
In addition, I now can pay in cash (because I had established a spending limit before I went into the store) and can really keep in control of this line item in my budget.
I have to admit, it has become a sort of game to see how much food I can get for $50, $60, $80 dollars, etc. I am really looking much more carefully at each purchase and cooking more from scratch as a result.
This week, for example, I made veggie burgers from a can of black beans and a bunch of fresh veggies and made a dozen for less than I used to pay for 4 pre-packaged burgers.
Debit card ONLY! No more credit card fees or ’surprises!’
Stopped buying a favorite honey-mustard marinated pork tenderloin at the supermarket and started buying a 4-pack of unmarinated ones (for the same price as 1 marinated) and a bottle of the marinade, which they sell separately. This is about a 68% savings, with no loss of deliciousness!
We sat down as a family and created a bi-weekly menu. It helps us plan our nights in and our nights out, and makes it much easier to use up the food we already have in the house.
I started a 4×4 foot square foot garden for fresh herbs, tomatoes and bell peppers.
I started packing my lunch at work and cooking large meals on sunday that can be portioned out throughout the week
Now that my husband has reached age 65, we’ve begun to take advantage of the many discounts offered to Seniors. National parks and state parks have lifetime memberships for a nominal fee. He qualifies for reduced fare on mass transit, and a local theater offers 1/2 price seating one day a week. Most museums and zoos will take a couple dollars off admission although we usually wait for the Free Admission days. We are able to do things we could not afford to do on his pension.
I’ve been using our clotheseline as much as possible this summer – saving electricity, saving money, saving wear and tear on the dryer. Also, I get a mini workout because I haul the wet clothes upstairs and outside!
About every 2-3 months, I use my saved pennies and cash them in at coin star for an Amazon certificate. I then buy whatever music/movies for my mp3 player that my library doesn’t carry. That is always my first stop for music.
Sounds like a great read and would love to win it.
Zengirl
My husband and I live on two week allowances. At the end of the two weeks, any cash left over goes into a “Dining Out” envelope. When there’s enough cash, we go out to eat. Not enought cash? – No going out.
I’ve been trying to be frugal for little over a year now (and read my two dollars for just as long), and I thought I had it down, but there were a couple I forgot.
1) Transit checks at work: All it takes is filling out 1 form at your office, and the money it costs to buy gas or take buy a metrocard (we’re in NYC) is taken out of your paycheck pre-tax and then mailed to you as a check or a giftcard depending on how your company does it. Very cool.
2)If you have health insurance through your company, there’s a good chance that they offer some sort of monetary compensation for gym attendance. If you go to the gym 50 times in 6 months, they send you $200. It’s pretty great because it’s also incentive to go to the gym which, trust me, I need.
My family took a 4 day vacation with me while I was traveling for work. They went to the zoo, children’s museum, and pool, and the incremental cost to us (since my company picked up the travel, food, and hotel) was about $17.
Could use this!! I live like a millionaire only have a paupers budget!!
HELP!!
I recently started using a clothesline to dry our laundry. I love it-fresh air, exercise, good smelling clothes, green-living and frugal, all rolled into one!
We’ve been collecting coke caps and box codes and getting coupons for free cokes. We don’t buy much pop but friends who do, and don’t want to bother with them, save them for us.
I check out audiobooks from the library and load them onto my mp3 player. This way, I stay up on my “reading” and am still able to travel like I need to.
I stopped using paper towels and paper napkins. I keep a stack of cloth napkins in the kitchen, a stack of dishtowels under the sink and a special basket in the laundry room for them to accumulate until I have enough for a load. I really prefer the cloth napkins anyway, so it isn’t a hardship.
That’s quite the concept, new to me. But it sounds rather interesting…
Let’s see, I’ll play for a chance to win! (Doesn’t hurt to try, right?) Hmmm, one frugal thing…
Does limiting myself to $35 of spending money every two weeks count? I see it as being frugal because I now think long and hard about what I spend my money on, as there isn’t much at all! (Prevents mindless spending AND clutter resulting from it.)
I unplug my lamp every time I am done using it to save on electricity; it’s like camping out; use daylight as much as possible. (as well as unplugging everything else when not in use)
This may sound incredibly small, but when produce is sold by the piece, we make sure to get the largest piece that looks good. For example, right now there is a store in town selling red peppers for $.99 each (i.e. not $.99 a pound). These peppers come in either little hand-grenade sizes or long, near tubular shapes. But the flesh and usable portion of the tubular ones ends up being about twice the amount as the hand-grenades. So, really, it’s like getting a BOGO on an already stellar deal on produce when I spend the few moments it takes to find the best large, delicious looking red pepper!
Just started packing my own lunch, I am guessing the savings on eating out alone is at least $250 annually.
I’ve started packing my lunches instead of going out for lunch. I also combine coupons with sales in order to get the best prices.
I decided to stop using credit cards, when I retired in 2001, and use a debit card. I started saving more, but I also continued to help the poor to help themselves. The greed of the banks, gas, housing, and business forced me to fight back. I started taking public transportation (Dial-A-Ride) that took me to my new part-time job and back for $2.00 per day, and I let my paid for van sit. I use it for short trips, and for the day, I may have to sleep in my van. I cut my phone bill down to about $29 per month, and I eat in and I take staycations. (vacations) lol
The bad side of the above is that I do not have a credit history, so I had to pay my bank $123 to borrow my own money, so that in a year I will have a credit history. You need a credit history to do anything, even if you have money. FICO does not care that you pay cash, or you have a nice bank account, but FICO wants to score you on CREDIT USAGE. I will get a secured credit card, and they may dump me for paying it off in full each month.
I use online banking, because they pay the higher interest compared to my local bank. I canceled COMCAST a year ago, and I do not miss it.
I do order my groceries online, so I am not attacked going to the grocery store. I do have dialup AOL, and I have Netflix, for travel and documentaries dvds. I buy what I want, and I eat what I want, for life is not a guarantee, but I really hate the companies and politicians, who are fleecing us. Medicare is a disgrace.
I will continue to stay debt free and I will be 67 in October. I may have to go to Cuba for my healthcare, so I do not end up broke dealing with the greedy medical providers here. Watch the movie SICKO!
Recently I began making laundry detergent using a simple recipe that is cheap, takes only minutes and works really well. Next on the list is dishwasher detergent.
Also, this Friday night we will see our city’s premier of “Food, Inc” for free, using tickets we picked up at our local natural foods store.