Cheap Living Tips

By Scott Siegel

Living cheap means learning to find value. It means being very careful how you spend your money. It means being frugal and wise with your money. Living cheap means spending smart. Living cheap is living rich!

Living cheap doesn’t have to mean lowering your standards! It doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice all the things in your life you like and want. It does mean you can’t have everything you want, but who can unless you are a close associate of Bill Gates.

Living cheap means living smarter. It means learning to spend your money the right way to make it count more. It means taking the time and effort to find values so that your dollar buys you more.

Living cheap can actually make your life richer. Think about it. For example, if you find the right travel deal, if you find a way to spend half as much on a trip than you would have otherwise, then you are half again richer than before.

If you cut your travel costs in half, you could conceivably travel twice as long for the same money you would have spent before. You could have a longer vacation by doing that. Doesn’t that make you richer?

Using the same example but changing it so that if you didn’t extend your travel, you would have money left over that you would have otherwise spent on that trip. Say you take that money saved and purchase a new couch for the den. You took the same trip you had planned on but you also have a new couch. Doesn’t that make you richer?

If you learned the right way to negotiate your house and car insurance so that you could save hundreds of dollars per year, wouldn’t you be better off than you are now? What could you do with that extra money? Wouldn’t that make you richer?

Living cheap means learning how to spend less and get more. If you can cut your grocery costs week in and week out so that at the end of the month you had money left over, doesn’t that make you richer?

Living cheap doesn’t mean the quality of your life has to become cheap. In most cases, living cheap will enhance the quality of your life. If you learn the skills needed to become an expert at living cheap, you can apply those skills to any situation.

You will be able to increase the value of your spending dollars with every transaction you engage in. You will learn how to enhance your finances at every turn. Eventually you will create within yourself a new outlook that day in and day out will drive you to a richer life.

Living cheap is all about enhancing your life using what you have. You can learn to utilize your assets and not squander them. Living cheap is really living smart. It is living with the goal to attain the maximum value.

Living cheap is learning to attain the maximum value all the time. By learning to live cheap you can really truly learn to live rich!

Living cheap expert Scott Siegel can show you how you can live cheap! Learn how you can master the art of cheap living. See how in the guide to living cheap. Visit LivingCheapGuide.com

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In my last post I touched on the subject of renting out a room or taking in a border. During hard times both of these practices are common measures. Even more common are family members doubling up and sharing household expenses or perhaps even taking in a less fortunate relative who is out of work and has no roof of their own. How unfortunate it is that such generosity can lead to major turmoil, even the loss of our property or home.

In some states, the law has become so overprotective of tenant rights that allowing someone to take shelter in your home for more than a night or two can be construed as giving them tenant’s rights, and should they become unruly guests or endanger your property or family by their behavior, you may not be able to simply insist they move on. Some states may require you actually go through a formal eviction procedure, giving them written 30 days notice and it may even be necessary for you to go to the time of expense of getting a court order just to get them to move out.

I find this whole concept repulsive. I recall stories of parents starting out their married lives (during the Depression) sharing a house with my Dad’s brother and his wife, then later moving in with my maternal grandmother when she needed help with rent. When I was a child, my uncle came down with polio and he and his family moved into a converted garage in our backyard until he regrouped, started his own business and was able buy a home of his own.

Several times during my early adult years we offered shelter to others who were between jobs. I don’t believe any of these acts of kindness would have resulted in a law suit, although they did sometimes end with less than pleasant partings, as people do tend to get on each others nerves or sometimes resent the same folks who have lent them a helping hand. Time however healed the raw nerves and strained relationships. Would the rifts have healed as well if one of the parties had refused to move and had to be legally evicted?

A sad conclusion to the new age Good Samaritan story is it not?

My apologies to my readers. I had full intentions of following up my review on Philip Brewer’s article, Things to Do if You Lose Your Job, more promptly but here I am playing catch up instead. So today before discussing Part 4, Get Free Stuff and I will take a few minutes to look at Parts 2 and 3, Boosting Your Income, and Cutting Your Expenses.

In his second article, Boosting Your Income, Brewer points the reader to a multitude of possible revenue sources that we often overlook. Sure, we really want a full time job in our chosen field of expertise but in the mean time, could we make a few dollars here and there painting a neighbors house, walking their dog or shopping for shut-ins? Do we have hidden treasure stashed around the house? BBC’s Cash in the Attic series illustrates this principle week after week as participants unload Uncle Milton’s comic book collection to pay for the kitchen remodel.

I find it interesting to see renting space in your home on Brewer’s list. In working on our family’s genealogy, I noticed that census data from the Depression years inevitably had large groups of non-related persons residing at the same address. Many of the adults were identified as ‘borders.’ In general, household sizes were larger too, often several generations of the same family shared a dwelling. Hard times makes this option often a necessity.

It may be time to adjust our perception of how big of house we need to how many people will our house actually accommodate? Brewer does caution readers to be aware of the legal ramifications involved if they entertain thoughts renting out spare rooms or taking in borders. I find it sad that such a caution is necessary but we do in live a sue happy culture so it is good advise. Unfortunately, some less scrupulous folks consider frivolous law suits a viable option as another source of income, one which Brewer doesn’t recommend and neither do I. Those that do are out there though, so do be careful who you take into your home.

Part 3 of the series Brewer tackles what I would called the BIG ticket items: downsizing your home and automobile. Lets face it, they are our biggest expenses and ones where we can continue to poor thousands of dollars in an effort to maintain our image or ‘standard of living.’ Image may be one luxury we can’t afford if we are out of a job. Stay tuned for Part 4…