Miserly Moms

Jonni McCoy

Description

With gas and food prices soaring, there's more need than ever before for Jonni McCoy's Miserly Moms. Jonni shares the money-saving strategies that allowed her family to transition from two incomes to one. These practical, proven strategies, tips, and recipes will help anyone live frugally without feeling deprived. Real-life examples show how anyone can learn to live more carefully and reach their financial goals. Now in its fourth edition, Miserly Moms is packed with even more ways to reduce a family's expenses and expose hidden living costs.

Sujets

• Personal finance

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781441203977
• Langue: English

Extrait

This book offers much-needed encouragement to families who are tired of hearing society s endless whine about the impossibility of mothers staying home to raise their own children. The fact is, it can be done, and it is being done, with ingenuity and good cheer. . . . Her Eleven Miserly Guidelines are completely practical, and at the top of the list is the most important: Don t confuse frugality with depriving yourself.
- Ginny Silva In a review for Christian Parenting Today
Jonni McCoy shows great understanding in the power of living frugally. It can be done, and she can show you how, so if you want to take back control of your finances, start here.
- Pat Veretto Frugal Living Guide at About.com

Let Jonni McCoy be your guide through the jungle of hidden costs, misleading purchasing assumptions, and costly habits. She leads you out of the murky water of living up to the unrealistic standards of our society and into the calmness of balanced checkbooks and a peaceable home life.
- Jill Bond author of Dinner s in the Freezer!
In this day of two-income families, Miserly Moms offers a refreshing look into the possibilities of having a stay-at-home parent. Today s families can live a full and joyful life, even on limited means. With warmth, humor, and candor, McCoy shows us how!
- Deborah Taylor-Hough author of Frozen Assets: How to Cook for a Day and Eat for a Month
Practical financial advice that makes sense, is easy to follow, and can be implemented today. One-income families especially will benefit from Jonni McCoy s money-saving insights.
- Cheryl Gochnauer author of So You Want to Be a Stay-at-Home Mom

Miserly Moms Fourth Edition Copyright 1994, 1996, 2001, 2009 by Jonni McCoy
Miserly Moms is a trademark and servicemark of Jonni McCoy.
Cover design by Dan Pitts
Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version of the Bible. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Published by Bethany House Publishers 11400 Hampshire Avenue South Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McCoy, Jonni.
Miserly Moms : living well on less in a tough economy / Jonni McCoy. - 4th ed. p. cm.
Included bibliographical references.
Summary: Practical, proven strategies and tips to help families live more frugally without being deprived, while still reaching their financial goals -Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-0-7642-0641-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Consumer education. 2. Home economics-Accounting I. Title.
TX335.M384 2009
640.73-dc22
2009005552
This book is based upon personal experience, interviews, and research by the author. Although much effort was made to ensure that all information in the book is safe and accurate, this book is sold with the understanding that the author and publisher assume no responsibility for oversights, discrepancies, or inaccuracies. This book is not intended to replace medical, financial, legal, or other professional advice. Readers are reminded to use their own good judgment before applying any of the ideas found in this book. Also please note that prices quoted (e.g., grocery) are examples and may be different depending on where you live, the type of store, etc.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JONNI MCCOY holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech Communication from the University of California at Santa Barbara. Prior to motherhood, she spent ten years as a senior buyer and supervisor for electronics firms such as Apple Computer and National Semiconductor. She presents seminars on living for less to women s groups and other conferences. She has been practicing her frugal ways since 1991. Jonni has appeared on The Gayle King Show and The 700 Club , and radio programs such as FamilyLife Today and the Dick Staub Show . She has also been featured in Good Housekeeping, Family Circle, Family Fun, Working Mother, and Woman s Day magazines. Jonni and her husband, Beau, make their home in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where they homeschool their children.
For more help with saving money, visit our Web site.
We offer numerous resources for the frugal person (or frugal wannabe).
There are articles, links to other money-saving sites, and much more! Drop by soon!
WWW.MISERLYMOMS.COM
DEDICATION
I would like to dedicate this book to my husband, Beau, and to my children, Jeremy and Jessica. They never failed in their belief in me.
CONTENTS
Introduction-Why This Book Is Different
Preface-If I Can Do It, You Can Do It
1. Coming-Home Stories: What Some Moms Say About Their Decision
2. The Eleven Miserly Guidelines
3. GUIDELINE 1: Don t Confuse Frugality With Depriving Yourself
4. GUIDELINE 2: Remove Little Wasters of Your Money
5. GUIDELINE 3: Keep Track of Food Prices
6. GUIDELINE 4: Don t Buy Everything at the Same Store
7. GUIDELINE 5: Buy in Bulk Whenever Possible
8. GUIDELINE 6: Make Your Own Whenever Possible
9. GUIDELINE 7: Eliminate Convenience Foods
10. GUIDELINE 8: Cut Back on Meats
11. GUIDELINE 9: Waste Nothing
12. GUIDELINE 10: Institute a Soup-and-Bread or Baked-Potato Night
13. GUIDELINE 11: Cook Several Meals at Once and Freeze Them
14. Special Dietary Needs
15. Some Great Recipes
16. Be Wary of Warehouse Clubs
17. Stretch the Season
18. Marketing Tricks That You Need to Know
19. Celebrating With a Frugal Flair
20. Baby Care
21. The Cost of Working
22. Clothing
23. Help for the Working Mom
24. Getting the Husband Involved
25. Ten Ways to Get Kids to Save
26. Five Things I Wish I Knew About Money When I Was Younger
27. Medical Expenses and Insurance
28. Utilities
29. Crafts for Kids
30. Safer and Cheaper Cleaning Supplies
31. An Easy 10,000: Various Ways to Pocket Some Money
32. Five Questions I Get Asked Most Often
Appendix A: Menu Plans
Appendix B: Additional Resources
INTRODUCTION
Why This Book Is Different
When I first wrote this book, our family lived in one of the most expensive parts of America-the San Francisco Bay Area. Most families were spending half their income to pay the high rent or mortgage. Consequently, most families needed both parents to work just to get by. We were one of those families. According to statistics, my husband and I were a middle-income family, with my job providing half of our joint income. I was a career woman who received much joy from her work.
After our first child was born, I began to feel God tugging at my heart to stay home to raise our family. At first I thought I hadn t heard correctly. We couldn t live in the Bay Area on half of our joint income. At least that s what we believed. Trying to interpret what God was saying to me, I arranged a job-sharing program where I worked part time. We continued in that lifestyle for several years. Once it became clear that the part-time arrangement was not God s plan, and that I was supposed to stay home full time, we were back to square one.
We thought we would have to move to a less expensive community in order to live on my husband s salary alone. So that s what we decided to do, but things changed at the last minute. We made an offer on a house, and someone made an offer on our home. One night I realized that I didn t want my husband commuting several hours each day, and I didn t like the idea of being so far away from our church and our friends. We were able to get out of both house offers with no penalties. But I had already quit my job. So there we were, living on half of our income in an expensive area.
Our choices were either for me to go back to work or to somehow reduce our expenses. But I knew I was supposed to stay at home with my family, so instead of bringing in a salary, I began to research how we could make our money go further. This opened my eyes to the hidden costs in the way we lived, and I questioned whether some people could even afford to be working!
When we calculated what our loss of income would do to our budget, we didn t realize how many hidden costs would disappear once I stopped working. Given the cost of child care, taxes, gasoline, parking, convenience foods (we were often too tired to cook after work), lunches out, office clothes, and all the other amenities associated with working, not much of our salaries were even used at home. I wasn t alone in this realization. I read that some financial experts had calculated the cost of working as nine to twenty-five dollars per hour. I was stunned! This meant that many of us who worked were actually paying for the privilege of working. I was inspired by the challenge of reducing our budget instead of increasing our salary.
This book is not about how to make money at home. Many other books have done a fine job of that. I ve listed a few of these books in Additional Resources, appendix B, for those interested in pursuing this option.
Many books have been written on how to be thrifty. Some are theoretical in their approach, filled with interviews with other frugal people and impersonal statistics. Some are focused on a specific way to save, such as reducing credit-card debt or using grocery coupons. Others try to be broad but are too extreme, cutting back in every aspect of life, whether it is cost-effective or not.
There is nothing theoretical in this book. It is a testimony of our journey. We were a two-income yuppie family that chose to make a lifestyle change. We have lived out all of the advice I suggest here.
I look at saving money as a means to an end. It is a job I perform in order to afford my staying at home. I don t do the things that I share in this book just for fun. I enjoy my luxuries if