That’s it! The Christmas countdown has already started. In fact, I noticed it had started on November 1^st… only minutes after Halloween ended, stores were putting their Christmas decorations out. While I think it’s a bit crazy, but perhaps it can help us prepare a Christmas budget ahead of time.  As a result, the January credit card bill should be less painful when it arrives .

I have tried to think about how I can save money for my Christmas gifts and how much it would actually take. Since I have 2 children, I have quite a bit to gather .

Saving 3 coffees a week ($40)

I have decided that I would cut coffee at work until Christmas. I still enjoy one at home before I leave but I had this little vice of having another one while I start my laptop at work and take a peak at the stock market opening. I have traded the nice, warm Caramelo Coffee from Second Cup for a clear, refreshing glass of water. This will not only save me $2.25 per day (which means about $40.50 until Christmas) but it will also help me stay in shape. Can’t really say that cream and sugar is a good thing for my belly…. Even though it tastes so good! So with $40, I will able to buy at least 1 gift!

Cutting down on restaurants ($225)

We spend a lot of money in restaurants. In fact, it is not rare that we order in on Friday’s and then go out to eat with our children on Saturday, helps reinforce table manners . Therefore, we easily spend $75 to eat out on a weekly basis. Since there are about 6 weeks until Christmas, I will try to cut 3 weeks of restaurants out. However, just saying that we will cut on restaurants is not enough. We need something worthwhile to replace these special occasions in order to suffer less. Instead of trying to cut modify our choice of restaurants, I have thought of changing our habits and simply not going to restaurants at all.

Solution #1: Special Feast Fridays

I suggested to my wife that we could prepare a special meal on Friday night and have dinner together. So we cook grilled cheese or pasta for the children then put them at bed around 8pm and then, we can cook a nice meal to eat alone like we used to do. While this will result in slightly higher grocery bills, we will still save money, eat healthier food and spend more quality time together.  And honestly, what could be more fun than sharing a bottle of wine while preparing a gourmet meal with the love of my life…

Solution #2: Invite people over

Instead of going to restaurants on Saturdays, we have decided to invite people over for dinner. We will see more of our friends and still have a great evening. The great part is that we will also get invited by them eventually. Therefore, it will cost less than a bill for 4 people (William is not eating as much as I do!) at the restaurant. In order to make sure we don’t over spend on food, we ask our guests to bring the wine and we take care of the rest.

Instead of spending $75 per month, I plan on spending around $35 more on groceries and save about $40 a week. This way, we won’t feel like we are missing something, we simply change our habits. Who knows, we might like it enough to keep doing it after Christmas!

Cutting all non-necessary expenses ($200)

Life is full of unnecessary daily expenses. How many times do we see something that we like and just buy it on the spot? This will probably be my biggest challenge; not spending on extra food, extra wine, clothes or electronic gadgets until Christmas. For the first 2 frugal ideas, I am able to change my lifestyle in order to help us out. But for this one, I will simply sacrifice my lifestyle in order to fit into my Christmas budget!

So in the next 45 days, I should be able to save $465 for Christmas gifts. This is $10 per day. It shouldn’t be that bad, don’t you agree? If you have other Christmas saving ideas, I’m looking forward to read about them!

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Back in May, my wife stopped working full time so she could return to school part time and take care of our children. She is currently completing an online degree (sponsored by a real university ) so she can take care of everything while at home.

As I wrote yesterday, the company is picking up and we are making more and more money. However, since we want the company to grow at the same pace during these growth years, we are not taking much money out of it. And while I am not working full time anymore either, we see our debt in a holding pattern since she quit her job. While it is not the end of the world as we are under 30 and have a positive net worth, I would like to be in a better position to pay off my debt faster.

So we are stuck in the middle of another dilemma: continue to enjoy our quality of life, or reduce debt load and accept a modest lifestyle. So, we are trying to find alternative ways to make money without affecting our routine.

Working part time

Working part time seems to be a great idea. We found an ad in the newspaper to work at the library for 17 hours a week. Working for a city would probably be one of the best places to be a part time employee as they have nice working conditions and it pays above minimum wage.

We found a few other places where my wife could work part time:

- Coffee shop

- Work for a municipality

- Administrative work for a small office

- Cashier at a bank

Pros

The jobs we found were not too demanding and it was easy to get part time job. Most employers offering these positions will experience high turnover as many workers are students. So if they can find someone with experience, maturity that will stay more than a semester, they would be happy to hire this person.

Cons

Most part time jobs include evenings and weekend shifts. We are not too excited about this perspective as it would result in cutting into our “family time”.

The other major con is the salary. Most of these jobs are paid minimum wage so we are still waiting for the PowerBall.  ;-D

Housekeeping

Nothing incredibly original here, but housekeeping is pretty well paid and you don’t have to give half of your cash to the government . We are living in an area where most of our neighbours use a housekeeping lady. While I don’t think it would be a great idea to clean our neighbours’ houses, it is obvious that it would be easy to find a similar neighbourhood in our city.

Pros

The pay is good (compared to minimum wage) and the schedule is perfect since you make your own. You select the house you want to clean and you don’t have a manager breathing down your neck.

Cons

The major problem I see with this job is that nobody really loves  housekeeping and it is not an easy job (more demanding than working in a library ). On top of that, I don’t know how you feel when you have cleaned 2 houses and you come home to do your own the same day.

The good news is that we are not in a hurry so we can take our time and pick the right solution. We have dropped the idea of a daycare at home since my wife wouldn’t be able to study at the same time.

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After releasing 9 free websites to start investing in Canada last week, I have pursued my quest for free and useful resources for young investors. With the proliferation of the Internet, it is now much easier to find free stuff that is actually worth something

However, if you are interested in learning how to trade stocks using a technical approach, I found a free tutorial. Before deciding to talk about it, I registered myself (to make sure it was 100% free) and to see what kind of material I could find there.

I obviously can’t tell you if these 10 lessons will change your way of trading or make you rich in a few months time. However, I really think you can learn the basics of the technical analysis method.

I have listed the titles of the 10 lessons here so you can have a better idea of what you will receive via your inbox:

#1 The Importance of Psychology in Price Movement

#2 How to Spot Mega Trends

#3 Understanding of Technical Price Objectives

#4 How to Picture Price Objectives

#5 How to Trade with Moving Average

#6 How to Point and Figure Trading Techniques

#7 How to use the RSI Indicator

#8 How to Correctly use Stochastics in Your Trading

#9 How to Use the ADX Indicator to Capture Trends

#10 How to Capitalize on Natural Market Cycles

How Do I register?

Registering is easy and simple; you just have to register at INO by sending your email address. Every 2-3 days, you will receive one of the 10 trading lessons. They also provide videos to make understanding easier. As I said in the beginning, the whole thing is free so you don’t have much to lose!

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Finance Matters

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Carolline

Darwin’s Finance

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To stay in the horror theme from last week Halloween, there is a guy who thinks that Canadian Housing Bubble will burst. Come on! Is it a bad joke or just a ridiculous idea of article to get comments and people to run around like headless chicken? Since I work in a bank, I can tell you that the credit requirement by CMHC didn’t change (we use the same TDSR ratio) and that they have banned the 100% financing, 40 years amortization and 90% financing on HELOC program during the 2008 crisis. So we are not the biggest subprime mortgage lender in the world… pfff…. I just can’t believe it that some people are allowed to write such….can’t find a polite word so I’ll let you add yours

If you are wondering how many miles you need to run your car to benefit from Hybrid technology, I have found an interesting chart by vehicle. Thanks to Jeff!

Four Pillars has the most interesting article about the H1N1 flu. Did you know that we have more change of getting struck by a lightning (like the Canadiens did yesterday!) than dying from the H1N1? Incredible!

Intelligent Speculator writes about Hedged ETF’s.

How Much Does Your Vices Cost? over at Gather Little by Little.

Top Down Investment Approach described by ABC’s of Investing.

The Digerati Life presents the best ways of investing a small amount of money.

Holiday Gift Ideas over at The Smarter Wallet.

Cash Money Life explains how much you can save by doing a balance transfer.

You should think about life insurance at a young age according to Good Financial Cents… and me

How to make money from your expertise by the Wisdom Journal.

How to Manage your Million Dollar by Bible Money Matters.

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PRIMERICA FIRST IPO!

My friend just called me to let me know that Primerica is finally going public! After several unsuccessful attempts to sell Primerica, Citigroup found no other choice but to offer the first Primerica IPO. In fact, Citigroup is expecting to get as much as $100 million.

I don’t have time to write more about Primerica IPO right now, but I’ll come back with more thoughts on it later on… Let’s just say this could mean significant changes in many Primerica agents’ business models…

While you can read the full story over at Bloomberg, I was more concerned about each individual’s business model.

As I have mentioned in my Primerica Reviews, Primerica’s business model is based on recruiting. The real way of making money through Primerica is to build a sales force who sells insurance products to their relatives. We may debate if their term insurance products are good or not, this is not the point of the post. My main question is, will Primerica’s business model be threatened by this IPO?

When you read Primerica’s contract, it clearly stated that clients of Primerica remain under the control of Primerica if the agent was ever leave the company. So, what if a major insurance company buys Primerica shares to take over control of it?

Some say that it will take over a huge sales force (more than 100,000 Primerica agents). Others, the evilest of us, may think about buying one of the biggest client databases in term of insurance products.

This would mean that the so called “business” Primerica agents built could change hands within a few years (and a lot of millions invested in stock ). I am not saying it will happen overnight, but it is surely a sign that nothing can be taken for granted.

The potential new owner could also decide to cut the pyramidal aspect (commission wise) and name Regional Directors and VPs and pay them as salaried employees (this would cut their pay checks drastically and significantly increase Primerica’s profit… which is always good for shareholders!).

And what could Primerica agents in the face of an IPO?

Not much unless they have $100M to spend on the shares! While $100M will provide new cash to Citigroup and won’t really affect Primerica’s upper management, it still opens a breech. This breech will force Primerica to open its books and show how interesting (or uninteresting) the company could be for a potential bidder (hostile or not).

Then again, another point is the following: Do you feel safe building a business that is not yours? You can’t really call it a team since they are not your agents and they don’t sell to your clients… I am wondering…what about you?

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3 years ago, when I told my wife I was starting a personal financial blog, she didn’t have much of a reaction. In fact, since I always have 2-3 projects on the go, she wasn’t surprised. I was (and still) write my posts in the bus so she barely noticed that I had a new project.

During the first 6 months, not much happened at The Financial Blogger. In fact, I wasn’t getting more than 100 visits per month. So, my wife started wondering why I kept writing with “virtually” no purpose.

However, during the summer of 2007, the blog started to pick up and I was getting more and more visits each month. After a while, my friend and I decided to team our efforts and our sites and start a Web Company in March 2008.

At that point, I was starting to spend more time but the results weren’t there. The first month our company was created, we made about $500. So $250 each for all those articles written, all this time spent on the computer. Let’s just say that my wife wasn’t super impressed. On top of that, I was also doing my MBA at the same time. So she wasn’t too happy that I was spending additional time on another project.

For a while, we were not making much (below $1,000 per month) considering our efforts. So my wife started to get annoyed since I was talking about my company almost daily. In fact, there was not much to say about it because it was still a small sideline at that time. However, I was passionate about it and I was able to see the huge potential beyond those few hundred bucks we were making back then.

When we had our first annual meeting over Christmas 2008, she started to think it was nice to go out once a year and we were not really paying for our trip. The massage was much more relaxing and the food just tasted better since it was “free”.

Then, at the beginning of 2009, I started to receive cheques. It wasn’t “virtual” wire transfers from an unknown account. She was surprised to see my first cheque coming in the mail and especially so when she noticed it wasn’t a cheque for $35… but more like a cheque for hundreds of dollars. She smiled but still was thinking I was putting too much effort for such limited results.

However, month after month, I was receiving more cheques, and receiving more money through wire transfers. She started to get curious about it and was more interested to hear me talk about what we had done and what is on the horizon.

This summer was a major turning point for many reasons. My wife quit her job back in May, we made a major site purchase in July and I had started a four day work schedule back in September. It has been 2 months that I have concentrated a full day per week on my sites on top of my “regular” hours and we are now seeing that it is starting to pay off.

My wife is now all excited when she goes to the mailbox and gets the cheques for our company. And she is even more excited when she realizes that I am slowly making enough money to compensate for her salary loss. This means that she can continue to go to school and take care of our children.

During the past 3 years, I have really appreciated my wife’s scepticism about the project. It was an additional motivator to prove to her that I was able to succeed and actually earn a decent income through my laptop.

So if your spouse wants to start something, I don’t think you have to support him/her with all your might, but you should definitely let him go and challenge him to see how far he is willing to go with his new adventure. Without the support/challenge from my wife, I don’t think I would have been able to achieve what I have done so far.

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If you are new to The Financial Blogger, I suggest you read a few of our great posts:

Check out my post for a free book giveaway (winners to be announced on Friday Nov 6th).

Take it like a Man or Invest like a Woman

Primerica Reviews

Free Investing Sites

Canadian ETFs that pays dividend

If you know me, you know that I can’t start my day without a quality cup of coffee (like most of us anyway ). Since I work in a big city, I am spoiled with opportunities to try different coffees. So along with the great articles from the Carnival of Money Hackers, you will discover the top choices of coffee tasted in Montreal

#1 Starbucks Coffee – Editor’s Pick

Of all the coffee makers, if I can choose one that will make my day each time I take a sip, it has to be Starbucks. In fact, there is nothing better than a Venti Corsé! Here are the best articles from the Carnivals:

PT presents A Money Experiment: A Week Without Spending posted at PT Money.

Baker presents How I paid off $15,000 in 9 months by selling my ‘Stuff’ on Ebay posted at Man Vs. Debt.

J.D. Roth presents How to Get Your Free Credit Report Online: A Step-by-Step Guide posted at Get Rich Slowly.

Allan Inocente presents Top 10 best personal finance books of all time! posted at Rich Money Habits.

Tyler presents Opportunity is the Best Part of Opportunity Cost posted at Frugally Green.

#2 Second Cup – Money Management

While I really like Starbucks, there are none close to my office. However, there is a Second Cup nearby that serves the best Coffee Caramelo in town! So each time I buy a Second Cup, I save time and money compared to Starbucks, this is what we call money management

Fabulously Broke presents On Invoices, Receipts & Accuracy « Fabulously Broke in the City posted at Fabulously Broke ….in the City.

Super Saver presents The Benefit of not Including Bonuses in our Budget posted at My Wealth Builder.

MLR presents Quicken Home & Business 2010 Software Review posted at My Life ROI, Getting the Best Return On Life.

Tom @ Canadian Finance Blog presents 10 Money Management Tips For Expectant Parents posted at The Canadian Finance Blog.

Craig Ford presents 10 Reasons to Change Banks posted at Money Help For Christians.

vh presents Theme Days: A way to organize time posted at Funny about Money.

Bucksome Boomer presents Are you Prepared for H1N1? posted at Buck$ome Boomer’s Journey to Retirement.

Wise_Bread presents Recession Journal VI: It’s OVER!!!!!!!!!!!! Any Questions? posted at Wisebread.

debt kid presents Are You a Saver or A Spender? posted at Debtkid.com.

Susan Tiner presents Financial Organizing Soap Opera Episode #2: Mom and Dad posted at Brain Dead Simple! Financial Organizing.

#3 Café Dépôt – Investing

What I like about Café Dépôt, it’s their accessibility (very useful to have a coffee shop in the building when it rains/snows!) and their fidelity card. Each time you buy a coffee, you are closer to earning a free one in return… this is what I call a long term investment

Matt_SF presents Why Investing in Emerging Markets Can be Dangerous posted at Steadfast Finances.

D4L presents 15 Hot Dividend Increases posted at Dividends Value.

IS presents Hedged ETF’s… good or bad? posted at Intelligent Speculator.

TradingStocks.com presents Buying Penny Stocks posted at Trading Stocks.

ABC presents “Bottoms Up” Investment Method posted at ABCs of Investing.

Mike presents 5 reasons why RIM is a buy posted at Buy My Stock Picks

Patrick @ Cash Money Life presents Best Online Brokers posted at Cash Money Life.

#4 Tim Horton’s – Frugality and Debt Management

It may not be the best coffee in town but their Moka is far from being bad. Since it cost about half the price of a coffee from my top 3 coffee makers, we can call it a smart and frugal choice!

elle presents How to Pay Off a Car Loan posted at Couple Money.

J. Money presents Saving Now Gives Us Mad Options Later. posted at Budgets are Sexy..

Rob presents Green Products That Save Energy | Energy Saving Gadgets posted at Energy Saving Gadgets.

andy presents Five Things To Look For in Gettting Low-Cost Auto Insurance Rates posted at Saving to Inve$t.

Chris Holdheide presents The Dave Ramsey Baby Steps Review posted at StumbleForward.com.

Manshu presents Disney Rewards Visa Credit Card posted at OneMint.

Wren Caulfield presents Homemade Pico de Gallo with Garden Tomatoes posted at True Adventures in Money Hacking.

Ray @ Financial Highway presents Best Credit Card posted at Financial Highway.

Jeff Rose presents VISA Gift Card Review posted at Consumer Boomer.

David presents Chase Freedom Credit Card 3% Cash Back Bonus posted at Credit Card Offers IQ.

Cecil Dellison presents Credit Cards and Data Mining posted at Clear Choice Credit Cards.

#5 McDonald’s – Other

McDonald’s new Arabica coffee is surprising as it doesn’t taste like a Hamburger Seriously, you can find McDonald’s everywhere (except Iceland) and their coffee could help you make it through the day. Here are the remaining Carnival entries:

20smoney presents Sorting Through The Financial Issues That Come With Getting Married posted at 20s Money.

Studenomist presents Issues With Working In College posted at Studenomics.

Miss M presents The Freelancers Union posted at M is for Money.

freefrombroke presents Senate Possibly Extending First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit posted at Free From Broke.

Adam Williams presents Review of writing a Will on LegalZoom posted at RabbitFunds.com.

Julia Kingston presents Taking the Life out of LIFO posted at Gray Matters.

Paul Williams presents Who Should Own Your Life Insurance Policy? posted at Provident Planning.

Image source: pierofix, pixelens, majiscup, mjb84

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When I was a teenager, my dad had a great job and was making a very good income. We were not rich, but we didn’t have to worry too much about money. In fact, my dad never worried much about money his whole life… he still doesn’t . Way back when, he lost his lucrative contract just before the Holidays (Merry Christmas!). While he was making a lot of money, he also spent most of it. Easy come, easy go they say. Then, when he lost his contract, he didn’t have much to live on. He didn’t know what to do either. Therefore, he went bankrupt only a couple of months after this sad event. We lost our house, our cars… and I lost my summer job too since I worked for him! My dad is a smart man, but at that time, he didn’t have a plan B. And he paid dearly for this oversight.

What is a plan B?

Since we just hit another recession, most people saw a family member, a friend, a neighbour, a spouse that had lost a job. It got people thinking about what they would do if it ever happened to them. When I talk about a plan B, I am not talking about an emergency fund. Money won’t solve all problems if you don’t have a job, it will only buy time. This is exactly what happened to my father; he had some money put aside, enough to cover 3 months of income. But during that period, he couldn’t find another job and had to bring back the keys to our home.

A “plan B” is way bigger than having an emergency fund. It covers topics such as:

- Money –

Obviously, the first thing is to answer the following question: “where do I get money from if it’s not from a pay cheque”. Before you do anything, you must know where to get at least a few weeks of income in order to activate your plan B. It can be from an emergency fund (invested in a savings account or money market fund), from a line of credit or withdraw from a registered investment (this would trigger tax implications while affecting your retirement plan).

- Spending –

If times are rough, you must be able to identify what to cut out of your discretionary expenses in your budget. We all have our little “sins” that siphon money from our bank account on a regular basis. I personally spend a lot on food and restaurants. I just love it! However, it is important to know where you can cut back so you can act immediately and become “more frugal”. While cutting on restaurants, clothing or your favourite morning latte, consider also cutting down on other expenses. You might be able to decrease your mortgage payment (if you have a line of credit, only interest payments are required) or save on other spending (daycare, gas, it may be a good time to look at your insurance premiums ).

- Making Money –

Having a few bucks set aside is good. Spending less is better. But the real problem that must be solved by your plan B is how to make money again! And applying for 30 jobs a week is not what I call a plan B. It would not be sufficient in a recession, especially if your field of expertise has being seriously affected (these days talk to anybody working in the automobile industry…).

In order to start making money rapidly, there are a few things you can do on a steady basis:

- Continuing education. This is one of the main reasons why I did an MBA. It wasn’t to get a promotion but to improve my employability. This piece of paper can open several doors in different fields. It may not lead to my dream job, but when you don’t have one, any job is a dream job . A degree can also improve your employability with your current employer as well. Key people are rarely laid off in the first wave.

- Maintaining a great network. The more people who know you, the more chances you have to find another good job quickly. Most choice positions are being filled by word-of-mouth. You just have to make sure that you are part of those conversations . Sites like Facebook and Linkedin are definitely useful and you should remain somewhat active to ensure you remain connected.

- Having a sideline. No matter what you are good at, you should use your talent, your passion to generate a small income on the side. It is this income that may become your primary source of money during tough times. Thanks to the internet, most people are able to have an online store and generate a few bucks from home these days.

While thinking about your plan B, you will probably optimize your personal finance and might find a few bucks to save here and there. In the end, your Plan B on making money might even become your plan A over time!

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As many of you know, I go to the gym every workday (which is 4 times a week in my case ). So I arrive at the gym the very same hour 4 times a week. After a while, you get to know the people who share the same routine. At one point, I know that when I sit on the bench press and look to my right, there will be a girl smiling at me. If I smile back, am I cheating? Nope. I guess that we would at least need to go out to call it cheating. Then again, if we don’t kiss, if we don’t touch, if we simply are going to have a beer and talk; many probably would not call it cheating. But, if I touch her arm while talking, and she looks deeply into my eyes and we make “the” connection… we are getting closer to cheating… but not there yet. If I kiss her and she kisses back during a small moment of irrational passion and we stop after realizing what is happening. Like two magnets that separate… once it is too late. If I regret my move, did I cheat?

I guess that if my wife knows about the girl from the gym, she might feel uncomfortable and ask for more questions. She might also decide to question herself and start changing stuff and act like she loves me more, like I am precious. Or… she may decide to simply wait until I “officially” cheat on her and let me drift away (but keep my income as family alimony!).

I obviously didn’t write about my own situation (gotcha!). I am actually describing how fidelity or lack thereof can occur between a client and his financial advisor. Funny enough, the business relationship is quite similar to being with someone you love.

The girl smiling at the gym represents other financial advisors (aka competitors ). Technically, it is not too bad if you look at what others have to offer from time to time. You can look, you can talk, and you can even meet. As long as you don’t touch and you don’t kiss, most of us won’t considerate flirting as cheating on your financial advisor

If you let know your financial advisor about your adventure, he might want to adjust and become more efficient, more proactive. He might ask what led you to meet with another advisor. He should ask about what can be improved in your relationship.

But, as is the case with personal relationships, if you push the game too far, that you actually touch (sign) and kiss (transfer out), you may lose your original advisor for good. Worst than that, if you have a mortgage or mutual funds with closed end fees, you might sign a last cheque before officially leaving for good.

Sometimes it is worth it, sometimes it is not. It all depends on how good your financial advisor is and the quality of your relationship (notice any similarities with your girlfriend?).

On the other hand, I really don’t mind when clients look elsewhere. I think it is part of the game and they need to reaffirm from time to time that you are the best advisor for them. However, I value the relationship I have with my clients. I want to become more than the “guy from the bank”. And if they are ready to flush me for beautiful eyes, I would not hesitate to leave them and concentrate on other, more loyal, clients.

What you need to learn on this Friday morning is that you can play the seductive game to make sure that everybody is working in your best interest, but don’t play too hard because you may be left with no advice at all

Last week’s Carnivals:

Carnival of Personal Finance

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If we had to separate people into 2 different clans: The Thrifts and the Spendthrifts, I would probably be closer to the latter. Unfortunately, the thing I like most about money is spending it. However, being a husband and father of two beautiful children has helped me be more responsible financially. While I never really wasted my money, I have always enjoyed earning more to spend more in order to indulge myself from time to time.

Now that we live on a single income, I have to double my efforts to become more frugal and concentrate on priorities. I guess this is what attracted me to read more about “being cheap”, which led me to “In Cheap We Trust” by Lauren Weber.

About Lauren Weber:

The author “grew up in Connecticut with a father who rationed toilet paper, set the thermostat at 50 degrees during the winter, and rarely used his car’s turn signals (to prevent them from burning out).”

Strong from her frugal background, Lauren always had a passion for writing. She has been writing for Reuters, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and American Banker just to name a few. Since 2007, she has concentrated on writing “In Cheap We Trust”, a combination of personal anecdotes intertwined with social and historical data wrapped up with a political taste for frugal living.

About the book:

Lauren captivated me during the first few pages about her cheap thrills introduction. And why the word “cheap” has become so negative over time. It’s as if the amount of money spent annually has become the measure of your social class in our modern (capitalist) society.

This book uses history to bring us back to the very definition of thrift and how frugality has been an important part of our value system for a very long time. Through a well documented (sometimes too exhaustive though) research, she depicts the history of frugality since the very first person set foot on American soil.

The last decade (apparently) has brought us wealth and comfort. Yet, recent economic events show us that we, as a spendthrift nation, simply incurred a huge credit bill over these same 10 years and it is now time to pay the interest and reimburse the capital. If we had not forgotten the efforts from our ancestors in building the foundation of a strong and frugal society, we might not have hit such a brick wall in today’s recession.

I particularly liked the Paradox of Thrift revisited by Weber. The paradox of thrift was created based on the principle of the economy declining due to the fact that everybody is saving instead of spending. Technically, if consumers stop buying and save their money, it should create an economic contraction resulting in more job losses (I guess this is why Bush was telling us to take our stimulus check to go to Disneyland!).

While the premise is accurate (spending less will result in a longer and deeper recession), spending more will simply postpone the problem for a few years. It’s akin to not going to the doctor because you have the flu, instead wait until you get pneumonia. I feel that a balance between savings and spending would be most appropriate.

I also found it quite interesting to actually understand the roots of frugality and Weber’s personal stories included in her book got me thinking about how far from being thrifty I actually was. It was nice way to get into the mood to save money!

Now the Giveaway!

I actually have 10 copies to distribute amongst Gather Little By Little and The Financial Blogger readers. Each blog will giveaway 5 copies of “In Cheap We Trust”.

Participation rules:

- Comment below with a frugal tip or spending philosophy (1 entry per comment).

- Follow me on twitter (1 entry)

- Register to my free mailing list (on top right of the site)

- Register to my RSS feed (1 entry)

You can actually participate on both sites by commenting.

The giveaway winners will be announced on Friday, November 6^th.

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