Have you ever read one of those books that was challenging, convicting and encouraging all at the same time? I just finished one. It’s called The Money Saving Mom’s Budget: Slash Your Spending, Pay Down Your Debt, Streamline Your Life, and Save Thousands a Year
I’ve been a big fan of Crystal Paine’s website Money Saving Mom since we started working on our finances. When I found out she was looking for bloggers to review her new book, I jumped at the chance. Although I have to be quite honest, I wondered how much I’d actually get from it as we’ve already made huge progress in the area of finances.
When the book arrived, I quickly dove in and I was oh-so-pleasantly surprised. It’s an amazing book.
The first 2 chapters alone are worth the price of the book and they don’t even talk about setting a budget or using coupons.
In Chapter 1, If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, Any Train Will Get You There, Crystal talks about the importance of setting goals and how to break your goals down to bite-size chunks. She even has worksheets to make it easy.
In Chapter 2, Are The Chaos and Clutter of Your Life Keeping Your From Financial Success, Crystal addresses tackling our clutter. Clutter is one of my biggest problems and I loved her approach to it. I actually read half the chapter out loud to my husband and daughters.
Although I wasn’t sure how much clutter has to do with financial success, I knew it was something I need to work on so I decided to go after it. Boy was I surprised at how wrong I’d been.
When we tackled our kitchen, I ended up throwing away a bunch of food that was expired. Cake mixes and cookie mixes that were “free” with coupons, but never used. I also found lots of coupons for “free” items that were stuffed in a drawer. They were all expired (and some of them would have come in quite handy). I also found lots of things that we’re no longer using and in our kitchen alone we took a 27 gallon tote of stuff to Goodwill.
The rest of the book tackles the nitty-gritty of finances in a way that anyone can understand. Crystal shares how to set up a budget, how to save money by going cash only, how to coupon effectively, how to save money on your grocery bill without using coupons, how to go out on the town without spending a fortune, and most importantly, how to find contentment where you’re at.
Crystal and her family know first hand how to live frugally. There have been times in her life where Crystal and her husband lived on $650 a month. Since then, they’ve increased their income, but have continued to live frugally. Because of that, she and her husband were able to pay cash for their first home. Her methods really work and her book will break it down in easy steps for you to follow.
Her book just came out today, so hurry and snag a copy of it now. It’s seriously life changing! {And all of the profits from this book go to support Compassion International>}
Click here to check it out!
. Many of these books are only free for a short amount of time, but if each week you download 2 free books that would have regularly cost you $10 each, you’ve saved over $1000 in a year! {
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