When I saw that the last name of the couple who wrote “America’s Cheapest Family” was “Economides,” I thought you have to be kidding me--that must be a gimmic. But, since I have a well-developed fondness for budgeting paraphernalia, I decided to look beyond my reservations and check it out.
I Need a Kick Start
Since budgeting is an inseparable component of weathering a recession, I thought I would try to use this book as a springboard to kick start my...um...fiscal motivation. Because true to my character, my budgeting efforts tend to be rather inconsistent and often in need of pep talks.
Budget with Friends
I bring this up because I will be talking about my budgeting “experiments” during this series, and would love to invite you to join me. Being a firm believer that money management is best done among friends, I’ve already recruited a friend to help me tackle the first topic: grocery shopping, and certainly we could use more!
Start Here
So, if you could use a little budget makeover yourself, I’d recommend joining us by starting with the following:
1. grab a copy of America’s Cheapest Family, or another household budgeting book (there are tons of them!) that looks inspiring to you, and start reading
2. and get your hands on some budgeting software. Mint.com and Quicken online are both free web-based resources that are easy to set up and synchronize with your accounts. Or, if you prefer to keep you financials separate from the world wide web, Quicken or Microsoft Money personal software programs are great choices.
Stay tuned to hear more about my budgeting adventures in the weeks to come, and I can’t wait to hear about yours!
Previous Recessionista Posts:
Home-Grown Resilience
Recessionista Trivia
Now is Our Time
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