Thrifty: Living the Frugal Life with Style

A couple of years ago, I woke up to the fact that my family was living a life of too much. Too much stuff and too much debt. My husband and I decided it was time to make a change. We started purging our home of unimportant clutter and began working toward paying off the debt. We didn’t realize it, but we were preparing for his unemployment.

Since we learned my husband would be losing his job, we’ve worked even harder to be frugal. I’ve read many books and blogs on that subject. The most recent being Thrifty: Living the Frugal Life with Style by Marjorie Harris.

To be honest, most books on frugality are the same. The bottom line is to spend less than you make (something our culture has been slow to learn). Thrifty is different because, while the information itself is nothing new, Harris offers wit and wisdom for building a life that’s thrifty, yet valuable.

…what we lost in our rush to acquire more material goods and status symbols was how to value what we already have. The push to be bigger and better was part of the whole ethos of what describes success, and we lost our handle on just how much is enough.

Harris also points out that thrifty people are often mislabeled as cheap.

Thrift is so muddled with the idea of cheapness that it’s a source of great irritation to frugal types. Cheap is someone who buys based only on price…The rules of thrift aren’t meant to develop a stingy quality; indeed, it should bring on a feeling of well-being rather than deprivation.

Thrifty is filled with ideas for thrifty cooking (Harris even includes a few thrifty recipes), entertaining, travel, and home keeping. She concludes the book with her 20 most important tips for thrifty living.

If you’re looking for a different approach on the… well, let’s face it… sometimes boring subject of saving money, Thrifty is definitely worth a look.

Melissa has been captivated by books as long as she can remember. She’s living a thrifty yet valuable life in Virginia, and blogs at Breath of Life.