I was given the opportunity to listen to the audio book The Money Saving Mom’s Budget by Crystal Paine. I have read other money saving books, so I wasn’t sure if I’d learn anything new. I was pleasantly surprised. I liked how the ideas were broken down into simple, manageable things to do.
She explained how to set up a budget. Even though I have read similar books I had never set up a budget before. Because she made it so simple it seemed less threatening. She was all about baby steps.
She suggested to start with a bare bones budget and then when you felt comfortable with that to move on to a full fledged budget. She said to leave wiggle room for splurges.
She also talked about clearing away the clutter. You might wonder what this has to do with saving money. If you have so much clutter you don’t know what you have you may buy duplicates of something. You also may have things that you don’t need anymore that you could sell on craigslist or ebay. One of the chapters I really liked was the one on setting goals. She talks about setting big goals and breaking them down int bite size pieces. If you are saving for a vacation or trying to pay off a credit card you can calculate just how long it will take to meet that goal. There are even worksheets in the back of the book for this purpose.
A big portion of the book is on how to cut down on your grocery bill. This is the biggest expense with the most amount of wiggle room. It talks about coupons of course and also 25 ways to cut down your grocery bill without coupons. At the end of the book Crystal lists websites that will also help you save money. Among them is her money saving website at www.moneysavingmom.com.
I really enjoyed the book and am excited to put a lot of the ideas into practice. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in saving money in many simple ways. You can purchase the book here.
This is part of a blog tour. All opinions are my own.
