Sometimes we need to spend less in order to save for that, often talked about, rainy day. Sometimes we find that the rain has already started and we need to spend less in order to keep from being caught in a flood.


When we speak of cutting our food budgets we naturally worry. Isn’t that the absolutely last, most desperate step to be taken when finances get us down? Well, of course. That is if we are bare-bones thrifty to begin with.


The truth is, most often, that we have become expert mental gymnasts, convincing ourselves that we are cost-conscious and frugal when really we are not. We rationalize with a thousand and one “yes, but”…s. We convince ourselves that there isn’t enough time to cook. There isn’t even enough time to sit down to eat. Our excuses range from having to run errands on our lunch hours to our chauffeuring schedules for soccer practice to simply saying, “Nobody is in the same place at the same time long enough for a real meal.”


We’ve convinced ourselves of these ‘truths’ and have grown comfortable with them. Now we face economic uncertainty while we are bombarded with programs encouraging us to pay off debt or become debt free and we ask ourselves “How?” We take stock of our personal circumstances, shake our heads and become convinced that financial stability or lack of indebtedness is impossible for us and we wonder how bad tomorrow will really be.


Please believe me; I know that tomorrow can get a great deal worse. But it is not the intent of this book to foster a ‘doom and gloom’ attitude. Experience has taught me that there is always light at the end of the tunnel. Experience has also taught me that ‘hope’ alone is an insufficient substitute for taking matters into our own hands. It is because of personal triumphs over adversity, almost without knowing, that I have developed methods and skills that actually work when money and time are close to nonexistent…