Confessions of a Cheapskate

By Annie Jean Brewer

Have you ever wondered about the crazy things that a cheapskate will do to save money? This book is a collection of stories from the life of Annie Jean Brewer, the famous frugalista behind Annienygma.com.

The tales in this book cover:

 

Dumpster Diving
Family cloths
Going without shampoo
Going Commando
Winter coats and maternity clothes
Stains
Freezer jeans
The Pepsi point summer
Ghetto auto repairs
Going car-free
Staying cool
Keeping warm
Eating out for half-price
Tomato soup
Cheap meds
Cigarette butts

Bonus Content:
Life After the First Great Depression

• Language: English
• Publisher: Annie Jean Brewer
• Release date: Feb 19, 2015
• ISBN: 9781507071755

Annie Jean Brewer

Annie Brewer learned how to combine minimalism with frugality to live the life of her dreams. A single mother, she is a computer professional who works from home and primarily supports her family through writing. You can follow her adventures at Annienygma.com, discover her articles on the Yahoo Contributor Network and read free samples of her books here. Download one of her free ebooks today!

Book preview

Introduction

I became a cheapskate out of necessity. You do what you have to when you've got kids to feed, no matter how crazy.

In time, however, I realized that my shoestring ways empowered me. I was able to survive economic hits and take financial risks that sank many of my family and friends. As a result of that epiphany I started using my ability to stretch a dollar not only to save money, but to achieve my dreams of being a stay at home mother and a successful writer.

When I was younger I must confess that I looked upon frugality with completely different eyes. I lived in a very poor area and many of the people around me looked at their lives in a negative light. Even worse, those who managed to escape poverty enjoyed coming back and making the rest of us feel like scum. Because of this I felt like a complete failure during my early years as an adult and even more so when I first became a single parent.

In time I became angry. Why did the possession of money make them so much better than me? I wondered. I finally realized that it didn't, and that was when my life changed.

I stopped worrying about what people thought about my income and me. I ceased to care if I had the nice things in life according to society's dictates.

I started living life according to what made me happy instead.

My kids were more important to me than being rich so I chose low-paying jobs that allowed me to spend time with them instead of high-paying positions that would have forced me to farm out my children to strangers. In order to make the money I did have last as long as possible, I made conserving it into a game. I would try new and crazy things just to see how well they worked. My reward for success was an easier life with my time spent doing what I wanted to do as opposed to slaving away on some assembly line or in a cubicle.

Sometimes the experiments work, other times they flop. Many times the things I try end up being too much effort for the savings gained, but how else are you going to know if you don't try?

Because of my viewpoint change I live my life very differently than I did just a few years ago. I am no longer ashamed of living below the poverty line and don't hide the fact that I am cheap and a little bit crazy.

Even better, I have gained the courage to share my exploits with others to show them that there's no sin in being poor; the sin is what you do in your poverty.

Each of us has a choice: we can cry about the hand life has dealt us or we can accept it and move beyond.

I choose to move beyond and to live my life as an example to others.

I don't expect anyone to live as frugally as I do. In fact, I hope that none of you ever have to unless you make a deliberate choice to do so.

While I became the Shoestring Girl out of necessity, I remain in this lifestyle by choice. Like everyone else I have times of plenty and