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

Each of these stories are true and shared here to entertain and inspire your inner cheapskate.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Annie Jean Brewer
• Release date: Feb 19, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311053596

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

CONFESSIONS OF A CHEAPSKATE

BY:

ANNIE JEAN BREWER

ANNIENYGMA.COM

COPYRIGHT 2015 BY ANNIE JEAN BREWER

PUBLISHED BY ANNIE JEAN BREWER ON SMASHWORDS

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Dumpster Diving

Family cloths

- Menstrual cloths

- Family cloth tutorial

The no shampoo experiment

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: Life after the first great depression

Now what?

About the author

Contact information

Other titles

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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