The Shoestring Girl: How I Live on Practically Nothing and You Can Too

THE SHOESTRING GIRL:

How I Live on Practically Nothing - And You Can Too!

By

Annie Jean Brewer

SMASHWORDS EDITION

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PUBLISHED BY:

Annie Jean Brewer on SMASHWORDS

THE SHOESTRING GIRL:

How I Live on Practically Nothing - And You Can Too!

Copyright 2011 by Annie Jean Brewer

Discover Other Titles by Annie Jean Brewer at http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/annienygma

Smashwords Edition License Notes

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The Shoestring Girl

Table of Contents

Introduction

How to Use This Book

A Temporary Situation

Welfare, Social Security and Jobs

Live on Less

The Curse of Credit

The Luxury of Insurance

The Penny Trap

Housing

Auto

Furniture, Appliances, Electronics and Stuff

Thrift Shop, Yard Sales and Other Resources

Groceries, Recipes and Grow Your Own

Medical and Dental Care

Personal Care

Home Care and Cleaning

Conclusion

References and Recommendations

About the Author

Connect With Annie Online

Other Titles

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Introduction

When I left my husband a decade ago I had no job and no money; all I had were my kids, our pets and an old mobile home that I had purchased in preparation.

I did not enter into the challenge without being ready. I knew my income would be sparse so I planned ahead. These were my rules:

* Make recurring expenses as low as they could go.

* Keep them that way.

By using this method I would know the bare minimum needed to survive with my kids and I could (hopefully) be a little picky and choose a job that offered mother's hours so I would not have to depend upon child care for all but the youngest.

It worked.

When my income increased I followed the advice of some friends and took out loans and credit cards to improve my situation with new appliances and furniture. What a mistake! As a result of those purchases there were a few times when I had to scrape money together just to buy groceries.

I don't want to EVER do that again.

I have discovered several advantages to keeping those recurring expenses low:

* It frees up the bulk of your money for enjoying life.

* You don't have to work as hard to get your bills paid.

* You can better survive economic downturns.

* You can afford to chase your dreams or take risks.

* You can afford to take long vacations by saving up and not working for a time.

* You don't have to search for a roommate or shack up with someone to have help paying your bills--you are able to pay all of your bills on a single income.

I have been living this lifestyle for so many years now that it is second nature. I have become the one that my wealthier friends ask for loans when their income takes a dip. It makes me wonder who is the real wealthy one: the one with all of the money, or the one who knows how to keep it?

Some say that this lifestyle involves sacrifice yet neither I nor my family feels this way. We do what we want, when we want and have money to spare.

Our van is paid for, we rent a nice older home in town and we have money in the bank with more on the way. Our computers are newer (Katie's is 2 years old and mine is a few months old) and we can afford to upgrade on a regular cycle.

We have everything we need but only a portion of the expense of an average household. Here are my recurring bills:

Until recently I had a part-time job at Wal-Mart. We have enough money coming in from my book royalties so I quit to focus on the things that are really important in my life. This accomplishment would have been impossible if it were not for shoestring living.

We did have prepaid cell phones but stopped putting money on them when I started planning to leave the job at Wal Mart. Cell phones are luxuries for all but the perpetually mobile (like truck drivers) so instead we use Google Voice combined with our MagicJack for voice calls and texting.

We do not receive welfare or food stamps yet we eat well and are healthy. Nor do we receive any cash payments from the government. We live entirely on my income as a writer and life is really good.

If we wanted to, we could live on even less than we do right now. Here's how:

* Go to the library for internet access. Save $30/month.

* Eliminate the van and walk everywhere. Save $41/month on car insurance plus maintenance, gasoline, taxes and license fees. Realistic savings would be over $1,000 a year.

* Use Google Voice exclusively for phone service instead of MagicJack. Save $1.67/month.

* Purchase a mobile home on a rented lot and pay cash. Save $100-$150 a month depending upon the lot rent.

If I did these things I would then only pay $230 a month for an additional savings of $202.67. If I wanted to live even cheaper I could purchase a small RV or live in my van and eliminate the rental and utility fees so even my low bills are not the lowest that they could be!

However, there is a line we must walk when being frugal. The goal is to stay on the comfortable side of that line so that our lives do not feel like a sacrifice. Rather like walking on a tightrope, we balance to avoid a fall. I call this line the shoestring.

Anyone can do what I do to save money. All it takes is desire, patience and a willingness to look at things in a different way.

Are you ready to live on a shoestring?

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How to Use This Book

Within these pages you will find the tips and tricks that I have used personally over the years to pare my expenses to the bone. Some of these things I still do today while others did not hold my interest; still others I've kept in reserve for the day that I need the knowledge.

This book is written so that you can read it in its entirety to get an overview and then bookmark the stuff you want to try yourself. I have no intentions of reinventing the wheel so if there is a resource available that can help you better I will lead you there with a link or a reference. That way if you