Book Review: America's Cheapest Family

This book is all about the Economidies family who have managed to raise a five person household with one income for almost their entire adult lives. The extraordinary thing is that this income happens to only be around $35,000-40,000 a year. What this book does is detail the lengths they go to maintain their high standard of living on such a low salary. What I find most inspiring about their story is the one income part. Sometimes I imagine what it would be like to be a stay-at-home mother, but I inevitably think that the downsides would outweigh the benefits; not to mention that I want my husband and I to have a good head-start on saving for retirement.



The specifics of "America's Cheapest Family" deal with their budgeting system, which is the key to how to manage to afford everything they need. Every expense is tracked and a certain amount is allocated to every category each payday. This family saves the most money at the grocery store and by buying their clothing and such at thrift stores. A site that I like to go to to get money-saving ideas is Money Saving Mom. Just this week from this site I scored a free sandwich from Quiznos and a free Redbox movie--just to name a few.

After reading "America's Cheapest Family" I decided not to implement their budgeting system because I already save enough money and I don't want to feel like I'm on a "budgeting diet" for no reason. I do pick up this book for inspiration from time-to-time, and I think they have a lot of good tips for people who don't check the prices when they go grocery shopping or spend too much money on clothes.