Jeff Yeager is the author of the new book The Cheapskate Next Door.
“Sure, we could afford to spend more, but why would we? It wouldn’t make us any happier.” Those are the words I’ve spent the last two and a half years traveling the country to hear. It’s a simple but rare statement, given that nearly half of all Americans say that they literally live paycheck-to-paycheck and have little if any savings. How can some people live not only within their means, but substantially below their means, even when their incomes are often less than the national average? And here’s the biggest question of all: How can some of those same people insist that they are happier — joyous really — because of their thrift and frugality?
I traveled thousands of miles — nearly 3,000 of them by bicycle! — and surveyed more than 300 of my beloved “Miser Advisers” to find the answers. In my new book, The Cheapskate Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of Americans Living Happily Below Their Means, I share what I discovered about people and families who not only know how to stretch their money, but who are more content and happier because of it. The book also includes hundreds of their practical, money saving tips — unique ideas that anyone can use every day.
Some of what I found may not surprise you: they despise debt and have found creative ways to eliminate it from their lives; they differentiate between “needs” and “wants,” and between “affordability” and “borrow-ability;” and, yes, most of them own and still wear at least one article of clothing dating back to the Carter administration (or earlier).
But other findings surprised even me, the Green Cheapskate: only about 10% have a written household budget (“we live our budget — it’s second nature — we don’t waste time writing about it,” one cheapskate said); while they have savings in the bank, less than 15% have a formal “emergency fund” (“an emergency fund is for people who don’t have their financial house in order otherwise,” another cheapskate said); and more than nine out of ten say that they think, worry, and stress-out about money less — not more — than their non-cheapskate peers. They are 100+ times more likely to have a dog or cat adopted from a shelter than one purchased from a pet store; far more likely to own a crock-pot (or several) than an iPod or flat-screen TV; and they divorce at less than half the national average.
These aren’t your miserable, Scrooge-like cheapskates. These are folks who know what’s important in life, and they skip the rest. Here’s a glimpse inside the mind of the Cheapskates Next Door:
