frugality

489 comments

Is Mr. Money Mustache Ruining Your Marriage?

The following is an actual conversation from my email. Abridged a bit for sanity and privacy. An Enraged Reader Writes: I was both interested and amused by this submission from a non-reader. While there were definitely some misinterpretations and complainypants in there (especially with that incorrect attitude about biking), I also thought I sensed some light-hearted…
246 comments

Give Yourself the Gift of Not Worrying About Money

For most people in this country, financial problems are caused by not thinking enough about money. One of the guys I hire occasionally to help me build houses, for example, is permanently broke and always requires full payment in cash at the end of each workweek. Yet at the beginning of each workday, he arrives…
167 comments

Which Part of the Money Wave do you Surf?

One of the silliest objections I run across to the Mustachian lifestyle, is the concept that it is Extreme. Mr. Money Mustache needs to go out and buy more shit right now, because otherwise he’s depriving himself. And his family too. You only live once, and what good is money if you don’t spend it on…
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Selling the Dream of Financial Independence – Part 2

In the first post of this series, we laid the groundwork for tempting a spendy spouse into a more frugal future. It was my attempt at combining the necessary logic and psychology that are required to slowly but surely allow someone to change their mind about the connection between spending and lifetime happiness. In this…
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Frugality: the New Fanciness

I grew up in a pretty low-key family, financially speaking. We always had plenty of money for groceries and my parents never went into debt, but if you were one of the Joneses* living down the street from us, you’d be hard-pressed to notice any flashy spending. This upbringing occurred in a pretty small town…
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An $800 Gift From Me to You

Last week I wrote up an article about cutting your home heating costs. The discussion that followed in the comments section was full of more great information, and it even led to me making a small change in my own house that should work out to surprisingly large savings. This rather simple trick was: Changing…
403 comments

The True Cost of Commuting

 It was a beautiful evening in my neighborhood, and I was enjoying one of my giant homebrews on a deck chair I had placed in the middle of the street, as part of a nearby block’s Annual Street Party. I was talking to a couple I had just met, and the topic turned to the…
66 comments

How much is that bitch costin’ ya?

Wow, how about that title. I can almost smell the politically correct outrage! But let’s explain right away, lest Mr. Money Mustache lose his rep as a caring family man who spends most of his time making sand castles and Lego ships with a 5-year-old boy. The alternate title was “Fix Impulse spending with The…
112 comments

Royal Wedding, Shloyal Fledding

It’s time for Mr. Money Mustache to attack another one of America’s most sacred traditions. Marriage. Well, not marriage specifically, but those fantastic and fancy parties we call weddings. Now, in case you hadn’t figured it out, from an American perspective, I might as well be from another planet. I grew up in a small…
124 comments

Hypermiling: Expert driving to save 25% on gas.

Who wants to spend less money on gas? Everyone? Yeah! Every few weeks, you’ll see yet another simplistic article in a bland mass-market publication like USA today or CNN news that says the same things about saving fuel: pump up your tires to manufacturer recommendations, accelerate smoothly, combine errands, and so on. You already follow the tips,…
125 comments

How Not to use your Air Conditioning

Happy July 18th. It sure is hot these days, isn’t it? Statistically speaking, a good portion of the continental US and Canada has its hottest average day of the year right around now. So I thought it was a good time to share some thoughts on the modern household’s biggest energy consumer in July –…

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Love, Mr. Money Mustache

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