Have Yourself a Frugal Little Christmas

How Steve and Annette Economides, publishers of the MoneySmartFamily website and authors of the book America’s Cheapest Family Gets You Right on the Money, celebrate the holidays.

Save all year long.

“In January we set an amount to spend on gifts, divide it by 12, and set aside that much money every month.”

Shop eBay.

“Each of our five children gets a book, a movie, and a CD, plus one big gift that we find on eBay. We found a first-edition copy of John Hersey’s book Hiroshima for $10, including shipping, and a mint-condition JanSport backpack worth $150 for … Read more »

Welcome to MoneySmartFamily.com – we’re so glad you’re here. Sadly, Budget Living Magazine closed its doors sometime in March of 2006. The people we worked with were wonderful and we were sad to see the magazine go away.

What has Replaced Budget Living Magazine?

There haven’t been any magazines that have replaced it. AllYou magazine was close, but not as deep (and they’re gone now). Real Simple is nice, not so much of a focus on frugality and budgeting – but they do present some thrifty craft and shopping ideas – kind of a Pinterest … Read more »

This was a fun article to be a part of. Bob Trebilcock was the writer and Wally Konrad was the editor for Good Housekeeping. Together, they allowed us to help select two of the three couples to be featured in the article.

Scott and Dona Barclay are long-time friends of ours. Scott and Steve went to college together. The Barclay’s are steady plodders, who use their frugality to help them reach goals that help other people. As of the writing of this article, they are in the midst of building a world-class gymnastics training center to house their youth gymnastics center, … Read more »

We were surprised when People Magazine contacted us. We aren’t celebrities — never have been and never want to be.

We just want to be a family that encourages the world that living simply and frugally creates a rewarding, fulfilling, and fun life.

It amazes us that people in the world are amazed at our lifestyle. We have fun and laugh a lot and they just can’t figure out why.

Is it possible that people who have all of the stuff that the world says really matters are missing out on the things that stuff can’t buy? Things like peace, … Read more »