How Can I Make a Lot of Money Quickly?

Here's a quote from an email I received: "We are in debt bad. Not like a poor person or anything like that but no kind of debt is good either. Please email me some good ideas of making big bucks in a short period of time for a long period of time. I will forever be thankful of your services if you would help us find something that will work." 

First of all, I'm not a proponent of making "big bucks" quickly. The internet and the mail are both full of scams that say they will do just that. They are only scams though, and will not bring you fast money (although you may lose money quickly to them), as good as they sound.

Then there are other ways of making a lot of money quickly, but they're not legal... so on to the real solution:

It's never how much money you make or how fast you make it, but it's how you use the money you make that makes the difference. If your family is in debt, no amount of money will help unless the basic attitude that got you in debt is changed. If that doesn't change, any greater amount of money will simply be eaten up with things and more things and can even put you in deeper debt.

The answer to your quandary is not making a lot of money quickly as much as it is controlling the money you already have. It's entirely possible to get out of "normal" debt and have money in savings on ANY income. Money problems are never resolved by how much we have, but how we handle what we have.

Are You Really Frugal?

Do you save water from the shower or in a pan in the kitchen sink to water houseplants, the garden, clean the floor, etc.?
Do you water down shampoo and liquid hand soap? (Some of it actually works better that way.)
Do you make your own plastic scrubbies from vegetable net bags?
Do you borrow books and DVDs rather than buy them? Shop at thrift stores and on sales racks exclusively?  Refinish furniture rather than buy something new (or second hand)?
What about transportation? Do you drive a car until it really needs to be replaced (rather than just when you get "tired" of it).

Just checking.

Rain, rain, go away...

That's for those of you who are threatened with floods or just sick and tired of all the rain. Not so here. We've had a more or less steady rain for two days now and I'm loving it. The "poor man's fertilizer" in liquid form suits me just fine.

It makes good sleeping weather and I won't have to water the lawn or garden for days and days. We've needed a good soaking rain for a long time, so this is the answer to prayer. Things will turn green overnight as soon as the sun comes out, which it's supposed to do tomorrow.

This is Colorado at its best; the way it was when we moved to the area nearly 30 years ago. Green, not too hot, not too cold. Perfect farming and gardening climate with soil that could be amended with not too much trouble.

The last few years - maybe a decade - has been hard to garden and I know I'm not the only one rejoicing in this return to normal, even if it's temporary. Is there "normal" any more? I doubt it.

But for now, my frugal soul is happy. Bring on the fresh vegetables!

Who Are the Frugal People?

Note: This was originally published May 17, 1999, when I was the Frugal Living Guide for About.com Other sites have since picked it up and published it, but I own the rights to it. I am not complaining; on the contrary, it's a compliment when people think what I have written is worth repeating - as long as they attribute the work to me.
 

Frugal people are familiar with things like self-sufficiency, homeschooling, midwifery, simple living, alternative energy, dumpster diving and wild food foraging. We are also familiar with budgets, bank rates, and personal finance.

We live in every circumstance and situation imaginable, from past the end-of-the-road rural cabins, to highrise apartments. Some of us are passionate about the natural world around us, others feel as if allowing our hair to grow an extra inch is going natural. For some, "back to basics" means cooking a meal instead of eating out, for others, it means sawing the winter's wood with a crosscut saw.

Just as we are a diverse, broad ray in the spectrum of lifestyles, we are also perceived in many opposing ways.

"Frugality" can conjure up visions of continual black bean soup and shoes with cardboard insoles. "Mean" and "stingy" are the synonyms that come quickly to mind. Doing without, deprivation, and poor, are other words used to describe a state of being that's a threat rather than a blessing; a thing to be avoided rather than sought after.

But frugality (synonyms: economical, money-wise, canny) can also mean creatively making the available money do as many things as possible, down to creating and maintaining a comfortable savings account and living debt-free.

What and who are we, really? Most of us will find ourselves on neither end of this seesaw -- and seesaw it is. Nothing ever stays balanced exactly, so there is always a little adjustment to be made here, a little tuck to be taken there. Probably the only thing that can be said of frugal people is that they are determined to get the most and the best from the resources they have.

Most of us simply continue trying to be more and more frugal in various ways, but there are those who have the courage to completely sell out. Voluntary simplicity, they call it. A simpler, more frugal life isn't limited to those who have already made it, and changed their minds, either.

In the final test, living frugally is all about choices... yours and mine. When we begin to make conscious choices about how, when, and if we use your resources, we are immediately more in control. And when we're in control, the responsibility is ours -- for a more frugal tomorrow, personally and globally.