The Cheapo 10 Commandments

So, you've rung every last dime out of your food budget. You're wanted in 6 states for thieving all the freebies from Wendy's condiment stands. You've started bringing a metal detector on your walks just in case you hit the motherlode. What else can a guy do to sock away some extra cash?

Well, you've come to the right place, my friends, as my PhD in frugality is not merely limited to realm of the knife and fork.

Behold, the Cheapo 10 Commandments:

1) Thou shalt not carry any revolving credit card or automotive debts
2) Thou shalt cancel thy gym membership immediately (may require a baseball bat if you belong to Gold's)
3) Thou shalt eliminate thy cable bill today (keep the internet, obviously)
4) Thou shalt switch your cell service to an MVNO
5) Thou shalt not covet new cars
6) Thou shalt not covet more expensive modes of transportation to work
7) Thou shalt not covet thy barista's coffee
8) Honour your wallet by not buying bottled water
9) Thou shalt not dine out so much and pay top dollar for the good Lord's brew
10) Thou shalt try cutting thy own hair at least once

Comments

The Mechanics

Ok, now that you've read through the high level stuff, let's get down to brass tacks: The reality is, you're going to want to make some changes to your daily routine, but how much you do depends on how much you want to lose and how quickly you want to lose it. There's nothing wrong with going at a slower pace, but I would just advise that you adjust your diet enough that you're seeing enough consistent enough gains that you stick with it. Remember, as long as you're still logging food, odds are you're still losing weight. I've already mentioned that you'll need a pedometer or fitness tracker. That needs to become a permanent extension of your body. You don't need to be a gym rat (in fact, you should have already cancelled your gym membership by now), but it's hard to be completely sedentary and still run calorie deficits. Or, put another way, a little bit of activity will give you a lot more wiggle room in your diet every day. A 10,000...

Chopping Down Costs & Fat

I've spent a lot of time talking about how gym memberships are a complete waste of time and money. For most people, they make about as much sense as skipping all your errands to spend the day taking joyrides up and down a toll road. The fact is, we all have chores that need to get done around the house which all represent opportunities for exercise and cost savings by not paying someone else to do them for you. They may not be as physically demanding as splitting wood, but they all involve doing things that need to get done anyway and, more importantly, occupying your time by doing something other than eating, the leading cause of fatness. Now, I'm not proposing that you start tilling your garden with a fork just to keep yourself out of the kitchen. There's always a delicate balance between efficiency, exercise, cost savings and enjoyment of the task at hand when deciding where to spend extra money for efficiency's sake. For example, I know that I could get my...

Tips, Avoiding Pitfalls and Staying Motivated

I found this system to be overall pretty easy, but know that if it required nothing of you, everyone would already be doing it. People would ask me when I first started, "Has it been hard?" My response was, "It's easy and difficult and then it gets easier." The easy part is that you know what you need to do: you've got your nutrition log and you know what you've eaten and what you can still eat at any point on any particular day. The difficult part is that your body will be furious with you when you first start. Your body right now is the deadbeat uncle/brother/cousin/whatever that is used to eating bonbons on the couch to his heart's content and is never asked to do any work. You can't expect him to have his bonbon supply restricted and being asked to go do some stuff without inciting his rage. Again, depending on how aggressive you set your goals, you can expect your body to react similarly. Another thing: don't be discouraged because yo...

The Cheap Man's Weight Loss Plan

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