The Money Saving Mom's Budget {Book Review & Giveaway}

I was thrilled to have the opportunity to review a pre-release copy of Crystal Paine's (aka Money Saving Mom's) new book, The Money Saving Mom's Budget: Slash You Spending, Pay Down Your Debt, Steamline Your Life, and Save Thousands a Year which will be released on January 10th, 2012. 

As a stay-at-home mom of a single income family it is crucial that I find ways to extend our family's resources. Crystal's website, MoneySavingMom.com, has been a valuable money saving tool for our family so I was hopeful that her first book would give me even more ideas on how to stretch our limited income. 

I'm happy to say, I was not disappointed. The Money Saving Mom's Budget is broken down into nine chapters that help you set goals, organize your home, give yourself a raise, get rid of your credit cards, learn to use coupons, lower your grocery bill, "splurge" creatively, and cultivate contentment.

From following her website, I know Crystal is an avid couponer. I her book, Crystal states:

"I believe everyone should use coupons. There. I said it. Wait. I take my statement back. If you are one of the .0002 people in America who has never touched food unless it was grown in your own yard, you make toothpaste out of tree bark, and use cloth toilet paper, then I'll exempt you. But the rest of you? You're nonexempt." (p. 86, The Money Saving Mom's Budget)

While our family definitely doesn't grow all of our own food (oh, I wish), and I have no clue if you can actually make toothpaste out of tree bark (may tea tree?), we do try to replace at least a portion of our toilet paper with cloth wipes (no number 2, thank you very much), but I still find ways to use some coupons. 

Granted, most likely I will never be able to save the amount of money that many families can with coupons so while about 20% of the Crystal's book deals with couponing and "the drugstore game" I was thrilled to find that there were still lots of other tips for lowering our monthly expenses that we could actually use. 

I loved the chapter entitled, 25 Ways to Lower your Grocery Bill Without Using Coupons. Some of the tips in this chapter include shopping every other week, using a Crock-Pot, and buying in bulk.

I also loved the out of the box ideas for bringing in extra money.

I think every family could benefit from Crystal's money saving story and advice. As we begin a new year, I know many of us are setting financial goals for 2012. Preorder your copy of The Money Saving Mom's Budget to help get you on the road to financial success.

Giveaway

Crystal generously offered to send us a final copy of The Money Saving Mom's Budget once it releases on January 10th, 2012. Since we already have the pre-release version and we know how many of our readers will want to get their hands on this book, we've decided to give our published copy away to one of our readers.

Just follow the directions in the rafflecopter form below - it's quick & easy to enter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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