Flexibile and Adaptable are my middle names – that’s how I got to be debt-free…just keep plugging along, saving, not spending, and it automatically happens.

Do I want more for myself? No – what could I possibly want that I do not already have? I have enough. I enjoy a simpler life, in my paid for home, with my paid for car and truck, doing family things and friend things, and I don’t need a lot of clutter to mess it all up. I love my life, and I’m about the happiest person I have ever met! There is no wanting in my life for more.

I work for ‘so little’ as you put it, but for ‘enough’ as I prefer to put it, because that’s all I need. I chose to only work 4 days a week not 5 as I value my time much much more than money…. and with my time, I can make up for the lesser amount of money – in my garden, my sewing, my construction skills on the house remodel, my scratch baking and cooking. Anything I do myself, I do not have to pay someone else to do. Therefore, I don’t need much money to get by. The job is just a way to get free health insurance.

Life is just a matter of attitude – and if you have a good attitude, you will always be happy, dispite financial circumstances. Gratitude for what I do have and am capable of doing my self, and not resentment for what I don’t have – because basically, if I don’t already have it, I don’t want it nor need it

I was raised by a single mother who at times stuggled just to make our apartment’s rent and her car payment. I worked my way through college while working in a call center (graveyard shift) for $17k a year to get my “foot in the door.” I eventually moved up by out-hustling everyone else.

I graduated from college and took another job for a better salary and benefits. By now I had three mouths to feed at home. I had accumulated some debt while in school because I could not always pay my tuition in full, so I started working part time jobs to pay off my debt. I mowed lawns on the weekends, wrote freelance articles late into the night, and eventually started Frugal Dad from scratch.

I am proud of my success, and do have my mom to thank. She taught me the value of hustle, perseverance, and believing in my dreams. That was more valuable than any early inheritance I could have received.

And stupid is not a word I allow my grandchildren to say either – by the way.

I’m debt free (because I save and don’t spend) so pretty much all I need is my spending money

If more people would get SPENDING out of their heads and start thinking about SAVING and increasing their net worth, the USA would not be in this predicament.

To say one cannot raise a child on $30,000 is ridiculous. My daughter is raising two kids on under $20,000/yr right now also – while working and going to college – which SHE is paying for. I raised 3 on much much much less than that, but because I wasn’t lazy, I managed to sew their clothes and cook from scratch on weekends and grow a garden. It doesn’t take that much to raise a kid if you do not give into the spend spend spend gotahave mentality. Oh, yeah – I used cloth diapers too – washed them every night after work….think of that! What a bundle of money I saved right there – $30 worth of material to make diapers with versus thousands for throwaways that are thrown away illegally!

I was taught not to accept handouts – it’s a matter of self-responsibility and self-pride. And I still say it is bad for the USA to set this precedent.

And $300 is NOT pocket change in my book.