Hi, my name is Rob Matthies, in Vancouver. Feel free to check me out! About 20 years ago, my mother started a green movement. Her organization planted 500,000 trees. About that time, too, my dad designed and built cottages that used passive cooling technology.

The essential practice of a monk is to accept what is in his bowl and be grateful.

The Great Depression II is here, and it will be important to learn how to tighten our belts and grow our own city gardens.

This blog is about another kind way to live light, have fun, and not get into a panic about the economic depression.

About ten years ago, an American woman, Marly, asked me to live with her, promising that she would teach me how to live on five bucks a day, exclusive of the costs of car and home. Oddly enough, she was a real duchess' daughter --- her mother was an Oldenburg, from the German city with the same name. Her family used to own a golf course with a very large meteorite in its greens. In her younger years, she dated Mitt Romney's son. Marly married a Canadian and moved to Canada.

Unfortunately, she and her husband ran several restaurants and businesses that went bankrupt. Then, her marriage ended when her husband literally left her "high and dry" on their "live-in" yacht in dry dock, which was undergoing repairs. Apparently, he just took off with another woman from the same yacht club. Her husband and her were out of money for the boat repairs and left Marly to figure out the mess. The 'other woman' regularly offered her ex-husband warm breakfasts and conversation in her boat, according to Marly.

To her credit, Marly learned to be shrewd and extremely frugal by necessity. Like many smart women, she eventually accumulated a net worth in the six figures.

When I met Marly, I didn't know how to spend less than $1,500/month on expenses, excluding rent and automotive costs. We got along well partly because I went to high school in Michigan, too.

Long story short, she offered to teach me her "secrets" of living frugally with methods that you won't find in any book. I was skeptical, but thought, 'why not try it', cancelled my lease, put my furniture in storage, and moved into her tiny batchelor apartment.

If you'd seen how we lived in about 425 sq. feet, you'd probably think that we didn't have a dime! The kitchen didn't even have a toaster, and the fridge was pretty empty. Our bed was a sofa-bed. Yet, we shared good laughs, traveled to Australia, stayed at four-star hotels, and ate at better restaurants, often for free, using her "secret methods."

We went to parties, gave gifts to lots of people, were members of a tennis club in one of the old-rich part of one town, went to concerts, live shows, and ate good meals, on less than ten bux a day, average.

How did Marly, the frugal Yankee, manage do this for us? Very well, and she didn't do anything illegal. She just applied some methods that, I later read, were in Stuart Wilde's book, "The Trick to Money is Having Some." Marly was just penny-pinching. She was applying moves and maneuvers that she invented herself, thereby saving us hundreds of dollars a month.

Can you learn to be as frugal as Marly?

One former mayor of Toronto used to joke, when he gave speeches, "If there's anybody in the audience who knows how to live on less than $12,000 a month, raise your hand." Pointing to ones who raised their hands, he'd then say, "You, you, and you, come live with us, and show Yvonne* how you manage to do it!"

What's my point? Like the mayor and his wife, you're not likely to learn how to live frugally by just reading a book. I actually read books with titles like, "How To Live on Less Than $20 a Day", but those books mainly contained 'back to the land' Mother Earth News kinda' tips. Like Marly, I'm a city boy. You need 'city' how-to information, i.e. hotels, restaurants, theater, legal advice, and the like.

Throw some change my way, and I might be tempted to "tell all" about Marly's clever frugal techniques.


Cheers,
Rob
6 0 4 - 5 1 2 - 9 5 6 7
matthiesr *at* yahoo *dot* ca

Text_About_Rob.html


* Not her real name.



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Another Scottish preacher is said to have prayed thus after a particularly unproductive collection: "We thank you Lord that the plate was returned safely."

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