Then you have people like Jill Cooper and Tawra Kellam, a mother-daughter team from Kansas who were frugal before frugal was cool. Together they run the Web site www.livingonadime.com, where they give helpful hints on everything from paying down debt to how to fold a fitted sheet.
Cooper and Kellam don’t just teach how to live within your means, they live a frugal lifestyle and have done so for decades. However, it was not always that way. Frugal living found Cooper when she was a young mother.
“My husband and I had been married a few years when he came home from work early one Monday morning,” she said. “He had been laid off. No severance pay, we had spent every penny of his last pay check the Friday before on bills and had no savings.” She said people weren’t able to lean on credit cards like today, and they had very little cash on hand.
Four months later, Cooper and her husband started their own business with $2,000 borrowed from her parents, but the money wasn’t just for the business but also to take care of the family. Then another major life change occurred. “About the time the business became successful and we were getting our heads above water, my husband left the kids and me,” said Cooper. “The day he left, I had no job, hadn’t worked for years, $35,000 worth of debts he had run up while we were separated, no family or friends to turn to.”
Cooper’s lessons in frugal living were a trial by fire. She took on her husband’s debt and didn’t declare bankruptcy, though she could have. “We lived on about $1,000 a month, and I paid off all of the $35,000 in five years, she said.” She was just paying off the house when another major hardship struck. Cooper, her son and her daughter (Kellam) became critically ill.
With two children at home and unable to work, Cooper did what she could to make ends meet. She sold the supplies and machinery from the business for $8,000. “Once again I had to make the money stretch,” she explained. “We lived on that $8,000 for three years just supplementing it with ironing I was able to do later on and part-time jobs the kids tried to do the weeks when they were feeling better.”
Cooper said one main thing that kept her and her family going during that time was that they were not in debt when they got sick, and she worked hard to keep them from getting back into debt. “The thing which saved me was the fact I had my house paid off. I didn’t have the fear or concern this time around because I had prepared as best I could for a crisis, and I was able to weather it through.”
Both women believe that being faithful stewards of money is glorifying to God. They believe in staying away from credit cards and saving for needed items. But how is that possible in these days?
To that, Kellam replied, “Even to hear those words makes me think of Satan standing and whispering in someone’s ear ‘You need to use that credit card; in this day and age, it is the only thing you can do. Don’t worry, God (and the people you aren’t going to pay back) will understand.’
“We are so careful about what our children watch on TV or learn in school,” said Kellam, “but we ourselves are so often deceived and fall into bad ways of thinking. Even the words ‘how is that possible’ are wrong. Have we let our fear and faithlessness forget or cloud the fact that with God all things are possible?”
Cooper and Kellam have made frugal living practical by adhering to the following tips that aren’t just for weathering a tough economy.
Tithe. Right now when others are panicking over their retirement savings or what their stocks are doing. Cooper said, “I don’t have a worry in the world. I have invested my money in Someone who has promised that no matter what happens in the world or with finances, my children and I will be fed and taken care of. He has been faithful over and over. To me, my tithe is the best savings a person can have.”
Stop spending. Cut back on everything. You can save 50% on your grocery bill before you even go to the grocery store by just using good portion control with your food. It is better for you, too. Go from a 30-minute shower to a 5-minute shower. Not only will you save on utilities but your skin will thank you.
No credit cards. Don’t think that using a credit card or getting a loan will help. Going into more debt will not help you get out of debt.
Lose your pride. You may have to shop at garage sales for a while, not have your kids in sports or say no to friends when they want you to go out to eat. Pride is a sin. God didn’t kick Satan and other angels out of heaven because they murdered someone, rather for pride.
Maintain integrity. The real test of a person’s character is during hard times. Keep your integrity, be responsible, be trustworthy and honorable whether your situation is your fault or not or it is fair or unfair. In Proverbs, it says, “A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.” Everything God tells us to do is for a good reason and usually for our good. He wants us to have a good name because He knows at times, when things hang in the balance, a person’s good name can tip the scale in the right direction.
Cooper recalled one such instance. “I once received a notice of foreclosure on my house,” she said. “I had two weeks to come up with $35,000. I didn’t have $35. I wasn’t sure what to do. After a few moments of panic, I prayed and God told me what to do. One of the first things was to call the banker and tell him I wanted to start up our old business which I knew nothing about, had no money for supplies, no customers and a limited market.”
Though it looked like the circumstances were stacked against her, the banker said he knew Cooper always paid her bills. He said “Jill, I know you and trust you to pay, so I’m not worried.”
God isn’t a genie. Don’t decide to change your ways and then pray God will suddenly produce a miracle and make your debt go away. God loves you but He is also a just God. He expects you to pull your weight, and if you spent five years carelessly spending, you may have to work extra long and hard for five years to get yourself out of your mess.
Kellam said they often hear from two types of readers who visit their Web site and are attempting to live frugally. The first ones are those who are panicking, afraid, angry, blaming everyone and everything for their problems, and the second group are those who say, “We haven’t even noticed any difference [in our lifestyle].”
She said people in the second group do everything in their power never to be in debt again because of how good it feels to be out of debt. Kellam said, “There is no other feeling like it in the world. Once you experience being debt-free you don’t want to ever go back. It would be like being in prison and someone or something else controlled everything in your life, and then you are released. You are free.”
However, they have not noticed a dramatic increase in traffic to their Web site in the past 18 months. Cooper said she is not surprised that people aren’t falling all over themselves to learn to how to get out of debt because many people fall into the first group, the “blamers.”
She said this “blaming” group doesn’t see that their spending more than what they make is what gets them into debt. “It is human nature to want to buy something to make our flesh feel better than to buy a book teaching us how to get out of debt and stop spending, which is exactly what the flesh doesn’t want to do.”
“These times aren’t that hard yet,” said Kellam. “Ninety-two percent of the population still has a job and things are still much cheaper than in our parents’ and grandparents’ time. By the way, did you pay 2-3 months worth of wages for your new TV? Most of the things we buy now are optional. There are thousands of ways you can get out of debt.”
Both women agree that everything concerning finances boils down to faith. Either one trusts God to provide as He said He would, or one trusts the credit card. 
