Personal Improvement Project: Foray Into Frugality

Marian Moore BihrleNovember 4, 2008

“It is necessary for me to be extremely frugal for some time, til I have paid what I owe.”-Benjamin Franklin

Aim: To reduce total spending for the period of 9/25/08 to 10/17/08 by at least 75% compared to the baseline period of

9/2/08 to 9/24/08.

Contemplation: Rationale for change

• Dartmouth tuition• No income

• Economic uncertainty• Financial crisis

Contemplation: The Good Old Days

Preparation

• Baseline data was readily available• Identified and then stratified spending by

three major categories: Food, Clothing, and Other

• Looked for patterns of preference sensitive spending, optimal places to intervene

Preparation: FoodOrganic groceries

Specialty coffee drinks

Really expensive sandwiches

Take out

Preparation: Clothing

Cardigans

Really expensive socks

Makeup

Preparation: Other

Travel

Gas

Misc./ No idea

Action: Mapping the Process

Opportunity to spend money

presents

Decide whether purchase is a “want”

or a “need”

NeedWant

Make purchase

Reflection

Yes No

Make purchaseReflection

Conclusion

Decide whether the benefit of purchase

outweighs the cost

0

500

1,000

1,500

$2,000

Total spend

9/2-9/24

Other

Clothing

Food

1,664

9/25-10/17

305

54%95%83%

% decrease

82%

Results: Total spending was reduced by 82% from Baseline

0

20

40

60

$80

0

100

200

300

$400

Daily spend (bars)

58

69

19

37

0

5

0

3236

30

0 0 0

9

38

0 0 0

15

37

0

Cumulative spend (line)

Cumulative spend

Results: Weekends were hardest

• I was able to greatly reduce preference sensitive spending without detrimental quality-of-life outcomes

• Intervention was not without trade-offs• Transparency of data capture system was

essential

Conclusions

Maintenance

0

500

1,000

1,500

$2,000

Total spend

9/2-9/24

Other

Clothing

Food

1,664

9/25-10/17

305

10/18-11/12 E

407

61%95%70%

Avg. % decrease

79%