A group of friends decided to try an experiment in frugal “earth-friendly” living. They wouldn’t buy anything new for an entire year. Since the idea was to save the planet, not their pocketbooks, they were allowed to buy things secondhand, and of course, to buy food and toilet paper etc. So what happened?

They saved a lot of money. From Bankrate:

“I wasn’t really budgeting,” Rosenmoss says. “I just noticed that things were happening.” At bill-paying time, she’d realize, “I can pay more of my credit card bill this month,” she says. “I was very excited about that.”

“This year I’m going to start tracking it more intentionally,” Rosenmoss says. Her goal: be debt-free by the end of this year. It’s “like an albatross hanging from my neck,” she says, adding that there’s now just $5,000 to go.

Perry is so far ahead on his student loans that his next payment isn’t due for months. “I think I’m getting farther and farther ahead,” he says. And he’s building extra equity (as well as reducing the interest expense on the loan and shortening the loan term) by overpaying the mortgage.

Could you do it? Could you stop buying new things for a year if it meant being debt free by the end of it? —MEGHANN MARCO

Want to save money? Don’t shop [Bankrate]
(Photo: RyanRocketship)

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