I’m in the middle of reading The Road, and couldn’t help draw 5 lessons about frugality from Cormac McCarthy’s tale of a father and son scrapping out their survival in the middle of post-Apocalyptic America.

1. Use what you do have creatively
You have no shoes. Yet, you have a suit jacket, a box cutter, and the lining in the suit jacket. Combine them and you have serviceable foot coverings. Similarly, a metal pipe fitted with a length of chain makes an excellent truncheon.

2. Search through the discards
Even if that can in the corner looks empty, tap it with your foot. There might be some useable gas in it!

3. Don’t quit
Just when you’re on the edge of total failure is when you might come across the storehouse of apples and fresh water.

4. When you come across a windfall, use it wisely
Fill back up on what you need, but don’t wallow in it and let it delay you from your journey.

5. Hold on to your morals
Just because you’re hungry doesn’t mean it’s right to eat the flesh of other humans.

In what unlikely sources have you found inspiration for more frugal living?

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