It used to be all about the bigger house, the bigger car, the bigger bank account. But today's lagging economy has changed our attitude when it comes to flaunting our wealth.
Now people are bragging about saving money and simplifying their lives instead. And they're spilling all their secrets online.
When Cristin Frank and her husband got married and bought their first house, they suddenly realized they didn't have any money left over for furniture.
"Seriously, it was like a card table in the kitchen type thing. And it was, 'How are we going to furnish this house?,'" says Cristin Frank with TheEveofReduction.com.
So they started garbage picking, reclaiming discarded furniture and refurbishing it.
"In our suburb, people were throwing things out left and right, things you couldn't even imagine," says Frank.
Items they didn't need themselves, they sold after fixing them up. And in less than eight years, they were able to pay off their mortgage and live completely debt free.
"We've saved tens of thousands of dollars," says Frank.
According to a recent Gallup poll, six out of 10 Americans say they now enjoy saving rather than spending. With 57-percent spending less money than they used to. Yahoo Web Life editor Heather Cabot says she sees it as a growing trend.
"Fifteen years ago, according to a survey we did, seven percent of people used the Internet to find coupons. Today, it's more than 70 percent," says Cabot.
And Cabot says the Internet is fueling the trend; with blogs, forums and social media sites full of money saving tips and tricks from everyday people who have experimented themselves.
"They know that other people are struggling as well. And when they find a good deal, they want to be like, 'I found this, I want to share it with other people,'" says Cabot.
There are thousands of sites like Cristin's, "
TheEveofReduction.com." Others include: the "
One Dollar Diet Project" where a San Diego couple blogged about spending a dollar a day on food for a month. Or "The Compact," where a group of San Francisco friends made a pact to buy nothing for a whole year.
There is also former fashion editor Melissa Massello's, who decided to stop buying new clothing all together, and started sponsoring huge clothing swaps instead.
"You know, pretty much anything you find at an upscale boutique, I've found at a swap for free," says Masello with
TheSwapaholics.com.
Melissa and her partner launched "The Swapaholics," to help others learn how to swap instead of spend.
"I think when you see other people doing that. It inspires you to think about, 'Hey, I can do that and it really doesn't take that much effort,'" says Cabot.
Of course, Cabot says you should keep in mind these bloggers aren't necessarily experts.
"I think it's important to make the distinction between someone who gives you that anecdote about, 'Hey, this worked for me', and somebody who's saying. 'I invested in X, Y, and Z and this really worked.' Who is this person? I think it's really important to consider the source," says Cabot.
But she says as long as you exercise caution you may find some great ways to live a simpler, thriftier life, like Cristin and her family do.
"Here we are in our mid thirties with no mortgage. All just because we were thrifty, really," says Frank.
So what's the best way to search for these kinds of thrifty websites yourself? Heather recommends entering the keyword "frugal" in your search engine.
