The Money $aving Mom’s Budget – Review & Giveaway

I was the Director for Central Canada for Crown Financial Ministries for a time. So I’m very familiar with Crown’s financial teachings, products and methods, as well as the teachings of Dave Ramsey, Ron Blue and many others. Since I also write and blog for moms, I thought this book would be a nice fit with my interests.

Crystal Paine, author of The Money $aving Mom's Budget

I was looking forward to a financial book that leaned toward a Mom’s perspective. Crystal Paine, a married homeschooling mom of 3, gives moms an easy to read, simple way to reduce spending and find ways to save money even on an extremely low income. She’s an avid blogger and has a super large following! You can check out her incredible stuff here.

Crystal writes from experience. She and her husband lived on $650-$900 per month – total! And lived to not only tell about it, but to pay cash for everything, including a house! As their income has increased they have maintained a frugal lifestyle which enables them to give more generously.

Paine talks about the whole process of taking control of your money situation. She starts with decluttering, simplifying your life and learning to manage your time. Paine rightly sees financial management as part of a well-managed lifestyle. I appreciate this holistic perspective.

I loved the forms at the back of the book. Paine talks about lists and forms and they are right there in the book.

My absolute favorite part was the time budgeting chapter. The season of life I’m in right now could be summed up by the word ‘BUSY’. As a homeschool mom and minister with a book newly released, writing and speaking commitments, and a mentoring ministry – time is my most valuable asset. Paine’s chapter on time budgeting met me on my side of the street.

All the proceeds of this book go to Compassion International. That's a good reason to buy it!

The part of the book I found least helpful was the couponing she teaches. I’ve been a coupon shopper and I’ve done well with that. However, not all places offer prices even close to what she suggests in the book, especially not in Canada.

This part of the book may be much more useful to readers in the United States, particularly if they live in metropolitan areas. I believe that couponing may work (I’ve done it when I lived in California) but will not always be the best use of a mom’s time.

(For my Canadian readers: If you go to this site you will find super information about what you can and can’t do with couponing here in Canada. “Stacking” coupons, for example, is not nearly as accepted in Canada as it is in the States, and “overages” are simply not allowed. These do make couponing in Canada quite different from what Paine describes in her book.)

I found Crystal’s writing upbeat and fairly easy to read.

I felt there could have been a little more teaching on why getting out of debt, or staying on budget is a good idea. From a Christian perspective I felt it was lacking some of the many great scripture references that give solid reasons why responsible financial stewardship is necessary, and I would have liked to have seen some of those included. And although Paine did talk about her giving, she did not spend time teaching about giving as part of a solid budget. Having said that, I’m not sure that her target audience was necessarily Christian, which may explain why these pieces were missing.

I appreciated her recommendations to start slowly and take several months to get going on this journey of saving money.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking to be serious about reducing their expenses and finding ways to cut costs. For those who are considering couponing as a way to save money – this is definitely the book for you!

Now… the absolute best part of the book is that all the proceeds from the book are being donated to Compassion International. And because I love Compassion – I recommend purchasing this book for yourself, or pick one up to give to a young wife or mom who could use some encouragement in financial stewardship.

****GIVEAWAY****

Crystal Paine, author of The Money $aving Mom’s Budget, generously donated this newly released book so I could give it away on my blog! If you are looking for ways to slash your spending, pay down your debt, streamline your life and save thousands a year… then this book is for you!!  

I’m trying a new giveaway tool. So enter as many times as you want!! Try it out… and pass on the word! You get more entries that way!

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