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Peter Sander and Jennifer Basye Sander: Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Living on a Budget* Valuable tips on the best ways to save money* Idiot-proof steps for establishing a budget you will want to follow* Expert advice on changing the way you think about money1st edition (1999)161 pagesPublisher: alpha books – A Pearson Education CompanyFirst two chapters are available in Google Books.Contents1 Why You Might Need This Book2 But I’m Not an Accountant3 Getting Ready4 The Twelve Steps to Pulling It Off5 The Last Few Steps6 The Balancing Act7 Using Credit When Credit Is Due8 Making Big Purchases9 Special Budget Scenarios10 Great Budgeting Resources11 Living Happily Ever AfterAppendicesA Putting Expense Items into CategoriesB Great Books for BudgeteersIndexIntroductionSo there you were, browsing the shelves at your local bookstore, when suddenly you spied the very sort of book you’d been looking for—a book all about living on a budget. Never mind the jammed shelves of books on all manner of topics—from sailing to scandal (with a wide variety of chicken soups)—what you need is a book to help you get a handle on your money. A handle on your life.Does this mean you must be broke? Heck, no! There are a zillion reasons to want to live on a budget, most of them good. Given the choice between living prudently (andsleeping soundly at night) and squandering all your resources in an endless cycle of consumption and debt, which sounds like the better idea?Does this mean you’ll have to give up all the good things in life and live in strict adherence to a written budget? Endless evenings of examining columns of figures and making small notations with a red pencil? Not at all.As you’ll learn in the coming pages, there are folks who have lived successfully on a budget for many years without ever having written anything down. There are folkswith modest incomes who, because they’ve lived by a sensible budget, are able to live a much richer life than you’d imagine. There are also folks who chose to live on a modest budget and invest the rest of their income to opt out of the race early and retire long before their friends and neighbors can afford to. Why struggle to “keep up with the Jones” when you can smile and wave bye-bye to themas you drive away to your new life of leisure?You’ll soon see that, once you have a basic grasp of the principles behind living on a budget, practicing it will become second-nature, and you probably won’t noticethat much difference in your lifestyle, other than a sense of financial peace of mind.Will we be lecturing you about excess consumption and an American society gone mad with the foolish desire to accumulate stuff? Oh, a little bit, perhaps.Will we be asking you to become monk-like in your lifestyle, eschewing all but the basics? No. It just isn’t necessary. We’ll ask you instead to embrace wisdom and discipline, not austerity.Here’s what this book will ask you to do: Take a clear-eyed look at the way you live your life and the way you want your life to be. And then we’ll help you create a day-to-day financial lifestyle that helps you make the shift from where you are to where you want to be. Sound simple? It is.