personal improvement project: foray into frugality marian moore bihrle november 4, 2008
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Personal Improvement Project: Foray Into Frugality Marian Moore Bihrle November 4, 2008. “It is necessary for me to be extremely frugal for some time, til I have paid what I owe.” -Benjamin Franklin. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Personal Improvement Project: Foray Into Frugality
Marian Moore BihrleNovember 4, 2008
“It is necessary for me to be extremely frugal for some time, til I have paid what I owe.”-Benjamin Franklin
Aim: To reduce total spending for the period of 9/25/08 to 10/17/08 by at least 75% compared to the baseline period of
9/2/08 to 9/24/08.
Contemplation: Rationale for change
• Dartmouth tuition• No income
• Economic uncertainty• Financial crisis
Contemplation: The Good Old Days
Preparation
• Baseline data was readily available• Identified and then stratified spending by
three major categories: Food, Clothing, and Other
• Looked for patterns of preference sensitive spending, optimal places to intervene
Preparation: FoodOrganic groceries
Specialty coffee drinks
Really expensive sandwiches
Take out
Preparation: Clothing
Cardigans
Really expensive socks
Makeup
Preparation: Other
Travel
Gas
Misc./ No idea
Action: Mapping the Process
Opportunity to spend money
presents
Decide whether purchase is a “want”
or a “need”
NeedWant
Make purchase
Reflection
Yes No
Make purchaseReflection
Conclusion
Decide whether the benefit of purchase
outweighs the cost
0
500
1,000
1,500
$2,000
Total spend
9/2-9/24
Other
Clothing
Food
1,664
9/25-10/17
305
54%95%83%
% decrease
82%
Results: Total spending was reduced by 82% from Baseline
0
20
40
60
$80
0
100
200
300
$400
Daily spend (bars)
58
69
19
37
0
5
0
3236
30
0 0 0
9
38
0 0 0
15
37
0
Cumulative spend (line)
Cumulative spend
Results: Weekends were hardest
• I was able to greatly reduce preference sensitive spending without detrimental quality-of-life outcomes
• Intervention was not without trade-offs• Transparency of data capture system was
essential
Conclusions
Maintenance
0
500
1,000
1,500
$2,000
Total spend
9/2-9/24
Other
Clothing
Food
1,664
9/25-10/17
305
10/18-11/12 E
407
61%95%70%
Avg. % decrease
79%