What My Mother's 1974 Christmas Notebook Taught Me About Money

📘 My Frugal Living Handbook: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 stars from verified buyers ✅ 👉 https://thriftymaureen.store/products... Last month my mother handed me a little green notebook. On the cover, in her handwriting: Christmas, 1974. She was thirty-one, I was three, prices were rising faster than they had in decades, and every single dollar of that Christmas is written inside. The whole thing came to sixty dollars, for a family of four. I've read it page by page more times than I can count, and every page taught me something about money I wish I'd known at thirty: how she budgeted for Christmas before the stores did, how she saved for it all year in an old coffee can, and why she never once paid for Christmas in January. One page is just a list of things she said no to. And the last page has no numbers on it at all. It's the reason she kept the notebook. CHAPTERS 00:00 My mother's 1974 Christmas notebook 00:53 What 1974 was like 01:29 Page 1: The number came first 02:25 Page 2: The Christmas can 03:18 Page 3: One line for every person 04:24 The full handbook (my shop) 04:58 Page 4: Cross it out, and wait 06:03 Page 5: Dinner, priced to the penny 07:06 Page 6: The no list 08:15 Page 7: What was left 09:08 The last page: Christmas Day 10:22 What the notebook taught me 11:32 Join my WhatsApp channel Watching on your TV? The QR codes on screen open the handbook (04:24 and 10:53) and my WhatsApp channel (11:32) on your phone. No typing needed. I'm Maureen. At 55 I started paying attention to where my money was actually going, and I've been sharing what works ever since. Old-fashioned habits that still work today. DISCLAIMER General information and personal experience only, not financial advice. The prices in my mother's notebook are family memories from 1974, not official records, and today's equivalent is a rough estimate using the general rise in consumer prices since then. The 1974 inflation figure refers to the US consumer price index for that year. Your own budget, income and costs will be different, so please plan for your own situation. If you start a savings fund for the holidays, keep it somewhere safe and separate from your everyday spending money. Product disclosure: The Old-Fashioned Frugal Living Handbook is my own product and I earn money when you buy it. It costs very little, and if it isn't for you, write to ThriftyMaureen@hamzaprofile.com for a full refund. Buying it is never required. #ThriftyMaureen #frugalliving #FrugalChristmas #christmasonabudget #1970s #womenover55