When you're working hard to eliminate debt or save money, do you tell your friends and family? Sometimes what you do or don't do with them in order to cut back requires explanations. WHAT do you tell them?

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I am perfectly happy telling people the truth. We are living on a single income of 40K, our home is 37% of our income things are tight and we have a small amount of credit card debt. I know many of my friends are also SAHMs so more then anything when I tell them I am on a budget they have more questions regaurding how to keep a budget. I have very few friends who I feel are finacially savey. I tell them all to check out Mommy savers because this site has so many good ideas. I try to teach my little sister to be more so because I know it is going to be hard for her as a single mom to get out on her own. I try to avoid the money topic with my SIL her spending habits are not so good.

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006

I agree, I tell people we're on a budget, and more times than not they ask me how and if I will share my budgeting skills (lol) with them.

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If some friend/family activity is pricey I just say I can't afford it. Dh's cousin (early 20's) is the only person who has ever questioned that response. She once said "you can too afford _______, you have a nice house, nice cars..." I told her that was true but now I have to pay for them. I was hoping she got the point....We have a LOT of debt!!

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Kristy

This has become so much easier for us lately. Almost all of our friends and family know that we are working so hard to become debt-free. We plan ahead for family get-togethers and other fun things. They become part of our budget.

But before we "got real" with our situation, we would have just put activities/travel expenses on a credit card, to hide the fact that we couldn't afford to participate.

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I've always told people that I am cheap, mostly because I am. When we got married my DH had A LOT of debt and even though we are both working professionals and don't have kids (yet), we couldn't afford a lot of things. Our friends would always wonder why we are not buying a house, a new car (both of our cars are old), etc etc. But since I am an accountant, they also assume that I know what I am doing and actually some of them asked for my advice.
But, in general, everyone knows that I am cheap cheap cheap!

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Lena

My mom knows we are trying to cut back on expenses because she is the queen of frugal and saving money. She loves that I'm trying to be more frugal and get out of debt. They are pretty much debt free and she's been a sahm for years. So since I'm going to be a sahm I'm wanting to get debt free too. However she doesn't exactly know all the debt we have.

I don't tell my in laws anything about money. If anything is mentioned I just say we're broke, paying bills, getting ready for the baby. They do not need to know what we've spent and definitely aren't going to know how much money we do have. Then they would keep coming to us for money which puts us in a tight spot.

We don't talk with friends about money too much. Dh's 2 best friends work with him so they all make the same amount of money so we do know what is going on with each other. But dh and I have a baby on the way and my income for a bit longer, one friend is married with 2 kids and one on the way, and the other is single with no kids. So our money situations are all different but we will talk about money in obscure ways. We don't hide anything but we don't tell people everything either. Especially now that we are getting money saved up, I just don't think people need to know how much we have. Dh however tends to have a big mouth, but he's getting better.

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Proud mommy to adorable Kinsley

MY BLOG!

I don't mind sharing - mostly because I get so excited about my newest moneysaving tip! DH on the other hand thinks I share too much! I think he mostly feels this way because he hates sharing how much he makes. His family knows and his dad ran into someone he grew up with a while back and told them how much he's making now! DH wasn't too happy about that one. He makes quite a bit compared to the rest of his family, but he's also supporting me and our 2 (almost 3) kids! My family knows we have debt and that we're working to pay it off, but I don't think his family does.

I have some friends that we talk money all the time - not specific amounts necessarily, but how to save, where to find good deals, etc. I don't really mind telling people that I'm cheap - because I am!

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Stay at home mom to my 3 boys... ages 5, 3 & 1!

I can do all things through CHRIST who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

I don't mind sharing my latest money saving tip, however, DH and I have agreed to not be so open with people about our money situation. I really don't think that it's anybody else's business. In the past, we have been very open about it, but I hate the pity people show when they think we are poor and I hate the expectations of people when they think we are doing great. If we can't afford to do something or we want to use our money for something else, we just decline. For the most part, people understand us not wanting to go out to restaurants and stuff, because it's a PITA with our 3 kids, since they are still all so young.

But, like I said in the first sentence, I am more than happy to share savings tips, where the sales are and stuff like that.

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www.myspace.com/vioburn

Frugal is being wise with your money and resources and cheap is forcing everyone else to.

Check out my blog, I'm starting to add more to it, as I can...vioburn.blogspot.com

All my friends brag about how much money they have I don't mean verbally I'm talking about actions right in front of us. We just keep quiet. I know in the end though we will be happy. Right now, we are saving as much as a we can and eliminating debts at the same time. They never ask but its the we-got-better-stuff-than-you-do attitude is what I see. If they ask we will tell them the truth that we are on a budget.