“Saving money isn’t about depriving yourself. It’s about deciding you love Future You as much as you love Today You.”

The Financial Diet by Chelsea Fagan

3 stars/5stars

Quick Recap:

The Financial Diet: A total beginner’s guide to getting good with money by Chelsea Fagan is a guide to managing your finances by getting a better grip on your lifestyle. The book is divided into seven sections on making a budget, investing, career, food, home, love, and action. Each chapter starts off with some of Fagan’s thoughts on how to save money in relation to the theme, moves on to some tips and tricks, and a couple of interviews from accomplished people. There’s kind of an assumption that you’ve picked up this book because you’re a Hot Mess too. Or at least, the personal stories come off that way, which can get kind of jarring.

“I was once fired at twenty-one from an upscale coffee shop because I called to get out of a shift at 4:45 a.m. still drunk after a David Guetta concert.”

If you do want to start saving the money you earn, and not see it disappear every month to pay off who-knows-what since you’re kind of an impulsive spender and are currently pretending your credit card is fake money (You’ll take care of it later, but You later isn’t someone You-Now really care about), then this is the book for you!

If you’re actually ok with living on your own, I’d say skip this book and check out The Financial Diet videos on Youtube first because the content seems to be essentially the same, just broken up in smaller, easily digestible, videos.

My Thoughts:

The book, to me, is aimed at people who are really just starting their careers and lives independent from their parents.

There was some pretty sound advice here. You need to set a budget, and stick to it. I grew up with a mom who always discussed budgeting and money openly with me, so calculating where my money was always a part of my life. I’d imagine anyone else who has to pay for all their living expenses just has to do this. Our lives are definitely not anything like Confessions of a Shopoholic by Sophie Kinsella (I absolutely adored the book and movie before I actually moved out). You should also learn how to fix things in your home, as it’s not only good, transferable skills, that you’ll need throughout your life, it’ll also save you a ton of money.

The investing and career chapters though? I know absolutely nothing about investing, but unfortunately this being an American based book meant that it doesn’t fully translate to what we have here in Canada. The whole section on career as well was useless for me, unless you do want to get into freelancing or if your career isn’t in a regulated profession. Mine is, so the advice fell pretty flat for me.

I hopped around to a new city, and then a new country, to find a place where my budding professional reputation wasn’t somewhere between “unwieldy but talented” and “legal liability who should be escorted out by security.”

Moving around that much is pretty expensive? No? I would think anyone who’s thinking about money isn’t going to be so reckless with their jobs, since they need it to, you know, SURVIVE.

Anyways, moving along to the entire Food chapter. What was that? For a book on money, it was devoted to recipes and knowing how to cook for yourself. Pretty easy stuff right there, if people don’t prepare and serve you your food, you save money. Because of the lack of advice given in the chapter, it’s consequently is bulked up with some recipes, that while nice, seemed out of place in a book that’s supposed to center around money.

“going out or ordering in is, without exception, a treat”

Since I pretty much fit that demographic that orders out too much, I thought that was sound advice. That’s essentially what this book seems to be, one of those listicle type articles of 10 Things That Changed My Money Habits, except it got stretched out into a whole book because of the interviews and actual lists, with bits of content at the beginning of every chapter.

Final Thoughts

I’m currently absorbing all the tips and tricks on being fiscally responsible, as well as independent, from Youtube, Podcasts, and the millions of self-help articles and books out there. Honestly, since it’s such a small book, I would say check it out if you’re just starting off, since you’ll be done it quickly enough and there’s some nice information there.

I would encourage you, though, to look into other concepts. Like minimalism/low impact living. These concepts will not only (in my humble opinion) make you a more conscious and environmentally friendly person, but they’ll also help you save money. There’s a ton of amazing content creators (lifestyle gurus?) out there that have encouraged me to start my own journey to be aware of what’s in my life. Marie Kondo, who I’m sure everyone has heard of by now, also has a place in this whole conversation of money and the things we own.

Some Recommendations:

• Podcasts:
  • Millennial Money
  • How to Money
  • Mo’ Money Podcast
• Youtube channels:
  • A Small Wardrobe
  • Elizabeth Grace
  • FemmeHead
  • Matt D’Avella
  • Pick Up Limes
  • Sustainably Vegan
  • Sedona Christina

 Do you guys have any recommendations for saving money? I’d love to hear from you 🙂