How To End Your ‘Being Cheap’ Era For Good

April 21, 2025

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One year ago this week, we published our second book, Beyond Getting By: The Financial Diet’s Guide To Abundant & Intentional Living. I’ll be honest: I did not really expect that we’d be experiencing a second Trump term while I was writing the book. Looking back, that was probably a combination of political naivete and wishful thinking that the Democrats wouldn’t sabotage their standing with their own base time and time again. And lately, I’ve been wondering how I would have approached writing the book differently had I known this was what we were in for.

Truthfully, I don’t think any of my stances outlined in the book have changed. Maybe the anecdotes used to illustrate our messed-up cultural relationships with things like consumerism and hustle culture would be different now (Kim Kardashian lamenting how “nobody wants to work these days” feels like a trillion years ago). But the biggest takeaways from Beyond Getting By ring truer to me than ever: we can’t let our lives be ruled by work for the sake of work and consumption for the sake of consumption, and the more control we have over our finances, the more options we give ourselves. 

Today, in honor of BGB spending a year gracing bookshelves with practical advice paired with beautiful design rarely (if ever) seen in the personal finance section of Barnes & Noble, I wanted to share one of my favorite sections exclusively with our wonderful newsletter subscribers, all about making the shift from cheap excess to real abundance in our consumption. (Who knows — maybe it will even aid you in your spring cleaning efforts!) I’m so proud of this book and can’t believe it’s already been out in the world for a whole year! Thank you for reading, and for your continued championing of what we believe in here at TFD.

This spiced lamb salad recipe has totally revived my "what to eat to keep you alive that is enjoyable and fairly low-lift" slump. 

Last month I was invited to a free movie screening with a bunch of free treats to snack on, and (as fate intended) I was introduced to the Tru Fru Frozen Chocolate Covered Raspberries - which I fully inhaled before the movie even started. I have sweet cravings often and this one just hits! I went on to buy the Costco sized product and nearly finished the entire bag in one sitting. 

I love giving + receiving gifts with a bit of a personal touch, and these to-go cups created by Curated Casita strike the perfect balance of both personal taste and practical use! The owner of this small business creates very thoughtfully crafted small batch ceramics and finishes all of her products with her kiln! I recently purchased these Sweetheart to-go cups as an engagement gift for two of my dear friends and they were so warmly received :) 

📣If you’re feeling anxious about all of the current recession talk, we’d love for you to join us May 20th for a totally FREE workshop: Recession Prepping Your Finances. This workshop is all about financially (and mentally) preparing for a recession, in partnership with our friends at Aura. While we can't control the economy, there's plenty we can do to weather the financial storm. Join TFD creative director Holly Trantham and an expert CFP for this 90 minute workshop. Replay available if you can’t join live but you must register ahead of time for access!

🛍️Check out our April guidebook, A Low-Spend Guidebook For The Anti-Consumerist Curious. Written by Holly, this month’s Premium guidebook is a dense 21-page guide to help you audit your consumer habits, and make meaningful change in order to both help your budget, and be a more thoughtful and sustainable consumer. Join The Society at the $9.99 tier for access.

💰Join us THIS THURSDAY, April 24th, for our April Society workshop! We're excited to have bestselling author and financial counsellor Jessica Moorhouse join us as a guest host this month! Jessica will be hosting Everything but Money: Breaking Free & Finding Financial Fulfillment. In this presentation, Jessica will walk you through how to dig deep into your relationship with money, uncover the unhealthy lessons you learned about money growing up, the role trauma and generational trauma may play in your current financial situation, and how to break free so you can find fulfillment with your finances. Join The Society at our $4.99 or up tier for access!

🎙️We have a few new episodes of The Financial Confessions dropping this month! Check out Chelsea’s recent conversation with Morgan Debaun, founder and CEO of Blavity & Afrotech, for a conversation about being a founder, a working mom, DEI, and more. Stay tuned for more episodes dropping soon!

✨With the current economic chaos, we highly recommend checking out the replay of our latest Society workshop, Your Money Under Trump, which was hosted by Amanda Holden last week. Amanda covered everything from recession-prepping to the future of Social Security. If you’re feeling unsure about how to navigate these times, Amanda shares level-headed advice in this workshop.

🎥 ICYMI: Our March video essay, You’re Being Gaslit By Generational Wealth, is a must-watch! Reminder that $4.99 and up members of the ​Society at TFD​ get the ad-free extended version of this video, and all our video essays!

💸Check out our latest capsule series on YouTube, The Budget Fix, co-hosted by TFD creative director Holly Trantham and financial educator Berna Anat. In this series, Holly & Berna are dissecting real-life budgets from members of the TFD community in order to help you better reach your long-term money goals! More episodes dropping soon!

🎥And don’t forget to check out our other new YouTube capsule series, Asked & Answered, cohosted by Chelsea & Erin Lowry of Broke Millennial. This is a 6-part series dedicated to answering your personal money questions, from budgeting and investing basics, to navigating the financial headlines of our current political climate. The full season is available now! Due to popular demand, we’re coming back with season 2 of Asked & Answered very soon! Do you have a question you want answered by Erin & Chelsea? Email your question to [email protected]!

The Society at TFD is our members-only community with access available on both YouTube and Patreon. Joining The Society is the best way to directly support TFD! The Society offers the exact same things on both platforms, so choose whichever one you prefer!

We offer 3 tier options:

The Society at TFD Lite: $2.99/month

• Monthly office hours with Chelsea to chat and get your personal questions answered

• Access to our monthly book club hosted by TFD Creative Director, Holly

• Illustrated tech backgrounds every month

• Access to Society Discord

The Society at TFD: $4.99/month — includes everything in the $2.99 tier plus:

• Monthly ad-free extended director's cut videos from Chelsea

• Exclusive members-only events and workshops

• Complete post archive (including exclusive members-only videos of Chelsea ranting on different topics)

The Society Premium: $9.99/month — includes everything from the previous tiers plus:

• Weekly newsletter from Chelsea

• Monthly multi-page workbook/guidebook on a different topic each month

• Members-only capsule podcasts