Have you ever heard of America’s Cheapest Family? Who is America’s Cheapest Family? They are known as Steve and Annette Economides. Well, back about 11 years ago, when we were in the heart of paying off our $108k debt, we saw a family on t.v. that have inspired millions to be responsible and frugal with their money and lifestyle. They were living off of Steve’s $6.50 per hour income as a family of 7, and living completely consumer debt free with the only debt being a home that they put 15% down on and paid off 9 years later.
When we saw them on television back many years ago, we could totally relate to everything they were saying and doing as we had learned many tricks to living a frugal life to pay off $90k on a $55k salary in 3 years. And it was so cool to see others be recognized for their frugality and shown that it was a “cool” thing!
So, even if you think you haven’t heard of America’s Cheapest Family, we can almost promise you have seen them! Seriously you might have seen them on Good Morning America, The Today Show, Dr. Phil, The Talk, CNN, Fox News; 20/20, Nightline, Inside Edition, The Marie Osmond Show, or even Yahoo Finance. Yes, that was a mouthful and quite the resume. Don’t you think?!
We had the pleasure of finally meeting them, face-to-face this past week, after being introduced to them on television many years ago.
Now what we learned this week is that they could also be called America’s Sweetest Couple, America’s Most Genuine Couple, or even America’s Most Fun Couple! We really just loved our chats throughout the week and discussing with them ideas on how to continue spreading our united message of frugality and being smart with your money! They started a website sharing all of their frugal fun ideas at MoneySmartFamily.com.
When Steve and Annette mentioned a potential idea of filming an interview with them this week, we were definitely on board and excited to share our frugal ideas. We want to share the our video with you here but give you a couple of behind the scenes tidbits from our video plus provide you a quick overview so you know what you’re watching.
Who is America’s Cheapest Family?
Meet Steve & Annette Economides!
Crunched for Time?!
We broke this interview down into time segments so you can jump to the section you want to watch first!
00:00 Introduction of the couples
02:20 Steve setting the stage and the discussion on why we’re talking today
03:55 Steve introduces a new book – can you guess which one?!
05:03 Steve asks us to share what got us started living the thrifty lifestyle
07:41 Steve asks us to share how long it was from our honeymoon to when we found “our why”
08:35 Steve explains in a nutshell what the 2% Rule is and how attainable it is for families
08:54 Steve asks us to share what our lifestyle philosophy is with our family and how we are integrating it in our family with our children
11:26 Alex shares the Family Standup meeting and the three questions you should ask in it
12:55 Now it gets real – Steve asks us to share a couple of mistakes we made when paying off our debt
16:45 What is Alex sharing? This isn’t even in the book! A secret you hear here first!
18:27 Steve preaches it – sharing some great tidbits of wisdom on those side hustles with a contrast from Dave Ramsey’s plan
20:09 What is the best deal that Cassie found over the years?
22:40 A warning against homemade whole-wheat bagels?!
23:40 Alex’s best deal that he shares – What’s a Spartan?
25:50 What is a natural result of debt freedom?
27:15 A few more resources for debt freedom
27:58 Just who is Money Smart Family? Where have you seen them before? Quick answer – everywhere!
28:47 Why are they America’s Cheapest Family?
30:46 What is the latest deal that the Money Smart Family found? What a steal!
32:18 We LOVE this one – hear about their kids’ resource!
In the end, meeting this like-minded couple was so much fun and the joy that we get sharing about frugality and finances with our audiences is something to not miss! We have made life-long friends, even making plans for how we can make visits to each other on the cheap – which means of course only needing to get to their home in AZ or our home in UT as the food and place to stay are already covered.
The Steve and Annette Economides, a.k.a. America’s Cheapest Family from the MoneySmartFamily website, have three best-selling books available:
In addition, you can find our new book and workbook shared in this video too:
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I was really surprised when I read this news. Managing expenses in this family is worth learning. Unlike other wealthy families, they often waste money on fun.