The Brady Bunch Guide to Saving Money

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

16 Mar 2009 06:28 AM

It seems as though everyone is talking about the new memoir book that has come out by Maureen McCormick in which she tells everyone her life story, including how she survived being Marsha Brady. I haven't read the book myself, but I hear that she had a very difficult life, including having to overcome a drug addiction.

For a while, the Brady Bunch was America's favorite family. The basically good kids got in to just enough trouble to give mom and dad something to do. There were always good lessons to learn in each episode. I started thinking about this and wondering if there were any frugal living lessons in the show as well. I think they were. Here is the Brady Bunch Guide to Saving Money.

Get more than one use out of something

In later seasons, all of the men had perms. Rather than letting the one box of perm kit go to waste, they applied it to four people in total. Just think of the savings!

Don't play ball in the house

Make every effort to take care of your things so they will last. And, if they do happen to break, make every effort to fix them so no one knows the difference.

Use rebates

Back in the day, there were these things called green stamps. You would get them at the grocery store when you made purchases. The Bradys then traded in their green stamps for stuff. While it isn't the same as cents off coupons, we have the equivalent today in rebates and rewards.

Save on entertainment

Who needs to go out to the movies when you can make your own entertainment at home? From elaborate chemistry sets involving exploding volcanos to just lobbing a football at your sister's nose to witness the dramatics, who knew staying at home could be so much fun?

Did you notice any other ways that the Brady Bunch practiced frugal living?

Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, creating a home in the Home Blog, caring for little ones in the Baby Blog and now relationships in the Marriage Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here or subscribe to the blog using the subscription box on the right.

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Learn more about Mary Ann Romans

Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat.

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thequeenofthecastle (413) 23 Mar 2009 01:05 PM

They had AstroTurf instead of grass.. I'm sure it cut down a lot of watering, fertilizing, and the other costs of maintaining grass.. LOL!

Mary Ann Romans (26886) 24 Mar 2009 04:17 AM

Oh that is a good one! But we wouldn't want to do that today. Apparently AstroTurf has a lot of lead in it. See the Baby Blog.

thequeenofthecastle (413) 04 Apr 2009 02:15 PM

They also REFUSED to remodel and add another bathroom to their home, so that all 6 children had to share one bathroom. This was even with the fact that Mr. Brady was an architect. Did anyone else find that a bit ironic... hehhee. Maybe they were trying to teach some kind of lesson in sharing. I'm sure it kept the water bill down.. no one got to leisurely shower in the morning when there were 5 other kids waiting to get ready... :)