Chapter 6 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 6 is about being frugal and minimizing spending. First, the chapter discusses what frugality is, and then it presents Step 6 of the program. Step 6 is to minimize spending. Although the authors enjoy being frugal and encourage the reader to be frugal, they realize that the word "frugal" has a bad connotation, and that most Americans think of being frugal as a bad thing, like penny-pinching, being cheap, or being a miser. The authors like the Spanish term "aprovechar" better, which means "to really get full use and full enjoyment out of something." To get full use or full enjoyment out of something, the reader does not necessarily have to own it. The reader could fully enjoy a sunny day or the smell of wildflowers, for example.

According to the authors, that is what being frugal is all about. It means the...