Meet a reader: Beth C. from NJ.

The reader standing in front of a whole bunch of Falkland Island penguins is Beth C., a retired lawyer from South Jersey. I have had the good fortune to meet with Beth C. on two occasions while visiting family. Next year I may get another chance, as I will be traveling back east for my 50^th (!) high school reunion.

Beth got her undergraduate degree in American Studies from a small (“but awesome”) liberal arts college in upstate New York, and then got a law degree. She spent the first seven years of as an attorney with a federal government agency in New York City, and the remaining 30-plus years in a private law practice in suburban New Jersey. Her specialty was health care regulatory and transactional work.

“I kind of fell into health care, since I got out of law school during a recession and the government agency that was hiring at the time needed people to work on health care issues,” Beth says. She loved working with people in that industry “because of the work that they did to help others.”

Now retired, Beth lives with her husband in a home they’ve owned for 29 years. Her two kids live nearby, and she’s able to see her grandchildren regularly. She delights in frugal hackery like using rewards points and airline miles, and taking surveys for extra money.

Being careful about her finances allows her to have fun in retirement and also to contribute to a program called Impact 100 NJ. She and others make an annual donation, and the cash is given out as grants to local nonprofit groups.

“I never would have been able to make that annual donation before,” she says. “It’s something meaningful, and I’ve enjoyed being a part of it.”

The following Q&A was conducted via email and a phone conversation. The two have been combined and edited for length and clarity.

What got you interested in frugality?

I was married previously to someone who was in grad school at the same time that I was in law school. Since we were two full-time students with no income, every single penny mattered. I started stretching pennies by avidly couponing. There was also a quaint little hobby called “refunding” back in those days, where you would get small payments from companies in exchange for mailing in UPC codes.

Dinners out (which were rare) were exclusively from the Greek diner around the corner which had a soup, salad, main course, drink and dessert meal for $10. It took me a couple of months to set aside a “spare” $5 to go see the movie “E.T.”

I was also a single mom for three years. While lawyers are thought of as doing well financially, my income was reduced because I had made the lifestyle decision to work part-time in order to spend more time with my kids. We ate a lot of hot dogs and mac and cheese in those days. 

Years later, you’re still frugal?

It sort of became a habit. Not to say that there haven’t been times when I’ve really fallen off the wagon! But just kind of keeping an eye on things, it’s become a part of who I am. Of who we are.

Now that we’re both retired, we travel and we’ve taken some longer trips. [In 2024 they traveled around the world; this year, they’ve gone to Antarctica and South America.] We saved for years to be able to do that. We’ll go away for a while, and then we have a long period of time where we don’t do anything.

I take long hikes in our local parks system. I use our local library for books.

When I worked as a lawyer, I had a very long commute. I would create menus every week and my husband would do a lot of the cooking. Now that I’m retired, I get a lot of enjoyment putting together meals. What I’m trying to do now is use up everything we have. Our pantry is really well-stocked. Our freezer is full.

Generally being a good steward of our finances has served us well over time. The biggest example is we got a 15-year mortgage instead of a 20-year. We’d throw extra money at it when we had it, and we paid it off in about 12 years. We were able to help the kids through college.

What’s the “why” behind your frugality?

After getting divorced, I was fortunate enough to meet and marry a frugal (and loving) man who had the same mindset that I did about finances. We both believed in saving as much as we could and were debt averse.

We got a 15-year mortgage when we bought our house and ended up paying it off early. We also shared the view that it was important to save for things that we wanted to do in the future, such as travel a lot in retirement. We also enjoy “out-frugaling” each other sometimes. 

I get enjoyment looking for and researching the best deals. Any larger purchase, like a car or appliances, we always look at Consumer Reports. On top of that, we look and see who has the best deal on that particular item. When we buy appliances, we have a credit card that gives us five times the number of points on gift cards purchased at office supply stores, so we’ll go into Staples and buy (a lot of) gift cards, then use them to pay for the appliance.

Is it easy to be frugal in your region?

Yes and no. We live about 90 miles south of New York City, but costs in our area, particularly for housing, are lower. I suspect that our overall cost of living is higher given our location in the Northeast/Mid Atlantic region of the U.S. We live in a community comprised of a lot of professional households, but fortunately our neighbors are not ostentatious and appear to be level-headed about their finances.

We have a great library and a number of pretty parks nearby.  I have discovered the joys of going on hikes and being in multiple book clubs, both of which are low-cost hobbies. We do go out to eat anywhere from two to four times a month. There’s a Facebook page called South Jersey Food Scene, and somebody came up with a list of hidden gems. My mission is to start checking them out, because they’re less expensive.

Any favorite frugal wins?

Discovering the points- and miles-travel community, which taught both of us to be very strategic about our frequent flyer miles and point earnings. We wanted to travel a lot in retirement without breaking the bank. We’ve had many free stays in hotels, and got to travel to Singapore on an 18½ hour flight in business class last year (in addition to other free flights).

A more simple win involved saving up applesauce and baked bean UPCs about 15 years ago for a promotion run by the parent company of both food manufacturers in order to get DH and myself two free tickets to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. 

How do you stay intentional about money?

I try to always remember our long-term goals.  I am not perfect, and have fallen off the intentional spending wagon on multiple occasions.  When you are working long hours, it is often hard to find the time to spend in an intentional way. When that happens, I evaluate and correct my course going forward. 

I do surveys online sometimes. They’re really interesting to do, and I’ve got a little bit of money to move over (into the budget).

I’ve started using rewards apps more. I’m buying gift cards for Starbucks, which is getting increasingly expensive. I’ve used the cards to remove the cost of an item via Amazon, or something grocery-related.

Worst money mistake?

When I left my federal government job, I was given a choice to either leave my federal retirement plan savings in place or take them out. Foolishly, I took the money out and bought a new car. When I think how much that money would have compounded by now, I cringe. 

What thing(s) do you splurge on?

I bought a brand-new car two weeks after the most recent election, because I anticipated that we would be facing tariffs. We research our car purchases pretty extensively. We save up the cash to buy well-rated cars (that) run for 200,000-plus miles. 

We also save for (and spend a fair amount on) travel, with miles and points factored in to ease the overall cost. We watch our expenses in certain areas, so that we can spend in other areas that bring us joy. 

You see a $100 bill on the sidewalk, and…?

I pick it up and deposit it in the bank. 

What frugal tip(s) would you share?

Do your research! I’ve found that to be really helpful in making our travel dollars go farther and in researching purchases both large and small. Doing this will help you save for any long-term goals that you may have.

You may have to start small with your savings plan, as I did as a broke law student and a close-to-broke single mom. But the results will be worth it. 

Related reading:

• Meet a reader: Ann from South Carolina
• Meet a reader: RoInRocketCity
• Meet a reader: Cheryl from Florida
• Meet a reader: FrugalStrong from Texas