Frugal families, like Octorara High School graduate Amanda Grossman’s, learned to be thrifty out of necessity. And now it’s paying off as inflation rates continue to rise, writes Clare Ansberry for The Wall Street Journal. 

Grossman, 39, is a certified financial education instructor who grew up learning frugality on a dairy farm.  

“Frugality is definitely in fashion right now,” said Grossman. “But be frugal in good times and bad times. That’s how you get ahead.” 

In her 20s, she created Frugal Confessions, a blog in which she details the extreme methods she uses to save money. It is loosely based on Cosmopolitan magazine’s Cosmo Confessions, a column in which readers share wild stories about relationships. 

“I wanted to tell all the crazy, salacious things I was doing to save money,” said Grossman.

For example, she once put a pair of old fake leather shoes in the freezer to make them last longer, a tip she read online. “I wore them for another five years,” she boasted.

Read more about Amanda Grossman in the The Wall Street Journal.