REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
               unmoderated group misc.consumers.frugal-living

This is a Request For Discussion about creating the group
misc.consumers.frugal-living. The purpose of the group is to serve as a
source of information and discussion on topics pertaining to practicing
a frugal lifestyle.

A frugal lifestyle focuses heavily on minimizing consumption and money
expenditure in ways that you can be happy with and not feel deprived.
It includes practices such as buying used items, retrieving thrown-away
items, or reusing materials you already have. It also includes
minimizing costs of consumables you buy such as food and personal care
supplies, doing/making things for a fraction of their normal cost,
extending the useful life of items, and numerous other money-saving
strategies.

RATIONALE:

People interested in a frugal lifestyle need a newsgroup for a focused
discussion of frugality.

1.  There is currently no available newsgroup for discussion of
frugality.

Misc.consumers seems oriented towards being careful consumers of only
new products. There are only a few things on misc.consumers that are
likely to be interesting to people who practice frugality (banking
services, for example).  Also, there are many topics relevant to the
discussion of frugal living that would not be relevant to most readers
of misc.consumers (i.e. restoring old and/or abused items).

2.  Many people who read misc.rural and browse misc.consumers have
indicated their strong interest in a having newsgroup on frugality, as
they were not able to find one.

3.  The MaxLife mailing list is not specific enough for people seeking
a single, focused source of discussion and information on frugality,
and the traffic is high.

MaxLife is a mailing list that encompasses things such as simplifying
your life, vegetarianism, and other lifestyle changes, in addition to
discussion of frugality.  While MaxLife does address frugality, it also
discusses many other topics, making it a less-than-ideal source for
people who are simply looking for frugal-specific information and
discussion. In addition, it is a high traffic mailing list.

4.  The frugal-l mailing list which was focused on frugal living has
shut down.  It had over 900 subscribers and 20-30 messages per day. 
Some members had mentioned they would prefer a newsgroup as it would be
easier to follow the various threads.

CHARTER: misc.consumers.frugal-living

Misc.consumers.frugal-living is for the discussion of anything directly
related to establishing and maintaining a frugal lifestyle.

A frugal lifestyle focuses heavily on minimizing consumption and money
expenditure in ways that you can be happy with and not feel deprived.

Topics could include things such as minimizing your food bill, buying
used items, salvaging discarded items, reusing items, buying in bulk,
doing/making things for a fraction of their normal cost, and restoring
old/abused items. Other topics could be frugal banking/investment
strategies, low-cost entertainment, saving on health insurance, car
buying/maintenance strategies, frugal ethics, inexpensive gifts, and
energy usage.

Questions and discussions are to relate to practicing frugality.
Advertising is not to be part of misc.consumers.frugal-living.  Refer
to misc.forsale, misc.forsale.*, *.forsale, and *.marketplace (such
as rec.autos.marketplace) groups for private ads and biz.marketplace
and biz.marketplace.* for commercial ads.

PROCEDURE:

A discussion of this proposed group will take place on news.groups.  It
will last approximately 30 days.  If there are no major problems with
the proposal, then a Call For Votes (CFV) will be posted, giving
directions on how to vote.  The voting period will last approximately
30 days.  Afterward, the results will be tallied and posted.

DISTRIBUTION:

This RFD is being cross-posted to news.announce.newgroups, news.groups,
misc.consumers, and misc.rural.

It will also be forwarded to the MaxLife mailing list.

Proponent: Brian Pine, piner@best.com
Mentor: Ilana Stern, ilana@ncar.ucar.edu