The Tightwad Gazette
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 2:42 pm
The Complete Tightwad Gazette Amy Dacycyzyn ISBN 0375752250
This is proabably the most famous book on frugality and it's author one of the most famous frugal experts.
First of all, it's a good book. Amy keeps a sense of humour about what she does and interlaces it with sound reasoning for being frugal in the first place. She cares about the environment and she finds quality of life far more important than quantity of possessions.
My problems with the book are that it is particularly geared up for people with kids (and I have none) and it is very US based [1]. As such some of the advice doesn't work for me but a lot of the rest is useful and useable. However, I will say that UK readers might be better off with The Penny Pincher's Book, by John and Irma Mustoe ISBN 028563285X,
which is more general and UK based. Again, it is a good book, and there's certainly plenty of it that applies or can be adapted outside the US. Perhaps one to borrow (frugally) from the library first!
[1] For example, I had to Google to find out what "Downy" was (fabric softener, brand name "Lenor" in UK) and there are some abbreviations that might be obvious to a US reader but left me going "a what?".
This is proabably the most famous book on frugality and it's author one of the most famous frugal experts.
First of all, it's a good book. Amy keeps a sense of humour about what she does and interlaces it with sound reasoning for being frugal in the first place. She cares about the environment and she finds quality of life far more important than quantity of possessions.
My problems with the book are that it is particularly geared up for people with kids (and I have none) and it is very US based [1]. As such some of the advice doesn't work for me but a lot of the rest is useful and useable. However, I will say that UK readers might be better off with The Penny Pincher's Book, by John and Irma Mustoe ISBN 028563285X,
which is more general and UK based. Again, it is a good book, and there's certainly plenty of it that applies or can be adapted outside the US. Perhaps one to borrow (frugally) from the library first!
[1] For example, I had to Google to find out what "Downy" was (fabric softener, brand name "Lenor" in UK) and there are some abbreviations that might be obvious to a US reader but left me going "a what?".
