Customer Reviews

The Complete Tightwad Gazette

5 star:		(99)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I read this book and shared it with a friend. We both thought that it was an interesting and often hysterical look an alternative lifestyle, but that it was not terribly useful to us.First of all, the author and her family live in the-back-of-beyond rural Maine, where being a little "eccentric" is perhaps less problematic than for most of us in the real world. Also, the author's hard-nosed approach to saving money at all costs struck us as very cold sometimes, such as when she said she tried putting Desitin ointment on one-half of her baby's diaper rash to see if it healed faster with the cream. It didn't, so she concluded that she didn't need to spend money on it. However, she didn't consider that perhaps the treated rash FELT BETTER to the baby as it healed. Same with her attitude about meals: her kids are "disciplined" if they don't clean their plates, and they MUST eat whatever she puts in front of them, whether they like it or not. She claims this prevents picky eaters, and I'm sure she's right -- but what other eating problems might that cause down the road? In another section she devotes several pages to "dumpster diving" -- I thought I'd hurt myself laughing -- is she serious? She also devotes endless pages to describing how to calculate the cheapest meal ingredients, down 1/10 of a cent in some cases. She says this is fun! She also says she gets a thrill from wearing socks with holes in them, and testing to see how little detergent she can use on diapers before they seem to bother the baby. Of course, it's her life and she's entitled to her choices, but I think for most of us these are not choices that make sense. Unless, of course, you think it's fun to spend 30 minutes with a calculator to find out that one muffin recipe is 4/10ths of a cent cheaper than another. I also found it annoying that references in the text often sent me to pages that did not contain the promised information.

While I enjoy and have used much of the information in this book, my big gripe is that the index is done terribly. It seems like they just copied the indexes from the three books instead of re-doing them, so nothing is listed under the proper page number. It makes trying to find anything a nightmare.

This amazingly huge tome of almost 1000 pages contains a wealth of money saving knowledge, good sense, and formulas to help you calculate savings and create your own recipes. Some of the information is a little outdated and some things apply to the USA only, but the majority of articles, tips, recipes, formulas etc... are useful for everyone.

There are just so many great money saving ideas in here and other useful information.

This book offers great money saving advice for those who don't care what others think of them. Many of the tips given result in obviously "home made" solutions. I think more of us need to use these tips and forget about trying to "keep up with the Joneses".

My only complaint is that prices are very out of date, so it is a bit odd, but you can get past that.

How I wish I had read this book when I was first married! This gigantic book -- almost 1000 pages! -- is filled with a wealth of ideas for the frugal or simple lifestyle. Not very many recipes in here (intentional on the author's part), but those are easy to come by in books like _Miserly Moms_ or _Not Just Beans_. Some of the strategies described may sound extreme, but I think the intent of the author was to provide many ways to save money, and let the readers decide which they can comfortably adopt. This will tell you how to save money for just about every imaginable expense. An excellent reference all around. I would highly recommend this as a gift for a newlywed couple, a new graduate, or a new mother. It's worth its weight in gold.

GET TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER, FORGET WHAT SOCIETY SAYS-BE YOUR OWN PERSON/FAMILY, AND CONSERVE MONEY AND RESOURCES!

Some of the suggestions in this book are good. Indeed it's funny how much of it my wife and I already implement. However, the scrimping is overdone. For example, my wife and I catered our own wedding and saved a bundle. However, we would never have dreamed of having a pot luck wedding!

I prefer Andrew Tobias' approach, which is more balanced. He both scrimps and invests. With six kids you could argue that Amy is not doing the Earth any favors. No doubt it's hard to have six kids and any money left to save no matter how frugal you are.

A healthy balance is sadly lacking here.

This book is one of my FAVORITE BOOKS OF ALL TIME. No kidding, no exaggeration. It has helped me to see the big picture of my relationship with money. It has helped me realize I AM in control of what I buy and what I spend. It has shown me that there is another way than living from paycheck to paycheck. Over the last 4 years, I have gone from being highly in debt to having a big, fat savings account. And the best thing is...it was so rewarding to get there!

Still, some people JUST DON'T GET IT!! They joke that this would be a good gag gift, or whine that Amy D. is far to extreme with her ideas on how to save money. They look down their noses at this book while they rack up the debt.

This book challanges you to look at your energy; see where it's going. It helps to show you that money is a tool, and although we all need it, there are many other productive ways we can utilize our energy that save money instead of waste it. This book hands you the tools to figure out how to save money for yourself.

Get this book. It will change your life.

I LOVE this book. Do all the ideas apply to us? No. Do we use every idea as stated? Of course not. But as a springboard for ideas that DO apply to our situation, this book has been an exceptionally valuable resource. 2 years ago, I checked it out from the local library at a time when my husband and I were incredibly stressed about not having enough to pay the rent one month. With a renewal, I had the book for 6 weeks, completely free. In that time, we paid the rent with $100 left over, and at the end of the 6 weeks, I purchased it new (after a long and fruitless search for used!), and it had paid for itsself literally 13 times over, beyond the rent issue. In the three years since then, I can't even begin to calculate how much money we have saved from using ideas suggested and/or inspired by this book. However, I do know that in Arizona, I am able to be a full-time stay-at-home-mom while my husband earns well under $20,000 per year. We have a comfortable little apartment in a good neighborhood, we all wear nice clothes, our cars are paid off completely, we have at least 6 weeks of groceries in the house at all times, and he and I are both attending college. We pay ALL our bills on time, and our ONLY debt is student loans.

If you are in need of ideas, suggestions, or advice for cutting costs, I advise you to invest in this book.