The Complete Tightwad Gazette
by Amy Dacyczyn
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Book Reviews of The Complete Tightwad Gazette
Book Review: This is one of my all time favorite books!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book has had a huge, positive influence on my life. I read this book right before I quit my job to stay home and Amy Dacyczyn helped convince me I could do it. But if you are contemplating reading this book, be warned: it is highly addictive and potentially life-changing.I was already fairly frugal before I read The Tightwad Gazette. My husband and I used cloth diapers, shopped at thrift shops, bought secondhand and had only one car. Many of these actions came from our concern to live lightly on the earth, but had the side-benefit of saving us money. But when I read this book, Amy made me see how wasteful I was being in other parts of my life--throwing money away needlessly by spending too much on groceries, overinsuring my car, and overlooking the wealth of things that can be purchased very cheaply at yard sales. After I read this book, I immediately chopped about $100 a month off of my grocery bill, and IT WAS EASY! And I spent less time running back and forth to the grocery store and more time at home enjoying my family. I was so smitten with this book, that in the first few months after I read it, my husband got really sick of hearing about it. And he was a tightwad, too!
For the last few years, I've been able to use some of Amy's recommendations for saving money, but I really had only scratched the surface in what I could accomplish. I was able to stay home and we were doing okay financially, but just okay--not great. Then earlier this year my husband and I got a wake-up call. Throughout our marriage, we had always managed to save money, even if only $100 a month. Our wake-up call came when we realized that for the first time in our marriage, not only were we not saving money anymore, but our hard-earned savings were slowly being depleted. Consequently, my husband was feeling a lot of pressure to work harder and harder, spending more time away from home and making our family life more strained.
Re-enter the Tightwad Gazette. When I realized that we were losing money, I went into TOTAL frugality mode. First, I used Amy's suggestion to list everything we were spending, then I went over our spending with a fine-tooth comb and looked for places I could cut (fewer long distance calls, cutting back further on groceries, etc.). When I looked at the numbers, I estimated that we could be saving $500 a month. And we live near the federal poverty line! And we pay for our own benefits! Then I reread Amy's book (for about the 4th time), and this time I TOOK NOTES! When I was done, not only did I feel empowered, but I had 4 pages of ideas for new money-saving ideas to try--everything from new recipes to energy-saving strategies. I also realized some mistakes I had been making that Amy discusses at length. First, I had failed to realize that desparate circumstances call for desparate action. Second, I had been justifying a certain amount of wasteful spending on the basis of how hard we worked and how much we deserved it. Third, I had failed to set clear financial goals. Amy talks about the need to set goals repeatedly, and she is right. My new goal was to save $3000 by the end of the year. With this new goal in front of me, I felt completely motivated to start saving money.
To make a long story short, in the 2 months since I have become (in Amy's words) a "Black-belt Tightwad," my family has saved approximately $900, with no dramatic difference in our lifestyle. And lest you think that the lifestyle that Amy promotes is one of drudgery and deprivation, think again. As Amy will tell you in these pages over and over, the life of a tightwad can be full and complete. My kids wear designer clothes (albeit second-hand). My home is filled with nice stuff (most of it bought at yard sales or 'treasure-picked' from the curb). My family eats healthfully--lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, many of them organic, with delicious home-baked goodies thrown in. And we even go out to eat from time to time (although not as often as we once did). Most people who would see my family on the street or visit us in our home would be shocked if they knew how well we do with so little income. Plus I have the added benefit of sleeping more soundly at night, not worrying that we will run out of money.
This book is for non-tightwads, too. I've recommended it to some friends who are spendthrifts, and even they have loved it. So if you are at all interested in saving money or living a simpler, saner life, by all means read this book. But make your first truly tightwad move and don't buy it--go to the library first and read a copy. Amy even recommends that you do this. Then, if it is worth it, you can go ahead and buy it.
Book Review: Don't bother if you don't want to save a gob of money!
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been reading some of the 1-2 star reviews and figure that these folks whom are so offended by Dacyczyn's advise should do themselves a favor and just stay in debt! Let the rest of us have our fun, building up secure futures!
I turned the corner to frugality with my first garage sale. Bought a blender for $8 that was usually $20 at the store. It was a start. I became a 'black belt' when I became engaged and then married. I cut every corner in order to pay off our mortgage and get us debt free so that we could have kids and I could stay home. In a couple years, on $30,000 annual salary, we did it.
In those years of extreme savings, we still had fun. We ate well and had good clothes to wear. We were careful about our money and researched what we wanted to spend on. We learned new skills like car repair, sewing, cooking, canning, gardening and home repairs. We practiced living more simply and it became a game for us- seeing how little we could spend and still get what we wanted. They were good years because our attitude was that of our frugality being a game to be won, not a burden we were ashamed to carry.
These days we're not as extreme as we used to be. We eat out once or twice a week, bought our kids new bikes although we could have bought used and cleaned them up with some elbow grease and paint, don't go to as many garage sales as we used to. But, the Tightwad Gazette gave my family the ability to live comfortably now. We saved and scrimped to get ourselves into a good financial position initially, but now that we don't have to, we prefer to continue living frugally. From those early years, we learned how to live well with less and now it is natural for us to do money saving things because we enjoy them still. Sure, we've been to the expensive restaurants and found that the food isn't worth the price. We've splurged at the higher priced super markets and found that a .79 cent can of beans isn't any better than a .29 cent can of beans. We've learned that our little children could care less if their toys are in boxes (new) or not (garage saled).
After reading some of the bitter reviews, I was reminded of friends of ours who used to insult and ridicule us constantly at parties and get togethers for all of our frugal ways. They said a lot of the things I saw in some of these reviews- that garage saling was gross and germy, that our kids would feel deprived, that washing a baggie was obsessive.
Sad part is that they should have taken notes. These same friends accrued so much debt that they lost their home and everything in it. They still live paycheck to paycheck and are forced to scrimp just to survive. They constantly borrow money in order to get the extras, rather than 'lowering' themselves to do with less, research purchases or obtain used merchandise. They complain they can't afford simple things- repair bills on a car, nutricious food for their children. For our biggest critics, the future looks bleak, but they insist that frugality is 'obsessive'. Okay.
In the end, I don't worry much about people who are insulting about anyone's method of saving money. Hopefully, they will never be in the same boat as our friends.
Likewise, the whole thing about Daczcyn's neglect/abuse of children...it is all just meaningless words. Similarly, our friend's kids are having trouble with managing their money- they feel as entitled to the extras, that they can't afford, as their folks do. They are all ready learning to abuse credit by 'borrowing' on their allowances for months in advance. Their parents eventually forget the debt when their kids are in too deep.
Our kids, on the other hand, are comfotable with used items and have learned many life skills, like gardening, cooking, etc. They research purchases and they know how to save. Proof is in the pudding...that's all I have to say.
Book Review: Grand Master of Thrift!
Summary: 5 Stars
College Students, young parents, anyone who wonders how so many immigrants can come to America penniless and unable to speak English but in ten years own a small business, buy Dacyczn's book!
"Tightwad Gazette" does not exaggerate. Master money management and you can live well on a lot less money. Growing up, I had six paternal aunt-uncle couples. All of them grew up truly poor. Poor before mothers could get work. Poor before welfare. My father had to support my six aunts and his mother and attend school at the same time. He sold newspapers. He did farm work for 50 cents a day. He had a milk route when he was 12 (delivering milk with a mule and cart) Life got better and easier for them after the 1930s Great Depression! Before that, there were no government soup lines, free milk or cheese, or Conservation Youth Corps jobs for teenage men.
By the time I was old enough to be cognizant of my aunts, all but one--with their spouses--were successful small business owners. When I was a teen, I worked summers for an aunt and uncle who owned two real family restuarants. They told me repeatedly that "earning money is only 1/4th of 'the job'. 3/4ths of earning a living is money management" The Key is Knowing What to do With The Money You Have.
They taught me that countless many adults are house and car rich but cash poor. I was taught comparison shopping for groceries, that every major consumer industry has its season, learn them and buy out of season. Never buy a brand new car, a new RV or boat. Their value drops fast the 1st two years. Never buy a new house--they are risky & the same money can buy a better, larger house. Renting is better and cheaper, just do the math and you'll see. I heeded these lessons and they served me well.
My teachers- my aunts & uncles- opted out of social security and retired comfortably before age 55. I remembered what they taught me and discovered some thrift strategies of my own.
Many thought me a money master and I thought I was too, until I discovered Amy Dacyczyn's "The Complete Tightwad Gazette"
Amy Dacycyn is the supreme master of thift. We are not talking about miser living here but thift, "PhD level" money management. For instance, my last three cars have been Buick LeSabres. I bought them about a year old from New Car Dealers. These cars were loaded & had less than 13,000 miles, giving me roughly a year of factory warranty. They were program or lease cars, so they were in near perfect condition. Each one sold new for about $25,000. I paid $12,000 to 13,000 for them. I could have afforded a Jag but I was not rich and Jags wear our just as fast as a LeSabre. Time? I had my own business. I worked 70 hours a week. I had little time to waste hunting down a car deal. I was on and off the lot with one trip, two hours tops. As Amy well knows, car sales have a peak season. It is spring and summer, not December. I always buy a newer car after the end of the first week of December, before Christmas.
Dacyczyn began her book as a newsletter. You learn more than thrift from her. You learn how great works are made. She assembled her knowledge the way the greatest intellects who ever lived (Socrates, Plato & Aristotle(the greatest) assembled their knowledge and works, employing their many students to do much of the fact & idea gathering.
Dacyczyn did it as the leader-master of a large group of thrifty people all over America. Rather than narcissist-talk down from the mountain each week, as academics like to do, the author humbly encouraged, read, and carefully tested claims, ideas, & suggestions mailed in by her newsletter subscribers. As you read this book, you get to follow the workings of an excellent mind, not just thrifty acres.
Buy this book! You will be glad you did.
Book Review: In Defense of Dumpster Diving
Summary: 5 Stars
It was a rare sunny day in an upper-middle class suburb in Oregon. While taking my fiance's trash to the apartment's central trash compactor, I noticed the huge bin of rejected, non-compactable items. A clean, sleek, high-end looking lady's computer case was perched on the edge--trembling, almost in anticipation of that intrepid woman who would simply put out her hand and take it...
That woman was me. Of course then, I didn't know that I was supposed to be too fastidious for this, that it was "extreme" and "far-fetched" to take something that was still in good shape but had clearly been abandoned by its owner. I looked around quickly, almost as if the Waste Police were about to rush in and collar me. But there was nothing but spilled soda on the ground and a lazy fly buzzing around. I snatched the case and almost ran back to my fiance's apartment-!
This is a dramatic reenactment, of course. But the warm glow of victory lingers. I get as much of a rush from a great bargain as some die-hard mall mavens get from shelling out $500 for the latest Coach purse. Is it a sickness? Are we really wackos? Did I really Dumpster-dive without even knowing it?
I know a gal who has a $9000 Nordstrom credit card balance. Is she sick? Is the best way the moderate way, to buy your clothes on sale and to shop at a co-op, as I did until recently? To answer these questions for yourself, you have to enter the world of Amy Dacyczyn.
I heard about this lady years ago and thought she was a nut. Now, exactly five days after reading only her second book of tightwaddery (which I picked up at Goodwill, figuring I'd get my 2.99 back somehow), I can hardly believe my good fortune. I've already saved $50 on last week's groceries, have a fully stocked fridge (instead of cleaning it out, like usual), and am rejoicing over my revelation that we can stop paying $100 a month to insure a car that we don't even drive. This is money earned, people. My husband is a little sick of hearing me sing Amy's praises, but he is already experimenting with cooking our meatloaf in the microwave vice the oven (either my husband makes terrible meatloaf, or we couldn't tell the difference). I am only sorry that, with a new baby to watch over while my husband travels for work, that I can't patrol the local Dumpsters! Or maybe I can...
I was astonished to find that a friend of mine (whom I KNOW to be a total tightwad who scavenges and trash-picks regularly) has actually NEVER HEARD of Amy's books. I won't buy them for her (she'll scavenge them on her own if she wants them) but I am buying this book for my family. (BTW, when she visits next we are planning a Dumpster-diving mission together, since I can't quite justify doing it alone with a baby--unless I drive by real slow!)
In a society characterized by excessive exposure to sex, you have people with weird compulsions and habits. The same applies to consumption. You have your extreme spendthrifts and you have your trash-pickers. We are all sick, folks. You get to choose your disease. You may think you don't care about where your money goes, but when it runs out you start to care real quick. I'm just glad there's somebody out there crazy enough to try to "beat the house" as it were--the advertisers, the corporations--the bean-counters who shave their pennies to see if they can get another penny out of you. It seems as if the rule is squeeze or be squeezed.
I find Amy's work to be a celebration of alternatives that we just don't consider. The advertisers hawk a bunch of new products and we never think about the Dumpsters of this country as treasure troves. Same product, different packaging. Get over it.
Book Review: A Re-review of past reviews
Summary: 5 Stars
I originally wrote a review back in 2002 and was scanning the more recent reviews today. I was saddened to see that the controversy continues over how extreme some of the measures are and over Amy's child rearing practices, about how terrible her children are being raised and how close to child abuse her measures are. In the last 5 years, if it had not been for the advice I gleaned from the pages of the Tightwad Gazette, my family would have been one of the millions filing for bankruptcy. All of the people pillaging Amy would have been paying for my past mistakes in higher interest rates and fees while companies tried to recoup the money they lost in my bankruptcy. This is not an attempt at drama to make Amy look good, THIS IS FACT!!! My husband was laid off in 1999 and has not had a job offer since. He is now back in school and I am supporting my family on a salary of less than $40,000 yearly. Think this amount sounds like riches? It is, simply because I practice the frugality in the books written by Amy. Folks, this is 2004. Gas in my area right now is approaching $1.75 a gallon. Milk is almost $3.80 a gallon. Health insurance premiums of close to $600 monthly made me recently change jobs. I am now shouldering more of my family's health care expenses but I am seeing more in my paycheck. In the area of the country that I live in, my salary puts me on the fringes of LOWER middle class. When the book was written, I would have been on the fringes of UPPER middle class. That's how much the economy has changed since 9/11. However, none of the ideas gleaned from the book have changed. That's the power of this information. It's not faddish, in style, whatever. It's classic and you can refer back to it year after year. Oh, and for those of you who think that her childrearing practices are "child abuse" and will warp their mentality, let me introduce you to two members of my immediate family. Raised in the idea that only new will do and only the best is best, they are both divorced mothers, receiving welfare benefits (yes, the authors of "amy practices child abuse" are paying for their upkeep each month!), constantly being evicted from apartments they can't afford but, oh my, we can't live anywhere but the best places around, RUN OUT OF FOOD STAMP MONEY EACH MONTH, because it has to have a name on it or it's "dog food", per another reader, one recently had a BRAND NEW 2004 car repossessed because the car dealership didn't investigate closely enough (I work full time and don't have a brand new car, my car is paid for). This is the mentality that many of the previous reviewers espouse. Yet, you are paying their electric bills (which run into the HUNDREDS each month because they keep every light and every TV set on constantly), phone bills (home and cell phones, yes cell phones for every member of their family!) health care (frequent ER visits for one drug addicted member) and food (anything that is advertised on TV is in their home). Before anyone else trashes Amy and her lifestyle, I urge them to think about all I have written. Did it occur to any of them that part of the reason they can't get ahead in life is the support they are REQUIRED to pay out in taxes each month for the millions in this country who are just like my two family members? Oh, and their children, raised to expect only the best? One is on his way to becoming another high school drop out, there are two more lined up behind him and another bringing up the rear. My child, raised like Amy's children? High school honor role student poised for college.