tiffy0380's Full Review: Sarah Strohmeyer - The Penny Pinchers Club
"Most people get the wrong idea when I tell them I'm a member of the Rocky River Penny Pinchers Club. They assume I'm naturally frugal, that all my life I've carefully balanced my checkbook and flicked off lights around the house, clipped coupons and saved leftovers, that I keep the thermostat at sixty degrees in the winter and let my family broil in the summer. Oh, if they only knew." Kat Griffin is a shopaholic and her husband Griff loves her despite this expensive quirk. Or at least this is what Kat tells herself until she finds a condom in his pocket and overhears whispered conversations with his assistant. Kat convinces herself that Griff is going to leave her as soon as their daughter leaves for college and so she hatches a plan to get out of debt and hide money from Griff before he walks out on her.
Kat joins a local group of frugal minded people known as The Penny Pinchers and learns the ins and outs of cheap toiletries and dumpster diving. She also begins to make the move to take on interior design clients of her own, behind the back of her manic boss Chloe, a woman who relies on Kat to run her business. Taking on her own clients opens up doors for Kat, one being her ex boyfriend Liam Novak who is now a rich and newly single admirer of Kat.
Armed with lots of frugal tips The Penny Pinchers Club is an enjoyable read mainly because it explains frugality realistically and because of the supporting characters. Yes, Kat is a cute albeit sometimes annoying character in her own quirky way but Wade the dumpster diver steals most of the best lines in the book and Chloe the insane and manic depressive boss made me laugh more than Kat and Griff.
Indeed the plot is a bit silly and really doesn't make much sense, for instance why wouldn't Kat just ask Griff what is going on rather than coming up with a scheme to make more money, hide it from him and drive everyone around her absolutely batty? I suppose it wouldn't really be a novel without the zany actions of the heroine, however this book actually deals with some very real and serious issues like debt and marital problems. Kat just doesn't want to see the world as it really is- her debt as all consuming and her lack of trust in her husband is more of a reflection of her <i>own</i> lack of discretion when it comes to Liam.
Sarah Stromeyer's The Penny Pinchers Club is a fun read that also shows how miscommunication and dishonesty can really put a kink into a seemingly solid marriage. Even though she is a neurotic nutcase I really liked and cheered for Kat as she fought for her marriage and a chance to live life debt free.
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