I bought The Tightwad Gazette III for my husband as a gift a few years back because, frankly, he is a tightwad!
What is a Tightwad?
As defined by the author, Amy Dacyczyn, a tightwad is a person who is:
- unconventional
- pushes things to the limit to make them last longer
- reuses things in unusual ways
- finds new, cheaper ways to do things
I cannot remember the last time we didn’t use a coupon to eat at a restaurant, so this was the perfect gift.
About the book:
~Published in 1996 by Villard Books (Random House) it is 256-pages long, which doesn’t include the index and several pages where notes can be taken in the back of the book. Amy is also the illustrator. As you see this is #III and as indicated on the cover it is “All the thrift that’s fit to print” and “The Final Edition.”
~Seven years ago the author decided to start a home business. This business was a newsletter called The Tightwad Gazette and from this newsletter came her first book. This final edition (The author and her husband are retiring.) is taken from her 5th and 6th year of publishing her newsletter.
~This book is written with humor. The author calls herself “The Frugal Zealot” so you won’t be reading a heavy, non-fiction book filled with ways to save money. It is written creatively; so creatively that you may have a hard time finding what you want unless you know exactly what you want and can look it up in the index. If you don’t you are out of luck because there is no table of contents or any rhyme or reason to how the book is set up.
~This was my first time reading this book and as I was doing so I took a close look and realized how my husband came to “fix” the shade in my room, which was broken. Let’s face it, shades aren’t expensive, but if it can be fixed or used in anyway...well needless to say, I found my shade creatively fixed and thought he had figured that out himself. But I caught him when I found a sticky piece of yellow notepaper on page 18 and saw The Drape Escape. As I read it I realized that this is how I got my new and improved shade!
~In this 3-page section Amy suggests ways to cover your windows that won’t cost much and describes how to buy a piece of material and drape it over the window. She uses illustrations to show how it is done. She also uses suggestions from people who have written to her via her newsletter about ways to save money. One reader, Kim Connell of Yarmouth, Maine suggested using either muslin or fabric from a mill store. These stores often sell strips of sheet material that she says would be perfect for swags. I didn’t see the exact way my husband rigged our shades...perhaps I should have him send his idea into the author but she states this is her final edition.
~In some sections you’ll find where to buy guides or free information sheets. Woodbutcher Tools in Bath, Maine is one such place you can get information that may help you with ideas on what to do with wood.
~Sections such as “Save A Wad Of Dough” have a hodge podge of letters from readers on how they save money. It is a cute section, but it isn’t as helpful as it would be if the book were organized in some way! For example, it might be more helpful to have a section of Newpapers or Recycling and under that some of these letters. One letter suggests sharing newspapers with a neighbor saving $13.00 a month. In that same section is a letter that tells Amy to use a dab of nail polish to stop the run in a bathing suit. This is all good information but given the size of the book, one wouldn’t really sit down and read it all at one time, so how to find information is tricky.
~You will find a section on “What to do with”....and learn that a milk jug makes a disposable dish for a dog who chews dishes. Marilyn MacLachlan, from North Carolina came up with the idea to cut the jug off below the handle. Amy acknowledges that some of her tips may not be safe but they are all legal. I question if reusing dental floss to resew ripped stitching in loafers and sneakers would conform to the Board of Health’s standards but that was submitted by Fran Hulette of New Jersey. Many of the ideas in this book are from readers and not from Amy.
~This book is chock full of tips and some of the sections are a page or two in length written by the author in response to a question from a reader. For example, asked “how to tell your child you can’t afford dental braces,” Amy tackles the question and answers it simply and to the point, making suggestions and pointing out that this is one area you can’t fix or mend yourself. She gives advice to the reader that trade-offs may have to be offered to the child who wants braces- perhaps doing away with the expensive sneakers and getting an after school job, for example.
~Although a lot of the book’s inquiries and answers have come from readers of her newsletter some information comes from her own thoughts and experiences. To me, though, these are just her thoughts and her experiences and I’m not sure, that she has the qualifications to know if offering the trade-off of braces and an after school job makes sense or is in the best interest of the child. But this is her book and my opinion of it!
~Amy is also the illustrator of very, very simple black and white sketches. I can’t draw at all, but on the talent scale, her artwork doesn’t take a degree from an art school and you may be finding yourself wondering how this can get published when your writing can’t.
Is this book for anyone? Will I recommend it?
~I am sorry, Any Dacyczyn, but I can’t recommend it in spite of some great tips on so much information. You can learn how to sell your own house, how to remodel your furniture, how to cut the cost of college and many more ways to “promote thrift as a viable alternative lifestyle.”
~The layout is too confusing and disorganized making it an impractical resource for the average person. I can definitely recommend it as a gift for the tightwad who is being roasted at his or her birthday party, though. In my opinion, The Tightwad Gazette makes a really cute gift under those circumstances. This one circumstance, though, does not a recommendation make for the general public.
This is part of Arthur.Rubin and laura10801's Income Tax Write Off. Thanks to them for hosting this and getting me to review a book I probably would never have thought to review! Participants include:
This third collection of the best of Dacyczyn's popular newsletter presents all-new advice and tips, culled from the fifth and sixth years of The Tigh...More at Alibris
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