|
| List Price: | $29.95 |
| Average Rating: |  |
| Lowest New Price: | $2.94 |
|
 |
|
Product Description
In Living Well on a Shoestring, you'll find more than 1,500 practical money-saving techniques for every aspect of your life, from getting out of debt and finding money for retirement to decorating on a budget and cutting pet-care costs. The penny-pinching editors of Yankee magazine know firsthand that you can learn to live well while staying well within your means. And now they're on a campaign to show you how it can be done!
Inside these covers, you'll discover the four essential keys to spending wisely and stretching your income: knowing budget basics, getting out of and avoiding debt, increasing your savings, and living within your income. You'll also get all the information you need to build a solid financial foundation for living the good life, including tax-trimming ideas and a list of easy ways to increase your earnings.
Once you've mastered the four basic elements that will help you transform your spending style without settling for less, you're ready for the nitty-gritty, penny-pinching, day-to-day details of consistent and mindful saving. Check out the scores of ingenious ideas jam-packed into chapters like Frugal Lawn and Garden Care, Thrifty Ways to Dress Well, Spending Less for Quality Health Care, Saving on Electronics and Small Appliances, and Cutting Transportation Costs.
This book offers hundreds of tried-and-true tips for leading a thrifty lifestyle. Need supplies for your home office? Keep your eyes peeled for businesses that are closing or relocating. Want to lower your auto insurance rate? Ask about hidden discounts that your insurance company may not be revealing up front. In the market for a new bicycle? Shop in late September or early October, just after the industry's largest trade show-- and don't be afraid to barter.
Sprinkled throughout these pages are entertaining real-life "It Worked for Me" success stories and top-notch recommendations from "The Yankee Miser." Perfect for skimming or reading cover to cover-- you may have trouble putting it down-- Living Well on a Shoestring is a comprehensive, information-packed volume that guarantees you'll have more money in your pocket at the end of each and every day.
More than two million devoted readers agree that the editors of Yankee0 magazine are the most trusted authorities on the art of living well on a shoestring-- after all, it's a Yankee tradition!
Customers who bought this item also bought
Average Customer Review:
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 Living well on a shoestring, 2008-07-18
I was trying to battle my way out of debt, and needed all the help I could get. This book was full of resources, and I'm using quite a few of the ways presented. Still fun now that I'm out of debt to see where I can spend even less.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 Hit and miss ideas for frugal living, 2007-08-31
This book suffers from trying to cram too many ideas into a small space. Each chapter is divided into small sections which are then further divided into very brief tips. Amidst all that are margin notes and quotes from readers with frugal suggestions, and it makes for a very cluttered read.
The ideas given in the book range from common sense to handy new ideas to the downright silly and unfeasible.
Here's a few examples: One suggestion for creating a savings is that book lovers borrow books from the library instead of buying them, and then putting the price of the book in the savings account. Another tip is to pay attention to the cash register receipt immediately after making a purchase and deal with overcharges right there. Those are good ideas.
Then there's common sense ideas such as making your own coffee/food or doing your own repairs. But does anyone really need to be told that it's cheaper to do it on your own? What if certain repairs are beyond your capabilities?
One so-called helpful hint suggests saving the change that falls out of pockets in the laundry: "When you save enough change, you can buy more laundry detergent." If I was to wait until I got enough stray change to buy detergent, I'd never have any soap. It's a silly idea, not practical in the least.
Too much weight is placed on the cleverness of some ideas. One suggestion is to trim your hedges around your home instead of buying alarms or locks. While it's a good idea to reduce the hiding places around your home, one shouldn't rely solely on a neat yard for theft protection.
However, there are some good ideas in the book, and if you're serious about learning new ways to be frugal, it's worthwhile to check this book out. It's a quick read and occasionally entertaining.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
 Outdated living on a shoestring, 2007-03-25
As you may have been reading in the other reviews, this book is very different. Most of the suggestions are wacky, and really could only save you pennies to say the least. Once in awhile, the suggestions are okay, if you own a home (which I don't because I don't have money) but if you followed every suggestion in the book you would be the laughing stock of your community. There are much better books on the market for the purpose this book is supposed to serve. If only they would update it, it wouldn't be half bad. I mean, they talk about going to the library to use internet when almost everyone has internet on their phones nowadays and other wierd "hints" that just don't make sense. They spend a whole section on just organizing your bills and putting them in places like a shoe organizer or an empty cereal box because this will help you save money.
Real frugal people would just save their money and skip the book to read something that will actually help you.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
 You only need a few good ideas - I have more money in my pocket, 2007-01-26
I have not even read close to 1/2 of the book. So far, I have found a lot of info that is not useful to me. My advise is to just not spend any time on those parts. I did find, so far, 2 good ideas and the day after finding them, I implemented them. The result is cold, hard cash and an ubelievably better use of some cash I already had.
I expect the rest of the book will be the same way. I will skip the parts that do not apply to me or interest me. I will however, find more good ideas. Heck, the 2 ideas I have already found paid for the book and my future will be "richer."
I also plan to provide the reviews of this book to my smoking cessation classes. Until they quit, they need to be frugal. Once they do quit, they need ideas for all that extra money.
28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
Just so-so, 2005-08-18
If you think you'd like to decorate your home with cardboard tubes, construction paper, and glitter, this is the book for you. Otherwise, you might not find it very useful.
The book does have some hints that I found helpful, especially in the section on home remedies (the things you can do with vinegar!). Also, some hints on saving money were sensible, if obvious (if you don't read a magazine, quit your subscription -- sounds obvious, right? If only I could follow that advice...)
But for the most part, I didn't find much I could use. For example, instead of simply saying "have a garage sale and advertise for it" as an idea to make some cash, they give five or six ideas for advertising for a garage sale, some of which are just absurd (eg, painting footprints on the sidewalk leading to your house).
Some advice just seemed ill-advised to me, such as using your 401(k) as a savings vehicle for college or a first-time home. Sure, you're allowed to tap it for those purposes, but you shouldn't plan it that way!
And a lot of the advice just seemed to lead you down the road to a more cluttered life, for example, the tip to fill a 5-gallon bucket with sand and motor oil to clean off the metal parts of your gardening tools. How are you supposed to dispose of that properly? Who's got space for a bucket of oily sand? Ugh.
If all the examples I've cited really excite you, then by all means, buy this book. Otherwise, just check it out of the library. Or just check it off your to-read list altogether.
Price is accurate as of the date/time indicated. Prices and product availability are subject to change. Any price displayed on the Amazon website at the time of purchase will govern the sale of this product.
|
Store Categories
|