Customer Reviews

Frugal Luxuries: Simple Pleasures to Enhance Your Life and Comfort Your Soul

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Of course the book is about her ideas and her life. Of course she has frugal Martha Stewart style ideas. Being involved in a voluntary simplicity community since the late 80's I have evolved from a Tightwad Gazette person to someone who wants class and frugality. Frugal to many people I encounter means cheap plain food or clothes and nothing fun or fancy. For me and many of my frugal minded friends it is about wanting quality as well as frugality. The Tightwad Gazette proved of little use to me since I like quality and classy clothes Martha Stewart style and not simply clothes that are simply cheap. Different strokes for different simple living folks.

If you want to be told that you should try on gloves at the thrift store before you buy them (duh!) or that you should always buy larger sizes of food, because they're always a better deal (they sometimes are, and sometimes aren't), then read this book. If you want something more intelligent, with real ideas and advice, try the Tightwad Gazette. Much, much better.

I bought this book because I am a patsy for anyhting with "frugal" in the title. Yes, the book does have some drawbacks: Martha on a budget, and lots of neat things to do with little girls. I have two little boys and the ideas presented don't translate well. Tea parties and doll's birthdays, bone china and salt cellars are lovely, but my reality is dinos, mudpies, gravel in the pockets, and Curious George. Overall, I enjoyed reading the book and have used several of the ideas with success. Frequently, frugality is seen as austere, and strictly cost conscious; however, "Frugal Luxuries" presents an interesting perspective that frugality doesn't have to be austere and a little beauty in one's daily experience can soften the economic reality. I do recommend this book as more philosphical than practical application.

Ever since the simplify scene has become popular we have been presented with various outlooks on the "less is more" lifestyle, but few have approached the theme with such style and grace. In fact, Ms. McBrides attempt of bridging the gap between the Amy Dacyczyn and Martha Stewart approaches proves to be quite successful, particularly if one seeks inspiration and a sort of uplifting of the soul along with their reused Ziploc bags.

On the other hand, we found the book overly focused on the author's personal experience especially since she has been the editor of a newsletter since 1993. We were surprised to not see more information culled from her readers over the years. This would have fleshed out the book and provided substance with which more readers could identify.

Despite the lack of a varied viewpoint and a slight absence of practical tips (though we appreciated the tip on how to create home-made soup cups), readers who seek more soul than Dacycsyn and have less cash than Stewart will appreciate an evening in the garage-sale purchased armchair with this book.

An entire chapter is devoted to fan letters about the author's newsletter - and the "advice" consists of inanities such as "If you subscribe to magazines you never read, don't renew them". Well, duh! Who needed a $19 book to learn that?????????????

Stick with The Tightwad Gazette trilogy ... Many, many practical suggestions. Although not everyone wants to live as thriftily as TG recommends, you can find many practical ideas there for your situation (whatever it is).

This book could have been wonderful. Instead, it was just useless garbage. I've collected quotes since I was a teenager, but, even I found the author's endless quotations a waste of paper.

This book was a big nothing!

First off- Tracey is definitely creative and she has a good attitude. However, it is all about her life and very little about anything else; She only has a few pages of suggestions from the readers of her newsletters. Also, I have a little boy, so a lot of her suggestions just won't work for us. I wonder- she says so much about gifts and ideas for her two girls, where does her son fit in?

I get the impression that the author wants to be from the Manor Born and is just making do by finding out how to get more for less money. She still seems to spend an inordinate amount of her life focused on shopping. Also, there were no environmentally conscious tips or angles, something that is very important to me.

There were times when she'd mention making something (ex: a garden arbor out of closet poles) and then neglect to include how to make it, which is frustrating.

She's a SAHM, and seems to have a great deal of time to shop, plant, do housework and do crafty things and while I like many of her ideas, I'd never be able to find the time to do them, unless I ignore my family and spend all my time perusing yard sales and spray painting masking paper, using florist wire, raffia, dried rosebuds and herbs to create things to give away to other people to impress themn with how poor we aren't.

Get it from the library first to see if you like it and then I recommend buying it used instead of paying full price.

I bought this book 2 months ago and I am still kicking myself for spending the money. I found this book to be condescending, preachy and at times, down right irratating. I was looking for practical, sensible tips on how to live my life in a more frugal and environmentally friendly manner. All I got from this book was pie-in-the-sky, warm and fuzzy, painfully trite prose. It became increasingly obvious as I forced myself to plow through this book, page by sappy page, that McBride spent far too much time researching quotes as headers for her chapters. Had she spent anywhere near as much time writing about tried and true, honest to goodness money saving tips and techniques, this book would not be such a waste. To anyone considering this purchase, check it out of the library first to see if you like it, I sure wish I had.

This charming book is the perfect handbook for those of us who want to create a life that borrows from the timeless wisdoms of books from a more innocent time, such as "Anne of Green Gables" and "Little Women." After reading it, I immediately felt this book was a handbook on how to create a life like the characters within a Jan Karon novel ("At Home in Mitford," another lovely book I highly recommend). "Frugal Luxuries" is worth the time and money spent (although it leans more toward intangible luxuries than material ones).

This was an enjoyable book to read. The instructions for gracious living were inspiring, but not very frugal. Many of the tips assume the reader already knows how to sew, preserve, etc. "Frugal Luxuries" is better used as a source for other book titles.

McBride's thoughtful and charming writing style is reminiscent of Alexandra Stoddard, author of the "Living a Beautiful Life" series of books. This is more a book about attitude than about helpful hints, although there are plenty of those sprinkled throughout. McBride promotes the idea of living a good life regardless of how much money you have