Customer Reviews

How to Survive Without a Salary: Learning How to Live the Conserver Lifestyle

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I thought that this book was so funny in places that I haven't laughed so hard, so much, for a long time. Charles is a skilled writer; the book is very readable, intelligent, thoughtful,and well organized. It contains a copious (even prodigious) amount of tips, for a 200-page book. Very practical, and at the same time touches on abtruse philosophical areas, especially at the end of the book.

Hey, I used to think I was cheap. This guy is CHEAP. His anecdotes include waiting for it to rain to take a shower instead of installing indoor plumbing. He had a big hole in the floor of his entryway, or somewhere in his house, into which the kids and a few guests fell. He refused to spend one cent covering the hole, until a neighbor told him about a steel grate they threw away years ago, so he went to the dump and found it.

The point is that you can learn from a top-notch "conserver"; an applied example I would give is to buy two gallons of milk when it's on sale and freeze one for later use (works well!). This guy probably drinks powdered milk though.

I disagree with his economic analysis; prudence CAN be a vice, as any virtue most certainly is in its extreme, or even overdone. But Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations is not just about "McPimple Burger" or keeping up with the Joneses. Any system on a mass scale is going to have gaping faults, and the weaker of us might succumb to our basest impulses. But perhaps Long goes a bit too far the other way...

At any rate, he sounds like an economic anarchist. Very well thought out book, great advice. I borrowed the book from the library and laughed about how this guy would have to recommend doing so...and later on in the book he actually does recommend it! econ

+++++

This humorous but practical and easy to comprehend book or guide, by Canadian journalist and writer, Charles Long, is about being a conserver. A conserver is a person who learns how to get by with less and make do with what he/she has. A person who lives as a conserver lives "the conserver lifestyle."

Despite the book's title, it is actually a book for everyone: for those employed, for those without a salary, city dwellers, and country dwellers. Or to put it another way this is a book for everyone "concerned with the diminishing purchase power of their dollar."

Long practices what he preaches! All the philosophy and economic theory behind the conserver lifestyle came from him (and his family) living and surviving without a salary.

This eleven chapter book, as the author states, revolves around three key premises:

(I) Control expenditures and save money. The author shows you how in his four chapters entitled:

1. The Secondhand Market
2. Auction Buying
3. Alternatives to Buying
4. Cheap Tips

(II) Income of some sort is still required (for those who decide to survive without a salary). This income does not have to be made through employment. The author has a full chapter entitled:

5. Casual Income

(III) Preparing yourself for the conserver lifestyle takes time (especially for those deciding to survive without a salary). The chapters covering this are entitled:

6. Assessing Yourself
7. Needs
8. Getting Ready

There is even a chapter on how to answer questions if you decide to live the conserver lifestyle without a salary. It's entitled:

9. What Do You Do For a Living? (and other difficult questions).

So far I have mentioned nine chapters. Even though all chapters mention this, one chapter is devoted exclusively to the philosophy of the conserver lifestyle. (This chapter also discusses other relevant topics.) It's entitled:

10. What's the Catch?

Another chapter discusses taxes & insurance and how to save on them. It's entitled:

11. Caesar's Due.

There are three problems I had with this book:

First, there are no (foot)notes (or hardly any). True the book profiles the author's personal experiences but I did notice some numbers and statistics given that were not given credit.
Second, the author sidesteps the issue of health care. Perhaps it is because he is Canadian and they have universal health coverage. However, countries like the United States do not have this and since health care is expensive, it would be difficult for most Americans to leave a salaried position. They, however, still could be conservers and live the conserver lifestyle but with a salary.
Third, although this is not absolutely essential, it would have been helpful to have a brief summary in the form of a list at the end of each chapter.

Note that this book has no index but since its table of contents is so comprehensive, an index is not really needed.

Finally, there is another book that that gives a slightly different and perhaps a more comprehensive spin on this subject. It's called "Your Money or Your Life" by Dominguez and Robin. Another useful book is "The Joy of Not Working" by Zelinski.

In conclusion, this is a book that outlines an alternative lifestyle called the conserver lifestyle. Discover for yourself why "[t]he greatest security is not in having the most, but in needing the least!"

(revised edition first published 1996; preface; 11 chapters; main narrative 200 pages)

+++++

How to Survive without a Salary isn't written with the idea that you will never work again. The author admits early on that you always need a source of income, whether it's periodic freelancing, selling some things at flea markets, taking a temporary job, or whatever. His goal is to show the reader how to avoid being enslaved to a business.

I have read just about every book on frugal living that I can find, and this one has some info that the others don't. Mostly the new stuff is along the lines of how auctions work, how to bargain, where to find deals (such as flea markets vs. consignment shops vs. estate sales). Included is the typical information on subjects such as budgets and ways to pare down spending without feeling deprived. Unfortunately, like many other frugal living books, this one needs a better editor.

One of the things I like most about this book is that it isn't just written for people who want to move out to the country, make goat cheese from their goats and build straw bale houses: it's for the majority of people who range from city dwellers to country dwellers and want to find ways they can either survive without a salary, or at least become less dependent on one. A worthwhile read.

This book is an introduction to living well while living cheaply. Long uses the term "conserver" to denote a person whose philosophy of life is to live better by spending less money. The book outlines how one can become a conserver and ideas for ways to manage well with less money. A conserver who achieves some measure of success at cutting expenses will soon find that needs for income are also reduced, hence a salary is no longer necessary. At that point, the conserver can quit working for a living since "casual income" will suffice. Long also provides some ideas of how to gain a casual income. Thus, the way to live without a salary is first to cut expenses, then eliminate debt, and with the new low expense lifestyle, many people will find that they no longer need a full-time job to get by.

The structure of the book is as follows: introduction to the conserver lifestyle, budgeting, needs, identifying the time when a salary is no longer necessary, casual income, buying secondhand goods, buying at auctions, alternatives to buying, taxes, insurance and retirement, and the macro-economics of the conserver lifestyle. The book does not include a list of references or an index. There are no illustrations.

Long makes some points that are well worth writing on the family bulletin board. "There is more to be gained more easily by reducing costs than increasing income," he argues in the first chapter. When sorting out needs from wants, Long notes that we must consider the maintenance and storage costs as well as additional effort required to use the item when adding up the true cost of an item that we purchase. "Given all the aggravation, do I really want it?" he has us consider before we make a purchase. Some of his soundest advice about purchasing items is to simply procrastinate. Quite often, if you put off the purchase for a while instead of going out and buying something when the need first arises, you may stumble across an equally good alternative solution that doesn't require a purchase after all, or perhaps a slightly used second-hand item at a fraction of the original price. Long has another great rule of thumb that applies to debt: "Borrow to buy resalable things whose value is inflating faster than the rate of interest on the debt." By this measure, taking out a loan to go on vacation is a ridiculous idea. So is putting a stereo system or computer on a credit card. Car loans also don't make the cut. Real estate, however, is another story. Long cites several examples of people living without salaries whose income comes entirely from real estate investments.

For me, most of the useful ideas in this book were in the first half of the book. I found the chapter on auctions a bit strange. In this chapter, Long goes into great detail about how auctions are run, how to inspect items before the sale, and how to make bids. I expected that he would mention how a person could make a casual income by going to auctions, buying items cheaply, and then reselling them later for profit. He tells us that you often end up having to buy a whole pile of items at an auction just to get the one or two things that you need from the pile, but he doesn't include suggestions of how to get rid of the things you don't need. With an emphasis on acquiring items cheaply through auctions, yard sales, and free shelves at the transfer stations, but no mention of how to get rid of unwanted stuff, there's a danger of filling your house to overflowing with cheap stuff. There's a fine line between being a conserver and being a packrat, and from his descriptions, it doesn't sound like Long keeps that idea prominent with his own family. Also, in several places, he mentions getting used appliances cheaply, but he doesn't note how this can be counter-productive for minimizing expenses, since new appliances are so much more energy efficient than old ones. In fact, conservation of energy and natural resources is one topic that doesn't receive much attention in this book. A true conserver would seek to save money by reducing energy consumption even if it requires some additional initial investment.

Overall, I found parts of the book interesting. Since there is more of an emphasis on acquiring things cheaply than not acquiring things or getting rid of unwanted things, this book takes a different approach than books about the simplicity lifestyle. Nevertheless, most of the overall suggestions and ideas will be useful for those seeking to live a better life by switching to the slow lane.

A little over three years ago I picked this book up at a public library book sale. I was enamored at that time with saving as much income as I could by applying the strategies and insights I learned from various resources to my vision of "retirement" which I hoped would take place sometime in my early 30's. At the time I was a Senior Financial Analyst for a small company that was about to issue it's shares to the NASDAQ exchange (Symbol: AHLS). I was working sixty to seventy hours a week performing tasks and writing proposals that gave me little to no gratification or fulfillment. In retrospect, I was working WAY too much and sacrficing my near term well-being in the process.

This book didn't change my life. But it did help guide me down the road that lead me to a much better quality of life. Thanks to many of the practical ideas and well-thought insights within this book I slowly began a new path towards what Maslow called "Self-Actualization" (a.k.a. Doing what you want to do rather than what other people/society/addictive behaviors persuade you to do.) I left my overpaid and overworked job for a free ride through grad school, and eventually found a new passion which had absolutely nothing to do with my Educational Technology degree. I became... an auctioneer.

These days I work three auto auctions, two days a week, and spend the rest of my time launching new business ventures (would any of you like a popcorn beanbag?), fishing, taking long walks, and generally making better use of my time amd creative thoughts. This book is not the holy grail. But if you really want to get more comfortable with a self-sufficient lifestyle Charles Long's thoughts will certainly give you new ideas and original insights.

I have followed Charles Long's two books on living outside of the "normal" suburban grind for years and have purchased the latest editions as they are printed. He is an extremely well-written author, a pleasure to read, with thoughtful and incisive comments on living a life without a salary (NOT without money). Quite a few people you know are living without a salary: those self-employed tradespeople, lawyers, doctors, etc. count on their own skills to bring in the money, not a salary from a company. These books give me many new ideas, no matter how many times I've read them. I've heard variations on his past themes from countless other sources. A very good read, indeed.

I borrowed this book from the library and laughed so hard when the author tipped the reader who borrowed rather than bought his book. I haven't been able to quit my salaried job--yet--but I've learned to practice frugality thanks to my student days. I'm also an environmentalist -- no plastic shopping bag please! and am appalled by the garbage we all produce. This is why I love this book -- save money, save the world, save your sanity.

Charles Long has helped me appreciate that I don't have to be a slave to my job all the days of my healthy-enough-to-work life, and even gave me a few tips I hadn't thought of for furthering the conserver lifestyle. It's great to know that I'm on track and it helps to save scarce resources, even if I'm not as cheap as he is. (I would have put down a piece of plywood on that hole in his floor long before he scrounged up that grate.) Folks, the best things in life (like family time) are FREE. So is all the *stuff* you can get for free (or nearly so) from this throwaway society....!

I wanted down-to-earth advice to make it possible for our family to live together (my husband commutes to work, 8 days on, 6 days home). The author provides that. He has managed for 20-some years without a regular job, and provides a useful roadmap for those who want to live frugally in order to achieve their goals. I couldn't put it down either, and even found myself laughing out loud once or twice. Superb value.

This book first caught my eye because of the title, and once I opened the book, I couldn't put it down. Not only does it have practical tips, it contains many humorous stories. One of the best things about this book is that it will teach you a different way of thinking. Instead of always buying what the media wants us to, you'll learn to analyze your real needs and find alternative solutions. You don't have to be unemployed to read this gem. This is a must-have for anybody who wants to save money!

I really enjoyed this book, because I've read all kinds of books about simplifying and cost-cutting. This is a great companion to Your Money or Your Life, because it deals specifically with Canadian dollars and cents. Dozens of suggestions on how to reduce daily living expenses.

I'm a back-to-the-lander myself, but in the beginning of the book, Long says it isn't about BttL, but rather about living within your means, wherever you are.