Save Big: Cut Your Top 5 Costs and Save Thousands [Hardcover]

Elisabeth Leamy (Author), Diane Sawyer (Foreword), Robin Roberts (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 14, 2009

Good Morning America correspondent and ABC News columnist reveals tips for achieving unbelievable savings

In this battered economy, saving money matters more to consumers than ever before. But most people are tired of hearing about all the small stuff, like skipping their morning latte. They tried that, and it didn't work. Americans want fresh, bold ideas and Save Big: Cut Your Top 5 Costs and Save Thousands has them. In fresh, engaging prose, Elisabeth Leamy shows consumers how to save big on life's most important and costly items. Filled with actionable advice and the insider secrets readers are hungering for, Save Big

• Details how to save a lot of money on a few things rather than merely saving a little on a bunch of small items
• Reveals the keys to saving money and the challenges consumers face
• Educates consumers on how to save thousands on the five things most people spend the most money on: houses, cars, credit, groceries, and healthcare

After the turbulent economic events of the recent past, more and more consumers are focusing on budgeting and creative ways to save money. Save Big can help.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The secrets to saving BIG from Good Morning America Consumer Correspondent Elisabeth Leamy

In this battered economy, saving money matters more to consumers than ever before. But we're tired of hearing about all the small stuff, like skipping our morning latte and installing low flow showerheads. We want BIG, bold ideas, and this book has them. In a straightforward style-with a dash of attitude-Good Morning America's Elisabeth Leamy shows you how to Save BIG on the priciest parts of your life.

In SAVE BIG (Not Small), Leamy puts saving in perspective. Her philosophy is to save a lot of money on a few things rather than a little bit of money on a bunch of things. Why give up life's little pleasures when you can save more money by attacking a few big, boring expenses instead?

• Helps identify where you spend the most money so that you can save the most money. The top five costs are our houses, cars, credit, groceries, and healthcare
• Written by Good Morning America Consumer Correspondent Elisabeth Leamy
• Unlike most personal finance guides that stress the small stuff, every tip in this book has the potential to save you at least a thousand dollars

Filled with fresh advice and insider secrets, this book will have you saving more in less time.

Ten Ways You Can SAVE BIG
Amazon-exclusive content from Author Elisabeth Leamy

What does it mean to SAVE BIG? It’s any strategy that will save you more than a thousand dollars in less than a year. It’s saving a lot of money on a few things rather than a little money on a bunch of things. It’s the antidote to all that depressing advice we’ve heard for years that we should give up our daily lattes, install low-flow showerheads and pack our own lunches.

Author Elisabeth Leamy is the Consumer Correspondent for Good Morning America--and lives the SAVE BIG philosophy--and even she was surprised at some of the little-known strategies she was able to uncover. Here are some real-life examples from the book:

House:
• Page 90: When interest rates go down, use the savings to refinance into a shorter mortgage instead of the kind you have now and save $103,536.
• Page 84: Appeal your property taxes--only 2 percent of people do-- and save $2,626.

Car:
• Page 126: Buy a “dark horse” car instead of the most popular make and model-- and save $6,814.
• Page 160: Uncover a “secret warranty” where the dealer fixes flaws for free and save $1,200.

Credit:
• Page 209: Undergo rapid rescoring before finalizing a mortgage and save $72,000 over the life of the loan.
• Page 218: If you pay your credit card bills bi-weekly instead of monthly, you can short-circuit the bank’s “average daily balance” and save $1,000.

Groceries:
• Page 244: Stockpile groceries when they’re cheap instead of when you need them and save $5,772 a year.
• Page 265: Bid for groceries at a grocery auction instead of buying them at the store and save 66%.

Healthcare:
• Page 299: Take the over-the-counter version of a drug instead of the identical prescription version and save $1,763 a year.
• Page 320: Enlist a medical billing advocate to fight hospital billing errors and save $6,858.

How are these jumbo-sized savings possible? Because if you figure out where you spend BIG, you can SAVE BIG. Our top five costs are: houses, cars, credit, groceries and healthcare. It’s possible to turn your biggest expenses into your biggest source of savings. Author Elisabeth Leamy shows you how. There are $1,176,916 worth of savings in the pages of SAVE BIG. Grab a latte and read all about it!

Review

Elisabeth Leamy's Save Big: Cut Your Top 5 Costs and Save Thousands is invaluable because it focuses on big expenses, including mortgages, cars and insurance, and makes each step understandable."
—Gail MarksJarvis, Chicago Tribune, December 2009

"Advice is practical, clearly explained and, best of all, does not require daily maintenance or routine deprivation. … Even if readers choose only one or two tips from the hundreds offered, Save BIG should live up to its tantalizing title – and you can read it over your latte."
—Joanna Brichetto, BookPage, January 2010

 “Save BIG is a tremendous source of savings for you, the consumer. I learned many things from reading this book on how to save BIG rather than save small. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking to save thousands or possibly millions in a lifetime by just some simple adjustments to what you do.”
— Sheri Newton, Associated Content, www.associatedcontent.com January 2010

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 338 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (December 14, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470554215
• ISBN-13: 978-0470554210
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #471,981 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Standard fodder from corporate mouthpiece that will put you in debt and keep you there, May 15, 2010

By 

Johnny H (Colorado United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Save Big: Cut Your Top 5 Costs and Save Thousands (Hardcover)

Chapter 1, "Buy A House ASAP"

After I saw this I immediately checked the date and was surprised and disgusted to see it was from 2010... Pure propaganda in this chapter. No mention of the risks involved, ie: how you could be underwater in no time, how if you get behind on your payments due to a lost job the banks take everything you've paid into the mortgage principle.

One point the author makes that isn't pure nonsense, "buying a house is a forced savings plan." Utterly true. But since we know this aren't we better just saving, and not paying interest for the privilege but EARNING it instead?

This book is filled with fuzzy, downright illogical math. Example:

Annual mortgage cost before tax deduction $14,777

Annual mortgage cost after tax deduction $12,242

BIG SAVINGS = $2,535

Uh, paying interest (on something you don't need) but getting a small kickback from the government equate to savings? It doesn't... Have no illusion your government encourages you to go into debt, especially with a mortgage. But does it really make sense to pay the banks $5 just to get $1 off your taxes? Such "savings" are quickly eaten up by associated costs and taxes.

Contrary to the corporate money experts, renting is not throwing money away. There are many benefits... For example money that you have in the principle of your house pays no interest or dividends. Say you have a $75,000 paid against your mortgage, that same $75,000 pays $250 a month at 4% (still available today in checking accounts, pretax) that can cover a good portion of rent... You don't have to worry about lawns, water heaters, losing your job and still making payments for the next 25 years, losing $150,000 of payments you've made. Plus you can move and walk away at anytime with no significant penalty.

I'm not saying never buy a house, not at all. I'm only pointing out the nonsense of this renters are fools mentality. Despite low mortgage rates, the housing market is still very highly priced and many (myself included) think it's due for further price pressure.

Chapter 2: CARS - The Cheaper Road

Very standard advice on cars here... I saw no mention of the best strategy that has saved me 10s of thousands: don't drive daily. Walking, biking and public transport -that is where the savings are... More savings on healthcare as well.

Chapter 3: CREDIT - Loans For Less

Again the obviously best policy here is to not have any credit card debt! But we couldn't expect such blasphemy from the corporate toolbox could we?

Bunch of babbling about credit score in this chapter. Which as someone who has saved more than enough to cover all my expense, I could care less. I only care insofar as my score can get me good credit cards which give bonuses and cashback. Something not mentioned at all. Check out the fat wallet finance forums for real info on credit cards.

Chapter 4: GROCERIES - Guerrilla Grocery Shopping

Ok! Finally a chapter I might learn something from, and/or might have info that doesn't seem solidly rooted in big banking interests!

Pack your own lunch, price matching (only works on processed foods), coupons (again bias towards processed boxed foods) = standard advice.

Stockpiling or buying when on sale and the author actually has some decent, if common sense advice in this section.

Grocery auctions? I have quite literally never heard of or seen this -and I worked in a grocery store all through college. Might be worthwhile, but again seems to be for boxed and processed foods.

What I've found the most helpful is learning to make from scratch. You learn skills and it works out cheap and it is much better for you... Gardening is a potential gold mine as well.

Chapter 5: HEALTHCARE Curing High Costs

More standard stuff in here. I'm fairly ignorant on this as I deliberately refuse to get involved in the sick care industry. Again NO MENTION of the best healthcare money saver, eating well and exercising. 80% of eating well is avoiding processed foods (even if they offer coupons!), walking is a very adequate exercise... Almost offensive the author doesn't mention the benefits, not the least of which being financial, of taking care of yourself.

In conclusion this book seems to be specifically designed to get you in debt and keep you there. The financial sector wants you to pay the dividends and interest for the rest of your life. The political establishment wants you docile, dependent and paying them taxes for the rest of your life.

There is another way. Save aggressively and invest with caution... Buy a house with cash after 10 years of savings; always living with copious, purposeful money in the bank. It's quite stress free. Or, make payments for 30 years - life; living paycheck to paycheck always wondering how badly your life will be shaken if you get laid off.

Checkout Your Money or Your Life, if you want to build a foundation for successful finance.

EDIT: looks like the only other real review in here is by bookshipper... The other reviews are most likely fake, and are likely written by the author or some outsourced tools.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We REALLY saved big with this book!, January 6, 2010

By 

Jennifer M. (Petaluma, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Save Big: Cut Your Top 5 Costs and Save Thousands (Hardcover)

I would heartily recommend this book for any one who might ever buy or sell a home, drive a car, need healthcare, buy groceries, or use a credit card... in short, just about anyone could save big using the tips in this book!

My husband and I were fortunate to read the home-buying section of this book just as we were in the process of buying our first home. We had no idea how many aspects of buying a home were negotiable. Using the ideas in this book, we negotiated a better mortgage interest rate, successfully got rid of "junk" fees added on by our bank, and eventually closed our house with almost NO closing costs. This allowed us to have some money in our account to begin making all the little changes to the house that we otherwise would have had to wait months to do. What we appreciated most was that the tips in the book were easy to understand, and we didn't have to become real estate experts in order to feel good about our purchase. When you see the potential savings on paper, it's hard not to at least TRY to get a better rate or price, and more often than not we were successful!

Throughout this book, there are countless real-life stories about people who are spending more than they need to on the necessities of life. The author walks through how we can all save huge amounts of money without having to scrimp and save and give up things we love. I feel better treating myself to coffee or a yoga class knowing I saved thousands of dollars on my home purchase. The other aspect of this book that I loved was the sheer amount of research that was done to compile a massive list of resources. The author provides countless websites throughout the text to make the most of her tips. If I had tried to find all of this information online, it would have taken me weeks and I'm sure I would have missed some important tips. This book boils down a huge amount of information into something entirely usable and helpful. The bottom line is, it's so easy to save a lot of money; you just have to know where to start. This book will show you how.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book For Saving Money on Healthcare, January 18, 2010

By 

A. L. Sterm "aimee" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Save Big: Cut Your Top 5 Costs and Save Thousands (Hardcover)

We all need to save money and healthcare is a huge expense that many of us are struggling with. This book offers a lot of great suggestions for how to do it. One product it highlights is The Health Care Blue Book which I've started using. Say you have to go to the dentist and have no dental insurance. You can look up what you need done - from routine cleaning to oral surgery - and it will tell you the average price health insurance providers pay dentists in your market. Then you can negotiate - it's amazing how surprised doctors and dentists are when you know what they get paid. Check out the book and the web site.