Customer Reviews

Save Big: Cut Your Top 5 Costs and Save Thousands

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I believe that every consumer in America could benefit from this book as a reference on how to take personal responsibility and save big in every aspect of their finances. The reality is that during their lifetimes consumers overspend a tremendous amount of their money buying cars, houses, and various insurance products. The book addresses how to save big in each of these areas and many more.

If is it important to note that the book does not suggest giving up your current lifestyle but allows you to examine where you may be leaking cash needlessly and shows you how to plug those leaks. The book also elaborates of how improper use of credit which could wind up costing you thousands of dollars in the long run. These gotchas alone could save you thousands of dollars. One of the things that is wonderful about the book is that the author examines the long term which is often overlooked by consumers.

Once you begin saving big, you will be in command of your finances instead of letting your hard earned cash carelessly slip away to the various sellers of these products we buy. Take responsibility for all of your finances order this book and start saving big right away!

This is a fun book and a useful book.

Don't waste time with the small stuff, save a lot on the big stuff.

Best tip in the medical section:

Don't pay billed charges, ask upfront and get discounts.

Check out prices at The Healthcare Blue Book.

For hospitals, negotiate your discounts before you get your care.

Lots of good tips on medications too.

A book that can actually save you more than it costs, that's cool!

When you subtract out the chapters on buying a house and why you shouldn't buy a new car, you're left with chapters on using coupons and creating a stockpile. While these are good ideas, other books have done a much more extensive and better job of disseminating this information. Frankly, the author comes across as a shill or publicist for [...]! Again, there are many, many sites out there focusing on saving money. Why push a site like Thegrocerygame which charges a monthly fee (for two grocery store chains and two drug store chains it works out to be $25 every 8 weeks)? Or Becentsable, which is more a clearinghouse of other people's posts. There are DVDs explaining the couponing process (Jill Cataldo comes to mind) for anyone just starting out; Rachel Singer Gordon has both a book and website which covers more than the use of coupons. She also posts pictures of each of her grocery purchases together with the cost breakdown. Again, these are FREE sites which cater to beginning couponers.

The chapters on SAVE BIG make sense if you are currently shopping for a car or house. She does have valid points about consumers spending more time researching small things than the major life purchases. Having said that, other authors have covered these same topics in greater depth and clarity.

I was looking for ways to save on replacement windows for my home and also to get energy efficient windows. I found a lot more than ways to save on windows. Every chapter offered ways for savings. The "Big Secret" paragraphs are the most fun and important ways to save. A good book for anyone wanting to save on almost everything. The "Big Tips" offer valuable information we all should be aware of. Most of all, we should use the information provided in this book.

Save Big is actually a personal finance book aimed at 5 of the top items that cost the most - like cars and houses.

There are lots of practical tips on how to save - without having to make huge sacrifices.

The section on car buying was extremely interesting - as the author explains how simply buying a "less flamboyant" model of car can save you in the tens of thousands of dollars.

I also like that the author seems to understand how our need for "things" is often part of human nature so rather than deny it completely as many books suggest, she manages to help us buy these, but at a lower cost.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Seriously, this should be required reading for everyone in the country. I wish I had read this book before I bought the house I currently live in. I am glad I read it now though, better now than never. Real estate can be an investment if you do it the right way. She does encourage you to buy a home, but not under the premise that housing prices always go up so buy the most you can afford, but rather in a way that will allow you to pay off your mortgage quickly. The reviewer that says that she just tells you to buy asap must not have read the book because she or he completely missed the point.

I'm not so big on the last two chapters, the one on groceries gave me something to think about, but I don't think that it's up my alley. And the chapter of health insurance wasn't so helpful to my current situation because I have really good insurance through work.

She has given our family a lot to consider and reconsider. I am hoping to move and buy a new home. I hope to save tens of thousands of dollars based on her advise, and hopefully use some of that money to put my daughter through college. How fantastic is that!

Elisabeth's tips are always straightforward and informative. Advice in her first book helped us save on the purchase of a new car. I'm eagerly mining Save BIG to cut costs so I can continue to put my family on secure financial footing.