The Tightwad Gazette III: Promoting Thrift as a Viable Alternative Lifestyle (Hardcover)

by Amy Dacyczyn (Author) "The idea that the baby-boom generation has fewer opportunities and must struggle harder than previous generations is believed by millions of Americans..." (more)
Key Phrases: refrigerator dough, salvage store, newsletter reader, North Carolina, New York, Amy Dacyczyn (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
For those who are afraid of Martha Stuart, there is Amy Dacyczyn (pronounced "decision"). Dacyczyn has the same basic goal as Martha?giving information that will help readers create a more comfortable home life?but there they part company. In her newsletter, the Tightwad Gazette, and now in her third book, The Tightwad Gazette III: Promoting Thrift as a Viable Lifestyle, Dacyczyn offers help on saving money, saving the environment, living simply and doing things with the family. With the help of readers, she pulls together tips on making coals last longer, creating new furniture out of components, figures out the relative cost of electric razors vs. blades, researches retreads and more. (Villard, $12.99, 320p, ISBN 0-679-77766-0)
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
This third collection of the best of Dacyczyn's popular newsletter presents all-new advice and tips, culled from the fifth and sixth years of The Tightwad Gazette. A tireless advocate of "voluntary simplicity, " Dacyczyn offers lessons in advanced "tightwaddery, " such as how to cut back APR interest points on credit cards, strategies for comparing food bills, guides to saving on the cost of college, and the secrets of yard sales and store bargains. Illustrations. 320 pp. Author tour. Radio ads. 150,000 print. (Reference)

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Villard Books / Random House (December 24, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679777660
• ISBN-13: 978-0679777663
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #262,436 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sound theory and great help putting it into practice, February 9, 1999

By A Customer

Anyone who has ever felt a little envious of a neighbor or said "Gee, I wish <I> could afford a house/staying home with the kids/starting a business/traveling/etc." MUST read one of Amy's books. The basic philosophy as I understand it is just this: skip the temporary, one-time expenditures and spend the bucks on a more lasting investment (house/kids/business/early retirement/whatever YOU dream of). I received an economics degree not too long ago, and I recognized Amy's philosophy immediately as essentially the basic "guns-or-butter" discussion from ECO101, the basic problem of limited resources and economic choice. The idea in class, as in real life, would be to MAXIMIZE the VALUE received for the dollars, not just buy whatever until you're broke and then figure out what you got for it.

More than any other author I have seen, Amy challenges her readers to examine their own values and utilize all of their creativity and intelligence to maximize the value they receive for their money. This is NOT a "don't shop when you're hungry, use coupons, and gee, try to pay down your mortgage" book. Amy provides an impressive array of real, creative, effective methods to slash waste of <all> resources: money, time and the enviroment. The books teach you to THINK in a "tightwaddy" (economic) way and take real control of your future according to your own value system, instead of just throwing out a handful of one-time-only "tips". I can honestly say it brought microeconomics home to me and changed my life.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Never thought I'd buy an an Amy Dacyczyn book, but...., July 1, 1999

By A Customer

When I saw Amy Dacyczyn on the Donahue show several years ago, I was kind of amused and thought it rather freakish and bizarre that she and her family live in such an extremist manner. I bought this book at a discount store (almost for its "humor factor"), and I must say, I was impressed with much of its content. I was particularly impressed with her no-nonsense approach to childrearing in this consumption-obsessed culture we live in. (Yes, maybe she does "make"/encourage her children eat foods that they "think" they don't like, but I would hardly consider that child abuse!) I really doubt, however, that most people could really go to the extreme that she and her family have gone to, simply because not all of us are type A, always have to be doing something personalities. But if we all could just incorporate SOME of these ideas into our daily living, we'd be better off.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the most dangerous woman in America, February 6, 1997

By A Customer

As the successful founder of "The Tightwad Gazette," a penny-pinching newsletter, Amy Dacyczyn is the most dangerous woman in consumer America, the land where anything new is good, anything old must be thrown away, and you can't be too rich, too thin, or too much in debt.The Gazette is a combination of practical advice and investigative reporting, spiced with Dacyczyn's essays explaining her philosophy behind tightwaddery and debunking cultural myths. But the book is more than a collection of ideas on how to cut your family's food bill, shop for inexpensive clothing and in general obtain more for less. Dacyczyn's tightwadist philosophy is a unique mixture of New England make-do spirit -- epitimized by the phrase, "use it up wear it out, make it do or do without" -- and the consumer desire to have what we want. Being a tightwad does not mean doing without everything, Dacyczyn explains, but if you choose to do without things you do not care for, you can afford the things you want. Simple trade-offs like packing your lunch instead of eating fast-food, buying clothes at consignment shops, and haunting yard sales, can help you afford that car, that house, that trip that you really want. It becomes apparent from reading the Gazette that penny-pinching can be a full-time job, but one that can yield astonishing rewards to those willing to take the trouble to investigate it. Dacyczyn's books offer promising, even heart-lifting advice that can help families find the road to financial security. -- Bill Peschel