Customer Reviews

The Tightwad Gazette II: Promoting Thrift as a Viable Alternative Lifestyle

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I read this book aloud to my family in the car during a summer vacation. They loved it--my husband and kids alike. As I read, I came to realize that this book has enormous value beyond the kooky money-saving tips it is famous for. Please, in evaluating the Tightwad Gazette, consider these additional points most reviewers seem to have missed:

1. The book fosters critical thinking skills. So very many of Ms. Dacyczyn's articles present both the pros and cons of the issue, and her recommendations are based on sound and extensive research sprinkled with a healthy dose of skepticism. After being exposed to her thinking style, my kids will think twice before being sucked in by advertising.

2. The book fosters creative thinking skills. There is no better life skill than to be able to stretch your one remaining dollar to meet your five outstanding needs. At some time in their lives, your kids are going to need this skill.

3. The book will show you how to make informed decisions. Ms. Dacyczyn's basic strategy is to calculate, by whatever means available, the true cost of any given expense. And while you may really need to save a penny by making your own tomato soup, you're just as free to conclude that, at a penny a pop, it's well worth your hard-earned money to buy the canned soup. Knowledge is power, and by applying Ms. Dacyczyn's strategies, you'll be fully informed, forewarned and forearmed.

I highly recommend this book to parents.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I would buy it for the same reason I would buy a dictionary: I keep referring back to it so much that if I had to go to the library I would use extra money for gasoline. If I had to go to the web for the same information, I would end up raising my electricity bill. It's more than the recipes and resources. It's more than the tips and techniques. The reason I love this book is because it's a source of encouragement. I don't feel powerless anymore over my money. I feel like I can choose what is important to me and what I should be spending money on. Not the other way around. That's really all tightwaddery is about and that is the whole point of this book.

If you really want to understand the philosophy side of tightwaddery, I recommend you search for the first volume of the Tightwad Gazette (which is out of print) or go ahead and buy the Complete Tightwad Gazette. It's a very good investment.

This is much more than a book on tips to save money. Along with Tightwad I and III, this is a bible for managing a household on less. Her philosophies on material goods and spending really resonate with me. These books are the most used and well-worn books in my library. I bought it in hardcover long ago, and thought it was worth every cent. Now that it's in paperback, I don't see any reason why one shouldn't own this book.

As with _The Tightwad Gazette_, _The Tightwad Gazette II_ is a pleasure to read. Dacyzyn's folksy writing style and attractive graphics work together to create a book that readers will dip into again and again for pleasure and inspiration, as well as for practical advice and recipes. This book is a good buy for people who are new to thrift, for long-time tightwads looking for some new ideas, for environmentalists who want to reduce their use of resources, and for anyone who wants a simpler, more satisfying life, working toward their own dreams rather than merely keeping up with the Joneses. _The Tightwad Gazette II_ celebrates the frugal lifestyle, and its many ideas for creative use of one's resources will save the reader the book's purchase price many times over

I never knew how much money we were wasting on take out, processed foods and plactics that were being wasted in our home. I like Amy also have twins, boys, and needed a way to conserve that extra time and money by being frugal.

Of the three volumes I have, this is my favorite. The author gets both deeper into the topics and provides even more useful information. Over fifteen years later, I'm still referring to her pizza dough recipe. Possibly my favorite piece in the entire book was "Space: The Frugal Frontier", which I liked even more than her "decorating" article from her first volume. A sign of frugality is defining luxury as space, not stuff, and any strategies you can employ to combat the encroachment of "stuff" into your sacred space are welcome.

Another gem is the article on investing or, rather, not investing. I think it took two stock market crashes in the last fifteen years for people to realize that maybe it was better to get our mundane finances in order before we tried to "diversify" into a stock portfolio that, frankly, most of us didn't understand that well.

Pretty much everything in here gave valuable advice, whether it was about laundry detergent pricing, moving strategies or "selective squeamishness". However, she shines when the subject is food. As she notes here or elsewhere, the cheap and easy solution would have been to publish a bunch of recipes- that's not what she does, for the most part. Instead, she talks about breakfast food comparions (why not eat the rice pudding if it's cheaper than the boxed cereal?), the pantry principle (making sure you always have a well-stocked pantry so you can make a variety of meals as opposed to buying ingredients here and there to make certain meals), shopping strategies, garden surplus tracking, the value of a freezer and muffin strategies (a recipe, technically, but one that invites you to manipulate it based on what you have on hand).

I have spent happy hours poring over this book, and each time I've come away with a deeper understanding of how to make myself happier with less stuff. Recommended for anyone who wants to do the same.

I first read this book when it was first published, and I really needed the money saving tips, I just recently dusted it off and re-read it to see if Lo-All these years later, it still has tips to offer my family- that now has teenagers, in stead of elementary school children.
Some of the tips seemed a bit extreme, some seem dangerous if not undertaken very carefully (re-wiring a slow-cooker) and some seemed clever enough to write down into a diary and pass along to my near-college aged daughter to remember as she goes off into the world... although I guess I can't claim these pithy bits of wisdom as my own. It seems that this would be a cute gift for anyone setting out on their own, especially knowing that for most-there are lean times.
I was going to list my copy on Amazon, but I'm going to keep it... I guess that's a good review!

This book has so much information available, that the price definently is justified even for the tightest tightwad! Some tightwads may feel that buying this book would be not keeping in context with their frugal beliefs, however lighten up and just buy the book. It's a worthy investment. You'll incur more debt by trying to xerox the information or printing every page off the net, or your friends won't let you keep their book for too long! I'm glad my sister gave me this book, because though I'm only 21 and in college with hardly any responsiblities, I've learned many valuable and durable lessons for my financial future!

The information in it is okay but starting to show its age. It has information on typewriters, which I don't believe are made anymore.

Another reviewer mentioned checking out this book from the library to save money.

Can't write in a library book.

My copy of this book has lots of highlighting, circles and relevant keywords.

The Crockpot Troubleshooter Chart on page 264 is so well done.

The discussions on what is really valuable in life are delightful.

This is the kind of book I wish I had read as a pre-teenager.