As the owner of the website Frual Abundance, I read a lot of books on thrift. Saving money is vitally important to me. My husband retired early and we still have two sons at home. Making ends meet on a fixed income is not exactly easy, but it's certainly not impossible. I'm always on the lookout for a new book about living frugally so that we can further reduce our expenses. Most books about the frugal lifestyle are rehashes of knowledge that is already pretty common in frugal circles. Things like turning off the lights to save electricity, setting the thermostat low in the winter and high in the summer to save on heating and fuel bills, and combining errands to save on gas. These are good ideas, as far as they go, but they don't teach me anything new.
Hard Core Poor is so much more than that. The author reviews this type of common knowledge, because it's tried and true. But she takes it a step further too. For instance, in the section on heating and cooling she describes how to use bubble wrap to insulate windows. Once I read it, the idea seemed so obvious. It's great for renters because there is no damage done to the windows. It's great for retired people, because there's no climbing rickety ladders. It's great for young people, because there are no special skills or expensive tools required. Plus the light can still shine through the windows, so you're not living in the dark. This is just a single tip, in a book chock full of similarly practical and sensible suggestions.
Another thing I found in this book, that I don't find in many other thrift books is a thorough and compelling look at modern technology. From cable television alternatives, to spending the least possible on cell phones and wireless plans, there are dozens of methods to maintain our modern connection to technology while sticking to even the most meager of budgets. I found some ideas that we'll be able to implement that will save us at least $70 a month, or $840 a year. That is not a small chunk of change for us.
Sangree explores ways to save in all areas of life, from housing and banking, to taxes, babies and children, cleaning, transportation, education and even paying off debts. Of particular interest to me were the many warnings Sangree shares about scams and tricks designed to prey upon those of us with low incomes. They are explained simply and clearly so that we can steer clear of these things and hold on to the income we do have, instead of losing it to false promises made by folks who are only interested in lining their own pockets with our hard earned cash.
Hard Core Poor provides an honest to goodness look at practical, sensible, and realistic methods of saving money everywhere one possibly can. Sangree talks about the reality of comfort zones, dignity, and pride with gentle tact and matter-of-fact realism. This is another topic that I've noticed many other authors omit, and one that is vitally important to those of us struggling to make ends meet.
I've found Hard Core Poor especially encouraging in my own endeavors to spend less and save more. Every section is like a pep talk about why I'm doing what I'm doing and how to keep doing it. Living a frugal lifestyle is hard. It takes a bit more thought and effort than just throwing money at all of my problems. It takes deliberation and care. Applying the tips and using the resources in this book makes living the frugal lifestyle easier for me, besides saving me real cash in my living expenses.
The only complaint I have is that in the Kindle Version there is no Table of Contents and no Index. I have to bookmark the parts I like as I find them, in order to find them again. Sangree's book is very much a homespun creation, written from the heart by a woman who has clearly spent plenty of time in the trenches of frugal living. Being homespun it costs less than it would from a major publisher, a fact that my pocketbook appreciates. But there are drawbacks too, such as a lack of Table of Contents. I subtracted 1/2 a star from my rating for this reason, giving it 4-1/2 stars total, which rounds up to 5 stars. Still, if the only complaint I have is about the formatting, and not the contents itself, then I don't have much to complain about.
I highly recommend Hard Core Poor. It delivers genuinely useful information, and will pay for itself the first time you use it. It easily rises above the competition and I consider it a shiny new treasure in my library.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2014
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tiggersassy
... few new things from this book but would have loved more hardcore tips
Reviewed in Canada on October 8, 2015Verified Purchase
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