Product Description

In Living Well on a Shoestring, you'll find more than 1,500 practical money-saving techniques for every aspect of your life, from getting out of debt and finding money for retirement to decorating on a budget and cutting pet-care costs. The penny-pinching editors of Yankee magazine know firsthand that you can learn to live well while staying well within your means. And now they're on a campaign to show you how it can be done!

Inside these covers, you'll discover the four essential keys to spending wisely and stretching your income: knowing budget basics, getting out of and avoiding debt, increasing your savings, and living within your income. You'll also get all the information you need to build a solid financial foundation for living the good life, including tax-trimming ideas and a list of easy ways to increase your earnings.

Once you've mastered the four basic elements that will help you transform your spending style without settling for less, you're ready for the nitty-gritty, penny-pinching, day-to-day details of consistent and mindful saving. Check out the scores of ingenious ideas jam-packed into chapters like "Frugal Lawn and Garden Care," "Thrifty Ways to Dress Well," "Spending Less for Quality Health Care," "Saving on Electronics and Small Appliances," and "Cutting Transportation Costs."

This book offers hundreds of tried-and-true tips for leading a thrifty lifestyle. Need supplies for your home office? Keep your eyes peeled for businesses that are closing or relocating. Want to lower your auto insurance rate? Ask about hidden discounts that your insurance company may not be revealing up front. In the market for a new bicycle? Shop in late September or early October, just after the industry's largest trade show-- and don't be afraid to barter.

Sprinkled throughout these pages are entertaining real-life "It Worked for Me" success stories and top-notch recommendations from "The Yankee Miser." Perfect for skimming or reading cover to cover-- you may have trouble putting it down-- Living Well on a Shoestring is a comprehensive, information-packed volume that guarantees you'll have more money in your pocket at the end of each and every day.

More than two million devoted readers agree that the editors of Yankee magazine are the most trusted authorities on the art of living well on a shoestring-- after all, it's a Yankee tradition!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #464420 in Books
• Published on: 2000-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

From the Inside Flap
Yankee Magazine's Living Well on a Shoestring

In Living Well on a Shoestring, you'll find more than 1,500 practical money-saving techniques for every aspect of your life, from getting out of debt and finding money for retirement to decorating on a budget and cutting pet-care costs. The penny-pinching editors of Yankee magazine know firsthand that you can learn to live well while staying well within your means. And now they're on a campaign to show you how it can be done!

Inside these covers, you'll discover the four essential keys to spending wisely and stretching your income: knowing budget basics, getting out of and avoiding debt, increasing your savings, and living within your income. You'll also get all the information you need to build a solid financial foundation for living the good life, including tax-trimming ideas and a list of easy ways to increase your earnings.

Once you've mastered the four basic elements that will help you transform your spending style without settling for less, you're ready for the nitty-gritty, penny-pinching, day-to-day details of consistent and mindful saving. Check out the scores of ingenious ideas jam-packed into chapters like "Frugal Lawn and Garden Care," "Thrifty Ways to Dress Well," "Spending Less for Quality Health Care," "Saving on Electronics and Small Appliances," and "Cutting Transportation Costs."

This book offers hundreds of tried-and-true tips for leading a thrifty lifestyle. Need supplies for your home office? Keep your eyes peeled for businesses that are closing or relocating. Want to lower your auto insurance rate? Ask about hidden discounts that your insurance company may not be revealing up front. In the market for a new bicycle? Shop in late September or early October, just after the industry's largest trade show-- and don't be afraid to barter.

Sprinkled throughout these pages are entertaining real-life "It Worked for Me" success stories and top-notch recommendations from "The Yankee Miser." Perfect for skimming or reading cover to cover-- you may have trouble putting it down-- Living Well on a Shoestring is a comprehensive, information-packed volume that guarantees you'll have more money in your pocket at the end of each and every day.

More than two million devoted readers agree that the editors of Yankee magazine are the most trusted authorities on the art of living well on a shoestring-- after all, it's a Yankee tradition!

From the Back Cover

Customer Reviews

Common sense or no sense
The tips offered in this book fall into two categories:

1. Things you already know if you have a bit of common sense (Example: Fix the toilet if it leaks, or else the water will cost you money)

2. Things that do not make sense (Example: Disassemble you flashlight so you have a place to keep pens in the flashlight cylinder and don't need to buy a pen holder. Keep the flashlight parts somewhere, so you can put it back together in a power outage)

I admit, I am not an expert in frugal living. If you are, perhaps you will find the second category useful. With this book, we were looking to find some advice on how to save money. Out of the "1501 ingenious ways", there were two or three I found I could use. I will donate my copy to the local library. If you are interested in this book, I recommend you follow the advice of another reviewer and check it out from your library first.

Something for everyone
For over a decade I have loved reading YANKEE magazine and this book from the editors of YANKEE magazine is a gold mine of useful information.

Close to 400 pages that cover everything from Secrets of a Debt Free Life; Easy Ways To Increase Your Income; Spending Less on Furniture; Personal Care for Pennies; Frugal Ways to Deal with Financial Emergencies; Celebrating On a Budget; Holiday and Gift Giving on a Budget and Thrifty Travel and Vacation Ideas.

Now I cant use everything in the book, but I picked up enough helpful ideas I never knew about, to consider it a good investment and the nice thing is the Library now owns the book so think of all the others who will get advise as well.

Just so-so
If you think you'd like to decorate your home with cardboard tubes, construction paper, and glitter, this is the book for you. Otherwise, you might not find it very useful.

The book does have some hints that I found helpful, especially in the section on home remedies (the things you can do with vinegar!). Also, some hints on saving money were sensible, if obvious (if you don't read a magazine, quit your subscription -- sounds obvious, right? If only I could follow that advice...)

But for the most part, I didn't find much I could use. For example, instead of simply saying "have a garage sale and advertise for it" as an idea to make some cash, they give five or six ideas for advertising for a garage sale, some of which are just absurd (eg, painting footprints on the sidewalk leading to your house).

Some advice just seemed ill-advised to me, such as using your 401(k) as a savings vehicle for college or a first-time home. Sure, you're allowed to tap it for those purposes, but you shouldn't plan it that way!

And a lot of the advice just seemed to lead you down the road to a more cluttered life, for example, the tip to fill a 5-gallon bucket with sand and motor oil to clean off the metal parts of your gardening tools. How are you supposed to dispose of that properly? Who's got space for a bucket of oily sand? Ugh.

If all the examples I've cited really excite you, then by all means, buy this book. Otherwise, just check it out of the library. Or just check it off your to-read list altogether.