I've been wanting to read this book for years but the copy from the library is lost. I was thrilled to find it at my favorite thrift store last week for 25 cents. Can't wait to get started reading it.

Never read it.

I have read parts of it over the years. The best tip for me was to figure out your actual hourly wage (taking out the cost of child care, transportation, etc). and then looking at items you want not at their face value, but how long you have to work to pay for something. My "real wage" is more around $6/hour. That cute bottle of name brand perfume at $54 costs me 9 hours of work.

I just pulled this book off the bookcase to read again. For me the biggest thing was to calculate the real cost of what I buy to determine if I want to spend my "life energy" on that particular item. Somethings I decide yes, it is worth it. Others I decide no. But I know the real cost in the end.

A great book. I don't own a copy, but I have borrowed the library's copy more than once. I agree, the best tip was looking at how much things cost in terms of hours worked.

I'll have to check this book out of the library!

I just pulled this book off the bookcase to read again. For me the biggest thing was to calculate the real cost of what I buy to determine if I want to spend my "life energy" on that particular item. Somethings I decide yes, it is worth it. Others I decide no. But I know the real cost in the end.

This was covered in the Tightwad Gazette.

I really liked the idea of charting your income and expenses on a sheet of graph paper for several years. I haven't actually tried it yet, mostly because I can't find graph paper the size that is suggested in the book.

I loved the fact that when you look at THINGS in terms of being things to accomplish the goals you have, it makes it so much easier to avoid buying them. And I was a huge buyer of things just because they were things.

I am halfway thru it from the library. I'm going to see if I can't find my own copy on eBay or Amazon or something for fairly cheap. Good read thus far.

I also like the charting - I would say go ahead and try it with whatever size you can find and just make it work. I've done it with a different size and it was fine. I'm actually getting ready to start using this book as a model again. It was very helpful when I was using it before...

I like the point of figuring out how much money you have made in your lifetime. It really puts in to prespective how quickly you spend it and really have very little to show for it.

I know this thread has long since gone silent, but as a newbie to this site, I have to say that this is my all-time favorite book on personal finance and money management. It completely changed the manner in which I relate to money.

What I most loved about the book was that it asks to see if our values are in line with our spending. For me, that doesn't just mean "I want to be out of debt, so I'm not going to buy this stupid widget that I don't even need" but I consider the human cost. Why is this product so cheap? Who made it? Did that person receive fair compensation for his or her work?

Questions like that have made me realize the long reaching aspects of the choices I make with money. Now I find that I actually pay more for many items because it is important to me to buy locally and support sustainable production, but overall I spend much, much less.

Your Money or Your Life, combined with the Complete Tightwad Gazette, is what I suggest to everyone to read when starting out on the frugal path. I don't invest as YMOYL suggests (I do the standard diversified portfolio thing), but the steps radically changed how I relate to money and is one of the few books that paints a larger picture of the impact of our choices. Love that book!!

I've not read this book yet - I'll look at the library this week - I hope they have it :D

Bumplett, it's a fabulous read! Hopefully your library can snag it from the ol' inter-library loan if they don't have it. (They should have it! I'm convinced it should be required reading for everyone!)

On another note, I love your little flying hero symbol and I checked out your brown bag site. Deliciously scandalous! Great little business idea. :)

I have read all three of these books and I agree with you completely I do pay more at times for local I think about where things come from etc. I work at a place and know most of the cute stuff is made over seas and this is why it is so cheap. I buy very little from work because of this I don't know where everything I by comes from but thinking about has helped me save money. I realize I need very little to make me happy and I question everything we buy theses days my dh is on board all the way and has read these books to has always be good with money but now thinks about where things come from and is willing to pay more for things if we know that this means that it was made with a fair wage etc.