Reading "Tightwad Gazette"

**dortrust** · 01-23-2009, 08:07 PM

I am really getting into this book. I suppose many of you have already heard most of the ideas but I will post some under this thread as time goes on. I am just really enjoying the book and the challenge. I am struggling with what I really like and what the book says I should do. Like I REALLY like half & half in my coffee. I am able to purchase it on sale or at Aldi for about 1.99 per quart. That fits my budget and I love it.

Funny story to share. Tonight two of my grandaughters are spending the night. For dinner we had steak (eye of chuck) It is really very good flavorful and tender. anyway I decided to make homemade mac & cheese. I like it better than box and I needed to use up some cheese. One of the girl (age 7) said "Grandma you can't expect it to be as good as the box stuff can you?" I just agreed with her because that is what she has always had. They both ate it pretty well so I know they liked it.

I am looking for a suggestion to make my own dishwasher soap packets. It is really pretty stupid How hard is it to pour a little soap in the cup but the little packets are sooooo convenient. I know if anyone out there feels like I do about them we should be able to come up with a way to prepare our own. Any ideas?

**Tater** · 01-23-2009, 09:30 PM

I read that book many years ago when I was a stay-at-home mom. I really need to get it back out and go through it again. I got so many good ideas from it.

**homesteadmamma** · 01-23-2009, 10:14 PM

I too read the book many years ago. Some of it I implemented, some of it went by the wayside. I also found that doing things in baby steps was a whole lot simpler than trying to do everything that was in the book. Some of it was just too extreme for me.

Good reads though all 3 books.

QM · 01-23-2009, 10:36 PM

Originally Posted by homesteadmamma

...Some of it was just too extreme for me.

Good reads though all 3 books.

I completely agree! There is a Complete Series of Tightwad Gazette at our local library, and I've read a lot of what it says. My mom was horrified when I read her the "bread bag skipping rope with duct tape handles" idea. When I joked that I wanted to make one with my bread bags, she said that she'd be so embarrassed if I ever made one for DD1 and what is $1 at the dollar store to buy a normal skipping rope. Yes...the book can be a little extreme, IMO.

**IntlMom** · 01-23-2009, 11:41 PM

I love the book!!!! Extreme, maybe, but I love it nonetheless. I own the Complete book and am currently in the middle of book 3....I read it about once a year and pick up something new each and every time. I love it!!!!

**Royal** · 01-24-2009, 02:31 AM

I also love the TWG. Lots of great tips!! I have read it about 3 times now and each time I pick up a new idea or two.

**rainbowgc** · 01-24-2009, 01:23 PM

I, too own the Complete book. I love to just pick it up and go through it and always seem to find a forgotten idea.

**Drgnfly423** · 01-24-2009, 01:29 PM

Thanks for the reminder. I have the complete book, but I haven't read it in about 2 years. I think it's time to dust this one off!

**celina** · 01-24-2009, 04:47 PM

ie" the skipping rope...

its not about the 1$ at the buck store,

its about a saturday afternoon, the kids are whining for a skipping rope, and you live in the country (like they do)...

a) go to buck store, spend gas money and more cause you'll come out of there with more than the ropes

b)tell the kids no, plain and simple

c) experiment, with them,. spend an afternoon making it and trying out the finished product....

thinking outside the box.....creativity...

**joyofsix** · 01-24-2009, 07:07 PM

I still have all my copies of the newsletter and a gifted to me copy of the complete book. While some stuff is extreme I like the idea that you need to look at things from a different angle. Even Amy D says somewhere the point is to look at things differently and pick and choose what works for you. I used to make the egg carton crown for my dd (who is now 16) not because I couldn't afford a crown but because she had so much fun decorating it with bits and baubles and we could let her do it every couple weeks.

**MommyTrap** · 01-24-2009, 07:32 PM

My local library has this book...I think I will request it..Sounds like a good book to inspire the frugal lifestyle

**AmyBoz** · 01-24-2009, 09:30 PM

I usually give it a yearly re-read. I just picked it up last week and realized that I pretty much have the Complete TWG memorized at this point. I'll pick it up this summer and give it a complete readthrough again.

**3tomboys** · 01-24-2009, 10:07 PM

I love the TWG. My oldest daughter was around 1 when they were on the Donahue show. I remember hitting my first yard sale the saturday after the show and getting about 10 dresses for $5. I was hooked. I didn't get the first book though for a while. My friend had ordered it and told me I could read it when she was done. She was so offended by the majority of the ideas (she could not think outside the box) when she gave it to me to read she told me to keep it, there was no way she was doing any of that stuff. I read that thing so many times. I also have the complete TWG and have read it upteen times. I just finished going through it last month (we need to start saving to replace the money lost for are retirement), it was my lunchtime reading and some of the people I work with couldn't believe that I would even think about doing some of the things she suggested. I tried to explain that if it weren't for this book my 5 years as a SAHM would never have happened. I also tried to explain that it has helped so much even after I went back to work and the income increased. Some people just don't get it. The part I use over and over is the muffin recipe (the stains prove it). I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for ways to save money. You don't have to do everything she has put in it, but it makes you look twice at what you might do with something you are getting ready to throw out.

**peanut** · 01-25-2009, 02:46 PM

I own a copy of TCTWG and reread it five years in a row in January. I figured it saved me over $20,000 in five years. However, that was ten years ago. We didn't have dollar stores then. And skipping ropes were a lot more than $1 here.

I think a lot of the ideas are kind of out there, but hey, I'm not living everyone else's life. What I might think of as 'out there' might be exactly what someone else needs.

I also find with the advent of the Internet there are a lot more options for doing/finding things than there used to be. For example I can find instructions to do most everything on the Net. I don't buy patterns anymore - sewing, knitting, etc. I may buy a book about knitting, but not for the patterns. It'll be a general book I can design from, or some such. Same with quilting patterns...they're off the Net or secondhand books now (garage sales are great!).

I think the big bonus of the book is that it got me to think creatively about my lifestyle and how to improve it at no extra cost to myself.

Jean