My absolute favorite frugal resource is The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn. This is the book that started the whole thing for me. Although the organization is a little odd (it is based on the original newsletters that were authored in the 80’s, and the book is arranged by season rather than topic-good thing the index is very comprehensive) It is a very readable book, and should be required reading for any frugalite. Some of it is very extreme, and will only appeal or pertain to a very select few, but much of it is applicable to anyone, and regardless of your circumstance it will make you think about things in new and different ways. About every 2 years I reread the entire thing. I constantly resource the “Muffin” recipe (which tells you all the proportions so you can use anything you have on hand to make muffins) the “Quiche” recipe (same proportion type formula) and the recipe for Cuban bread.
Not Just Beans by Tawra Kellam is another good resource-it is full of easy, tasty, inexpensive recipes as well as plenty of frugal tips. If you don’t know where to start to pare down your shopping list and start cooking from scratch, this is a good place to start.
Hi I live in Australia and bought a copy of the Complete Tightwad Gazzette on-line (for a great price) last year. I only just got around to reading it last week and have learned a lot.
We’re a single income family, have a 17 month old son and another baby due in June. I only left work three months ago and we have broken into our savings more then I like to admit and we’ve just gotten ourselves into AU$7500 debt to purchase our first family car. Hubby’s boss is sending us on a holiday in March (he’s paying for the accomodation) which we would like to save some spending money for and we have rego coming up in May.
This book was a real eye opener for me and I feel confident that implementing a lot of the author’s ideas is going to help us to reach our goals in life.
Emma
Another good book is Miserly Moms by Jonni McCoy. I bought it years ago and when I saw it on a rack in the supermarket. It started me thinking and I still use it regularly. I love the recipe for cinnamon rolls, but it has so much more than recipes. I live a half hour from Amy D. and I have met her, but Jonni McCoy’s book is the one that caught my interest in frugal living. I bought the TWG next and I am hooked on Amy D’s ideas. She is my hero. I want to save my money and pay cash for what I need. Having credit is great and it is a security blanket knowing that I can charge anything I want, but thanks to frugal living, we don’t want.