Advice on Beating the Credit Crunch
Books Offering Money Saving and Frugal Living Advice
Dec 10, 2008
With tales of financial doom and gloom seemingly everywhere at the moment, it’s good to know that there are still books available that put a positive spin on financial management and offer practical advice on money saving and frugal living without changing lifestyle.
When looking for straightforward and practical financial advice, the following titles are excellent places to start.
The Penny Pinchers Book Revisited: Living Better for Less by John & Irma Mustoe
(ISBN 978-0285637979, Souvenir Press, 2007)
The idea behind the hundreds of money saving ideas in this book is to go beyond simply saving money and lessening demand for resources to actually make life more satisfying. The aim is to make readers aware of just how much money they are wasting and how little joy they actually get from spending as well as to demonstrate how economizing will enable them to buy things they had previously only dreamed of.
Thrifty Ways for Modern Days by Martin Lewis
(ISBN 978-0091912776, Vermilion, 2006)
This book is based on the collective wisdom of the thousands of contributors to the MoneySaving Old-Style section of the website MoneySavingExpert.com. The Old-Style section was formed with the idea that older visitors to the website could share advice and ideas with younger visitors and has resulted in a wealth of plain, simple, common sense advice on financial matters and frugal living. The complied advice includes tips on budgeting, cooking from scratch, cleaning, gardening, making homemade gifts and shopping wisely.
The Money Diet: The Ultimate Guide to Shedding Pounds off Your Bills and Saving Money on Everything by Martin Lewis
(ISBN 978-0091906887, Vermilion, 2005)
Saving money without having to change lifestyle is a dream for many and with The Money Diet Martin Lewis offers advice on how it can be achieved. He tackles subjects such as finding the best mortgage and cheapest utilities, haggling, being canny with finances and slashing spending, how and when to pay bills, which banks to use, and choosing the best deals on a huge range of products.
The Thrift Book: Live Well and Spend Less by India Knight
(ISBN 978-1905490370, Fig Tree, 2008)
According to India Knight herself, The Thrift Book is “about all sorts of small (and some big) ways of saving money without feeling like your life’s gone down the dumper, with precise advice and recommendations”. Knight is no stranger to extravagance and recognises the importance of having fun and enjoying life so this is the perfect book for someone who want to ease their environmental conscious and also tighten their belt a little but without having to make do without life’s little luxuries.
The Spend Less Handbook: 365 Tips for a Better Quality of Life While Actually Spending Less by Rebecca Ash
(ISBN 978-1906465148, Capstone, 2008)
Rebecca Ash provides 365 tips to enable the reader to have more things and enjoy life more while still reducing the level of expenditure that it takes to achieve it. While many of the tips only result in small savings, some are much larger and all help the reader to re-evaluate and re-order their lives so that financial worries are no longer preying on their minds.
How I Lived a Year on Just a Pound a Day by Kath Kelly
(ISBN 978-1906593124, Redcliffe Press Ltd, 2008)
Although at the rather extreme edge of useful, this entertaining book does actually present some useful advice on how to save money and live sensibly. Kath Kelly was extremely hard up and needed to save money for an important occasion the following year when she made the rather rash decision to live on just one pound a day. This month follows her month by month mission to be frugal and charts the discoveries she made about herself and modern society along the way.
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