Jun 28 2008
“The Tightwad Gazette III” by Amy Dacyczyn
In the cheapskate community, Amy Dacyczyn reigns supreme. And it’s not hard to see why, when you flip through her books.
Amy originally started out by producing a newsletter with tips she thought were helpful. She eventually put those tips into books, and produced three amazing books that every tightwad in the country owns (bought off eBay at a discounted price, of course). They are (originality in naming not being her strong suit) The Tightwad Gazette I, The Tightwad Gazette II, and (drumroll please!) The Tightwad Gazette III. I know, you didn’t see it coming, did you? Neither did I.
Lack of originality aside, there is little here to criticize. Seriously. This is the frugal person’s Bible. Too often, a “how-to-be-frugal” book will simply regurgitate the same tips over and over again. (Great example here. Or here’s another one that did it too, although not to the same extent.) How many times can people say, “Save up money and pay cash for big items” before publishers start to say, “Wait a minute, I think this has been covered before”?
Apparently a lot.
Amy stands at the pinnacle of frugalness for a very good reason: None of her “tips” are recycled stuff that someone slapped together from an hour of Googling. Amy never takes the easy way out by saying, “I’ve heard that it’s cheaper to…”
Instead, she sits down with a calculator and figures out, down to the penny, how much something will cost. And then she does it again the other way. Math is not my strong suit, so she completely lost me when it came to some of her calculations, but I was mightily impressed by her conclusions.
Here’s an excerpt on freezing food in bulk that illustrates that point nicely:
The first step was purchasing a humongous, $7.99, 2,000 foot-roll of 12-inch-wide clear plastic wrap from a warehouse store. One could make the argument that free bread bags are cheaper, but this wrap costs just 4/10ths of a cent per foot and allows a stretched-tight wrap that gives good protections from freezer burn. If this quantity is too much for you, we found that store-brand plastic wraps are 6/10ths of a cent. (But be aware that name-brand wrap costs as much as 2 and 3/10ths of a cent per foot.)
Am I just the laziest person alive? I never, no never, would have thought to calculate something like that down to the tenth of a penny. She does this constantly. Reading her books is like peering into the mind of a frugal genius, truly.
If you’re really observant (as are all of my readers, naturally) you might have noticed that I reviewed book #3 first. I did that to make the point that you don’t have to read these books in order. She does refer back to stories in previous books occasionally, but she always makes sure to give enough of the backstory that you’re not lost.
My only gripe (boring name aside) is that there isn’t anything more to read. Amy Dacyczyn has retired, and is no longer producing newsletters, books, or even a simple blog. 
Others have tried to fill the gap by producing their own books and blogs, but none of them are as good as The Frugal Zealot.
Amy, we miss ya.
5 out of 5 stars
Hava
