The Tightwad Gazette II: Promoting Thrift as a Viable Alternative Lifestyle

by Amy Dacyczyn

The Tightwad Gazette II

The Perfect -- and Cheap -- Home Chili Recipe! New Uses for Old Blue Jeans!

Make a Quilt for Ninety-five Cents!

In 1993, Amy Dacyczyn's first book featured advice from the pages of her two-year-old newsletter The Tightwad Gazette. Over 250,000 copies were sold, inspiring millions of people to profit through thrift. Now, The Tightwad Gazette II serves up all-new help and hints from the newsletter's third and fourth years, yielding still more savings for millions of converts to tightwaddery.

Save More Money! Save More Time! Save More Resources!

Some of the Exciting, Money-Saving Topics

A Reader's Guide to The Tightwad Gazette
-- Penny Pinching Pizza
-- Car Maintenance Tips
-- Calculate Your Cost Per Muffin
-- How to Make a Solar Box Cooker
-- Store-Brand Common Sense
-- Think Small to Save Big
-- Where to Get Insurance Information
-- Breakfast Breakthrough
-- Picture-Framing for Less
-- Gas Versus Electric
-- Reupholstery Savings
-- Army Surplus Bargains
-- The Tightwad A to Z
-- Saving Space to Save Money
-- How to Stop Flushing Money Down the Toilet
-- Frugality and the Economy
-- Whoopie Pies
-- How to Fix Up a House
-- Should We Use Used Shoes?
-- Where to Get Something for Nothing
-- What to Do with Old Blue Jeans
-- Warehouse Clubs and Savings
-- Cheap Holiday Accommodations
-- The Femme Frugal
-- Shared-Housing Programs
-- How to Work Out How Much You're Saving
-- Mail-Order Eye Care
-- Budgeting and Keeping Records
-- Dumpster Diving
-- How to Shop Thriftily
-- Money-Saving Recipes
-- Homemade Goo
-- Coupon or Not Coupon?
-- Splitting Pills to Cut Costs
-- Stained-Glass Cookies
-- The Tightwad Christmas
-- Candles and Decorations
-- Practical Gift-Giving
-- Synthetic Motor Oil
-- Bartering and Exchange
-- Detergents Determined
-- CDs Versus LPs
-- Long-Distance Phone Call Charges
-- Moving for Less --

Just Look Inside For Much, Much More...

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Self Help, Finance, How To, Economics, Personal Finance

293 pages, Paperback

First published January 24, 1995

Reviews

[jimtown · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn't help myself once I picked up the second volume of the Tightwad Gazette and had to sit down and read through all the new ideas. This version is not quite as entertaining but filled with more useful and numerous ideas and in depth discussions from the author.

I enjoyed her thoughts on dumpster diving and the fact that she made a special trip out to try it one night. It's something that I could put on my bucket list, along with taking a shower under a waterfall, an activity I think the Frugal Zealot would approve of.

Some of the ideas I found especially interesting, useful or entertaining were: a sure-fire way to get rid of fire ants, making a hammock out of plastic six-pack rings, pop-up toilet paper kleenex, and the ocean in motion toy.

Dacyczyn and her book leaped to fame after an appearance on the Donahue show and I like that she holds her ground and defends her ideas and way of thinking against audience questions, groans and utterings of "Oh, gross!".

Her thoughts on gift giving, Christmas and the amount of toys children receive and the thrill factor of them are very sensible. She had good thoughts on Creative Deprivation.

I think this volume was better than the original Tightwad Gazette and I'm looking forward to the third volume. There were still some outdated ideas, times change so fast these days. They mostly had to do with prices, telephones and audio/video tapes. I don't know how many of her strategies I will implement into my life but I like her thought patterns and I like to keep the options fresh in my mind.

[Inder · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yikes. If I spent the amount of time this woman spends trying to save PENNIES just working at my job, I would be rich!

I mean, I am impressed by this lady's insane tightwadness: she has raised kids on almost nothing and put away a nestegg to boot. More power to her! But this approach is WAY TOO INSANE for me. For me, this falls into the category of "penny wise, pound foolish."

Also, I like frugal approaches for several reasons - environmental soundness and health considerations are just as important to me as the bottom line in cents (since bad environmental choices externalize many of their real costs, you could argue that expensive organic produce is actually cheaper in some ways than the conventional stuff). This book does not take health or the environment into account at all, and the author recommends a lot of disposable products or unhealthy meals as "cheaper" alternatives. Not my thing.

I'm giving this two stars rather than one, because I can see why some people really love it. Too extreme for me, however.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly started me on a path that changed my life.

[Beth Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

i own several of the tightwad gazettes and reread them when i feel the need to tighten my belt. i wish they had more of Amy's advice and less of her fan's advice though.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a little disappointed, because I thought that the II designation meant that Dacyczyn had come out with an updated version - then remembered that the book I read some 15 years ago was a compilation of her Books I, II, and III. So this was a little dated in its hints - i.e. "How to save money on long-distance calls" and "Are coupons worth the effort?" (And I smile when I see the low prices she could work with back then.) However, the book was still worth the read because many creative ideas were included that are still very useful. And Dacyczyn is a very entertaining writer. Most of all, she doesn't equate "thrift" and "frugality" with being "tight" or "cheap." Her main goal is to change people's thinking so they can make their own improved decisions about their spending.

[Maria Parvulescu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the advice is dated (for instance is a CD player or a record player a better investment? how to lower your long distance phone bills) but the principles remain unchanged and as relevant today as they were nearly 30 years ago.

[K · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book made my head hurt. A couple of good ideas, but most are so outdated (film canisters? Long distance phone calls?) as to be worthless.

[Cassidy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit outdated, but still interesting with a few good tips

[Debra Daniels-Zeller · Rating 3 out of 5]

In my attempt to find the perfect frugal living book, I pulled this one off the shelf, dusted off the cobwebs and went through all the tips and suggestions. Unfortunately many of the suggestions are dated since this book was out in the 1990s--no one uses VCR taps anymore and many ideas offered suggestions for things that no longer exist. Also the book is laid out with random tips on each page and is supposed to be like the Tightwad newsletters, but this format is confusing if you want to find tips for say plastic bread wrappers, or frugal recipes or even how they cut their food budgets. But overall I really likes the focus of this book--getting creativie with reusing items, fixing things that break and spending less on just about everything. My copy is packed with post-it notes so I can find my favorite sections more easily.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy going through the Tightwad Gazette articles though I can't think of many tips I've actually tried myself. I don't cook/bake often, my wife won't let me wash plastic bags in the washing machine, etc. I guess I'm a fan of the tightwad lifestyle from a distance but still have a lot of spendthrift habits. Our first child is going to be born soon, though, so I expect myself to go through a wave of cost-saving tactics.

This book seemed more practical than the first, more researched. I would recommend it to anyone who thinks it would be a fun game to save pennies around the house through sometimes extreme measures. The Tightwad Gazette is not about saving money per se, it's about the creativity of finding the cheapest possible solutions for every activity.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Update Feb. 10, 2020: This one is still a favorite. And it has the best muffin recipe template ever. It is probably my most used recipe in any book of any kind.

**********
Even better than the first book in this series. While he philosophy remains the same, the articles are more polished and more frequently include more research. The author explains why this happened in the introduction (spoiler: she hired staff).

As with the first book, some of the ideas our out of date, but most are still viable today. And, regardless, all the ideas help you think about thighs in different ways--even if you don't need that specific suggestion.

[Anita · Rating 4 out of 5]

The original thrifty blog in newsletter form from the 90’s. Book 2 of 3 or 4. The author, married with six kids, dispenses lovely saving gems. I think we’d be friends if we knew each other in real life. Fast read, but I skipped over the recipes, the kids’ stuff and some of the more dated advice (example: something something something your VCR).

My favorite tip that I successfully used: after you eat all your store-bought pickles, cut up a cucumber and put it in the brine for a couple of weeks. Homemade pickles!

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like any book of this type, if I find even one good idea I figure it was worth reading. I've already found several (who knew that I could replace 1 Tbsp. soy flour and 1 Tbsp. water for an egg in a recipe? much cheaper than powdered eggs for my food storage....). Who knows what else I'll learn by the timeI finish reading it.

Lots of helpful tips. I'd recommend it for anyone looking to make a dollar stretch farther, or just if you want to be more creative with your money.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

My only gripe about this book is that it is a bit outdated in some spots and could use another printing that is more current. For example, the articles on cost of long distance phone calls are obsolete at this time. However, I have learned a lot from this book. I like how she explains that it's not whether every article pertains specifically to you, but how you can adapt the concept to your life. Lots of good nuggets in here!

[Nichola · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a little too far for me, in terms of anything to save a penny. Sadly some of it is a little naïve and outdated- ideas for saving on phone bills and calling 1800 numbers for customer service departments of big companies etc. But I guess this woman sort of energized people toward thrift and built a postal community of idea sharing before the days of blogs, so I read it in a modern historical context. It was also a pull in the opposite direction of consumerism so prevalent today.

[Donna Zigmont · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book as well as the first one.But I ran into the same issue with this one that I did previously.I was able to find some good tips for saving on some things.But like its predecessor it was written in the '90s.Unfortunately most of the ways she was able to save on things then are no longer relevant now.I was happy for the knowlegde anyway.

[Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you keep pickle juice, slice a cucumber thinly and let is soak up the juice from previous pickes for 4 days, and you will have pickle slices. Learned a few other odds and ends, but mostly that. :-)

[Ellena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm borderline between two and three stars on this one. I found some of the tips extreme and outdated. Others were useful. I really think that she could take more time with her children however. I don't agree with a lot of her methods for raising kids. Well I guess it works for her.

[Tanya Hallam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read ages ago, picked up my old
copy recently- obviously very dated. It would be great it she could write a new edition for the new(er) millennium. Nevertheless, it was well written and entertaining throughout. She definitely took thrift to the extreme.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 pages in and just as good as the first book. If this lady had ever started a cult I'd be in danger of joining.

[HeavyReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book in the library at the Harveyville Project and read it right up!

More great tips for living frugally.

Highly recommended.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

More great ideas. I even underlined & left a ton of sticky notes all through out the book!!

[Rose]

332.02 Dac

[Dee Toomey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although these books were written in the 90's there are plenty of usable ideas for todays economy. I love these books!

[Karen]

I can't get enought of Amy Dacyczyn

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this book because it's a form of female bonding to share ideas for homemaking. Some of the ideas have become outdated in the digital age. But Amy always makes a lot of sense.

[Sacha Head · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn't pick a better book on how to be thrifty.

[Scott L. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Badly outdated. Hope there is a newer edition out there, because the advice seems solid; but the 1995 edition does not have URL's, Facebook likes, or anything like that.

[Lia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Same great collection of money - saving ideas, building off the info from the first book.

[Kelly Bragg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good tips in here - got the BEST recipe for Cuban bread I have ever made/had! WOW! Easy and SO yummy!