Book review - "Thrifty ways for modern days"

Photo by givepeasachance

When I was in my local library recently I came across another money saving guide - "Thrifty ways for modern days" by Martin Lewis. He has a popular website "Money Saving Expert.com" which is certainly worth a look. He also provides a weekly email with up to the minute money saving tips and offers. As I write there are print out vouchers for various pizza restaurants, money off train fares and cheap flights to New Zealand and Australia.

There are quite a lot of similar sites, and ones that go further and really are nothing more than an advertising portal offering seductive freebies and deals that then get you suckered into something you probably didn't want in the first place. These other sites I definitely would not go out of my way to recommend. They are there to drag you into spending money not saving it, and to be honest the amount of time you end up wasting reading interminable lists, clicking through to other sites, and filling in forms - well, I'd rather use my time more profitably. However, it is worth looking at the Money Saving Expert offers and tips, as long as you keep a sense of proportion and don't go after lots of free handcream you don't want etc. If all your freebies sit in a cupboard for 12 months until they lose their scent or colour then they were a waste of time.

The book wasn't exactly what I was expecting, although thinking it through I'm not that clear what I was expecting. The Money Saving Expert website is quite a flash, brash site with lots of links and banners and colour, and a smattering of 'shock, horror!' headlines. The book is a different kettle of fish. It is small but chunky with no pictures and printed on probably the cheapest paper they could find. All is explained at the start. The book is a collection of the 'old style' wisdom from one of the site's discussion boards. So this is all the stuff your granny or great granny either told you about or took for granted as the sensible way to do things. Martin Lewis is quite up front in saying that he isn't a full on old styler. He uses some of the tips but others he admits he "looks askance at".

He opens with a quick chapter on basic money and budget advice. Its the usual stuff of know your finances, understand how much you spend on what and how to cut back. After that the rest of the book is basically a selection of tips from the old styler discussion board. There is a range of chapters including clothes, grow your own, presents and gifts and recipes, amongst others. Really, this book is valuable in the same way all these books are - you pick out the things that appeal to you and ignore the rest. You won't be able to use each and every one so I'm grateful that he didn't go for a silly title like "100 ways to save money" because when it comes down to it you might only find a handful that work for you.

There were things I baulked at:

• For example, suggestions like filling your pockets with the sachets of salt and sauce from burger bars or the tea bags provided in hotel rooms.My old fashioned view on that is that it is stealing, and my granny would certainly not have included it as a recommendation for thrifty living. 
• While I am all for home made gifts if they are done well, and effort and love has been put into them, I don't feel the same way about a suggestion to make shortbread for your friends and put it in a pretty box. It's one thing to spend several hours carefully knitting a scarf, but it's a whole other thing to knock something off at minimal cost and minimal effort. It just looks cheap. If I got something like that as a present I know I'd feel a bit insulted, because a friend who does that is saying "I was only willing to spend a few pence for you, you're not worth any more than that". I think it would be different if I knew they were absolutely poor as church mice, but otherwise it strikes me as rude and penny-pinching.
• People love to suggest things like print out your own gift labels or wrapping paper. Making your own is one thing, but to be honest things like labels are so cheap you'd probably spend a lot more on ink in your printer if you printed them out. Sometimes it is easy to think that because you don't see the cost at the time that something is therefore free. Some common sense is needed at times, because people seem to get so carried away by scrimping that they lose sight of the bigger picture.

But it is easy to carp and criticise and point at the silly bits - you can do that with any money saving book on the market. Overall it is a useful little book, although I think everything is there on the website anyway. There are some good recipes and I particularly liked to be reminded of the simple cheap things you can use instead of expensive cleaning products - vinegar, bicarbonate of soda etc.