I can't resist this type of "how-to-be-perfect" book (the genre includes housekeeping hints, organization manuals, and even the occasional fashion guide -- I'm much better at resisting psychological self-help). However, I'm smarter now and I get them from the library (a budget saver that does not appear in this book's index, by the way.)10 001 Ways to Live Large on a Small Budget is apparently digested from a website, Wise Bread. It's categorized into broad areas and then contains numerous smaller articles with numbered hints. There was not a whole lot I hadn't heard before, and of course, since my children are grown, many hints were no longer germane to my condition. I was a little surprised at how many ideas were missed. For example, under the heading of ways to ditch cable tv without missing anything, no mention was made of the public library. True, you won't be able to get the latest episode of anything, but if you like AMC or TCM, those classic movies and many more are available. And if you still have a VCR, you can watch things that aren't available yet (or ever) on DVD and thus can't be gotten from Netflix.

The part I took the most objection to was on food. These folks are nuts on bulk food purchases. I understand that they may be helpful for a lot of people, but there are other ways to save -- and one of them is just not wasting food. Another that wasn't mentioned was a program called Fare Share or Fare for All. It's open to anybody and available in many places, especially cities. A reasonable payment gets you a box of food which may include meat, vegetables, fruit and other items. In Minneapolis, there are varying levels of packages so that a single college student, a vegetarian, or a large family can get what they need. This is a good thing for people who really need to save money on food. However, as Michael Pollan and others have pointed out, we in the US actually spend much less of our income on groceries than 40 or 50 years ago, and less than many other people in the world. Avoiding overly-processed food and buying from farmers and fishermen themselves may not save a lot of money, but I think it's a good thing.

End of rant -- the best thing about this book is the list of websites at the back, many of which I plan to explore. ( )

Lots of interesting and easily implementable suggestions. This is a very comprehensive book. If you are new to trying to live on a small budget, there may be many ways for you to learn how to cut corners. ( )

Some ideas are very attractive and really helpful.
Thank you ( )

In these days of recession and pinching pennies, of prices constantly rising and cut backs everywhere, this book is full of 10,001 ideas of how we can manage to live better on less. No, I didn't count all the ideas. I even skipped some that weren't appropriate to my situation. Some I had heard before, and some were new to me. Some were really interesting and some not so much. If you're looking for some new ideas on how to make those pennies stretch a little farther and how to get by a little better, check this one out. It can't hurt now, can it? ( )