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I struggle to know where to begin with writing this.
How would the writer of The Ultimate Trekkie's Guide to Vulcans, Klingons and Cardassians go about introducing Star Trek?
How would a mommy blogger go about introducing A Slob Comes Clean, or Carrots for Michaelmas, or Pioneer Woman?
How would an apologist introduce people to the writings of C.S. Lewis?
The Tightwad Gazette books are, to people interested in saving money in day to day household living, the sort of genius, bar-setting example that those who read feel bound to share with those around them. Like the half-crazed ramblings of an infatuated new cult member who just signed up for an MLM, those who read them find themselves adjusting their lifestyles in a thousand different ways.
But, you know, in a non-creepy way.
I genuinely appreciate these books. They're filled with day-to-day tips for saving money and, even more useful, a sort of template or guide for making your own decisions and setting your own priorities. The author's mission was to educate her readers in order to empower them to live the lives that they wanted to live, and she recognized that this meant many of her readers would have different priorities than her own. She saw her role as passing on skills or tools-- as a foundation to build off of, rather than a guru to obey.
I genuinely appreciate these books. They're filled with day-to-day tips for saving money and, even more useful, a sort of template or guide for making your own decisions and setting your own priorities. The author's mission was to educate her readers in order to empower them to live the lives that they wanted to live, and she recognized that this meant many of her readers would have different priorities than her own. She saw her role as passing on skills or tools-- as a foundation to build off of, rather than a guru to obey.
From 1990 to 1996, Amy Dacyczyn published a newsletter called The Tightwad Gazette in which she shared her ideas on thrift-- day to day strategies as well as a few 'big picture' ones. She also solicited tips and ideas from her readers and published those as well, so reading the newsletter was almost a community undertaking-- people where able to trade tips with one another, and feel a sense of camaraderie in knowing that there were other people out there choosing to live the same lifestyle.
She was a sort of successful pre-blogger before blogging existed, and she was good at it. She appeared on several radio and TV spots, was interviewed on the Late Show by David Letterman, and was even a guest on a game show. Her popularity at its height could be compared to that of Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman) today-- a housewife who seemingly out of nowhere became a highly successful business woman and a household name.
Now, as a millennial, this all happened well before my time. I was three years old when the newsletter finished its run.
The reason I know about her work is her books. My mom had a copy of her first three books lying around the house when I was a kid, and as an easily bored homeschooled pre-teen with a lot of extra time on my hands, I read all of them pretty much cover to cover. Later on, after a house fire destroyed te books, mom replaced them with a hardcover compilation of all three books- The Complete Tightwad Gazette, a compilation of the three books and the final year's worth of newsletters published.
The skills that she teaches are practical and useful, and her philosophy of how to approach money, how to make it your servant instead of your master, is absolutely relevant. She writes a long article about how having a fundamental philosophy of how you spend your money, a higher purpose or goal that it serves, is vital to sticking to a frugal lifestyle, then turns around and writes an article nearly as long on how to re purpose leftovers into breakfast muffins. What she writes on how to calculate and compare prices is highly useful and engaging information, as are her writings on various other skills and techniques, some more outlandish than others, but all interesting and wittily presented.
She's also just plain fun to read. She has a slightly off-beat sense of humor that shines through, and makes potentially boring information, like the cost of leaving the lights on for an extended period of time, surprisingly engaging. She saw frugality as a entertaining challenge and a way to enable her to live a full and meaningful life rather than as a philosophy of deprivation-- and that fun and enthusiasm shines through her work the way that any good teacher's love for her subject shines through her lessons.
It may be distracting to some readers that the books are not traditional books in that they aren't written in a chapter type format, but are a compilation of her newsletter. The first book is loosely organized into information by season (winter, spring, summer, fall), but that's about it. It's written in a series of articles and reader-submitted tips in no particular order (though the Christmas related stuff is mostly all together for whatever reason). This can drive some people (my husband) crazy and make focused reading difficult. I personally enjoy the format, it feels like leafing through a magazine for me, but I recognize that this is the sort of thing that will vary from person to person. There is an appendix in the back for looking up specific subjects.
Readers should also be aware that, as this is information researched and written in the 1990s, many of the more 'practical' tips and articles on specific products are outdated. The tips on switching to a different type of landline for your phone, looking up company addresses in a world almanac, or that mention specific prices on anything are all pretty much useless. (I'll admit that I actually get a kick out of reading the article on the up and coming young Generation X and their frugal habits (or lack thereof)).
She was also fairly ambivalent toward home computer technology, maintaining that most home computers were no more than very expensive toys-- a position that has definitely not aged well. This informational time lag can either be frustrating or oddly endearing in a time-capsule kind of way.
Luckily, most of the information in the books is still good. She seems to have taken pains to write articles that illustrated how to obtain certain skills and information for a wide variety of people and lifestyles, and this broad approach seems to have paid off in that the books have aged very well. Much of what she wrote was meant to inspire and encourage growth rather than promote certain materials or fads, thus translating well even to people a generation or two outside of her intended audience.
One of the things I actually find most inspiring about Dacyczyn was the way that her career ended. If she had chosen to, she could have remained in the public eye and remained a substantial force in the world of finance and self-help-- think Dave Ramsey or Dani Johnson. But instead, she chose to close down her newsletter after six years to focus on time with her family and taking on roles in her community, confident that she had said her piece and that her work would survive in the books that she had published. Her dream was to live financially independently in a farmhouse with her children and husband, she reached that goal, and she was satisfied.
She practiced what she preached-- for her, money was a means to an end. Not an end in and of itself. Money was her servant, not her master.
For me, that's the most compelling promotion for her work possible.
Here's the most recent thing I can find on her, aired 9 years ago, for anyone interested.
She was a sort of successful pre-blogger before blogging existed, and she was good at it. She appeared on several radio and TV spots, was interviewed on the Late Show by David Letterman, and was even a guest on a game show. Her popularity at its height could be compared to that of Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman) today-- a housewife who seemingly out of nowhere became a highly successful business woman and a household name.
Now, as a millennial, this all happened well before my time. I was three years old when the newsletter finished its run.
The reason I know about her work is her books. My mom had a copy of her first three books lying around the house when I was a kid, and as an easily bored homeschooled pre-teen with a lot of extra time on my hands, I read all of them pretty much cover to cover. Later on, after a house fire destroyed te books, mom replaced them with a hardcover compilation of all three books- The Complete Tightwad Gazette, a compilation of the three books and the final year's worth of newsletters published.
The skills that she teaches are practical and useful, and her philosophy of how to approach money, how to make it your servant instead of your master, is absolutely relevant. She writes a long article about how having a fundamental philosophy of how you spend your money, a higher purpose or goal that it serves, is vital to sticking to a frugal lifestyle, then turns around and writes an article nearly as long on how to re purpose leftovers into breakfast muffins. What she writes on how to calculate and compare prices is highly useful and engaging information, as are her writings on various other skills and techniques, some more outlandish than others, but all interesting and wittily presented.
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| She was also a fairly talented illustrator |
She's also just plain fun to read. She has a slightly off-beat sense of humor that shines through, and makes potentially boring information, like the cost of leaving the lights on for an extended period of time, surprisingly engaging. She saw frugality as a entertaining challenge and a way to enable her to live a full and meaningful life rather than as a philosophy of deprivation-- and that fun and enthusiasm shines through her work the way that any good teacher's love for her subject shines through her lessons.
It may be distracting to some readers that the books are not traditional books in that they aren't written in a chapter type format, but are a compilation of her newsletter. The first book is loosely organized into information by season (winter, spring, summer, fall), but that's about it. It's written in a series of articles and reader-submitted tips in no particular order (though the Christmas related stuff is mostly all together for whatever reason). This can drive some people (my husband) crazy and make focused reading difficult. I personally enjoy the format, it feels like leafing through a magazine for me, but I recognize that this is the sort of thing that will vary from person to person. There is an appendix in the back for looking up specific subjects.
Readers should also be aware that, as this is information researched and written in the 1990s, many of the more 'practical' tips and articles on specific products are outdated. The tips on switching to a different type of landline for your phone, looking up company addresses in a world almanac, or that mention specific prices on anything are all pretty much useless. (I'll admit that I actually get a kick out of reading the article on the up and coming young Generation X and their frugal habits (or lack thereof)).
She was also fairly ambivalent toward home computer technology, maintaining that most home computers were no more than very expensive toys-- a position that has definitely not aged well. This informational time lag can either be frustrating or oddly endearing in a time-capsule kind of way.
Luckily, most of the information in the books is still good. She seems to have taken pains to write articles that illustrated how to obtain certain skills and information for a wide variety of people and lifestyles, and this broad approach seems to have paid off in that the books have aged very well. Much of what she wrote was meant to inspire and encourage growth rather than promote certain materials or fads, thus translating well even to people a generation or two outside of her intended audience.
One of the things I actually find most inspiring about Dacyczyn was the way that her career ended. If she had chosen to, she could have remained in the public eye and remained a substantial force in the world of finance and self-help-- think Dave Ramsey or Dani Johnson. But instead, she chose to close down her newsletter after six years to focus on time with her family and taking on roles in her community, confident that she had said her piece and that her work would survive in the books that she had published. Her dream was to live financially independently in a farmhouse with her children and husband, she reached that goal, and she was satisfied.
She practiced what she preached-- for her, money was a means to an end. Not an end in and of itself. Money was her servant, not her master.
For me, that's the most compelling promotion for her work possible.
Here's the most recent thing I can find on her, aired 9 years ago, for anyone interested.
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