Each Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal productivity or personal development book.

There are a few books so tied to an individual’s experience that it’s hard for that individual to write about it with an unbiased perspective. For me, The Well-Educated Mind falls into that category - the experience that it opened me up to and the developments in my life that it triggered were tremendous and only matched by a few other books.

The Well-Educated Mind describes itself as a guide to the classical education you never had. For some people, perhaps even a strong majority of people, that would make them go “So what?” Most people have the basic knowledge they need to function in day to day life and really see no purpose in investing the effort to gain a deep understanding of the world around them, and a “classic education” seems as boring as can be.

For me, a person interested by countless subjects but often limited by my own education (rural public school, followed by a thorough grounding in the sciences, but often light on the humanities, literature, etc.), I found that quite often I would fail to really digest what I was reading. I could pull out specific facts and memorize them; I could even combine those facts and come up with strong conclusions (I was good at math, unsurprisingly), but in terms of absorbing a complete argument, or really knowing how to delve into many, many areas that interested me, I was at best a complete amateur - I felt like a babe lost in the woods.

Why? I had missed out on the joys of a true classical education. I started to get a glimmer of it when I read Mortimer Adler’s classic How to Read a Book, which focuses on how to absorb a book and incorporate it into your own knowledge, but I was still missing great swaths of basic understanding in many areas. It turned out that I needed to go back to the beginning and, at my own pace and with my own pleasure, read a ton of the classics, starting with the ancient materials and working forward.

It was the best decision I’ve ever made.

The only problem was, I didn’t really know how to do it. I could read a book and absorb it, but I didn’t really have even the basic framework of knowledge in a lot of areas and I was clueless on how to start. That’s where this book came in - it filled in these answers and sent me on my way to really understanding everything.

So how has this helped me as a person? Because of the fire lit by this book, I have a solid understanding of many subjects that I was clueless about before, increasing my understanding of the world. Even more, I really understand how many basic ideas about life, philosophy, history, and science are deeply interconnected - I see all kinds of connections in my everyday life that weren’t apparent before. In my day to day life, it has helped me immensely writing this site and has made it possible for me to at least follow and usually contribute to conversations on any topic, from a deep intellectual discussion to observations about NASCAR.

Ready to dig in? Let’s go.

Traveling Through The Well-Educated Mind

Chapter 1 - Training Your Own Mind: The Classical Education You Never Had
The modern public education system focuses primarily on preparing people for the workforce - in other words, the primary focus is on completing tasks, not on truly understanding things. While this is perfectly good training for many people, many others have an innately curious mind, and that mind, when it begins to try to understand new items, is often missing the tools for comprehension and the bedrock of human understanding to really build upon.

The first step is to simply devote some time each week to learning. The book recommends finding about four mornings a week to do this, starting off with a half hour at a time, and also to avoid all distractions leading up to and during that time. This is time set aside to learn new things and expand your understanding of the world.

Chapter 2 - Wrestling With Books: The Act of Reading
Many people develop the ability to read very quickly, which is good in some respects and bad in others. Most of the time, people read through material more quickly than they should because they’re pressed for time. If you’re going to devote yourself to learning about a particular topic or absorbing the classics, slow down. Read at a slow pace, even if it feels like you’ll never get done. When you finish a paragraph, you should be able to reflect back on it and completely understand it. That may mean reading at a complete snail’s pace, looking up words you don’t know, and stopping to reflect on a complex sentence or a major new thought. It’s slow, but it’s worth it.

The second step is to practice reading at a pace where you can absorb the material. Slow down, take pauses, and don’t let your eyes skip backwards or forwards without a reason. Make sure at the end of each sentence and each paragraph that you know what it said and can explain it in your own words. If you hurry up too much, you lose the whole argument. This is incredibly true and was one of the big breakthroughs for me - I eventually learned to control my pace depending on the type of book, but for many books I still read very slowly.

Chapter 3 - Keeping the Journal: A Written Record of New Ideas
One aid to this slow absorption process is to start a journal in which you can record ideas as you come across them. Interestingly, this works just as well for fiction as it does for nonfiction once you get used to it. Whenever a phrase brings forth an interesting idea in your head, copy down the phrase and write down the idea, too. If something suddenly clicks, jot that down. Use page numbers for annotations if you wish.

The third step is to select a journal in which you can record your thoughts and ideas as you write. I found that an electronic journal works well for me - I sit back with a book and an open document and whenever I think of something worth noting, I pause and jot it down. If I’m on the road and reading, I usually use Post-It notes so I can record them later. I have a folder of documents saved on my computer that cover the complex books I’ve read.

Chapter 4 - Starting to Read: Final Preparations
Those of you familiar with debate might recognize that the second step is actually the grammar and the third step is actually the logic, when referring to the trivium of the educational tradition. So what comes next? The rhetoric - what is an author actually saying and what are your own thoughts about it? The best part here is that if you actually follow through and read the book carefully, you’ll almost always figure out a correct answer - but find that there is no single correct answer. When you reach that point, you’re beginning to really understand the topic.

The fourth step is to truly understand what you’re reading by digging through all the information to uncover the core, central points. You’ve uncovered all the little ideas and pieces in the third step, but what do they all mean together? Interestingly, I’ve often found (and Bauer, the author of The Well-Educated Mind concurs) that a book is best absorbed if it’s read two or three times. What works well for me is to read a book, then read something different, then come back to that book again. On occasion, I’ll do this two or three times with the same book to really absorb it.

Chapter 5 - Chapter 9
The remainder of the book is a series of five suggested reading lists in five areas: novels, autobiographies and memoirs, history, dramas, and poetry, along with a few pages outlining some of the conventions of each. These basically happen to be five general reading lists - you may have a specific topic that you’re interested in where you can find a reading list online.

I will say, however, that the list of novels presented here is profoundly good, and I’d recommend anyone who takes a stab at reading literature to read the novels on the list and attempt to use the four steps of the first four chapters while reading them. It’s a list of only thirty one novels, almost all of which can be found on PaperBackSwap, and it really underlines so much of what you might read today, fiction or nonfiction. I enjoyed the other lists immensely, but the novel list was incredible and it has opened me to doing things like attempting to read all of the Pulitzer Prize winning novels (and deeply understanding them).

A Side Note On This Book’s Effect On My Parenting

One of my best memories of my education happened when I was eleven and I read a book at the same time as three of my friends - we all chose to read 1984. We were encouraged to do this by a teacher at our school, who basically wanted a small group of the “smart” students to form a book club. We would read two chapters a week and meet twice during that week to discuss a chapter.

I remember it fondly not just because of the “book club,” but because my parents got into it, too. They both read 1984 at the exact same time and we would talk about it, too. It was the dominant topic at the dinner table for a good month as we batted around the characters, the issues in the book, and so on. We’d tie the book into our own lives, the events of the day, and so forth, and I felt like we all got a deep understanding of it.

I hope, from the bottom of my heart, that my children will want to do such a thing. That experience made me appreciate literature so much - I’d love to have similar experiences with my own children. Bauer has even written a book on this very topic, The Well-Trained Mind. You’d better believe that as my son grows older, this one will be read and re-read by me.

Buy or Don’t Buy?

If this writeup seemed boring to you and you fail to see the point, don’t buy this book - it will be a complete waste of your time. This isn’t really a comment on your personality or thought process or anything - I know, for instance, that my wife is quite bright but sees this as being rather useless, but other friends of mine have thought it quite interesting. It’s the type of personal development that simply appeals to some people and seems pointless to others.

On the other hand, if this writeup stirred even an inkling of interest, The Well-Educated Mind is a must-read. It sent me down a completely new path of understanding the world and vastly broadened my ability - and my desire - to fully understand new ideas from the bottom up rather than just taking a cursory glance and calling it good enough. The opportunities it has provided me to really understand things and - even better - talk about these things with others and build strong relationships because of it has been tremendous.

As many of you know, I previously had a small investment portfolio that I emptied out in order to make a house down payment and also for some furnishing costs (painting, some inexpensive kid-friendly furniture, etc.). This puts me back at square one, which means that I get to decide all over again what my investment portfolio will look like. Remember, this portfolio is intended to be an investment for a country home purchase in about fifteen years - my wife and I are dreaming of paying cash for this purchase.

The portfolio This is what we’re looking at for investments.

20% domestic large cap stocks via the Vanguard 500 index fund
20% domestic small cap stocks via the Vanguard Small Cap Index fund
20% international stocks via the Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund
20% diversified target retirement fund via the Vanguard Target Retirement 2050 fund
15% individual stock holdings via Scottrade - my wife and I have been doing extensive research into individual stock holdings and we’re both interested in directly investing in a small handful of companies that look like strong businesses on paper and that we personally use as customers.
5% bonds via the Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund

Why no ETFs? If I invest directly with Vanguard, I don’t have to worry about fees associated with trading ETFs.

How will I build it? I have an investment savings account set up. Each week, I put a certain amount into that account.

When the account hits $3,000 (the minimum buy-in for the Vanguard 500), I’ll buy the appropriate amount of shares on that day, emptying the account. I’ll then repeat this for all portions of the portfolio - when the account reaches $3,000 again, I’ll buy that portion. This will devour the first $18,000 in savings in that account and will take a year or two (at least).

Once all of the portions are purchased, I’ll save in that account and, once a month, put money into the portion of the portfolio that is the furthest below the target percentage. This is effectively a monthly rebalancing of the investment, so I don’t have to sweat rebalancing unless I make a change in my investing philosophy.

What about the individual stock portion? With my first buy-in, the $3,000 is going entirely to one company that my wife and I believe in very much (I’ll talk about this company when the time comes - it’s months down the road, though). With future buy-ins, my wife and I will do one single buy with that amount which we’ll discuss in detail when it comes around. I have a feeling we’ll buy several companies over time, but there’s one we both feel very strongly about. These are going to be almost entirely buy-and-hold investments.

What about paying ahead on your home mortgage? Aside from this investment money, we are debt snowballing our remaining debts (most of our student loans, then the home, then one final absurdly low student loan). Why in that order? Our home mortgage is actually our lowest interest debt - and nothing’s above 7%. We’ve already eliminated everything that was very high - automobile payments and credit cards. We also have an automobile replacement fund.

How can you afford all of these funds? Frugality. That’s the key to everything.

Last night, I tried some Vitamin Water (a beverage somewhat similar to Gatorade). When I was finished, I sat there looking at the empty plastic container, thinking that it was rather ridiculous that millions of these were filling landfills, especially when I could think of so many uses for them. Here are ten of the best ones - perhaps these will help you get extra use out of the plastic container of your favorite beverage.

Use it for drinking water Just refill it from the tap and carry around some water with you. I often do this with plastic containers, using it to store a beverage for the road. I regularly put iced tea in it, too.

Make homemade barbecue sauce It’s a perfect storage container for homemade barbecue sauce. Here’s a good recipe:

In a small pan, combine:

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons minced onion
1 tablespoon chopped green bell pepper
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup ketchup
2 teaspoons mustard powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon celery seed
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Cook while stirring over medium heat until it’s near boiling, then let it cool for a bit while stirring, then pour it into a storage container

This will nicely fill a beverage bottle, preferably one with a wider mouth (like a Gatorade or Vitamin Water bottle).

Make an old-fashioned hot water bottle - with a twist Take the bottle, fill it with tap water, add a pinch of salt and some very dark food coloring. Then sit this bottle on a windowsill on a sunny but cold day. In the evening, check the bottle - it’ll likely be quite warm. I used to do this when I was a kid to make a warm bottle to store under the blankets on a cold night.

Save pocket change The wide mouth of the bottle will fit change of any denomination, so it’s a great way to store pocket change. I keep one in my vehicle for this very purpose.

Go bowling with your toddler son We’ll set up several bottles and then toss a ball at them to knock them all over. We’ve done this for hours in the living room.

Store paint This is a perfect container for paint storage for detail work, especially when multiple people are splitting a can. Just cut the top off of the container and use the main body for storage - it’s a great little container for trim work and other smaller tasks.

Plant a small plant One of these containers with the top chopped off is a perfect container to grow a green onion, a scallion, or some herbs. Several of them on a windowsill can provide an interesting little garden for an apartment.

Store golf tees I use one to store golf tees. Tees usually come in a bag and thus when you open one, the other tees spill all over the place, making a mess and causing you to lose some of them. Instead, I open the bag and put them in such a container before I ever even head to the golf course.

Collect drained oil Wide-mouth beverage containers are absolutely wonderful oil collectors, for times when you’re changing oil on a riding lawnmower or such. They’re small for using on cars, but perfect for lawnmowers, tillers, and any other motorized device you may use at home.

Make homemade salad dressing Much like the barbecue sauce, it’s a perfect storage container for homemade salad dressing. Here’s a good recipe:

1/2 teaspoon marjoram
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon crushed mint leaves
1/4 cup wine vinegar
3/4 cup olive oil

Mix these all in the beverage container and shake well. A larger container can hold a double batch!

The next time you go to throw out a beverage container, think about it for a minute and ask yourself if you might have a better use for it.

My wife and son and I were shopping yesterday evening when we wandered upon the toy department of a local department store. Our son, at twenty and a half months, has reached the age where he’s quite interested in the items here and he particularly wanted a large rubber ball that cost about three dollars. He kept pointing out it and shouting “Blue ball!” and giving the sign for please.

I tried three techniques with him in concert that ended up getting him out of the toy section with his happiness intact:

First, I reminded him of a similar toy he has at home. He has a volleyball that he loves to roll around on the floor, sit on, and so forth. It’s also blue and it’s roughly the same size as the ball he spied at the store. I talked to him about the ball at home and reminded him of the fun we’ve had playing with it.

Next, I distracted him a bit with a game that we often play. After getting him to think about the volleyball at home, we played a very simple game of “capture the spider” where I pretend my hand is a spider and he captures it. This will often distract him for a minute and it was long enough to get us out of the area.

Finally, I told him he was a good boy as we left the toy section. I told him he was very good for not getting mad about the ball and that I was proud of him, then we played “capture the spider” a bit more.

In a way, this is not much different than the tricks I use on myself to talk myself out of frivolous expenses:

I think of other items I have already that do similar things and ask myself if this new item is needed, just like when I reminded my son of the blue volleyball at home.

I use the ten second rule and give myself a bit of a distraction from the initial wave of desire to make a purchase. This is much like playing “capture the spider” with my son.

I use some positive reinforcement when I leave, thinking that I made a really good choice not buying the item. Just like when I told my son he was good for not getting upset and demanding the item.

These same things work on an adult and a toddler because they’re truly effective techniques. Comparison, delay, and self-congratulation are all ways to avoid making bad choices and reinforcing good ones. My wife (who’s really into parenting issues) says that it’s also very good that I often treat my son like he’s a miniature adult, explaining things to him in the same voice and tone that I’d use with anyone.

Of course, you could also conclude that I have the shopping mentality of a toddler. I think the first conclusion is more spot-on, though.

On page 52 of the August 2007 issue of Wired, a one-page article entitled “The Price of Technolust” appears. It displays a nifty graphic showing average consumer spending broken down by percentage and displayed with different colors in a grid of 10 by 10 squares, with each small square representing 1% of the annual income of an average American. Here are the percentages:

Transportation - 18%
Shelter - 16%
Food - 13%
Apparel - 4%
Health Insurance - 3%
Entertainment - 3%
Prescription Drugs - 1%
Tech Products - 5%
Other - 37% (this includes personal care products, education, taxes, and gifts)

Note that this is merely spending - it doesn’t include any savings or investments.

Now, even more interesting, the magazine goes on to break down that bolded 5% of “tech product” spending above in great detail, dividing just that slice of the pie into 1,000 equal pieces (0.1%). It reveals several interesting things about our spending.

First of all, the two largest blocks are residential phone service (26%) and cellular phone service (20.7%). Many people have both of these, yet the services often overlap. For us, I know, we have both, but only because the residential phone service is bundled in with our internet and cable and the three are cheaper as a package than internet and cable would be by themselves. If that were not the case, we would likely ditch our residential phone service.

Second, the five largest technology expenditures are cellular and landline phone service, cable and satellite television, internet access, computers, and televisions. Those five pieces alone eat up almost 90% of the technology spending of an average person.

What does that mean? If the average American is looking to trim the fat, the best technology places to look are at phone service, internet and computer use, and television usage. If you can significantly trim one of those three areas, you’re doing good. Look at trimming any of them back to the basics, or perhaps put off that new television or computer purchase for another year.

Of course, if you step back even further, the places to look for making large cuts are in transportation, shelter, and food. Since it’s difficult to reduce transportation costs in a rural area (buy a more efficient car basically is the best option), I often look at options to reduce shelter and food costs.

It’s amazing how often little personal finance lessons show up in the most interesting of places.

The human body needs seven or eight hours of sleep per day - that’s a largely accepted fact that we’ll use as a premise. Most people get their sleep during one stretch in the night, mostly because that’s the time when they’re not working or in school.

For me, though, I realized that this sleeping pattern may not be the most optimal. What I actually found is that spacing out the sleep worked much better for me. I still get seven hours or sleep or so in a twenty four hour period, but I moved my sleep periods apart to provide breathing space for all of the activities that I accomplish.

On an average day, I have four sleep periods. I take a one hour nap around noon (during my lunch break at work - I requested and received a longer lunch break in exchange for coming in a bit earlier), a one hour nap around five in the afternoon (directly following work), a two hour sleeping period between ten in the evening and midnight, and another period between three thirty and about six thirty in the morning. I’ve only recently adapted to this sleeping routine because it has freed up that patch in the middle of the night to write.

What’s the logic behind this pattern? For the most part, I discover that after I’m awake for about six hours, I hit a strong groggy period. When I would sleep a normal eight hour period at night, I would have a period in the early afternoon where I would be hit with incredibly intense grogginess, almost falling asleep when I should be productive.

I then implemented the noon nap, but then I found that the groggy period would hit in the middle of the evening when I’d want to be playing with my son, around six or seven o’clock. Thus, I figured out that I could come straight home from work and take a brief nap before he arrived home from daycare. This enabled me to be wide awake during the evening hours, then give me a few hours of alertness after he goes to bed to take care of household tasks.

Very recently, I’ve been actually waking up at midnight and working on writing for three hours. I tried, for a time, waking up early to write and this worked well, but then I would get groggy about ten in the morning at work.

Why do this? It enables me to get a lot of things done that I wouldn’t ordinarily have time to do. The two periods where I nap were often unproductive - the first one was usually around lunchtime, when there’s a lot of water cooler talk, and the second one was during that post-work vegetative time where I would normally “unwind” from the day, which I’m just doing more intensely now. This has freed up a block of time in the middle of the night where the house is quiet and I can focus on my writing.

Doesn’t this interfere with other activities? On the weekend, the only part of this that interferes with a “normal” day is the five o’clock nap, which I sometimes skip if the situation calls for it and head to bed early. During the week, this pattern rarely interferes with anything at all.

Defining your own napping schedule Look for regular patterns during your day where you’re low on energy or when you always do something vegetative, like watching a television program right after work or getting drowsy right after lunch. Maybe for you it’s watching an hour of television in the evening before bed.

Whatever the case, when you identify those periods, look carefully for opportunities to nap at that time or just before it. Request a longer lunch break, for starters, to take a nap during lunch. See if you can go home before picking up your child from daycare for an hour and get a nap in there. Go to bed when your child does, then rise early and take advantage of the quiet.

The purpose is to sleep short periods more often, where the regular flow of life sees a valley. That way, you’re alert and ready for those times when there’s things to do and you’ll not find yourself getting behind. By converting to this, I found hours of alertness that enabled me to really chase my writing dreams.

Over the past few days, a family emergency occurred and many people gathered together to say goodbye. These are challenging, emotionally hard times. I spent a lot of time comforting my wife and just being there for her and other family members, and just quietly watching things.

One particular thing stood out in my mind, though: everyone immediately began sharing resources in a way that would never happen in a “normal” situation. People were buying food, bringing things to the house, and helping each other out without even the slightest hesitation - even the tightest of people brought prepared meals to the house for people to eat and such.

Why did this happen? Why does it take a family crisis for people to pull together like that? I think this phenomenon actually is the result of several little things all pointing in the same direction.

For many people, their family and close friends are of penultimate importance. We go through our lives taking them often for granted, but when a moment like this happens, real priorities emerge. For many of us, it’s often family. I was amazed at the number of people that congregated there within a day of the news.

When we sense that someone in that group truly needs help, we will help as much as we can. My wife and I had a ton of things going on, but we dropped it all and immediately went because we were needed. It became clear that for us, family trumps all.

Expenses become basic and money ceases to matter. Stuff was needed for lunch. so we went to the store, got plenty of food, and just paid for it. The food was basic - bread and cold cut meats. Most of our meals were very simple and inexpensive, but it was good and there was plenty for all. For the things I purchased, I didn’t even think about the cost at all. Why? There was a higher priority than personal finance.

In fact, as we left, I just took some cash from my emergency fund in order to pay for anything that might be needed. I didn’t even think twice about it, because to us, this was an emergency.

The moral of the story? Crises expose what’s really important to you. For us, it’s family above all else.

My first exposure to the Tightwad Gazette was on the sitting table at a friend’s house. I actually remember them having several copies of the original newsletter, and I flipped through several issues of it, utterly amazed that there was this much that could be written on how to save money. Some of them seemed massively over the top, some of them seemed like common sense (my family did them), and others seemed like clever ideas, but they were all entertaining. It’s very similar to the impression I have of it today, actually.

Promoting thrift as a viable alternative lifestyle is the proud, loud subheading on the cover of the massive Complete Tightwad Gazette. Weighing in at a hefty 972 pages, this book is a compendium of the entire six year run of The Tightwad Gazette newsletter, a publication written and distributed quarterly between 1991 and 1996. The focus of all of the material is on frugal living in some form or another.

What’s inside? Virtually every article ever published in that newsletter, organized in an almost random fashion. The book is actually just a series of articles, almost like blog postings, from a seriously frugal individual. I would roughly estimate that the book contains about 1,200 short articles on specific topics of frugality. While the original newsletters aren’t reprinted verbatim, almost all of the vital information from each one is included in this tome.

A Deeper Look At The Complete Tightwad Gazette

The Complete Tightwad Gazette is a giant tome of short articles. In some ways, it’s reminiscent of a great blog on frugality, merely in printed form.

Instead of attempting to walk through every little bit of this tome, I tried to pull out fifteen ideas from the book that really inspired me to save some money. When I read through this slowly over the last several months, I took lots of notes (with page numbers) and then actually attempted to use many of them in my life - all twenty of these have found some success for me (I actually had about seventy in my notes that I marked with a star as being useful - I just started at the top and somewhat chose at random).

Start a price book (p. 33) Get a three ring binder and a small pile of sheets with three holes punched on them. At the top of each page, write an item you buy regularly (toilet paper, peanut butter, etc.). Then start going to different stores and writing down the prices on the brands that you buy. Spend a month or two trying different stores out and jotting the prices, then start planning shopping trips using that book, focusing on stocking up on the items that are cheapest at a particular store. Plus you can find out if store flyers are actually saving a lot of money versus the competition.

Buy cars near the end of the month (p. 39) Car dealers often have to fill a monthly sales quota, so go in at the end of the month and drive a very hard bargain. You might cut into their commission, but if it makes them reach their quota, it’s probably worth it to them.

Buy fewer Christmas presents for a child (p. 79) I strongly agree with this philosophy. My most memorable Christmases as a child were the ones where I received just one or two amazing gifts, not other years where my parents had more money and got me a pile. For instance, I would rather buy my daughter an iPod than six or seven gifts between $20 or $30 - she’ll forget those gifts quickly, but that one will be dear to her.

Make potholders out of old blue jeans (p. 121) I actually did this by hand (yes, a guy who enjoys sewing on occasion), stuffing it with some leftovers from one of my wife’s projects. Easy as pie, just cut out two pieces out of an old pair of jeans that would otherwise get tossed, sew them together, turn it inside out, stuff it, and sew the opening. Viola - an interesting pot holder for the kitchen and it was basically free. A denim potholder actually has a really nice “homey” feeling to it.

Deconstruct a recipe (p. 212) A delicious seafood casserole recipe appears here, but the real value is in looking carefully at the items and seeing how you can save money on each of them by buying store brands or making it yourself instead.

Make your own popsicles (p. 223) This is one summer treat that my son truly enjoys, and we’ve been making them out of our own healthy ingredients (applesauce, fruit juices, etc.). This article gave a lot of tips on how to make them. I found, after experimenting, that an ice cube tray with deep wells makes great popsicles.

Make your own salad dressings (p. 230) These recipes became the basis of a lot of food experimentation at home with my wife, and we discovered that even when we made a few disastrous batches, it was sstill cheaper than buying it in the store.

Make solar iced tea (p. 255) Just get a gallon jug of water (we use a gallon glass jar, actually), put six tea bags in it, and let it sit out in the sun for several hours (the longer it sits, the stronger the tea). My wife and I drink it unsweetened, but you can add sugar or lemon juice to taste after it’s done. It’s simple and a very cheap beverage.

Buy store brand foods (p. 320) Many store brands are actually just repackages of the name brand stuff. Why pay more for the company’s advertising budget? You’ve got me. This also confirms my suspicion about several items that appeared identical in store brand and name brand from my local grocery store.

Discuss cutting down on Christmas gift exchanges (p. 493) Many families (mine included) spend far too much at Christmastime on unnecessary gifts. A frank discussion about these (and this article provides tips) can often save everyone some serious cash.

Don’t change your car oil every 3,000 miles (p. 526) For starters, read your car’s manual - it might recommend longer intervals. You might also switch to a synthetic oil that requires less frequent changes.

Introduce frugality to your kids (p. 536) If you’ve introduced them to money, frugality is easy. If they want gummy fruit treats, show them how much cheaper real fruit is. If they want juice boxes, show them how much cheaper juice is in bulk even if you buy a reusable container to drink it out of. Not only does it teach the child how to think frugally, it can cut down on junk food, too.

Memorize a generic recipe (p. 625) Basically, the idea is that if you memorize the framework of a very basic recipe, you can reuse it with variations forever. The sample here is a casserole recipe that has infinite variations:

1 cup main ingredient
1 cup second ingredient
1-2 cups starchy ingredient
1 1/2 cups binder
1/4 cup “goodie”
seasoning
topping

Main ingredient: tuna, cubed chicken, turkey, ham, seafood, etc.
Second ingredient: thinly sliced celery, mushrooms, peas, chopped hard-boiled eggs, etc.
Starchy ingredient: thinly sliced potatoes, cooked noodles, cooked rice, etc.
Binder: cream sauce, sour cream, can of soup, etc.
“Goodie”: pimiento, olives, almonds, water chestnuts, etc.
Topping: cheese, bread crumbs, etc.

Using this, you can just buy whatever’s on sale to fit each slot. I’ll say that the chicken + mushrooms + rice + cream of chicken soup + cheese combo (no goodie) is fantastic, for instance.

Take up reading as a hobby (p. 862) Reading is about the cheapest hobby you can have, especially with libraries available to you. It’s actually far cheaper than television, even, and can provide both educational and entertainment rewards.

Don’t spend money to raise money (p. 868) If you’re trying to raise money for an organization, try doing things like having a white elephant auction (people bring stuff to be auctioned off that is just laying around the house) along with donated items from local businesses, a potluck dinner, a group yard sale, and so on. My high school class sold candy bars, which now seems kind of silly.

Buy or Don’t Buy?

The Complete Tightwad Gazette is spectacular from start to finish. Even if a few of the ideas are a bit dated or a few are corny, they’re always entertaining, and a large number of the ideas are very usable for saving money in your monthly budget. If you find yourself struggling to start cutting down on spending, or are interested in cutting your spending even more, this book is an incredibly worthwhile and entertaining read. Highly recommended, and the single best book on frugality I’ve read, bar none.

The Complete Tightwad Gazette is the thirty-seventh of fifty-two books in The Simple Dollar’s series 52 Personal Finance Books in 52 Weeks.