Reading lots of books!

I have been doing so much reading recently but I got a little ahead of myself at the library reserve system online (if you haven't used it, it is a great tool). I went on Amazon and looked for books that looked interesting and then started to look to see if they had them in the library through my online account.  The ones that we're really popular, I had to put on hold.  Being so patient, I went to the library and got another bunch of books while I was waiting.  Very quickly, the reserved books came in and I hadn't even made a dent in the other books. I now have three books to read before they are due tomorrow.  I hope that I am going to make great progress but unless I start speed reading, I don't think that I can finish three by tomorrow. 

I highly recommend a few entertaining books on budgeting, meal planning and frugal living.  Doesn't it seem strange to say entertaining in the same sentence with how to budget but an entertaining page turner regardless of the topic.  The first are by Jeff Yeager who was so humorous throughout the whole book that I had to get the second one shortly after reading the first (see why I get behind because I book jump).  He wrote The Ultimate Cheapskate's Road Map to True Riches: A Practical (and Fun) Guide to Enjoying Life More by Spending Less and The Cheapskate Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of Americans Living Happily Below Their Means which were both highly entertaining.

The other book that has some great recipes and ideas was Miserly Moms: Living Well on Less in a Tough Economy by Jonni McCoy .  She approached it in a much more serious fashion but gave lots of recipes to make from scratch to save time and money by doing it ahead of time.  I can't wait to try some of the great ideas that I jotted down but I have been too busy reading :)

Then I got the Economides family book, America's Cheapest Family Gets You Right on the Money: Your Guide to Living Better, Spending Less, and Cashing in on Your Dreams  and once I catch up with my pile of books I am going to try their other one about grocery spending.  I saw them once on a television show so I thought it would be interesting to see what more information the book provided then they did on TV.  It has step by step instructions on how to set up a budget (differently then I have ever seen) but the flow of the chapters was really great and the end was very uplifting.  They give everyone choices on the next step to do the things covered in the chapter based on the level you are willing to commit.  I can't say that there are lots of new ideas but a reminder of the basics is also helpful to make sure that we are following the suggestions.

I would highly recommend checking out your library to see if they have some of these great titles (but learn from me and don't do it all at once).  The one thing that I learned during all this was that all the different terms like cheapskate, miserly, and cheapest, mentioned in the titles, made me think about being called that or worse yet calling other people those names.  It seems to follow the old Bambi wisdom that if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.  I am not sure if I would like to be called miserly or a cheapskate but I fit the profile of both descriptions.  I much prefer being frugal :)