The $1,000 Challenge Book Review

I was looking around online for some new and interesting books to read and The $1,000 Challenge: How One Family Slashed Its Budget Without Moving Under a Bridge or Living on Gov ernment Cheese by Brian J. O'Connor came up.  It sounded a little familiar like I read it before but I wasn't sure so I decided to go ahead and read it again.  If it was so long ago that I couldn't remember, then it is probably worth reiewing again anyway.  It was a quick read that had lots of funny stories that kept the book going quickly and had you wanting to know what was going to happen next.

Are You Brave Enough for the $1,000 Challenge?
Middle-class incomes are stretched more than ever. Feeling the strain himself, personal finance columnist Brian O’Connor decided to put his own family’s spending to the test. He began a ten-week experiment to see if his family could cut its monthly living expenses by $1,000—without sacrificing anything truly important. From groceries and transportation to entertainment and insurance, O’Connor ruthlessly tackled his family’s Top 10 spending categories with an eye on rooting out big savings.  As he shares his family’s cost-cutting adventures, O’Connor offers helpful strategies for getting your own finances back on track. Whether he’s sharing secrets to shrinking your grocery tab or helping you scour bills for unnecessary fees, O’Connor tackles the frustrations and fears of controlling your own financial fate.

It was an interesting and helpful reminder for all those who aren't already using the methods discussed in the book.  Brian O'Connor's humor gets you through a lot of topics that might be more boring otherwise.  It goes through week by week how he cut costs for his family and found $1,000 a month that they were spending that could be better used.  It was great to rethink about the things that we do as a family and how we could stop spending that money.  Breaking it down into manageable bites that might help you tackle some of the expenses individually and not all together.  It was super practical and didn't insist that you give up everything to get ahead but took reasonable steps to save money.  I actually thought he was really more flexible then I am with spending money and being able to do things that you want without talking to your spouse.  He allowed for a lot more wiggle room in the budget then I do in ours.  As always happens, as soon as he cut in one category, another expense arose.  The amazing thing is that with the cuts, he was able to cover the other expenses without scrambling to find money.  I thought that it was a great introduction to all those who don't know where to start cutting because sometimes just giving you an idea of where to start is the best plan.