Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I saw the Economides on TV hawking their newest book, the one about halving your grocery bill, and tried to find it at the library. This older book (2007) was the only one they had. Boy, what a disappointment! There is a chapter on grocery shopping, and it's ridiculous -- it recommends shopping once a month with a list (and coupons) to avoid the temptation of spending on impulse items. That has to be the single WORST idea I have ever heard to save grocery money, and I don't believe it would work for most families. For starters, it requires a HUGE freezer (or someone who will let you use theirs, as the Economides did at first). Freezer are not free; they gobble energy too. This plan requires you buy what is available on THAT shopping day, meaning you must miss the sales and promotions the rest of the month, plus you will rarely hit any "great buy" markdowns or closeouts because you just are not there often enough. It also means you must buy fruits and veggies for the whole month -- and most things spoil long before then. What do the Economides' suggest? Eat your produce in Week One -- then go without the rest of the month. No grapes or bananas for YOU (or your kids)! Later in the month, you can eat the apples. Or canned fruit. Also: forget lettuce and salad 3 weeks out of four. What about milk? Freeze it! Never mind that milk freezes poorly; it loses taste and texture. Cheese? it gets crumbly and strange. But never mind -- it was cheap! and you are saving money. Also, coupons are fine but they are almost always on processed foods. It is rare to find one for fruits, veggies, meat or milk. If the Economides are couponing, I wonder on what items? The worst part is that the prices are in the book are either dishonest or hopelessly out of date. In fact, I turned to the title page with the publishing date twice, because I couldn't believe this book was actually written in 2007! I strongly suspect it was written back in the 80s, but Mr. Economides either didn't succeed in getting it published until the economy was so bad there was renewed interest in "frugality". It is full of laughable price suggestions: toilet paper for 20 cents a roll? (Try 3 times that, and that's on sale with a coupon at a warehouse club.) Meat for $1.20 a lb? What is he eating, road kill? Even hamburger in bulk today is $2.75, and anything better is $3.75-$7.75 a lb on SALE. On the Economides' budget, one would literally never eat fish or steak. Ever. (And add that to no veggies or fruit most of the year, ruined milk and cheese. People eat better in PRISON.) There are some odd and glaring lapses. The family bought their beat up, repo home in 1985 for $53K, then sold it ten years later for $80K. For starters, only people in very moderately priced communities could have bought a home for this little, even then. (I'm the same age as the Economides and well remember buying my own first home then.) Often such cheap homes are in areas with very bad schools; is that a good economy? They state that they paid the home off in only 9 years (on one income, and with several children), paying only a total of $70K in interest, then sold the home for $80K. But they fail to state how much they had to PUT INTO a beat up repo home -- I'd guess it was a LOT. If the house was in bad shape and sold for cheap, then the average home in that are was likely $70K (or they didn't get a bargain). So why did it appreciate so poorly during a decade of high real estate prices? No idea. Those are two very important pieces of information left out! Then in '95, they bought a huge luxury home (3500 sq ft) with a pool. That doesn't sound very "frugal". How much did THAT cost? Certainly not "$80,000". How did they finance it? Was it also a fixer upper? No idea. They don't share this very important information, yet seem to be suggesting that readers follow their lead! As a newly married couple in 1982, they decided that Annette Economides would not work (where she could have contributed very significantly to their savings AND her SSI) but instead "stay home and learn to keep house". Good grief! Even my MOTHER in the 1950s and my GRANDMA in the 1920s worked before having kids! Why would it take 8 hours a day to "learn to keep house"? That makes no sense. Buy a cookbook! Housekeeping is not graduate work in nuclear science! (I assume there was a real reason Mrs. Economides choose not to have a career or even work part-time, because this literally makes no sense. Also remember it is the 80s and she's still a relatively young woman; it's certainly not typical.) Lastly, Steve Economides quit his last job -- as high paid ad executive -- several years ago. Mrs. Economides still does not work, though her kids are grown. Even frugal people need SOME SOURCE OF INCOME. What is theirs? It can't just be the book, because he retired well before the book was published. Is it there website? It would have to be awfully lucrative to support that many people. How do they get health insurance if they don't work at any paid employment? Many of the ideas in the book are so time consuming that ONLY retired people would ever bother with them and ONLY retired people would ever suggest to hardworking exhausted young parents that they jump through so many hoops to save a few bucks. I'd be far more fascinated to read about how the Economides can live without working, than any of the fairly obvious or inane "tips" in this manifesto (you can read similar advice in any women's magazine or Reader's Digest, it's awfully basic -- compare prices, shop at discount stores, buy used clothing, etc.). They would do a real public service if they broke down their real income and expenses and showed us all how THEY live. Conclusion: a big waste of time...not even funny or charming. As Mr. Economides was a professional graphic designer before retiring, I am surprised this book is as plain and visually uninteresting as it is. No useful suggestions. Save your first few dollars by NOT buying this. P.S. A long, LONG section on the family's trips to the State Fair and Washington DC are mindnumbingly dull, detailed and without a single useful suggestion for real life...for example, they got to stay free because their father-in-law had bonus points for all the hotel bills!