Comments on: Living Simple: The book that influenced me

By: liz Thomas

liz Thomas — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 16:03:17 +0000

I was spring cleaning and found several old copies of the Tightwad Gazette. I really enjoyed getting those newsletters. I also would like to know what Amy Dacyczyn is doing these days. I wish her and her family well. Liz Thomas

By: Heather

Heather — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 01:58:28 +0000

I love the Tightwad Gazette too! In fact, I was once asked who I would most like to meet, and I said Amy Dacyzyn. She has influenced me so much that I started writing my own frugal living blog in the Tightwad Gazette spirit! I’ve looked all over the internet for current information about her and her family, but have never found anything.

By: Dinah

Dinah — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 22:09:57 +0000

I, too, read all of Amy’s books at a time when my family and I had moved to a new city. I was very interested in living a frugal lifestyle. Just as importantly, however, I felt I’d found a friend in Amy. She greatly influenced me and I am still appreciative today. I,too, am wondering how she is and what she’s doing.

By: margaret

margaret — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 23:05:33 +0000

The following is excerpted from the Tightwad Gazette and really elequently explains in Amy’s own words why not work more I too would love to know what Amy is doing now. She was a huge influence to me when I first quit work to stay home with our first child. I have kept this article for years on my fridge as a gentle reminder. Hope you enjoy it.
Amy wrote: The “Don’t save more, earn more” philosophy is a very one-sided approach. And it has one big flaw. Nearly everyone that earns more automatically spends more. For this reason, regardless of their incomes, many families seem to have exactly enough to get by.

Telling you to earn more instead of saving more is like saying “Don’t eat less, exercise more.”

When I learned that walking a mile burned up the same amount of calories as an apple I wondered how many miles I would have to run to burn the calories in a candy bar. It made more sense to give up the candy bar.

Most Americans are running to burn up candy bars. They are running out of the house, running to the daycare center, running on the job…so they can afford candy bars and Nintendo games, meals at McDonald’s, and designer sneakers.

There is no doubt that the minimum wage earner does need to earn more to afford apples — the basics of life.

But for most of us whether we choose to earn more or to save more depends on how easy, accessible, and enjoyable more work is.

[…]

There is a point at which the quality of life and the standard of living depart…where earning more results in a personal cost that erodes the quality of life.

The solution is to find the right balance of earning more and saving more. You need to couple your earning effort and your saving effort to achieve the highest quality of life.

When you do earn more, resist the temptation to spend more. Discipline yourself to saving whatever possible of what you do earn and reinvest in ways to either earn more or save more.

By: marcy

marcy — Sun, 21 May 2006 14:45:12 +0000

I would love to know what Amy is doing today, she hasn’t been heard of in a few years.

By: Jan in OK

Jan in OK — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 16:22:35 +0000

Every January I re-read these books to remind me of the “economizes”, as we call them, that we might be letting slip. Every time I find something new we can do. It’s the little things that really add up.

Since our frugal living over the last several years lead us to find and be able to afford the loan for the farm of our dreams. This year the books have encouraged us to do an inch-by-inch clean out of our home, outbuildings and entire property. We will be selling off all excess to achieve our goal of self sustaining living and being debt free so my husband can take an early retirement and my son can be free of his student loans.

All three of us want to know, it’s 2006 now. Where is Amy Dacyczyn and her family, are they still living frugally and did the kids rebel when they hit their teen years?

By: Holly

Holly — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 18:58:52 +0000

BTW, I’m only playing devil’s advocate. I could write the book on the simple life, and frugality. It IS a worthy exchange.

By: Amy

Amy — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 01:42:16 +0000

Karen, I do stock up when I find good deals. Once I had so many microwave popcorn boxes (.33/box), that we had to store them under the beds. I have a walk-in pantry now, so it’s not an issue. But, really, it’s all what you’re comfortable with. If stuff under your bed bothers you, then you might only buy three boxes instead of twenty. Whatever floats your boat. I do find, however, that whether or not you’re a tightwad, well-stocked staples are the key to a well run kitchen. And, no, popcorn isn’t a staple.

Tiffany, My husband was an engineer for a year when the church he grew up in asked him if he’d be the youth pastor. He walked away from the engineering job (which he was doing well at and liked). He served nine years at the church while attending seminary. We did not feel led to serve at another church after that. He returned to engineering. That’s the short version; hope that helps.

Holly, Sure it’s an exchange, but it’s a good one. I’m busy with “life”, but I hope to get to that post one day.

By: tiffany

tiffany — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 18:41:55 +0000

So I have a question…..how does one go from a Youth Pastor to a physicist? My husband (also a physicist) just couldn’t wrap his mind around the concept and asked me to ask about it.

By: Karen

Karen — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 08:01:01 +0000

I’m afraid of this book. I’m afraid that in order to “live frugally”, I’m going to have to save egg cartons and tin cans to make household things from. And we are winning the clutter battle! We already make our own Windex (it’s simple if you do it by the gallon - we do it two gallons at a time - it’s really cheap, and you just mix 3 ingredients and store it in the pantry!). But I have in my mind that this form of “simplicity” means storing up tons of STUFF to do things in a less expensive manner. Does it?