Review: Penny Saving Household Helper
October 6, 2009 by Jennifer Chait
Filed under Holiday Thrift, budget, holidays, how-to
Penny Saving Household Helper: Five Hundred Little Ways to Save Big by Rebecca DiLiberto, Chronicle Books (2009), will make a great tiny stocking stuffer this year for any pal or family member who needs some tips about saving and budgeting.
Penny Saving Household Helper: Five Hundred Little Ways to Save Big is just a tiny little hardcover book; 4-1/2 x 6 in (it’ll fit right in a stocking!) but is packed full with over 500 tips for saving money throughout the home and garden all year long. There are many nice tips for saving money when cooking, stocking the pantry, cleaning, energy use, beauty, and fashion, entertainment, the holidays, and more.
I like that this book had a fairly eco-friendly flavor to it as well with tips on natural and inexpensive cleaners and using rags instead of paper towels. Plus there were plenty of other green-minded reuse tips throughout.
The book doesn’t even need wrapping because it’s pretty cute as is. The cover is a minty green with copper colored foil-stamp-like label. The inside is pretty too with dark chocolate font instead of black – a nice switch and cool vintage style line drawings. The Chronicle Books website says that the book has a cloth cover which may be a misprint because the one I got does not, but the inside tips is what you’re after anyhow.
SAMPLE TIPS:
- Make rice pudding with leftover rice by adding butter, cinnamon, sugar, and milk.
- Don’t separate your bananas from one another until you plan to eat them – they last longer in a bunch.
- Treating the feet of your furniture with furniture wax will protect wood floors from scratches.
- Your baseball glove will stay free of cracks and keep its shape when stored with a ball in its palm.
The only downside is that a super saver won’t find as many new tips as a newbie. There was some new info to me, but I had seen many of these tips before. That’s not a huge deal though. I still learned some new tricks and these tips would be perfect for a new college graduate or newlyweds or someone who needs big time help learning to save money.
Learn more: Penny Saving Household Helper: Five Hundred Little Ways to Save Big.
[image via Chronicle Books]
This would make an excellent gift for newlyweds. They have no clue how to cut costs, that is something that takes time to learn.