Product Description

Feeling poor because of recession? Feeling guilty because of global warming? Feeling like you’d quite like to tighten your belt, but aren’t quite ready to embrace DIY macramé handbags? No need to panic. Put down the economy mince and buy this book instead – it’s a blueprint for living beautifully while saving money and easing your conscience. India Knight (no slouch when it comes to extravagance) shows you how even a dedicated consumer and child of the more-is-more 1980s can mend her ways, embrace the New Thrift, and find her life – and bank balance - dramatically improved in the process. She will show you: How to make wonderful dinners with very little money; How to grow things; how to make jellies, chutneys and pickles and how to can vegetables and fruit; How to dress on a budget and still look fabulous – and what to do with your mum’s old sewing machine; How to make the most of living in a community, from borrowing preserving pans (that’s right, we’re making jam) to starting a toy-swapping group; How to holiday in new and imaginative ways - with only the merest whisper of a carbon footprint; How to make your own fun, from crafts to making presents, from parties to affordable pampering; and finally...How to manage your money – because, frankly, it's about time we all got a grip. Above all, India Knight will show you that saving money and tightening your belt doesn’t have to feel like a penance – it can be both fun and glamorous (and a great deal more satisfying than buying the latest It-bag). Try it – you have nothing to lose but your overdraft.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #50539 in Books
• Published on: 2008-11-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

From the Author
Thrift is a book for anyone who's ever been a disaster with money and who'd quite like that to stop. It's for anyone who feels the need to tighten their belt and hunker down until the storm is over, but doesn't want to stop having fun or living graciously. It isn't a book called How To Be Tight, so anyone interested in gathering up all their elastic bands to turn into a marvellous rubber ball for the children's Christmas present might do better elsewhere. Nor is it a book called How To Be A New Puritan - my tips for having cheapo fun don't involve wearing a hair shirt and lying with your face turned to the wall, contemplating the sinfulness of shopping. Thrift is a book about all sorts of small (and some big) ways of saving money without feeling like your life's gone down the dumper, with precise advice (websites and so on) and recommendations. If you liked The Shops, I think you'll like this one: we're talking saving rather than spending, but the ethos is the same - it's about finding joy in small things, except this time around the small things are likely to be home-made or extraordinarily cheap.

About the Author
India Knight is the author of My Life on a Plate, Don't You Want Me, The Shops and Neris and India's Idiot-Proof Diet. She is a columnist for the Sunday Times and lives in London with her three children.

Customer Reviews

Patronising and disappointing
As a big fan of India Knight and someone who is actively trying to cut back I was delighted when I saw she had written this book. Having read it though I have to say I am quite disappointed. It's written in her usual entertaining style but the content consists mainly of patronising rubbish backed up by endless lists of websites which anyone good at Googling could have put together. It's also clearly aimed at townies/Londoners which is highly annoying for the rest of us. The suggestions for saving money seem to be split into three categories - a) things lots of people already do because they don't have much choice like taking a packed lunch to work or holidaying in the UK, b) 'trendy' ideas that people have actually been doing for years like making jam or handing down clothes and c) 'investment buying' such as the suggestion that you buy one Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress instead of 10 Primark tops which is all very well is you have £200 up front but that's not the case for most of us. She claims to advocate thrifty living but every chapter is packed with references to 'good' food (why do writers/chefs insist on referring to everything in this annoying way? - 'some good olive oil', 'some good bread' etc) and how you should buy organic/natural whether it's food or beauty products. She also contradicts herself, in one chapter suggesting we shop at Lidl because it's cheap then in the next advocating M&S (definitely not cheap) because of their environmentally friendly fishing policies. Most of the tips are common sense such as planning your shopping list and the stuff about joining the WI and knitting scarves for friends are just bandwagon jumping. This could have been a really good and useful book if she'd looked more at why we like spending money so much (10 Primark tops = 10 shopping 'hits') instead of churning out patronising junk and other people's ideas in the hope of cashing in on the current economic climate.

Beautifully written but...
Written by the wonderful India Knight,so i was looking forward to this book.Yes, it does have her usual humour and lovely language but I cant help feeling that she was more at home in The Shops- her incomparable book on where to buy almost anything.Funnily enough that tome has saved me from numerous expensive mistakes by directing me to the best place each time for quality and style.Sadly the Thrift book doesnt have the same infectious enthusiasm.It seems a bit rushed and lightweight- most of us know how to bake cakes or make jam.I can balance my chequebook because i have always had to! Its not a novelty for most of us. My childen have always worn handmedowns alongside their new clothes and we have swapped toys etc. Holidays in UK are the norm.I felt close to being patronised in parts of this book

Bandwagon? maybe. Well written- yes.

Economy drive meets green rant!
I've got mixed feelings about this book. There's a very impressive list of websites that'll definitely help you in your economy drive (such as cooking club networks, online newspapers to save you buying the daily, and car share groups). And there's also a very good chapter on 'Community' suggesting pooling expensive purchases such as lawnmowers, or 'produce swapping' - offloading your jams and preseves for someone elses veggies.

But there are also a lot of very facile and unoriginal suggestions and observations, i.e making your own cards will be cheaper than buying them, or that dried pasta is cheaper than an M&S ready meal (no, really?!). Also there are very few 'worked examples' - a couple of recipes for popcorn and fairy cakes, but relatively few illustrations of many of the suggestions, most of which seem to be thoughtlessly tossed out as space fillers.

Furthermore, the author seems to have had something of a 'green epiphany' and a lot of space is taken up with rants about the evils of bottled water, and nasty chemicals used by the big beauty brands, which doesn't have a whole lot to do with thrift. As a scientist, I also found the 'natural is best' mantra on every page somewhat annoying and misleading.

To end on a slightly more positive note, the author has a great writing style - witty and engaging - but although I loved 'The Shops' and almost always find myself agreeing with her columns, I really did think 'Thrift' was decidedly average.