indeks dollar: [FOAB] "How Tightwads Thrive" by Amy Dacyzyn

Kamis, 10 Januari 2008

[FOAB] "How Tightwads Thrive" by Amy Dacyzyn

Happy Thursday, ya'll : ) I quote from "The Frugal Zealot" frequently, and I remembered that she was featured in the "Parade" magazine several years ago. I thought you'd enjoy it, so here it is : )

I throw money away all the time. It's not because I don't like money or because I have an excess of cash that needs disposing of. On the contrary, I am constantly trying to get more of the good green gold into my pockets, but due to my voracious consumerist lifestyle, dollar bills see me coming and jump into the nearest cash register for safety. Submerged in my comfortable, spend-happy lifestyle, I didn't realize I had a problem. That is, until I ran across Amy Dacyczyn and her quartet of books about saving more of what you earn.

Amy Dacyczyn is probably America's most famous penny-pincher. She started her career as a tightwad in the early 1980s, when she met and married Jim Dacyczyn. "It's pronounced 'decision'," says Amy of her name, "as in, I made a decision to marry a guy of Ukrainian descent." Amy had a career as a graphic designer and Jim was enlisted in the Navy. Soon after they were wed, children entered the picture.

Amy and Jim established ideas from the beginning as to what they wanted in their lives. Their plans included a large family, Amy staying home as a full-time mom, and a large farmhouse ("with attached barn") in a rural area. The problem was she had to quit her job to be a full-time mom. That left the large farmhouse and family to be created on Jim's military pay of $30,000 a year. In the mid-1980s, with the economy in a recession, everyone was saying that a family could not survive on a single income. Determined, Amy set out to prove that a family could not only survive, but could thrive without sacrificing quality.

Conserving cash became her obsession. Amy researched the subject of frugality tirelessly. She learned to calculate her family's costs down to a tenth of a penny. Amy, who later became known as "The Frugal Zealot," transformed herself into an expert shopper who went beyond merely shopping the sales to feed her growing family. She gardened, bartered, shunned pricier convenience foods, and shopped the salvage stores with streamlined efficiency. The result was that the half-dozen or so Dacyczyn family members were a well-fed, healthy bunch for around $200 a month.

The results of Amy's extreme cash-saving practices were rewarding. In seven short years on Jim's $30,000 income, the Dacyczyns saved a whopping $49,000. During that time, another $38,000 went to major purchases such as cars, furnishings, and appliances. Free from debt, they were able to fulfill their dreams, and in 1989 they bought a beautiful pre-1900 New England-style farmhouse--with attached barn.

Amy then decided to share her expertise with other tightwad hopefuls, and in June of 1990, her newsletter, "The Tightwad Gazette," was born. A major success, the newsletter attracted the attention of Parade magazine. When the first article on the Dacyczyns came out, it prompted a huge amount of fan mail. "We had, on the peak day, 22 two-foot trays of mail. Can you imagine 44 feet of mail? And we just didn't have (any) help." Amy said. "We pulled every non-working person from our tiny community (Leeds, Maine) to help us."

Soon, "The Tightwad Gazette" was being featured in the Wall Street Journal, and Amy was making appearances on the Phil Donohue show and speaking on National Public Radio. Frugal fever hit many a spendthrift, with the result that newsletter subscriptions rose to over 50,000.

After six years, Amy made the decision to cease publication of "The Tightwad Gazette," much to the dismay of her fans. She published three compilations of the newsletter material as books, and over 475,000 copies are in print. Recently, a fourth book that combines all of the information in the first three, has been published. (See below for complete book information.)

These days, Amy and Jim consider themselves truly retired, with no plans to follow up on "The Tightwad Gazette" successes. While the newsletter and books have brought in enough income to send all the Dacyczyn children through college and beyond, Amy still practices tightwaddery for the principle of it. The day she talked to me, she was in the process of canning 80-quart jars of green beans. Amy and Jim's main priority in life is still their kids, the same priority that put them on their frugal journey to begin with.

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