Small booklet, 52 pages, of the author’s personal account of her family’s poverty and feeding them for $200 per month. More of a diary/account of how bad her family had life. Gives generic advice, not much new.
http://www.amazon.com/Joyful-Shopping-Cooking-Frugally-ebook/dp/B0077H7NNQ/ref=pd_sim_kstore_2
Another personal account of poverty and feeding a family of seven for $200/month or so, 142 pages. Nothing much new here for experienced and savvy shoppers.
My review: Both give the advice of going directly to a butcher or country farm to buy directly from the butcher, cutting out the middleman grocery store and paying $.75-2.00 per pound of meat. I really do not see how realistic that is for a majority of Americans out there, especially those of us that live in the cities and small towns that do not have direct access to an independent butcher or farm, nor do we have extra freezer space to put all that meat–half a cow, according to one of the books.
Another gripe I have, is they are both heavy on high-carb, high-calorie and high-fat content, so those of us with one or more health issue, such as heart disease, diabetes, etc cannot follow their advice.
The positive, is that they both talk about using coupons for household goods, cleaning agents and so forth, and using that money towards vegetables and other foods. I understand that people do not have enough money for healthy, nutritious vegetables and low-fat meats, but to emphasize high-carb and high-fat I cannot endorse.
I also commend both ladies for their cost-cutting measures, using store cards, coupons, buying in bulk when available. Good generic advice for beginning shoppers and families.
Brick ONeil 