The New Frugality

How to Consume Less, Save More, and Live Better

By: Chris Farrell

Narrated by: Chris Farrell

As a once-in-a lifetime downturn continues, trusted finance reporter Chris Farrell explains that there is a silver lining to this cloud. It is accelerating a trend already underway in America toward what he calls the New Frugality.

In this friendly, approachable audio, Farrell explains both the theory and the practice of living frugally. He provides down-to-earth, practical advice for every aspect of your financial life, including:

How to always maintain a "margin of safety" in your spending

The frugal home: renting vs. owning

The two best ways to save for college

Wise debt vs. foolish debt

Why giving your money away can be "newly frugal"

The New Frugality amounts to a paradigm shift in the way we spend and save. The good news is that a frugal lifestyle is one of less waste, lower environmental impact, greater peace of mind, and, over the long run, deeper satisfaction.

©2010 Chris Farrell (P)2010 HighBridge Company

Nothing "new" about his New Frugality

I did not much care for this book. The first chapter seemed to imply that there was much ahead that was all new for our new economy, but as I listened, it was the same old stuff. This might be good - in fact, probably WOULD be good for someone just starting out on their financial life, but I'm approaching retirement, and he wasn't terribly helpful on things like how NOT to outlive your money (short of suicide), how to weather a stock market crash when most of your retirement money is in stocks, how to REALLY tighten your belt in retirement without eating cat food, etc - you know - NEW FRUGALITY. Instead, he had stuff like attitude info on how to get and keep a job and get ahead, stuff like that - Zig Zigler stuff - better for someone in their 20's rather than 50's. The author/narrator's voice is very gravelly, which you may find homey or may find irritating.

Basic but Informative

Chris Farrell's basic point is that monstrous corporations foster out-of-control spending in the gullible and innocent consumer. His advice on frugality is basic stuff, but Farrell's skillful reading -- his first -- makes up for the book's general repetition. He is not a professional reader -- he often runs over his own words, and his pauses for breath are very audible -- but he enunciates well and his tone is light and conversational, as if the listener were an old friend. Instrumental music caps each chapter, smoothing out the transitions between Farrell's determined 'green living' admonitions and his more sedate save-don't-spend mantra. An occasional lisp over hurried phrases is the only sour note marring this fast-paced overview of simple economic sense.

Not Bad Advice. Too Focused on Environmentalism

I didn't learn anything new from the book, though it has some basic good advice.
The author, contrary to the title and description, is more concerned about his environmental impact than being frugal, which I found very irritating.
I've tried to find a good book that has some novel ways to save money, and can manage to focus on that and not other stuff.
So far I've read this, in all its environmental activist nonsense, and another book that sounds as much a religious book as it is on frugality.
I'm not against conservation or religious belief. In fact I feel that most people could do more of both. But that's not why I bought this book, and I don't care for religiosity that is at the level that not a paragraph is spoken without mentioning God's greatness, or doomsday environmentalism, which is a religion in its own right.