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Frugal Indulgents: How to Cultivate Decadence When Your Age and Salary Are Under 30
Frugal Indulgents offers clever, real-life advice on how to enjoy life on a low budget. Packed with quizzes, profiles, lists, and a glossary of cunning lingo, the book reveals how to score a low-rent apartment, buy elegant threads on a shoestring budget, perfect the art of country home crashing for free vacations, and enjoy swank urban scenery for hours by making one martini last a good, long time.
- GenresNonfiction
204 pages, Paperback
First published April 15, 1997
9 people want to read
About the author
Kera Bolonik
7 books3 followersKera Bolonik is a freelance writer who got her start as a book editor. She is also a book critic, and has written about television series as well.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 27, 2015
This book proved to me that I should always, always, always check the publication date. Almost 20 years on, the advice doesn't hold up--which is a shame, because I would have loved tips on how to have a cultured life in a large city while earning almost no money.
I was shocked at some the advice the authors gave--so many questionable moral and ethical decisions, as well as just plain terrible financial advice. (Although really, why should I be taking financial advice from "lifestyle editors"?) "Shop all the time." "Sign up for every store credit card." Indulge in dry cleaning: "Frequent dry cleaning encourages the frequent wearing of fabulous fabrics like wool and linen. You are all grown up now; dry cleaning helps wean you from your all-cotton college diet. Think of dry cleaners as pawnshops; if you don't have the money to pick up your clothes when they're ready, simply leave them in hock until your next paycheck arrives." (56)
They endorse:
-- Buying brand-name goods at discount stores and then 'returning' the item to the brand-name store to exchange for another item. (Not sure if this is still possible, but undoubtedly still wrong.)
-- "Treat a discount boutique as your local library. Take out a dress on your credit card and return it the next day." (70)
-- Kind of pointless these days in a time of cellphones where long-distance no longer exists, but again, still wrong: "Whenever possible, make personal calls from the office. Chatting with friends ('clients' if anyone asks) distant climes is a pleasant and economical way to break up the work day." (86)
-- "Arrive at the theater at intermission with an old issue of Playbill rolled up so the cover is hidden. Blend in with the legitimate patrons when they come out for fresh air, then file back in with them and take a seat in the balcony or stand in the back. You'll see only half the show, but the price is right." (108)
-- "Don't ever pay for drugs. Ingratiate yourself with those who do. Hang out with recreational users. They love the company, the adventure, the possibilities. Someone always has a joint that needs sharing...Keep drugs a recreational pastime." (117) But it's perfectly fine to "drop a hit of ecstasy" (120) before going to a party. New York in the 1990s must have been an interesting place...
-- And lying. So much lying. Lying to get an upgrade on an airplane. Lying to get a ticket to see a show.
The *one* plus to this book is that the authors were inclusive: all kinds of relationships were used as examples. But that notwithstanding, there is NOTHING to recommend this book. Nothing.
I was shocked at some the advice the authors gave--so many questionable moral and ethical decisions, as well as just plain terrible financial advice. (Although really, why should I be taking financial advice from "lifestyle editors"?) "Shop all the time." "Sign up for every store credit card." Indulge in dry cleaning: "Frequent dry cleaning encourages the frequent wearing of fabulous fabrics like wool and linen. You are all grown up now; dry cleaning helps wean you from your all-cotton college diet. Think of dry cleaners as pawnshops; if you don't have the money to pick up your clothes when they're ready, simply leave them in hock until your next paycheck arrives." (56)
They endorse:
-- Buying brand-name goods at discount stores and then 'returning' the item to the brand-name store to exchange for another item. (Not sure if this is still possible, but undoubtedly still wrong.)
-- "Treat a discount boutique as your local library. Take out a dress on your credit card and return it the next day." (70)
-- Kind of pointless these days in a time of cellphones where long-distance no longer exists, but again, still wrong: "Whenever possible, make personal calls from the office. Chatting with friends ('clients' if anyone asks) distant climes is a pleasant and economical way to break up the work day." (86)
-- "Arrive at the theater at intermission with an old issue of Playbill rolled up so the cover is hidden. Blend in with the legitimate patrons when they come out for fresh air, then file back in with them and take a seat in the balcony or stand in the back. You'll see only half the show, but the price is right." (108)
-- "Don't ever pay for drugs. Ingratiate yourself with those who do. Hang out with recreational users. They love the company, the adventure, the possibilities. Someone always has a joint that needs sharing...Keep drugs a recreational pastime." (117) But it's perfectly fine to "drop a hit of ecstasy" (120) before going to a party. New York in the 1990s must have been an interesting place...
-- And lying. So much lying. Lying to get an upgrade on an airplane. Lying to get a ticket to see a show.
The *one* plus to this book is that the authors were inclusive: all kinds of relationships were used as examples. But that notwithstanding, there is NOTHING to recommend this book. Nothing.
March 12, 2012
things i learned from this book:
-buying clothes is more important than buying food, because food will just make you fat anyway.
-throw a fit to get what you want with management.
-or with your friends, connive.
maybe it's supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, but i was looking for a few more practical tips and it's not worth my time to dig around trying to find them.
-buying clothes is more important than buying food, because food will just make you fat anyway.
-throw a fit to get what you want with management.
-or with your friends, connive.
maybe it's supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, but i was looking for a few more practical tips and it's not worth my time to dig around trying to find them.
June 8, 2008
This book should have been called How to Manipulate and Monopolize for Personal Gain. It felt dirty reading how to mooch off everything from free samples at the market to your own friends and lover. As a lifestyle? No thanks.
August 28, 2013
Had to put this one down. I can't figure out if this is humor or really advice (some advice seems really off). The tone is chatty and fun though.
June 24, 2021
Awful! Not at all what I expected. The "correct" answers to their "quizzes" are a joke. Plus, I didn't order this book so I could take a dumb quiz. I was looking for practical tips...only to find out this book was written in 1997 and by lifestyle editors who have three pages dedicated to their own lingo like "causemopolitan", "glambidextrous", infauxmation", and "slutterific". HARD PASS. Selling this as soon as I can, although I pity the fool who'll buy it.
January 3, 2020
Right, so most of this advice was immoral/unethical or downright illegal. At least it was written kind of well? The concept was cool... But no thanks.
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August 27, 2010Wonderful and hilarious advice
January 21, 2008
Sadly, the title is probably the best thing this book has going for it.
February 26, 2011
How to be fabulous on the cheap. I flove this book!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews