Why? Why can't I stop reading "frugal living" books?

The latest one I read was so bad it brought to mind one of my favorite quotes from a television show: "It's like watching a car crash. Into puppies."*

Yet another frugal living book I didn't enjoy and didn't learn anything from (but yet read all the way through) was Natalie P. McNeal's The Frugalista Files: How One Woman Got Out of Debt Without Giving Up the Fabulous Life. It's basically McNeal's year-long diary, which was also posted at TheFrugalista.com, of trying to get out of debt and live more frugally. And when I say diary, I mean diary: like a lot of blogs-into-books, it reads like it was lifted wholesale from the website without much of an editorial look-over. I hate that.** This was also published by Harlequin, which should have tipped me off. Nothing against Harlequin, or romances (I like romances, actually, the juicier the better), I just don't think it's a publishing concern known for its work with serious nonfiction.

McNeal's voice is pleasant enough, even though she's not saying anything new (p. 85, ah, it's the obligatory latte quote: "Death to the latte! And it's about time. Middle-class Americans are dropping their $4 lattes and brewing coffee at home."), she doesn't actually get out of all her debt in the course of a year, and she really does, as far as I can tell, give up a lot of the "fabulous life"--for instance, she has to stop traveling as much with her friends. (A lot of her "buy nothing" frugal strategy also seems to be to go along with her friends buying her drinks and dinners out--not a bad strategy, but one you have to be pretty damn charming to pull off.) She does talk at length about her job as a reporter for the Miami Herald, and the downsizing in the newspaper business, which I found interesting (if sad), and I must say I finished the book without rancor, wishing her luck in her freelance career. But all in all? A pretty forgettable read:

"February 3. I had a love affair with George this morning. George Foreman, that is. It's Sunday and I had to work today, so George and I grilled some chicken breasts. I packed the chicken, some salad and an apple in a bag.*** I like this cooking healthy stuff, but it sure isn't as filling as eating out." (p. 20.)

So why? WHY can't I stop reading these frugal books? I rarely find them helpful, and they're now actively starting to annoy me, as I'm finding it increasingly naive to think we're all going to "frugal" the country back into shape--as if not buying as many meals out is going to put a dent in our personal debt (or our national spending, much of which is disappearing into the money pit that is our "defense" and military spending. For some reason these books are like candy to me****, but much like candy, I think it's probably time to give them up.

*Oh, the short-lived CBC series "An American in Canada," we hardly got to know ye.

**I like blogs, and I like books. I like them for different reasons. This is not to say a good blog can't make a good book, but come on, people, tidy up your writing a little bit when publishing it in book form.

***I think she needs the serial comma here too.

****I ate so much candy this weekend it was obscene.

Comments

[lesbrarian]

1. I [heart] the Oxford comma. ("I'd like to thank my parents, Ayn Rand and God.")
2. Don't feel bad, I just ate a whole box of chocolates.
3. These fucking people who think they're fucking brilliant because they learned to cook at home for a change? Fuck them. Those of us who grew up in poverty, and still struggle to make ends meet, have it ingrained in our souls to worry about where the next meal is coming from and whether we can afford to see the doctor about this cough. When you've fretted over whether you can make three square meals from a tomato and a half-packet of crackers, you don't have much sympathy for people who BELATEDLY realize they could cut back on the lattes.

And I've never been really really poor, like so many Americans, and never really really really REALLY poor, like people who don't have clean water or electricity.

Fuck you, latte people. Fuck you.

[Citizen Reader]

Lesbrarian,
I like the way you fucking roll.
I couldn't agree more with everything you say. I try to be as frugal as possible (I have been wearing the same pair of pants every day since last October--ask Mr. CR), but I have never worried where the next meal is coming from (although my farm parents didn't have health insurance, except for huge disasters, so I well remember the "well, is it bad enough to go to the doctor yet?" conundrum). I so desperately hope not to get to that point, and have no assurance that I won't, so I too say, do better than telling me to stop buying lattes.

[Sarah]

I'm finding it increasingly naive to think we're all going to "frugal" the country back into shape . . .

Brilliant, CR, brilliant! It's the total - excuse me - "money quote". There is only so much you can do, unless you truly go "off the grid" or become like the Tightwad Gazette lady. It's like taking out single words in a 2500 word that needs to be 750. Sooner or later you have to drastically overhaul the entire infrastructure. * It's like those comments on so many blogs (and yes, I can't stop reading them) where the answer to structural unemployment and millions of 40-50 somethings losing their health insurance and life savings - start an Internet business!! Oh yeah, that's a healthy economy - everyone selling something over the internet.

* in keeping with the tone of the thread, should that be "entire fucking infrastructure"?

[Citizen Reader]

Sarah,
to answer your postscript: yes it fucking should be.
Matt Taibbi would be so proud of us.
I agree with you about the laughability of most responses to people becoming increasingly worried about work, living expenses, and health insurance. Yeah, just "put in a few more hours" at work. Like that's always feasible, and like we all have so many hours to spare (and we all have jobs to work extra hours at, of course). There wasn't much in this Frugalista book about health insurance either---she did have to go to the ER with an ovarian cyst at one point, and pay for some of that, but towards the end when she started freelancing it there still wasn't much mention of how much her health insurance premiums* were going to be. She got a $10,000 buyout from the Miami Herald--but that isn't going to last long when you start paying your own health premiums.

*Sorry, fucking health insurance premiums.

[bybee]

Can I just say that I love Lesbrarian?

Those quotes took dullness to a new dull.

[Citizen Reader]

Bybee,
Of course you can say you love Lesbrarian. We're big fans of Lesbrarian here.
You're right on the dullness scale, by the way.

[lesbrarian]

Per the vulgar theme of this thread, I am going to take liberties and construe that one comment like so: "Can I just say that I fucking love Lesbrarian?"

:-)

Thanks, bybee!