Amy won national attention in 1990 by stuffing her real-life tips into the Tightwad Gazette, the wildly successful monthly newsletter that she folded last month so she could spend more time with her family. By shopping at yard sales, growing 500 quarts of their own food every year and shunning frills like vacations, babysitters, new toys and new clothes, the family keeps its annual expenses to an incredible $17,580-less than half the $39,537 that an average family of six spends. Meet America's most celebrated frugal family: Amy and Jim Dacyczyn (sounds like decision), Alec, Jamie (11), Neal (9), Becca (8) and twins Brad and Laura (5). Total cost per lunch box, including homemade blueberry tarts and juice from frozen concentrate: a thrifty 50. Those sandwiches? They're made on home-baked bread (35 for a 1 1/2-pound loaf), with discounted peanut butter bought by the case (99 for an 18-ounce jar) and jelly the family made from free wild grapes. The other ingredients-flour, sugar, raisins, eggs and baking powder-were purchased in bulk at rock-bottom prices at local food markets. Those muffins? They're mostly a blenderized combination of stale cornbread, leftover scones and pastry scraps the average baker would trash without a thought.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |