(Double review for Poorcraft: The Funny Book and Poorcraft: Wish You Were Here)


I have loved almost every book I've gotten by kick-starting, and I loved the idea of a comic book serious about being frugal without losing the beauty in your life -- both an original, for everyday living, and one for traveling, but reading this book is like scrolling through pages of fingernails on a chalkboard for me. I don't specifically like the art, or the presentation, or the characters, or how they treat each other. Mleh. I guess they couldn't all be perfect gold. But I'm still glad if these things I already knew (and that weren't very specifically aligned for my life) help someone else. ( )

Where was this book when I was just becoming an adult? It would have spared me a lot of anguish and given me a better skill set. Reading it now, I found I already knew most of the lessons covered here, but a few I didn't learn even til within the last year (thanks, pandemic!). This really is a great resource if someone is struggling to get on their feet or for a kid who's about ready to fly the coop. ( )

This book reminded me a lot of Larry Gonick's "Cartoon Guide To..." books, like "The Cartoon Guide to Computers". It does a pretty good job of explaining some important concepts in an entertaining fashion. That said, there is some important information that the book omits, and some significant geographic biases that reflect the book's applicability.

The book has a metropolitan geographic bias going with it. There are pieces of advice that are pretty much designed to work great if you're living in a city or suburb with a well organized mass transit system where the busses don't turn into pumpkins, everywhere you need to go is convenient to mass transit, and the climate is conducive to walking or biking. If you live in a suburban community that doesn't have mass transit, or the mass transit turns into pumpkins early in the morning/late in the evening/in the middle of the day, you're out of luck. Near as I can tell, the book's advice if you're stuck in those circumstances is "move" - which is not what I'd consider useful - especially if the problem isn't limited to your suburb (as I gather this a problem that is not uncommon in the southwest, midwest, and south of the US, as well as some parts of the Pacific Northwest).

All of this gives the book what I'd call an anti-car bias. While cars are certainly spendy, but one of the recurring refrains in the book is that you should get rid of your car, which, related to the above geographic concerns, I'd consider not to be valuable advice in most cases in the US. This is perhaps aggravated by the fact that while this book is at least willing to give lip service to the idea that you might need a car, they do not have any material in the book on how to maintain your car for less - like getting Haynes guides from the local library, getting parts from U-Pull-It places or online. If you're on a tight budget, being able to do maintenance on your own car is incredibly useful, and not having any discussion on doing this, is almost absurd. For that matter, you could probably put some good basic bicycle maintenance advice in there as well (lubricating the bike, replacing chains, etc.)

That said, there is some definitely useful stuff in here. The entertainment chapter is pretty well done, though I think that the chapter really doesn't stress enough how utterly important and useful libraries are when you're on a limited income. I generally liked the cooking section, though having a discussion on farmer's markets would be nice as well. Also, considering the cost involved, the urban agriculture portion of the book was somewhat iffy. In particular, the portion about raising farm animals felt like something that could, and should have been cut entirely, particularly since that space could probably have been used for something else. ( )

This is the best guide to read for stretching that dollar. This comic gives you ways to save on transportation, housing, food, and more. A lot of ‘save every penny’ advice can leave the reader wondering how they’re supposed to have any fun, and this books helps with that too, showing that inexpensive entertainment is all around. I would give this book to every high school and college graduate in the country if I could. High school consumer education classes would do well to include this book in their curricula. Seriously, it’s really good advice packaged in a fun and non-intimidating fashion. And if you like this, you may want to check out Poorcraft: Wish You Were Here: A Tightwad’s Guide to Travel. ( )

Invaluable resource in an approachable, enjoyable package. Although slightly out of date, the methods described to budget your life without destroying fun are applicable and so useful. Everyone should read this. ( )