Book Review: Dirt Cheap Adult by Amanda Kintz

The personal finance community often gets a bad rap for glamorizing frugality, which for many is just a way of life.

Although frugality is a way of life for some, it’s hardly the norm in our society, as 78% of U.S. households live paycheck to paycheck.

It can be easy to write off personal finance advice from people who seem like they don’t know what your life is like.

Enter Amanda Kintz.

For those unfamiliar with Amanda, she writes over at Crunchy Hippie Life. Her content focuses on how anyone can live an eco-friendly lifestyle, regardless the budget. During their first year of marriage, Amanda and her husband lived on $16,000 total.

Amanda sent me a review copy of her latest book, Dirt Cheap Adult: A Millennial’s Guide to Life on a Budget, which lays out her tips for living on less. Using the tips in this book, Amanda and her husband were able to become debt free and accomplish many other financial goals, all while maintaining their healthy, eco-friendly, and budget-friendly lifestyle.

First impressions

This is a very quick and enjoyable read. I loved Amanda’s conversational style immediately. She truly makes a somewhat unfamiliar and intimidating subject more approachable.

I also like her relatability. She sprinkles personal stories in with her tips, which keeps things interesting.

The book touches on five sections: finances, food, health, lifestyle, and “big scary adult stuff.” Let’s look at each more closely.

Finances

This section is great for beginners looking for a primer on personal finance.

Here, Amanda includes templates and tips on budgeting strategies, getting out of debt, money mindset, and lifestyle inflation. She also discusses other things the reader can do to improve their finances, such as ways to cut costs and save money.

I disagree with some of her tips, such as the use of debt consolidation to improve your credit score. People often try debt consolidation and feel that they’ve done something when all they’ve done is move the debt around. They don’t change the behavior that led to their overspending and debt in the first place.

I also found some of her cost-saving tips to be a bit too frugal for me. Nevertheless, I recognize that everyone’s frugality levels are different and found the tips to be creative and likely to be effective overall.

Food

I was most impressed by this section of the book.

First of all, Amanda fed her family on $25 per week. Even before kids, Mr. TMG and I spent more than that.

Secondly, I LOVE that she includes so many recipes and meal plans to show you how she achieved that spending rate while still making some pretty healthy meals.

I especially appreciated the list of staples to keep in your kitchen.

Health

This was the most interesting section to me.

In addition to detailing the natural healthcare items you should keep on hand, Amanda also explains how you can supplement your insurance coverage with deal sites like Groupon.

Say whaaa?

This section, too, includes some frugal living tips that I wouldn’t implement myself but that others may find useful.

Lifestyle

Amanda offers plenty of tips for saving on your lifestyle without sacrificing life.

There are tips for entertainment, gift giving, eco-living, and more.

The thing that I like most is that Amanda and her family actually used the suggestions included here, so they definitely work.

“Big Scary Adult Stuff”

The title of this section made me laugh.

Here, Amanda gives a few tips on such topics as apartment leases, renting vs. buying, laundry, buying a car, paying for higher education, and more.

All important things to know about in adulthood.

Suggestions for improvement

I’d love to see a table of contents in this book. It would make navigating the book, especially revisiting previously-read sections, easier.

The book is also a bit disjointed at times. Some of the topics within a given section don’t naturally flow. And although I like the “Big Scary Adult Stuff” section, it doesn’t seem to fit the rest of the book.

I’d like to see the topics either rearranged or pared down.

Recommendation

All in all, this is a solid book detailing the ins and outs of a frugal, healthy lifestyle.

I recommend it for people looking to learn how to save more and for those interested in learning more about eco-living on a frugal budget.

Are you interested in frugal living? Think this book may be helpful for you?