This is an odd little self-help book. It is written by the heads of a family that have made a lot of headway in routines and processes they use to run their household and save money.

For example, they go into great detail about doing grocery shopping once a month. On this super shopping day, they divide the store into the outer ring and the inner ring. The dad takes the outer ring and the mom takes the inner ring. Each of them is armed with their coupon filing system and they try to buy everything on sale.

In another chapter, they discuss the merits of buying used cars and how to find a good used car.

The book verges on "common sense" and I had a hard time reconciling the amount of time they spent saving money. For instance, I'm not sure I could spend 8-9 hours on monthly super shopping trip. I know I probably spend that much time going to the store weekly, but I like trying to stay within the seasons and having fresher foods than the Economides argue for. For instance, they eat grapes and bananas in the first week, pears and cucumbers in the second week, apples and radishes in the third week, and celery in the fourth week. This may indeed save them money (they have five kids), but it seems to sacrifice some feeling of quality in pursuit of frugality. The super monthly grocery trip also implies a month long pre planned menu.

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