Still the queen of thrift

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LEEDS, Apr 17, 2009 (Sun Journal - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- DABR | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Amy Dacyczyn of Tightwad Gazette fame is throwing a $3,000 wedding.

Daughter Becca Dacyczyn, the bride, is deciding what gets spent on what. She picked out a beautiful formal gown from David's Bridal for $480. The price sends shivers up Amy Dacyczyn's spine.

They looked on the Internet and in secondhand stores, but didn't find "the one," she said.

To keep spending in check, Becca Dacyczyn is breaking down other parts of her wedding budget. Instead of a cake they'll have a dessert bar. Wedding cakes are expensive, and she and her groom-to-be don't like cake.

Instead of spending $150 on a veil, she'll wear silk flowers. Her sister will do her hair. The outdoor wedding will be at her parents' historic farmhouse.

The reception will be potluck. Guests are asked to bring a casserole as a wedding gift. "It's win-win both ways," Dacyczyn said. "The people coming don't have to bring a $25 gift. They just bring something that cost a few dollars to put together."

A potluck reception is unconventional, but the food will be excellent, Dacyczyn said.

If the wedding costs less than $3,000, the bride and groom can keep the difference.

"So far, she's $1,000 under budget," Dacyczyn said.

Like mother, like daughter.

The wedding illustrates how people can live well and thrifty, Dacyczyn said. She retired in 1996 from writing her popular "Tightwad Gazette" newsletters.

But she still practices what she preached, still reigns as the queen of thrift.

How to spend less

Being a tightwad takes attitude, a willingness to be thrifty and the determination to meet goals, Dacyczyn said.

Most people have fixed expenses, such as rent or mortgage payments, that they can't easily change. But they can find huge savings elsewhere: in entertainment, food, clothing and energy, Dacyczyn said.

"I could give a three-day seminar on groceries," she said. "There's a lot to learn on how to shop more effectively, how to prepare food from scratch."

Spending on clothes is an area most women can cut. She wears a lot of the same clothes she's had for years.

For children's clothing, Dacyczyn recommends yard sales and thrift shops. Teens are more expensive, especially boys. Because they're hard on clothes, she doesn't buy secondhand. "You do it minimalist," she said. "Three pairs of jeans you rotate through the wash; $20 sneakers at Wal-Mart."

Girls can do better with secondhand clothes "because women buy too many clothes," she said.

For entertainment, Dacyczyn recommends people look at free ways to have fun, such as family dinners and board games.

Cooking and making things can also be fun. Dacyczyn makes quilts from scraps. One quilt in a son's room is made from old flannel shirts. And she and her husband turned scrap lumber into a bathroom cabinet. "That creative thing we do together is rich and fun."

'Big cultural mistake'

At the root of today's economic meltdown is people living beyond their means, she said.

That includes banks reselling bad debt, a lack of government oversight, car manufacturers making vehicles consumers don't want. But much was also caused by individual decisions.

"The big cultural mistake is people assume that what they're making is what they're always going to make," Dacyczyn said.

They spend accordingly. They buy a house they can't afford, take out a second mortgage and other debt.

When the bubble bursts "people have nowhere to go," she said. "People have no savings. When that plant shuts down they can't replace that job."

When there are layoffs, people get thrifty, she said. "That's the mistake we're doing as a society," she said. Thriftiness should be practiced in good times.

"What we should be doing is living beneath our means all the time," she said. "So if you lose your job but you've got $20,000 or $30,000 or $40,000 in the bank, it doesn't have to change your life. You can survive until you get your next job."

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