The Penny Pincher's Book Revisited: Living Better For Less

By John & Irma Mustoe
Published by Souvenir Press, paperback, £7.99

Reviewed by Colin Serjent

With the many issues of recycling very much in the news, this is a timely issue of a fascinating and highly instructive book dedicated to exploring ideas on how to economise, recycle and derive the most benefit from what we purchase and consume.

It provides many suggestions on how to become more eco-friendly, less wasteful and thrifty in our lives. If only the major businesses around the world could adopt a similar stance!

Chapter headings include; Intelligent Shopping, Recycling to Save Money and Maybe the Planet, Gardening and Healthy Eating, Appliances - Buying, Using and Repairing, and DIY - You Really Can Do It. I am not sure about the latter - I am the proverbial bloke who can't put up a shelf!

In regard to recycling - which I am involved in to some degree - I am staging a series of workshops during September related to turning waste products and found objects into art work - it was apparently kickstarted in Europe after one country tried to prevent another country getting a toehold into their market, so banned the foreign produce (i.e.. beer cans) because they stated that they were not recyclable, which is not the case.

Some suggestions in the book on how to recycle - a number of them very imaginative - include using old curtains to be turned into tea towels or dishcloths; tall thin bottles make good rolling pins; door knobs, drawer knobs and bed knobs can be mounted on a board on the wall and used as a coat rack; turn an out of date map into a lampshade - sorry I don't understand this one; and save quizzes and puzzles from newspapers and magazines and store them for use in Christmas crackers.

One query I have to make though; is the paper used to produce this book recycled paper? There is no indication in the book whether or not this is the case.

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