While at the Financial Blogger Conference in St. Louis, I ran into Brian J. O’Connor, personal finance editor and columnist for The Detroit News. He was in the Expo Hall, handing out copies of his book, “The $1,000 Challenge: How One Family Slashed its Budget Without Moving Under a Bridge or Living on Government Cheese.”
I happened to have read the book (got an advance uncorrected proof) and was thus able to provide him with potentially the strangest endorsement for the cover of the second edition: “Your book helped me get through my colonoscopy prep.”
He did blink a bit at that, but apparently being a PF writer in Detroit exposes you to all sorts of odd people.
I’d kept the galleys in the bathroom during the, uh, cleansing part of the prep, so as to get a little work done despite my frequent trips to the john. Turns out it was the right move, so to speak: The book is funny as well as well-researched and it took my mind off the current circumstances.
O’Connor’s premise is simple: As middle-class budgets get squeezed ever more tightly, how can we actually save in the face of price increases of the most basic needs?
But he did it, trimming his own family’s budget fairly ruthlessly — yet also fairly painlessly. That’s why I’m giving the book away: to inspire others to find ways to rearrange their own expenses.
I’m tossing this post out there on faith, because I’m not sure how many people will actually be able to read it. That’s because the site continues to flutter and flicker.
Last month I was contacted by 
