The author, Lorilee Craker wanted to sell her house and move to a bigger one. The problem was her house was appraised at $27,000 less than what she and her husband paid for it. She decided it was time for become more thrifty to be able buy another house. She heard about the Amish surviving the recent economic crisis without losing their properties. She went straight to the source and interviewed several people in the Amish community to see how they dealt with finances.

Lorilee learned many things about the Amish that she could apply to her own life. For example, she learned that the Amish always pay their bills on time and do not believe in having any kind of debt. They don't buy new, they go to secondhand stores and garage sales. They barter their services/goods for other's services/goods. The Amish use things until they wear out–completely. They repurpose, reuse and reclaim everything. This is just part of the list. Lorilee Cracker tells the reader the ways she and many other people have applied what she learned to their own lives.

She gave a very useful formula for figuring out how many hours a person has to work to buy a desired item. Write down your pretax income, subtract 25 percent for taxes, and divide what's left by 2,000 (the hours you work in a year). This is the amount you make per hour. Take the cost of the item and divide by the amount you make per hour. Is the item worth the hours you work to pay for it?

The author discovered the lifestyle of the Amish - their thriftiness, self-control concerning purchases, sharing with others and sense of community is what causes them to thrive in a world so full of financial distress.

The one thing I didn't care for in the book was the author's use of humor. It is found throughout the book. I guess it's not my type of humor. To me it almost seemed degrading to the Amish. She said things like "Somehow Menno, rocking the bowl haircut, beard, and suspenders, didn't look surprised", "...have a wide repertoire of desserts under their bonnets", and "So when Moses and Mary grow up and hitch their buggies together, they won't be making many thoughtless and trivial purchases".

I would recommend this book for anyone is looking to cut spending and to learn to how to save their money in ways they may not have thought about. I would say you have to like humor to really enjoy this book. There is a good amount of background information about the Amish in this book, which I enjoyed reading about.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for my honest review.

In Lorilee Craker's book "Money Secrets Of The Amish" she not only has cool story's of some Amish family's who have saved money amazingly but also has wonderful advise on how you can save money as well!!

And she also gives advise on how to get more out of the money that you do spend!!This book has some great tips and I really enjoyed it!! I knew the Amish were good with money, but I apparently did not know how good!! Not only do they wear stuff out and use it up, and are really good at building things they need, but they are great at finding amazing thrift deals too!! And wow are they ever great at reusing/recycling things!!

And in this book Lorilee Craker has some great ideas about how you can start being thrifty too!! I mean who wouldn't want to keep more money in there wallet and less in the store cashrester? And I really like how she tells about cool reuse ideas like useing a old dish soap bottle instead of the cheap store bought water guns!! And useing a ball of aluminum foil tossed in your dryer with the wet laundry instead of dryer sheets!! Who would have guessed it would removes static and never needs to be changed!! If you are interested in learning some new tricks on how to save money, you should check out Lorilee Craker's book!!

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. The opinions are my own.

New York Times best-selling author, Lorilee Craker, has done her homework and done it well. She not only lists principles that are ingrained with the Amish, principles that have kept them on an even economic keel even in these hard times, but illustrates them with abundant stories and examples. (I just wish she'd included the recipes for shoo-fly pie and similar dishes). She covers such obvious things as delayed gratification, avoiding debt, and the time-honored principle of "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." But she also takes a hard look at the way the Amish raise their children, with examples and admonitions that made me think, again and again, "Yes, we need to adopt those tenets."

I got this book for free, with no promise that I'd give it a good review, but I do recommend it, not just for the economic principles it illustrates but the family values it teaches, values that are sorely lacking in our modern society.

I love to save money in all different ways so this book is right up my alley. Being retired and on a fixed income involves a totally new way to look at frugal ways to save money. In this book we learn from the best at making things last and the art of recycling.

The author found during 2008 during the economic collapse that her work was drying up also. She started investigating the Amish culture to be serene, simple and rooted in centuries past that held financial wisdom to me. During her period of "extreme thrift" she researched the Amish way of wealth. She learned tips on saving, spending and investing and how to live a lifestyle extravagant in peach, sharing, family and community closeness. One of her funny quotes "Could a clotheshorse, spendthrift, clueless about-cash girl like me actually spend less, save more, and make shoofly pie?'.

We Americans are a blessed society with enormous wealth to spend our money any way we want to. To think that God actually only wants 10% of HIS money and lets us spend 90% how we want to is mind boggeling. This book helps you retrain your brain to be more frugal with practical and simple money saving ideas.

My favorite chapter was Shopping Secondhand. She shops at a secondhand store and saves a ton of money then heads to Goodwill and buys 9 items that would have cost $237.48 and she spent $25.50 for a savings of @211.98. Now that is "fun shopping" As the Amish say "You don't have to buy something new to buy something good".

She has chapters on: Pay on time-rethinking gifts-saving-de-spoil the kids-to bulk or not to bulk-bartering-and the best things in life are free.

Great book, fun read, lots of tips to help my frugal life more and a good book to give to a newly married couple or kids going off to college.

I received this book free for my honest opinion of it and so appreciated this great read.

Money Secrets of the Amish: Finding True Abundance in Simplicity, Sharing and Saving

In Money Secrets of the Amish, readers go on an "Amish money makeover," learning the choices, secrets, and disciplines that safeguarded the contentment and the coffers of America's favorite plain folk by spending less, saving more, and getting happier doing it.

MY REVIEW:

Some ideas mentioned in this book I had either already read about somewhere else, or I already am doing. BUT, the suggestions I haven't read were awesome! Like did you know there is a coupe websites where you can swap items for talents, or items for items, etc.? I didn't, and it was valuable information (I haven't swapped yet, but I plan on doing it very shortly). Swapping can save you a lot of money, especially if you swap something you no longer want for something you really need. I'm not going to be kind though and tell you what the website is, though. You'll have to pick up the book and read it for yourself to find out :-)

I really enjoyed reading this to learn more, and I hope that others thing the same.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 : "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."