Cash in the City: Affording Manolos, Martinis and Manicures on a Working Girl's Salary

Rating:
Summary: Lacking in Content
Review: As the last reviewer indicated, this book does indeed have a catchy title. What lies within thought is not anything quite as catchy. Most tips are briefly touched upon without going into more in depth detail. The book seems to be written for single women and even goes as far as to give tips on obtaining and keeping men. Which is out of the subject title boundaries. If the tips were good, I might have been ok with that. The tips were poor, one example being don't have too neat of an apartment because men don't like that. Better advice - just be yourself rather that worrying whether your apartment is too neat. Most men, from my experience, really don't care.

Rating:
Summary: this book is about so much more than affording treats!
Review: Cash in the City is a pithy conglomerate of all the diverse money-saving tips interspersed in fashion mags and brought together in one entertaining volume, divided into chapters. There are inventive ideas on clothes-buying, restaurant meals, decorating an apartment, etc as well as websites to help you out.

There are also great tips worthy of any other personal finance tome on how to start saving, investing and buying real estate.

I do disagree with the generalizations of what men want i.e. too many pets scare away guys. They're stereotypes and detract from the otherwise smart content of the book. My guy friend actually urges me to adopt a cat!

Rating:
Summary: A great book for working girls
Review: I bought Cash in the City based on a review that I read in the USA Today newspaper. I can say that I was not dissapointed. This book gives great tips for any hard working girl on saving money and getting ahead in tough economy. Truly a must read!

Rating:
Summary: For College Graduates or Anyone Starting Over Professionally
Review: I read the positive reviews of "Cash in the City" and I have to admit, they were pretty helpful. I am starting over in profession and am looking for a way to spend money without having to break the bank. Like the women featured in the book, I worry about not having enough money to get by as I re-enter college and seek a career which may start out at entry level. But I know what I want and strive to get there. Rather than worry about what I don't have, I make do with what I have and save on the things that I want. CITC offers that piece of information I am looking for when I get out there into the real world. Thank you amazon.com reviewers for recommending this book. It is greatly appreciated.

Rating:
Summary: For College Graduates or Anyone Starting Over Professionally
Review: I read the positive reviews of "Cash in the City" and I have to admit, they were pretty helpful. I am starting over in profession and am looking for a way to spend money without having to break the bank. Like the women featured in the book, I worry about not having enough money to get by as I re-enter college and seek a career which may start out at entry level. But I know what I want and strive to get there. Rather than worry about what I don't have, I make do with what I have and save on the things that I want. CITC offers that piece of information I am looking for when I get out there into the real world. Thank you amazon.com reviewers for recommending this book. It is greatly appreciated.

Rating:
Summary: Catchy title, interesting premise, but disappointing content
Review: I was attracted to this book's title as I am a fan of the show Sex and The City. However, I found this work a complete disappointment and somewhat condescending to women.

Most of us know the difference between a TV fantasy and real life, but Ms Fairly doesn't seem to think that we do. Throughout the book, Ms Fairley not makes the presumption that ALL women are trifling love starved fashion victims with no common sense, she also perpetuates insulting and ridiculous stereotypes about women living in rural areas by comparing them unfavorably with women who live in major cities. What she says about city and rural lifestyles may have been true about 50 years ago, but nowadays, we Oregon "hayseeds" are also able to enjoy many of the amenities that our big city sisters have at their well manicured fingertips. We're able to shop at Bloomingdales, Dean and DeLuca or even Harrod's on line, and even the smallest of towns now boast of having least one manicurist,day spa and gourmet coffee house, plus we have the added benefit of beautiful forest, clean air and water reasonable cost of living and a low crime rate!

Thanks to Oprahs book club, amazon.com, cable TV and the Internet, we are just as was well informed as the average city dweller. Someday, we may even order Manolos on line, but why someone would want to spend the equivalent of two paychecks on a pair of shoes is beyond me!

Many of us "country bumpkins" enjoy arts, culture, fashion, and the other pleasures of city life. We just have an antipathy toward paying overpriced rents, noise, congestion, high crime, incessant rudeness, plastic people and the relentless competition for questionable men and for pithy "assistant" jobs which are really coverups for mundane office jobs. Women who live in rural areas are not necessarily "unsophisticated hicks with no ambitions or dreams"--it just may mean we are SANE! Even Lisa Douglas (Eva Gabor) on the 60's sitcom "Green Acres" never gave up her pegnoirs and champagne, dahlink!

Also, I wonder what makes Ms Fairley such an expert on all men? My man happens to LOVE flowers as well as cats! Real men like women who aren't afraid to be themselves instead of ones who knuckle under pressure to be what some media produced "image" tells them to be.

The actual financial advice given in the book is sound, but it's hard to sift through all the hubris to get to it. There are many great well written books out there offering cogent and sensible financial advice to young women. Sadly,I can't say this book is one of them.

Rating:
Summary: a useful gift!
Review: If you are the city girl who wants to look like a million bucks, but wants to stay on a reasonable budget, then "Cash In the City: Affording Manolos, Martinis and Manicures on a Working Girl's Salary" is the perfect book for you! Fairley truly knows how to make the reader feel as if they are talking to a friend. Not only are the tips and suggestions helpful, but informative as well. From learning how to save $5 dollars a week in an envelope for monthly makeup treats, to learning the ins and outs of your 401(k) plan, Cash in the City has it all. It's a fun guide that is sure to become a city girl's bible.