Dress Like a Million Bucks Without Spending It!

Rating:
Summary: Making the most out of a personal clothing budget
Review: Collaboratively written by JoAnn Janssen and Gwen Ellis, Dress Like A Million Bucks Without Spending It! is a practical and economic guide of making the most out of a personal clothing budget. Tips for shopping, organizing, accentuating the positive, keeping an eye out for quality, learning how to sew buttons or fix split seams, passing shoestring budget ways on to the children, and more are all covered in this superbly organized, "user friendly", and highly recommended primer.

Rating:
Summary: Not for those who like to chicly update their wardrobes.
Review: This is a very nice, well-written book, but I think the title is misleading. I pride myself on looking chic and up-to-date, despite living in a bland, cold-climate midwest city and being a mother of 4. Years ago, when my husband and I were starting out, this would have been more valuable. Then, I would have shopped at the Salvation Army. Now, I try to track down the items that will make the most impact with my regular basics, and I try to find everything at the best price possible. Finding Pendleton wool slacks, a Talbots sweater and an Ann Taylor t-shirt for 50 cents each sounds like good advice for budget-conscious 55+ year olds, but I'll stick to the advice found in books similar the new Lucky Manual of Shopping as well as common sense I've learned over the years. But this is good advice for those just starting out, those with large families on a shoestring budget and for those who look for good quality clothes to last many years, and are not necessarily too concerned with fashion.

Rating:
Summary: Turned off...
Review: To be completely honest, I've not gotten past the third chapter yet. So to be fair, I will leave 3 stars. After about the 8th page, it occurred to me that references to "church", the "bible" and "God" were appearing with unusual regularity. By the second chapter, these words/references were showing up on virtually every single page. Now, I'm pretty open-minded and feel that individuals are entitled to express their beliefs as they see fit; that being said, a fashion guide book isn't exactly the most appropriate arena for that expression. Some may not be phased by this...but it kinda freaked me out. Just something to be aware of...