How to Live on Nothing

I would just like to inform Robyn Russell (Fairbanks, Alaska) who wrote the review below that her assumption was correct, the author did pratice what she wrote. Aunt Joan as I would call her was my neighbor and the best friend a young girl could have growing up in the rural country. To this day I remember our walks in the woods and how she would explain to me all about the plants around us, what ones you could eat, their uses and so on. She was a remarkable woman who was way ahead of the feminist movement. You certainly can't go wrong with her book

I came across this book in my university library and found it dated, but very charming and still full of practical tips. Basically, in order to save money and live better, it pays to learn how to do a lot of things yourself from simple home repairs to making and foraging for your own food. The author gives the impression that she is not just flogging this advice, but that she has tried it out for herself--with varying results which is a big part of the charm of this book. I'm searching around now to find a used copy for myself.

I read Joan R. Shortney's "How to live on Nothing" back when it was first published in the early 1970's.Of course that was the era when books of this nature, on what we called "back to nature", were more commonplace than they are now. I remember eagerly reading Shortney's chapter on making your own pair of moccasins,or clogs. She even gave you step by step directions on how to make home brewed dandelion wine! What made this book so interesting was that she weaved her practical applications along with her biography. I saw through her words the life of a fledgling journalist in pre war II New York CIty. I met the friends of her youth, the greek itinerant poet who lived on virtually nothing amidst the trees of Central Park, the old man in upstate New York who showed his debt ridden daughter's family how to forage for edible plants, and how to have fun without spending any money at all. Perhaps the most well thumbed chapter for me was the one on camping. Shortney lists this pastime as the one least expensive and most enjoyable. Again, she highlights equipment needed and best places to go, but she does so with her own memories of travelling across country with her husband, Bill, in their well worn station wagon. Although, her chapter on finding shelter is certainly outdated,(she is able to rent a house on Long Island for less than $100 a month), it is intriguing nonetheless,and appeals to my sense of nostalgia with a hint of practicality. My copy is carefully preserved in plastic wrap now, the pages falling away from the binding. But I revisit it often, reaffirming the values of simple living that have become rather an anachronism in this possession ridden age we now face.