2022 should not have brought about a panicked awareness to be frugal. But generations post-Great Depression have negated squeezing that nickel. From dating to dated foods, from lawncare to childcare, and from clothing to credit cards, O'Neal covers all the daily ways bucks can be more wisely unspent.

Some of O'Neal's suggestions are not for the squeamish or well-heeled but easily make for common sense practices in saving money.

O'Neal's anecdotal and humorist style will entertain you through clever and easy ways to stretch your dollar, conserve goods and personal resources, help with parenting, and bring several smiles along the way. Driving gloves? Are you kidding?

You won't be coached on how to invest, but you will be given ideas to help pay off your mortgage. Charge your adult, out of school, working children rent!

No advice for playing the stock market, but how to double your purchase power. Add water to that almost empty shampoo bottle.

No preaching about saving the environment, but ways to conserve and reuse more efficiently. Wine corks make great trivets. Scrap wood? Kindling! Moldy cheese? Shave it.

O'Neal was influenced by depression-age grandparents and parents, frugality, a need. Broken tools and machines were fixed, not replaced. Wire, a hammer, and duct tape were all one needed.

About the Author

Michael O'Neal earned his way through college while working three jobs. He survived by appreciating the value of a hard-earned dollar. He continued a practice of discretionary spending from then, paying off his fifteen-year mortgage in five years as a single dad on a teacher's salary.

O'Neal and Lisha live outside of Seattle in his three-floored, self-built log home that is efficiently heated with two wood stoves. They eat a variety of prison stews, and at 66, O'Neal still splits their needed firewood.