Anna JohnsonSavvy Chic: The Art of More for Less

I purchased this book from Amazon a couple of weeks ago, picking up a chapter here and there, each one being like its own complete little book-within-a-book. I've read a lot on similar topics over many years but this is hands-down my favorite book. It makes me feel good. Anna Johnson is an author I'd simply enjoy knowing, like any terrific friend. She has learned to live so wisely and well on a shoestring, without sacrificing great style and sumptuous experience. She writes with deep heart on what would seem sometimes to be lighthearted topics, but which aren't at all lighthearted when it's stuff directly affecting you, in your own life...which, for many of us in The Great Recession, has left us with a sense of literal and/or emotional deprivation of no longer enjoying things you formerly could do or afford and being completely rattled by making the month's rent or mortgage.She says in the preface, "Money is the heartbeat of life but hardly the soul. And yet it underscores every moment. For everyone, except perhaps the very rich, money is a grind." To me, she's got a finger on the pulse; her words hit home with me. She talks of, "Restraint. Proportion. Invention. All form a holy trinity to living better, and deeper, without so many of the props." She describes her book as "a cobbled collection of my secrets for survivalist glamour." And I definitely feel that women of all ages and generations can benefit from the book's contents...maybe in the way they're choosing to edit or fill their closets, get a sort of balance to their days on what they need or don't need for comfort and function, to feed themselves and family/friends simply and healthfully and to not stop "living" just because circumstances change and budgets are tight. The author has found ways around the concept of "no wiggle room." She refuses to live a colorless life.I'm not saying I embrace every single idea of hers but that's something, too, that she recognizes early on about us all having different limits. For example, when it comes to second-hand buys, I personally grew up with too many hand-me-downs, few new things and no extras so, today, I cannot tolerate going into a thrift shop. Anna Johnson gets this. But she has given me lots of other ideas...and hope. I've actually earmarked pages and made written notes about "penniless pleasures" of hers. I like what she has to say about how to create your own comfortable cocoon when at home or traveling. And she's reminded me of simple, fun things I've forgotten or haven't thought to do...for instance, I'm West Coast and know nothing about the Northeast USA, but I love the chapter about taking an $8 train and being a (fashionable)"tourist" for the day in The Hamptons to get out of a New York City summer. In other words, don't sit around and moan; do something about it, and make it fabulous.The illustrations (the author's own) and collages in the book are delightful; whimsical; eye-popping tints (note the teal/dark turquoise book cover). There are gems in mere sentences: "Often if I am poor in dollars, I try to make myself rich in time, keeping the creeping apathy of empty pockets at bay by doing something swift and cheap that makes my home and spirits feel enriched. If I can't alter the big things, I like to generate change on a small scale." I feel SAVVY CHIC is a handbook...I mean, just look at the Table of Contents: Clothes, Shelter, Income, Food, Travel, Entertainment. This author has become a kind of life coach now for me, yet she's very honest about her flaws, "I cannot use a credit card. I wish this limitation was based on principle alone but the fact is that I'm reckless. Utterly so. Compared to many, I have a somewhat archaic understanding of money. I spend exactly what I have in my pocket, often not wisely." This is one of the reasons why I love this book: Anna Johnson is real and she's honest. It's so refreshing, and I'm so glad she is sharing her lessons learned, with tools for living abundantly, with flourish! Her "Notes to One's Broke Self" is something I've re-read again and again: "I am not what I earn...I have a better idea...I can hang tough...I have dignity...plan, don't panic...(and) I am replete." (Pages 105-107; uplifting, empowering.) I'm hooked; I'll read anything Anna Johnson has to say, and I'm waiting in anticipation for her next book. She's a wonderful author.

Although I do find this book entertaining and useful in regards to smart buys (in part) I am a little confused and feel, at times, that this book contradicts itself over and over. At first I thought the message was to buy less but to buy quality. OK - that's a great piece of advice. The author recommends staying away from credit cards, accepting your budget and working with what you have in your wallet. Well that's all well and good but some of her recommendations do not seem ideal for almost ANYONE's budget. She pitches that the stuff you use all the time should be top quality and it's OK to spend more on these things: Sunglasses, a little black dress, a good coat, a good handbag but then she also recommends "basics" or "investments" like Canfora sandals (Capri-based company where no sandal is under $300 US dollars, ) an Hermes scarf (rolls eyes,) and an Eres brand bathing suit, and I'm quoting the author here, "It pays for itself!" Ummmmm, how? I went to their website...I couldn't find one swimsuit under $350. So sure - buy the basics if your basics include summer sandals that are so expensive you'd be afraid to wear them near sand and a swimsuit that costs so much I'd be afraid to expose it to the sea or chlorine. There were times where she threw out some mainstream/affordable retail stores like Zara and J. Crew but she focused more on really expensive designers that kind of threw the entire point of her book out of whack.A cute book with good intentions but I just got the feeling that the author was some rich woman (though she claims differently at the beginning of the book) who really has NO clue what it means to be on a budget and thinks that everyone can afford $400 swimsuits and $300 flipflops. When I'm ready to walk into Hermes on a budget I will let you know.

I just finished reading this gem, and hesitate to loan it out, as I highlighted so much and fear it may never be returned to me! Anna Johnson speaks my language- fun, upbeat, easy to read, practical and applicable advice on a plethora of life matters. I learned some really great information re. vintage clothing, for example, that I never knew before, and it changed the way I approach vintage styles- you'll have to read it to find out what I mean! (Part1: Clothes.) :) Part II: Shelter; Part III: Income (I ADORE! how she speaks financial language WITHOUT using intimidating over-the-top 3 figure income examples and suppositions!); Part IV: Food, (I'm not much of a foodie, but she makes me want to be!) Part V: Travel- practicality and simplicity for the enjoyment of the journey and destination!; and Part VI: Entertainment. On a budget. And Oh-So-Much FUN! And here's another thing I appreciate about her writing style- You don't have to be single, OR married, to appreciate her insights. Not a "quick" read, but an easy one to take your time with. Her approach is clear from the onset: "The Logic of Libertine Thrift." Brilliant!

The title of this book should really be How to be Broke, because it's about managing to have a nice life on no money. Some parts of it weren't relevant to me, such as travel, and some don't apply because the author lives in a city, while I live in the countryside, but overall, it was a funny and interesting book and the writer has a nice turn of phrase. I bought it thinking it was a fashion book, but only a small part of it is about clothes - the rest of it covers interior decoration (especially in rented properties), food, entertaining, etc. The author is a periodic spendthrift whereas I am a tightwad (her attitude to debt was something I found terrifying, as I am a save-and-buy kind of person). Good book - glad I bought it and I think I will dip into it again.

...perhaps, who do not have much life experience. I find Johnson a bit stuck in clichés, a bit stating the obvious. She is light-hearted, funny, like a girlfriend talking to a younger girlfriend about everything she has learned about being chic on a shoestring. Not for a mature reader who is looking for something a level above what you can get in your regular issue of Elle magazine.

Love this book,much better than a lot of budget books.It is savvy chic if your idea of budgeting is getting quality for less,not wasting money buying cheap stuff just because it's cheap.Plenty of tips and ideas,a book you can go back to again and again.I like nice things and I like quality,but you can get these for less if you look round and use your resources more wisely.

This is a beautiful book. I like the colours, the pictures,... As to the contents there is not so much new I learned after reading it but perhaps this means I am confronting economical hardship well myself...

what the europeans --like me---are supposed to learn from their mothers,+ amercan ladies are expected to learn from the recession.nice to read,+ some very good,well founded advice.

purchased to make "tear sheets" of several illustrations