Average Rating: 
Rating:  - A budget jet-set society?
First of all, I find it pretty amazing how this magazine apparently changed reviewer DLS's life, saving him/her/it a 'fortune in living expenses.' Particularly since the first issue doesn't come out until October and that review was posted in August. That must have been one heck of a preview issue.Secondly, do we really need another magazine like Real Simple, telling us how to simplify our lives by spending money? I mean, if you really want to simplify your life and live better while spending less, you should either stop subscribing to magazines altogether or subscribe to one like Ready Made and build things yourself instead of buying 'everything money can, and should, buy.'
Rating: - A disappointment
I received the Premier issue yesterday. Perhaps I didn't research enough before I bought this from a school magazine sale...This is NOT a magazine on frugality, NOR living on a limited budget, NOR living more simply. This magazine shows you how to spend your money on MORE things---like junk you don't really need to have from ebay. Other ideas are tricking your friends into thinking you are wearing designer clothing, when actually you are wearing fakes. Another idea presented was to share designer clothing purchases with similarly sized friends so you don't have to drop $5000 (really!) for each new dress. Get real! Budget helpers include--duh--obvious things that anyone should know already. Explaining 401k plans. Telling you to pay off your $10,000 in credit cards (at 22% interest) with part of your $19,000 savings from your money market fund (making a mere 3%). Is this magazine assuming we don't know this already???? I also got a sense that it is written for the 20-something crowd, not the almost 40 crowd that I am in. Ideas, both clothing and home decorating, are too trendy. Maybe, they know, at our age, we have already figured out that spending money is not the way to happiness! I think I will cancel my subscription.
Rating:  - Nice, new, not real simple at all
I think this is one of the best new magazines I've seen since...well, that I've seen. I suppose it helps that this economy is making everyone think about how to get more for your dollar, but I think the great thing here is that Budget Living takes a very realistic approach to how people live and shop, and then gives really smart clever ideas. First, I love that it's full of gorgeous things and people, and that tells me that I can live really well for less. The magazine is smart to include the occasional splurge purchase, because even people living frugally can and should splurge when it's appropriate. I've gotten the first two issues, and in it, there're tons of surprising and surprisingly easy decorating ideas, ways to host parties, fashion tips, cool travel spots, and investing advice I could actually understand and use! The writers seem to get it, and get what matters. Instead of blurring the issue with lots of talk of auras (I can't stand when real simple does that), Budget Living gives you what you need to know in a snappy, sometimes funny way. It's cleverly written, but I like that it doesn't seem to try to hard to sound this way or that. The magazine sounds like it's written by people I'd want to hang out with, people I trust. And from the items I've bought and the design ideas I've used, I think they're to be trusted. I really think that after reading a few pages, this magazine more than pays for itself. And even it weren't about living well on a budget, I'd want to read it. The editors should be commended for taking budget off the list of "dirty" words in magazines. Their motto on the cover is Spend Smart Live Rich, and if they deliver that this magazine will be phenomenally successly and a must read. For the first two issues, they have delivered. Keep 'em coming.
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