Review of Phil Villarreal’s Secrets of a Stingy Scoundrel
October 30th, 2009I requested a review copy of Secrets of a Stingy Scoundrel, and the first time the book was sent out, somehow it got lost in the mail. The publicist contacted me to ask if I was going to review it, and I said that I never remembered seeing it.
They sent me another copy, and looking back, I really wish that I hadn’t responded to that e-mail.
Many of the tips in this book will quickly and efficiently alienate you from your family, your friends, your colleagues, and the businesses you patronize. Try these tips once, or at most twice, and they will tell you about it, or they may just not want you around anymore. Try these tips with the wrong person on watch, and you could get fired, or land in jail.
Mr. Villarreal issues this warning in the front of the book:
Honor. Integrity. Honesty. Dignity. If you live by any of these values, you may as well drop the book right now, because they’re against everything it professes.
Oh boy, is this ever true. I should have put the book down right there, but I didn’t. One word that should have been added to that list of nouns is decorum. It’s been a long time since I’ve read anything, or talked with anybody, with as vulgar and self-indulgent a speech pattern, and with such disregard for polite topics of conversation. (There are only a few people that have permission to talk to me about my wife’s privates, and Mr. Villarreal isn’t among them.)
There are plenty of ways to save money without lying and stealing, but he wastes far too many pages describing these bad ways:
- Saying it’s your birthday (when it isn’t) in order to get free food at a restaurant
- Manufacturing fake price matches for grocery store items
- Taking the five-finger discount with office supplies from work
- Catching a double feature by sneaking into the second movie on the first ticket
- Taking money off the bar that was clearly left for the bartender
- Complaining about a meal when there’s nothing really wrong, just to get reimbursed
- Faking homelessness
And these aren’t lying or stealing but they will make you a problem child very quickly:
- Being just plain cheap with friends on road trips, gift exchanges, potlucks, and splitting the check
- Taking several of every food service supply that isn’t nailed down in a fast-food restaurant
- Actively avoiding tipping of any kind
- Being a repeat problem customer to get free services
- Abusing trial subscriptions and return policies
There were some good tips in this book, but it isn’t worth slogging through pig manure to find a couple of quarters.
Get Wise Bread’s book instead. 100% scoundrel-free, guaranteed.


