Acknowledgments
Many people contributed to this book, and I’d like to thank them for everything they did. Let me start with the person who is responsible for the title. We were struggling a bit with what to call this book. We wanted something that encouraged people to be frugal, but with an upbeat tone. So we put out a call to my audience, and they had some great suggestions. The one we chose came from Dan Runnells. Thanks, Dan. I really appreciate it.
Other listeners and viewers played an important role. In this book, we feature some of their stories about the way they’ve used my tips to save money and score great deals. The stories are fun and funny to read, and they add wonderful real-life color.
I want to thank my longtime agent, Laurie Liss, who introduced me to my new friends at Penguin, thereby rebooting the Clark Howard book franchise. Laurie, I appreciate your faith in me.
It’s been a pleasure to work with the people at Penguin, including publisher William Shinker, publicity gurus Lisa Johnson and Lindsay Gordon, editors Megan Newman and Miriam Rich, and copy editor Sharon Gonzalez. Thanks for your dedication, great ideas, and diligent eyes. Thanks also to Andrea Ho and Amanda Dewey for your artistic design sense, and Linda Cowen for your legal expertise.
And thanks to the entire Clark Howard team, the people who work every day to make my syndicated radio show and my HLN TV show successful. Special thanks to executive producer Christa DiBiase for the many, many things she does.
—Clark