can't remember the name of it...was about a guy that lived on next to nothing for a year or so.....argh I thought I'd heard about it here way back. i thought it was like 10K or less. Anyway i started telling dh about it and couldnt remember the name. I knew there were some poor review on amazon because he had used some seemingly unethical means of getting by at times. help me remember this book........ 

Maybe it's this one?

 "Scratch Beginnings" by Adam Shepard

http://www.amazon.com/Scratch-Beginnings-Search-American-Dream/dp/0061714275/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327464039&sr=1-1

 That's the one that immediately came to mind for me too. Very interesting read. It's amazing what he did to come up from nothing... but then again, he had all kinds of socioeconomic advantages that many low-income individuals lack!

I found quite a few books on Amazon that fit the bill! Can't say if any of them were the one I was thinking of but they were all interesting. I like reading about those bare-bones frugality situations and how people managed. I'm tired of reading the ones about "skip the coffee shop latte" and "pick the right mutual funds". That's not my world.

 Hi babs ifyou got anynew tips on frugal let me know Im game at anytime to learn too...