Budget Books

I was looking for a better book and this book did not give me all the knowledge I was looking for

This short book provides a clear blueprint for managers faceing the insidious hurdles of P&L management for the first time. The chapters provide an easy progression from basic COGS management to allocating scarce dollars between competing interests and simultaneously controlling the small items which eat into your profit margin. It is sufficiently general enough in scope to be applied to a number of different situations but specific enough to offer concrete advice.

Money in...Money out. How do you control the flow and make sure you balance your budget? To learn all you need to know about the budgeing process, you have to first consider the expenditures, anticipate revenues and correct errors.

"Budgeting is the process of preparing, compiling, and monitoring financial budgets. It is a key management tool for planning and controlling a department within an organization."

Tips like: "Always remember that if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail" sounded familiar. Monitoring Budgets is a helpful chapter as it also has a case study. Graphs, charts and a budget analysis all add to the fun.

This compact reminder will help managers to keep an eye on the company budget and will give them some new ideas. I still think a copy of this book would be handy for everyone in Congress.

~The Rebecca Review

Didn't care for some of the recipes in the book. In one chapter, she takes God's name in vain which is why I rated it 1 star.
This book gives advice on saving money such as cutting down on grocery costs and cooking from scratch. This is how the book is organized:
Introduction
Fish and Shellfish
Pasta and Rice
Poultry
Vegetarian Entrees
Red Meats
Beans
Eggs and Cheese
Breads and Deserts
Stocking a $10.00 a day kitchen

For each recipe, she tells you how much it costs per serving, how many people that recipe feeds and how long it takes to make that recipe.
In the last chapter, it gives advice on what kind of herbs, seasonings, canned/dtied goods should be stocked in your pantry and refrigerated goods. The book also includes recipes for condiments, flavorings, herbs, leavening extracts, sweeteners, thickeners and milk & cream.

Not only did this book help me cut my grocery bill in HALF, but my husband says he looks forward to coming home and seeing what new and tasty dish is for dinner! Linda's book provides a program for shopping & meal planning that is quick and easy. She also gives great cooking technique help - I finally know how to make a perfect omelet effortlessly! And with all her personal insight, it reads like a novel! Best cookbook I've ever bought.

One of the best collections of basic recipes I've found yet. Linda West Eckhardt has made an easy to follow cookbook that can be used on a day to day basis. I find myself going back to the recipes again and again, adding my family's flavor to some and keeping others just so. The ingredients are quick, easy to find and inexpensive. If you cook on a regular basis, or are tired of fast food for a busy family , this is a cookbook you need.

I'm a Chinese myself who is currently in U.S. I bought this book for my summer travel to the south of China. However, when I got this book, I was quite disappointed. I don't like the format generally. There're lots of information introduced, but not in detail. I feel confused about where I should go. And the prices of restaurants, hotels, etc. are not at all clear. I only know a price range, which is useless to plan my budget precisely. I remember I read a travel book of China in 2000(the book was published in 1998 in Australia). That book even listed where to rent a bike in Suzhou and the ticket price of Huangshan, which is so close to the real price in 2000. My trip was so successful and every expenditure was stricly in my budget. I think that kink of book is what a traveler really needs, not some fancy introduction with few details. It's such a pity that I can't remember the name of the Australia published book! Although there're some bad points of Chinese history in the book I don't like.

I bought this guide book for a 2 month abroad program while I was in China in summer 2002. The book is organized quite well. It is broken down into the regions of China (Northwest, Northeast, Southeast, etc), and then breaks further down into individual provinces and cities within each region.

The pro's of this book are that it cover's a lot of ground for such a big country. Considering how large China is, the book is quite a small size, but at the same time still provides the traveller a good guide on the important sites of each region and city. In addition to highlighting each city's key landmarks and areas to visit, it also lists each city's better known resturaunts, shopping centers and Hotels. It also provides a rating system of their own on the prices of each hotel and resturaunt. A small map is provided for each of the larger cities with key scenic spots, hotels, resturaunts highlighted on the map. The resturaunt section of each city also lists the resturaunts of non-chinese fare, for example, western food.

For most scenic spots, hotels, shopping centers and resturaunts of each city, a phone number and open-close time is provided as well. It also provides at least a few sentences about each scenic site, resturaunt, hotel, etc. The book also provides approximate distances from other popular cities to other cities, so it is easier for one to plan their travels within the country. For the larger cities, it also lists general info and phone numbers about subway systems, buses, and getting around.

I really don't have many con's for this book. Since it was recently updated, I didn't have any complaints about the book being out of date or the phone numbers or hours of the places listed, being incorrect. All the information for each city was well organized and presented. Some history was also given for each scenic site or region.

Overall, I think this book is great for traveling to China. It is quite thorough and detailed, listing so many tourist sites, resturaunts, hotels, shopping centers, etc. I recommend it.

Although still OK, Fodor's China offers much less value than, for example, Lonely Planet series.

Although China does change very rapidly and it's unrealistic to expect 100% accuracy, seems like the information is way outdated. It seems that the current edition went almost unchanged since the Cold War.

Maps are navigable, but are not specific enough and could use serious improvement. No Chinese characters are supplied, so consulting the locals is not an option (and possible with the competitors, such as Lonely Planet).

The positive sides are: interesting "off the beaten track" tips and "good walks" - suggested itineraries which do contain great recommendations.

Overall, average to poor value.

Fodor's guidebooks are decent in that they provide short, simple facts and info on destinations. The Toronto guidebook is no different. The big complaint is the lack of good maps (though i can't be too picky, you can't really rely on maps in a paperback guidebook!). I tend to prefer frommer's guides, as i find their recommendations to be more bang on, and to my budget. I recommend using a combination of good guidebooks like frommers and Let's Go, in addition to the traveler-submitted hotel review sites like www.zoomandgo.com, or the ones on travelocity.

I mainly use and still buy Fodor's series for most of my traveling for ease of use of the book and familiarity. However, I do have to admit that the maps could be more detailed. For budget or more seasoned travelers who prefer a detailed map of the walking tours and do not need the section about how to pack and where to keep your passport try the awesome Lonely Planet or something else. On the historical stuff, I would say this book is just fine. On my next travel (not to Toronto) I'll try Let's Go and Frommer's, heard lots of goody stuff about them and never use them before.

This book begins with a short yet reasonable first orientation to the city with much of its bulk devoted to simple data in categorized lists.

Probably quite useful to someone who has never been to Toronto before but not the stimulating read the present-day "Megacity" deserves.

My personal impression was that while the guide does explicitly note the excitement of this new, diverse first city of Canada, it doesn't go far enough to actually capture or express it.

Yes, it is a fine book for what it is -- a city guide with lots of basic information -- but even there I had a couple of points of contention.

For one thing, as soon as I opened the book and saw the map of Toronto's location between Michigan and New York state, which I did like, I wondered, however, why one of the major freeways -- the 402 from Port Huron -- was left off.

Another example was the piece of information connecting Canada's federal official French-English language policy and highway signs. One has nothing to do with the other since traffic signs, regulations and highways are totally under Provincial not Federal jurisdiction. What concerned me here was the thought of visiting drivers getting the impression that driving regulations might be consistent throughout Canada.

It seems like the book is primarily targeted to Americans. If I am correct, Americans already know that Toronto is a new, big and exciting city before they even bother to pick up a book on it. The city guide which describes Toronto deserves to be a lot more motivating than that level of excitement which Fodor's standard format relegates to it's run-of-the-mill city guides.

we took it with us, and it did provide a lot of good info

Although this book was published in 2006, many of the prices are out of date and at least 2 euro off. Also, the maps are not accurate. My husband and I spent lots of time searching for items listed and could never find them. After the first day, we carried another map with us and consulted it instead of the maps in the book. Also, be careful with the maps printed in the book, as most of them are not pointing north. We got turned around in many of the walking tours by accidentally turning the wrong way because of the map's orientation. Also, we tried to eat at a couple of the restaurants listed in the book. One was no where to be found, not even the street listed, and two more that we had hoped to eat at were supposed to be open and were not. We will NEVER buy another Frommer's guidebook.

Unless you want to hire a tour guide or you have a friend who lives in Rome to take you around this is your best bet. Short and to the point reviews and info on all the things you want to see in Rome. Some of the prices in the book are already out of date. The Leonardo Express train to and from the airport now costs 11 Euros, not 9.50. The map that is included is good enough but lacks some detail. It would be nice if the map included little icons of the more popular sites for ease of reading. That said your hotel will probably have a tourist map for you for free. Using this book I put together an intinerary that was good for me in about an hour.

Mr. Ypma is a gifted photographer and a careful writer - a rare combination. Great selection of hotels. It is the perfect coffee table version of cool new online services such as the great "tablethotels.com"

Fun book! Excellent photographs. Reading about the various hotels from around the world and looking at the photos of the decor made me want to pack up my bags and do some traveling!

The photos also gave me some ideas and inspiration on decorating my apartment.

I bought all of the books in this series but was very disapointed. The photos are good but there is no more information than you can already find on the net.

Sites like hotelliving.com and Tablet are free and have the same photos but much more information. Try them instead.

This book provides allot more detail than your average island guide book including town maps, ferry schedules and details about numerous tourist activities. I have seen no other books with town maps such as these. Of course this level of specific details will change frequently, so reconfirm the data you find here. For instance, a previous reviewer complained that ferry schedules were a year old. Of course that is to be expected; really you should not even trust schedules more than a week old!

If you are somewhat self-sufficient and able to confirm what may be out of date, this is a great guide book. If you are not, maybe you should consider a vacation in Orlando.

My experience of this guide book is the exact opposite of the previous reviewer. I have travelled to more than 30 islands and found the guide to be accurate and extremely useful. If you know what kind of vacation you want (quiet beaches versus lots of nightlife, for example) the pages which rate the islands are worth the price of the book. The page which shows how the various ferry lines interconnect with one another is indispensable for planning an island hopping tour. And once you get to an island the description of the island is almost always accurate. However I have found that the names of hotels and restaurants sometimes change over the winter and the guide may not have have caught up with the change. Of course, ferry timetables do change but even a one year old timetable helps you to understand whether the ferry runs everyday, or perhaps only twice a week.
Finally, the brief guide to Athens and accompanying map, is also very helpful. I highly recommend the book.

Initial impressions of the book are good. The author has even included ferry timetables. Closer reading however reveals that most of the book is a waste of paper. The ferry timetables are last years which have very little bearing on the current yar - why bother including them? Additionally the author does not appear to have visited some islands and others have had only flying visits so a lot information is incorrect or sketchy in detail. To cover this lack of research he seems to make up detail some of which is wrong or just irrelevant - e.g. he has a fascination with windmills. The worst aspect of the guide is the authors negative phrasing - he does not seems to rate any island, his attitude is that some are better than others but still not up to much! Would not bother with this book.

The anonymous "reader from the UK" is very misinformed at best and, at worst, is a plant. The book is a very comprehensive treatment of the subject. Please judge for yourself by looking at the table of contents.

Thank you,
David Vine
Author

Build a big company system on a small budget with the help of a guide which discusses strategies for maintaining an information edge on the net. Chapters will especially appeal to medium-sized business managers as they survey different systems options and set-ups.

I don't think I ever came across a more useless book in my entire life. Not only the author bases himself on cliches which are completely out of date, he fails to introduce any new concepts or ideas. The whole content of this book can be summarized in about one sentence: "Gathering Information for your business is important" - great ! I really did not know this - "and the internet is a great source for that information - no ! Really ! I am amazed he found a way to spend 405 pages to tell us that. There are some useful URLs in there, but a bit of research on Yahoo or any other search engine would have given the same results. Basically if you are about to embark in a new business and you feel the need to read this, I would suggest you rethink. If you don't already know what's in this book before you start, then look into a career in the arts or something. This is a great book if you are 18, don't know anything about the world. Don't bother.

I am currently traveling and living in the middle east and have seen the strengths and weaknesses of this book in action.

You will want this guidebook because: 1) It is witty. 2) It lists prices. I think that is only fair, and the main reason I chose the book off the shelf some five months ago.

However, there are many reasons why you would _not_ want this book. You would not want this book if you wanted a deeper and accurate understanding of Middle East culture, politics or history.

You would not want this book if you wanted to travel in the West Bank or Gaza, or Cyprus for that matter. (One or two page descriptions of an entire country do not a guidebook make.)

Many places I have visited seem not to have actually been visited by the authors, but the information more likely taken off a tourist brochure. This certainly rings true about Nazareth, from where I am based. (And I will be sending several comments and suggestions to the publishers)

Some may argue with my interpretation of several comments made throughout the book, but the overall impression I got was that the authors of this guide were not particularly fond of Arabs in the first place, particularly when discussing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The more I read, the more disillusioned I became about the book's credibility and objectivity.

Go ahead and get this book if you will be cruising through the major tourist sites, won't be concerning yourself with the background and history notes, and aren't all that interested in the people surrounding you. Otherwise, I much preferred Lonely Planet.

There is no doubt that this region of the world is an amazing one to travel. Furthermore, Let's Go Middle East is a somewhat useful guidebook. While its colorful language was amusing, I found that humor was no fair substitute for information. I used this book and Lonley Planet's Istanbul to Cairo guidebook for travelling through Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, and Egypt, and I found that in all places and on all accounts, not only did LP's book have more information, but also more accurate information than this Let's Go edition. Relative to its LP rival, the Let's Go Middle East was disorganized, and its dearth of maps and hotel and retaurant suggestions leave the traveller often empty handed when in unfamiliar territory. If you insist on travelling with this book (as I did) I would recommend supplementing its relative lack of useful information with its Lonely Planet counterpart.

You NEED this book, even if you're not going to the Middle East. This book is hilarious, accurate, easy to navigate, did I mention hilarious?, chock full of great info, I could go on and on. Publishing a guide to the Middle East is the greatest thing those wacky folks at Let's Go have ever done. I've traveled a lot (particularly in the Middle East) and used Let's Go occasionally, and let me tell you this is without a doubt the best guide to the region (and by far the funniest--I almost fell asleep trying to read the "what to see" section of lonely planet: middle east on a shoestring, while even the "accommodations" sections of let's go was hilarious). I have a business in Egypt and often travel around the country after taking care of my work, and this book has the absolute BEST coverage of Egypt of any guide on the market, and I've used them all--Lonely Planet, Rick Steves, Rough Guides, etc. No competition--Let's Go is really great in the Middle East, but in Egypt hands down they are tops. Info in the Middle East is always changing becuase the countries in it are always growing and developing, but this book consistently led me to the cheapest and cleanest hotels, the absolutely most delicious food this region has to offer (Cairo's "Food" section had me rolling on the floor laughing), and pointed out off-the-beaten-path sights, how to get to them, and had lots of cultural and historical info about them all. In the big cities it even told me where the best clubs and discos were, and it had lots of info on internet cafes in even the smallest desert towns--totally important--no other guide has that high quality information. Great great great! Coverage of the Gulf States (UAE, Oman) and Yemen is also awesome, and believe you me I've been all over those countries, and this book was right on. Order this book NOW! you can't afford not to!

I have been traveling to Europe every year for the last 15 years. Every year I buy several guide books. Without a doubt, Let's Go publishes the best guides for the budget minded traveler. This edition is no exception. Paris 2001 is loaded with practical information. If you have to watch your money the way I do, don't leave for Paris without this book.

What happened to maps?!?!? In Paris, a real guide containing maps showing Rues (streets) without its names it's absolutely useless. That kind of disappointing tools you will find in this supposedly updated guide, only a very skin deep varnish about the City of Light. Instead, I recommend to pick one of those free brochures in the Metro or change offices. These can give you a much better information about where you are...in Paris.

I'm a devoted follower of "Lonely Planet" guides, but there weren't any available at the local bookstore when I made the impromptu decision to spend spring break in Paris. So, a bit disappointed but desparate for guidance, I picked up this "Let's Go" -- and was pleasantly surprised. Once I got to Paris I gave in to temptation and bought the "Lonely Planet," which I found to be far better organized, and an overall better value. I don't think either guide is exhaustive, though, and each has its failings. If you're looking for a single guide, I would recommend the "Lonely Planet." However, you might prefer the "Let's Go" if you're a young budget traveller less concerned with trip planning details and more interested in a guide that will show you a good time (or at least where to have one).

What earns this guide four stars is the restaurant and entertainment section. In addition to listing restaurants by arrondissement, it includes a table listing them by style, making it much easier for people like me to eat out in a city hostile to vegetarians, or to satisfy a craving for Indian food. The summary of the nightlife (the musical venues in particular) is also quite accurate. The commentary is clever (though sometimes a little too self-consciously so), spicing up what might otherwise be too staid a look at a vibrant city. There's a substantial section of historical background, and helpful information on the contemporary musical scene (notably rai and rap). While most guides list the closest metro stop for an attraction, the "Let's Go" often goes a step further in providing detailed directions from the metro to the site, something very useful in a city full of daunting boulevards and winding alleys. There's also an extremely helpful directory in the back of the book that lists resources (housing references, crises lines, and cultural centers) for people planning longer stays, something unique to "Let's Go."

There are problems, though: This guide is overpriced, given its... newsprint-quality printing and the fact that it's chock full of advertisements. The ink smudges easily, it's hard to write notes on the rough paper, and I spent about 10 minutes ripping out as many ads as possible. The maps are mediocre at best, and even the most popular tourist attractions are extraordinarily poorly indexed (often a side-note rather than the main entry is listed). So, if you have neurotic organizational tendencies like I do, you might find yourself frustrated. If, however, you're content to stumble across something interesting, "Let's Go" might just be for you. I'm now living in Paris and have lent this book to several visiting friends who've really liked it. And while I've come to know the city well enough to make it around without a guide, at times this book still ends up in my bag when I feel like playing the tourist.