Book Review: "The Recovering Spender"

What's my rating for "The Recovering Spender"?

I gave the book a 4 out of 5 Rockstar rating.

As a Spender struggling to get your spending in check, you have to get to the point where the pain of not spending money is less than that of dealing with the consequences of your overspending.
— Lauren Greutman, "The Recovering Spender", p. 84.

I appreciate the fact that the book includes Lauren Greutman’s personal spending story, along with some of her husband Mark’s experiences as well. We learn through stories, and when an author chooses to share theirs, it tends to stick with us as readers. To boot, she is a good storyteller and isn’t afraid to share information about her past decisions, the likes of which most of us would prefer to keep to ourselves.

Lauren’s been there. She’s experienced what it’s like to run out of money before the end of the month, and to have the burden of managing household finance. And she has lived with the shame of a shopping addiction and its usual consequence: mounting levels of consumer debt. Given an upbringing that included lessons in prudent spending, the author helps us understand that shopping addiction can happen to any of us.

Aside from her 12-step program in Part 2 of the book (which aligns closely with the AA 12-step program most of us are familiar with), Lauren’s book helps us overcome our shopping addiction and get out of debt by:

  1. Helping us understand the source of the addiction
  2. Providing the push for us to get our reality check sooner than later
  3. Supporting a change in our behavior—replacing what triggers our addiction with more constructive beliefs and activities

To find out more about the book and my thoughts about it, read my full review here.


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