The Spender's Guide to Debt-Free Living: How a Spending Fast Helped Me Get from Broke to Badass in Record Time

by Anna Newell Jones

Overview

Popular blogger Anna Newell Jones of AndThenWeSaved.com delivers this self-help manifesto that reveals how a "spending fast" will help you get on the road to living debt-free.

In 2009, young photographer Anna Newell Jones was rapidly suffocating under the weight of too much debt. An inveterate “spender,” she was in way over her head, to the tune of almost $24,000. She knew her debt was only going to get worse if she didn’t take action, but she didn’t know where to look for help. On a whim, Anna decided to go on a spending fast—an idea she heard in passing but knew little about. Creating her own method, she learned what worked and what didn’t and wrote about it on her blog, AndThenWeSaved.com. Amazingly, Anna was able to eliminate all $23,605.10 of her debt in only 15 months! She was interviewed in Forbes, Self, Glamour, Good Housekeeping, and the Chicago Tribune.

Anna’s journey inspired people and showed them that they too could change the way they dealt with their own money woes. The Spender’s Guide To Debt-Free Living takes readers through a detailed step-by-step plan on how to do a Spending Fast and get out of debt, including:

• Creating a personalized Debt-Free Life Pledge.
• Understanding where your money is going when you’re in debt, and where it will come from to pay it off.
• Learning why putting money into a savings account before (or while) paying off debt may not be the best idea for you.
• Finding additional income sources and generating side gigs.
• Re-integrating spending into your life once you’re out of debt, so that you stay out of debt.

Filled with do-it-yourself ideas, insight from experts, and tons of motivational tips and real-life practical advice, The Spender’s Guide to Debt-Free Living proves that you don’t have to win the lottery or get a new job to change your life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062367303
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	04/26/2016
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	933,244
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Anna Newell Jones is the creator of AndThenWeSaved.com, a blog that offers scrappy, down-to-earth advice on getting out of debt. She is relentlessly committed to showing how getting out of debt and living a debt-free life doesn and her husband own Newell Jones + Jones Photography and live in Denver, Colorado, with their young son.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Can a Spender Really Live Debt-Free? 1

1 And I Kept Buying Even After the Money Was Gone 7

2 From Spender to Saver 21

3 Getting Started: "Today Is the Day I Decide to Become Debt-Free" 31

4 How Much Do I Really Owe? 47

5 The Wants and Needs List 77

6 Constructing the Debit Hit List and Executing the Payback Plan 95

7 Mastering Needs-Only Spending 107

8 Attack the Debt, Adjust to Your New Life, and Take It a Step Further 131

9 Generating Additional Income: Finding New Gigs 143

10 Turning Stuff You Don't Want into Cash 157

11 The Social Side of the Spending Fast 173

12 Good-bye, Spending Fast; Hello, Spending Diet! 189

151 Things to Do Instead of Spending Money 211

Acknowledgments 217

References: Works Cited 219

Index 221

Editorial Reviews

Charming and authentic…What began as a personal challenge…turned into an unexpected journey of radical self-discovery and personal reinvention…If you’re looking for a thoughtful gift for recent college grads or newlyweds, this is definitely one book worth considering.” — Better Investing Magazine

“After accumulating over $23,000 in debt,…Jones…commits to a yearlong “spending fast”…Following 15 months of extreme thrift…she successfully regains financial freedom… Through a light, youthful tone and nontechnical language, this book offers a back-to-basics guide for those in need of debt-relief strategies.” — Library Journal

From the Publisher

Charming and authentic…What began as a personal challenge…turned into an unexpected journey of radical self-discovery and personal reinvention…If you’re looking for a thoughtful gift for recent college grads or newlyweds, this is definitely one book worth considering.

Better Investing Magazine

04/01/2016
After accumulating over $23,000 in debt, photographer, blogger, and "natural spender" Jones (AndThenWeSaved.com) commits to a yearlong "spending fast" and promises to "only spend money on absolute necessities." Following 15 months of extreme thrift (including an additional three-month "Spending Diet"), she successfully regains financial freedom. Along with the central tenet of the fast, Jones offers other approaches including "going public" with her plan, working with a reverse budget, and creating a "needs and wants list" to reduce expenditures to a minimum. She provides an honest assessment of the social sacrifices involved in cutting her spending so drastically, describing her communication with friends, and how her scheme affected her relationship with her husband, redefining "how we spent time together." VERDICT Through a light, youthful tone and nontechnical language, this book offers a back-to-basics guide for those in need of debt-relief strategies.—Doug Diesenhaus, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Library Journal