The 7 Habits of Financially Healthy Women: How to Stop Stressing, Begin Where You Are, and Build the Future You Want

by Crystal Paine

Save more, stress less, and finally feel confident with money

Rising prices. Economic uncertainty. A challenging housing market. It's easy to feel overwhelmed about money today. But while you can't control the economy, you can take confident steps toward financial stability and peace.

In this book, New York Times bestselling author Crystal Paine shares practical, realistic habits to help
● conquer the fear and limiting beliefs that whisper you "just aren't good with money," "aren't disciplined enough," or "never follow through"
● create a personalized roadmap for long-term financial health that fits your personality, priorities, and purpose
● build simple rhythms for saving, spending, and giving that work in everyday life
● create flexible daily and weekly plans that helps you reach your financial goals while still enjoying your life and investing in what matters most
● cultivate meaningful accountability that keeps you consistent and encouraged--even on the hard days
● stay grounded, hopeful, and confident no matter what's happening in the world around you

Through personal stories, practical tools, and encouraging guidance, this book offers more than budgeting advice; it provides a path toward greater peace, purpose, and financial freedom. Because even in uncertain times, small habits can change your financial future.

Genres: Finance, Nonfiction, Self Help

208 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2026

Reviews

[January · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 7 Habits of Financially Healthy Women: How to Stop Stressing, Begin Where You Are, and Build the Future You Want by Crystal Paine (2026)
4h 44m narrated by the author - Crystal Paine, 208 pages

Genre: Business, Leadership, Personal Finance, Christian Nonfiction

Movie Rating Equivalent: G

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🎟️🏷️📉💸

Crystal Paine Delivers a Beautiful, Encouraging Guide to Financial Health

While so many financial books today just parrot Dave Ramsey, The 7 Habits of Financially Healthy Women has something much more to offer. Yes, it has the foundation popularized by Ramsey of living debt-free, making a plan for your money, using cash, and generosity, but that is not what the core of this book is about. Crystal Paine shares her story from childhood to adulthood, explaining how her habits shaped her relationship with money and how you can do the same. She goes beyond the basics and talks about intentionality, stewardship, couponing, accountability, community, and spending and savings challenges.

​Even if you are a budgeting veteran like myself, there is so much to learn here. The best part is that it is so straightforward, I am putting this one on the reread list. As usual, she offers friendly, practical advice without judgment. Crystal has a beautiful gift for making financial discipline feel genuinely encouraging rather than restrictive. She shares how both she and her parents bought homes without mortgages and how her husband attended law school without loans. Even though she has never gotten a credit card, she explains how her spouse and children utilize secured credit cards to build credit and avoid cell phone service deposits.

​She lists hundreds of ways you can save money and rewire your mindset. It is not necessarily world-changing information, but it will likely change your world, as these are practical steps most people either overlook or simply do not think about. Despite being categorized as a Christian book, there is not a religious focus other than the author being a Christian, discussing giving as a youth, and stewardship.

​Recommend to others: Yes! I am certainly adding this one to my book discussion docket.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from RBmedia and Christian Audio via NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Featuring: Stewardship & Giving, Christian Living, Women's Interests, Personal Finance, Money Saving Mom . com, Money Management, Money Worries, what is Financial Health, Simple Habits, Building a Strong Financial Foundation, Financial Priorities, Creating Accountability, Quizzes, Money Plans, Tracking, Secure Credit Cards, Debt Free Homes, Challenges, The Pay of Paying, YNAB, Journaling, Accountability Partners and Communities, Legacy

Books and Authors Mentioned: Building True Intimacy: Creating a Connection That Stands the Test of Time by Dan Drake, Joanna R. Wood, and Matthew Raabsmith

[Katie Betts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Financial peace and stability might feel impossible in today’s economy, but your money values dictate more than your salary. Through seven basic habits, Money Saving Mom (aka Crystal Paine) outlines how every woman can reduce financial stress by starting where she is and taking small, manageable steps.

This book feels like a warm hug of encouragement and care. Crystal is a self-proclaimed math hater, so her advice has little to do with mathematically building wealth and much more to do with consistently building stability. Through practical (and sometimes a bit outdated) examples, she enthusiastically shows how almost anyone can make small adjustments to become more financially conscious.

You’re not going to find seven steps to becoming a millionaire here, but rather seven value systems that form a foundation for financial stewardship.

As Crystal points out, the basics of working out are simple, but consistency is transformative. She essentially takes that same philosophy and applies it to financial planning. I do think some of her suggestions feel overly optimistic because the specifics come from experiences that happened a couple of decades ago, but the encouragement—and the principles behind them—still stand. She’s clearly gifted at making money tasks feel manageable.

My biggest frustration, though, was that there was almost no cost assigned to time. Many of her suggestions are incredibly taxing on the clock. And while her solution may technically save the most money, weighing those savings against the cost of your energy, mental load, and time can make them far less accessible than they initially appear.

This is a great book for anyone who needs financial basics but feels intimidated by them. Crystal will have you planning with more grace, intentionality, and simplicity in no time.

Thank you @bethany_house_nonfiction and @rbmediaaudio for the eARC and ALC!

Perfect for you if you like:
• Principle-based financial advice
• Planning + schedules
• Values-based finances

Similar:
Love Your Life Not Theirs by Rachel Cruze
Get Good with Money by Tiffany Aliche

[Demetri Papadimitropoulos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Coupons Enough to Make a Receipt Nervous
“The 7 Habits of Financially Healthy Women” gives Crystal Paine ample room to bargain, budget, and optimize, but the book becomes most persuasive when she asks what a carefully managed dollar is supposed to do with a life.
By Demetris Papadimitropoulos | September 5th, 2026

Desperation is not always loud. Sometimes it is a woman with two small children doing arithmetic in her head, again and again, as if another pass through the numbers might uncover money the first six missed. Crystal Paine begins “The 7 Habits of Financially Healthy Women: How to Stop Stressing, Begin Where You Are, and Build the Future You Want” there: her husband Jesse’s expected post-law-school future has collapsed, another job has gone badly, their bank balance is thinning, and the bills retain their excellent sense of timing. Paine’s subject is not quite money. It is the sensation that money has become weather – everywhere, consequential, impossible to ignore. Her answer is smaller than mastery: find the next decision that is still yours.

Every habit in the book tries, in one way or another, to move a decision upstream. Start with what you have. Decide your priorities. Predetermine your spending. Spend only money already available. Put accountability in place before motivation deserts you. Question the sticker price. Then, in the last chapter, ask what your ninety-year-old self would think mattered. The habits vary in usefulness and plausibility, but the instinct behind them is consistent: intervene before fear, convenience, inherited habit, comparison, or an almost frictionless checkout decides first. A financial life can drift by increments just as surely as it can improve by them.

Most of the advice will be familiar: budgets, sinking funds, grocery plans, cash envelopes, debt warnings, sale cycles, side gigs, and coupons enough to make a receipt nervous. Paine reaches her governing principle through an alarming episode late in her second pregnancy, when severe anemia sends her to the hospital and briefly raises terrifying possibilities. Once recovered, she thinks about the months of small neglected health choices that preceded the crisis. Money, she argues, behaves similarly. A bottle of water bought every day is not catastrophic; repeated hundreds of times, it is no longer trivial. A budget is repetition with an intention attached. Cash can slow a purchase by making the amount visible. None of these ideas is new. What distinguishes Paine is her patience with the woman who already knows, vaguely and guiltily, what she ought to do and still cannot quite make herself do it.

Even Paine’s sentences are designed to lower the threshold. They are short or medium-length, conversational, crowded with questions, lists, examples, encouragement and direct address. Her sentences do not seek admiration; they seek compliance without humiliation. When “budget” feels forbidding, Paine offers “money plan,” “financial road map,” “resource plan,” “values-based spending,” and other aliases. The terminology can change. The task cannot: decide where the money will go before it goes there. Again and again, she alters the emotional conditions around a difficult action without pretending the action itself has disappeared.

The warmth has real use for someone who has turned a bad month into evidence of bad character. Paine will not let a blown grocery category become an indictment. Make an adjustment. Try again. An accountability partner should encourage rather than prosecute. A budget can be revised. Saving money might even be fun. Yet her optimism is so dependable that difficult emotions seldom get to keep the room for long. Anger, exhaustion and resentment tend to be processed quickly into hope. By the second half, encouragement can become background music: pleasant, steady, and therefore easier to stop hearing.

Read the family stories closely, though, and a more complicated book appears. Nobody opens a bank account as a blank slate. Parents and grandparents teach what debt means, whether spending signals love or danger, whether money should be saved, tithed, hoarded, enjoyed, feared or given away. Paine’s parents live below their means, pay off a house, build another without debt, and quietly help other people with the margin their restraint creates. The lessons are not delivered at a whiteboard. They are absorbed at home. Money habits are social before they are individual.

In the childhood story Paine returns to most effectively, her family of seven moves into an old two-bedroom construction trailer while her parents build a house without borrowing. There are mice, leaking windows, no conventional oven, unreliable hot water and endless improvisation. Her father acts as his own general contractor; her parents bargain for materials and perform whatever work they can manage themselves. At first, the episode is proof of resourcefulness: use what is available. Later, it explains the habits Paine carried into adulthood. By the end, the house has become something else. Her parents were building a home, certainly, but they were also teaching their children what sacrifice, patience and money were for. The image deepens each time Paine returns to it, which cannot be said of every lesson she repeats.

Put the seven habits beside one another and their order begins to matter. Agency comes first, then priorities, then a spending plan. After that Paine adds limits, accountability and methods for stretching what remains. Only then does she widen the horizon toward generosity and legacy. James Clear’s “Atomic Habits” is an obvious cousin in its faith that repeated small actions matter, but Paine is less interested in mapping the mechanics of behavior than in what those repetitions do to a household. Her sequence gives ordinary advice direction even when individual chapters sometimes explain a good idea several pages past its natural stopping point.

At its busiest, “Stop Paying Full Price” contains enough tactics to make thrift feel like a competitive event. Paine moves through groceries, leftovers, cashback apps, store coupons, clothing, gifts, travel and appliances, finding cheaper routes with almost alarming stamina. Much of the advice is sensible; some of it is pleasingly ingenious. But once the principle has landed – do not spend passively merely because a price has been presented to you – each additional consumer category proves a little less than the previous one. Paine’s generosity with examples eventually taxes the momentum. She trusts reinforcement more than compression.

Paine is better when she takes something intimidating and makes it executable. An annual expense becomes twelve smaller deposits. A budget becomes an hour with pay stubs and statements. Accountability becomes a Friday text from someone who will not turn a missed target into a diagnosis of your soul. A frightening future becomes the question of what one controllable thing can be done today. Tiffany Aliche’s “Get Good with Money” operates in a similarly non-shaming register, but Paine stays particularly close to household repetition: the grocery aisle, the envelope, the conversation at the kitchen table, the purchase before it happens. Her best pages do not make money simple. They make the next action specific.

A stranger and more interesting choice is Paine’s refusal to define financial health by income, net worth, complete debt freedom or technical expertise. For her, it is the quiet confidence produced by handling money intentionally, with money serving a life rather than running it. That definition admits people whom many finance books leave standing outside the door. A woman with modest income and unfinished debt can still be healthier, in Paine’s terms, than a high earner who spends chaotically and dreads opening an account statement. Competence can begin before abundance. Security is another matter.

Debt, rent, medical bills and childcare complicate that generosity. A person can budget exquisitely and still not have enough. Paine knows this: she explicitly notes that people do not make choices on a level playing field and that a decision that looks poor from outside may have been the best available one. Yet she has far more language for the actions an individual can take than for the point at which every responsible action has already been taken and the arithmetic remains hostile. Plan, save, ask, wait, improvise, earn, negotiate, prepare, resist. These are useful verbs. They do not raise wages, lower rent, erase a hospital bill or create a free afternoon. Paine is persuasive about enlarging the portion of a money problem a person can act upon. She is less persuasive when that enlarged portion begins to resemble the whole problem.

In Jesse’s debt-free law-school story, Paine’s own evidence makes the distinction unusually clear. The couple practiced genuine thrift and ingenuity. Jesse also attended a less expensive in-state school, earned scholarships and had educational savings his father had invested from money Jesse received after his mother’s death. None of that cheapens what they accomplished. It makes the example better, because it separates resourcefulness from resources. Paine is candid about both, even when the book’s broader rhetoric occasionally gives determination the starring role. Determination can change what one does with an opening. It cannot guarantee the opening.

Much of Paine’s most practical advice raises another question because the book is addressed specifically to women. Its reader spends a great deal of time in grocery aisles, kitchens, gift budgets and household schedules. Planning meals around sales can save money. So can making lunch, tracking store promotions, transforming leftovers, keeping a gift closet and waiting for clearance. But all of this requires labor, and Paine rarely prices that labor with the same care she prices food. A homemade lunch may beat takeout on cost and still require somebody to make it. The sharper calculation is not only “How much did this save?” but “What labor produced the savings?” Paine is very good at finding the cheaper route. She is less consistent about asking who has to walk it.

It would be easy, from there, to mistake Paine for an absolutist about austerity. She is not. “Use Cash for Everything” is more categorical in title than in argument. Paine acknowledges responsible credit-card use, secured cards, credit-building and the inconveniences created by having little credit history. Her deeper rule is simply that everyday spending should come from money already possessed and already budgeted. In a payment culture built to make buying nearly weightless, that old-fashioned instinct has bite. She wants a transaction to become tangible enough that judgment can catch up with desire.

Then comes “Consult Your Ninety-Year-Old Self,” a title that initially threatens scented stationery. Instead, the chapter gives the book its necessary enlargement. Paine asks what will matter at ninety and sets out a series of preferences: contentment over comparison, generosity over greed, simplicity over status, freedom over fear, legacy over luxury, people over things, purpose over pressure. Suddenly the fourteen dollars saved at the grocery store is not interesting because fourteen dollars is interesting. The question is what that money, joined to thousands of other choices, leaves room for. At last, thrift has to answer to a life.

Returning to the panic of the opening, Paine explains how those lean years helped produce MoneySavingMom.com. With Jesse unemployed and the account shrinking, she combines what she knows about bargain hunting with what she has learned about online publishing, hoping a new website might bring in a few hundred dollars a month. It eventually becomes a full-time income, later large enough for Jesse to join the business and for the operation to employ a team. That outcome is far too exceptional to function as a general promise. It does, however, support Paine’s smaller claim: one action can change the menu of available actions. Her Christian understanding of stewardship also comes fully into focus here. The point of careful money management is not finally accumulation but generosity, usefulness and the possibility that resources can pass through a life rather than merely collect inside it.

Out of this mix of unusually patient coaching and occasionally overextended prescription, “The 7 Habits of Financially Healthy Women” earns 78/100 and 3/5 stars. Its strongest qualities are not the novelty of its money rules but the humane intelligence with which Paine makes action seem possible, the real progression of its seven habits and an ending that asks thrift to justify itself. Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez’s “Your Money or Your Life” asks more radically what money costs in life; Tori Dunlap’s “Financial Feminist” gives more space to the systems surrounding women’s choices. Paine makes a narrower claim. She wants to know what can still be decided before payday, before clicking “buy,” before deciding that because the whole financial landscape is uncontrollable nothing remains within reach. At times she grants that reachable territory more acreage than it has. She is still very good at locating it.

Perhaps that is why the image that lingers is not the spreadsheet but the unfinished house. Paine’s parents spend nights cleaning behind contractors, bargain over materials, live in the absurd little trailer, tolerate mice and leaks, and keep building. Years later, their daughter understands that the house was only the most visible thing under construction. Habits were being built too: some austere, some generous, some worth questioning, some worth keeping. “The 7 Habits of Financially Healthy Women” cannot promise that careful choices will make every financial structure hospitable. It can remind a frightened reader that a life does not have to be fully under control before one can still decide where to put the next nail.

[Hannah Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review of advanced copy received from NetGalley
If you’ve ever wished someone would give you a guide for exactly what to do with your money, this is it. Paine invites you to move from being a passive spender to becoming a strategic steward. Not only is this book extremely practical and easy to understand, it’s also hope-focused and relatable. No matter where you’re at in your financial journey, this book will encourage you and help you create a healthy money plan for a lifetime.

[Julianne Harkleroad · Rating 5 out of 5]

In The 7 Habits of Financially Healthy Women, Crystal Paine creates a blueprint for building strong financial habits, clearing confusion and uncertainty regarding finances by changing readers relationship with money, and after implementing just a few tips and changes, relieving financial stress and anxiety. Relying heavily on her personal experience, with real world examples, a myriad of suggestions, quizzes to make the advice more personalized, and free online resources, Paine helps every reader achieve financial health. Beginning with acknowledging how "financial pressure can feel heavy" keeping you up at night, making you afraid or even paralyzed, Paine helps readers get out behind "I'm just not good with money" and other similiar false identities by encouraging readers that we are not alone, money is complicated, and change happens one step at a time.

I love how Paine focused on the compounding effect of small choices. Often villianized, the "stop buying coffee out" and "don't buy the avocado toast" suggestions Gen Z scoffs at, but actually WORKS. Her chapter on this reminds me of the old adage 'mind your pennies and the dollars will follow'. Paine clearly defines her goal in writing this book and I believe she achieves it: being financially healthy means to live well in stability. Give well, chose purchases wisely, save wisely. Paine makes no promises to help you retire at 30, be a millionaire by next week, invest in crypto, or short sell stock- and that's why her advice is so powerful! It's for real lives, via one choice at a time, with the freedom to personalize as needed. The following breaks down her 7 habits in part, but I absolutely recommend reading (or listening!) to her book or you will miss out on 90% of the goodness inside! My thoughts are sprinkled in, so if anything offends you, that's on me!

Habit #1) Start where you are
- Beginning quiz, zero pressure, just an honest check in.
- All debt is bad debt
- Consider frugality as a game- make it fun!
- Sadly, stores are absolutely cracking down on coupons and sales like Paine shares.
- "My response (to where I am) is my responsibility" LOVE THAT!
- Start with one small choice today. One no means money saved for a future investment instead of current (perhaps seconds long?) splurge.

Habit #2) Decide your financial priorities
- Don't let how you were raised or started spending your own money dictate your next financial choice.
- Using the questions supplied, assess where you're at mentally and where you want to be.
- Acknowledge where changes need to be made. "By turning on the light, being honest about where you are financially gives you power" to make better choices.
- How to decide what align with your goals, aspirations, and dreams. Living out a mission purposefully.
- Long-term goals are always worth more than short, immediate gratification (no gas station drinks, use your thirst as encouragement to bring a reusable water bottle from home next time: you won't die- I'm 100% harsher than Paine 😜).

Habit #3) Intentional spending
- Plan, set goals and reminders: nothing is worse than wasting money on overdrafts, overdue premiums, and pretending like you have surplus in your budget to spend.
- Budgets are a GIFT that help you relax and rest.
- Tell your money where to go before you spend a cent!
- Build a clear picture that relieves stress and financial anxiety.
- The size of your budget doesn't matter, you absolutely need one (Even Elon uses budgets).
- Setting goals and working toward them are better than never setting goals- even when set backs arise.
- Love the idea of picking up side jobs, selling anything you don't need, babysitting, running errands for others, etc. (Remember to set aside 20% of that income for Tax Day!! Unless you live in CA, then set aside 35%.)

Habit #4) Use cash, but build credit!
- Don't spend money you don't have (most do this by charging purchases with credit cards). (Every unpaid cent on a credit card adds an additional 30% on average. Let's say you pay all but $20 one month, even if you shread that card and don't add another purchase, that next month, you'll owe $26! It adds up SO FAST!)
- Debit cards count as cash as long as you don't overdraft.

My recommendations to build credit as someone with over 800:
1) Longevity of accounts count most- have you been reliable for a while?
2) Keep credit below 10% of the amount you can borrow- request a credit limit increase once a year via "soft pull".
3) Do you pay it off every month on time? Early?
4) Number of accounts- see 7 just below.
5) Avoid hard pulls/inquiries.
6) Become an authorized user on a trusted family member's account. My children have 15 years of perfect credit history and the oldest is 7 years old ;) shhh don't tell him...
7) Mix up the type of credit you have, fewer accounts means a slightly lower score. More accounts mean more proof of your financial stability!

Habit #5) Irresistible accountability
*Was this section recorded by a different person than the first 80% of the book? Just on a different day?*
- Can you honestly hold yourself accountable? If not, find a close friend who will help you reach your goals and cheer you on when you do!
- Paine included a great questionnaire to find out what would help you best. As an introvert who is highly motivated and hard on myself, I'm successful on my own. My little brother though needs some love.... hard love 🤣

Habit #6) Stop paying full price
- Glean from others how to start saving money with sales, coupons, shopping at the right time in the year, and changing how often you spend and what you buy.
- Lower your grocery budget and save $$ ASAP. Shop sales and build you meals around it or clearance items. "Reverse grocery shop": build meals around what is already in your pantry. Buy generic and try Ibotta or other app coupons or discount sites.
- Paine includes an abundance of suggestions for every area of life in which you can save money and still get exactly what you need.
- Audit subscriptions, free trials, and double check you aren't paying a premium to use credit as your payment source.

Habit #7) Consult your 90 year old self
- Will you look back on those $7 coffees with fondness? Do you really need another new outfit of fast fashion?
- Everything you have costs you something, your time, maintenance, space in your mind/home, your future spending power and peace. Just because you can legally walk out of the store with it doesn't mean you can afford it.
- You don't have to live extremely frugally to look back and be proud of your lifestyle choices.

I love that no matter where you are in life when you start this book, Paine will work with you to the next step towards stability. Once there, readers can return, reread, and work up to the next step on the financial health ladder. If you're listening to this book, PLEASE pause and write down notes/your own personal details and goals as needed so you don't miss instructions or skip a step. Especially during the budgeting chapter- towards the end of Habit #3. I'm cheering you on just as much as Paine is!! 🙌🏻👏🏻

Thank you to RBmedia and NetGalley for this ARC!

[Lyndsie · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

I love Crystal Paine, and I think I’ve read just about every book she’s written! One of my favorite things about her writing is her warm, conversational style. Reading her books feels like sitting down and chatting with a friend who genuinely wants to help you succeed.

In this book, Crystal breaks down financial habits in a way that’s practical, easy to understand, and incredibly encouraging.

I think this is an excellent book for anyone just beginning their budgeting journey. If you’ve ever felt like you run out of money before you run out of month, Crystal offers solid, actionable advice to help you get back on track. She explains each habit in detail, making even the most overwhelming financial situations feel manageable. I especially appreciate how she gives readers hope that they really can change their financial future, no matter how difficult things seem right now.

That said, I don’t think this book is for everyone.

If you already have a good handle on budgeting or aren’t necessarily looking for ways to pinch every penny, you probably won’t find much new information here.

Personally, I was hoping for more advice on what comes after you’ve mastered the basics. What do you do when you’ve paid off your debt, established good spending habits, and want to focus on building long-term financial security?

Unfortunately, that’s not really what this book offers.

The habits Crystal shares are foundational, and I absolutely believe they’re important. But for someone who’s already putting those principles into practice, the advice can feel a little too basic.

Still, I found plenty of encouragement throughout the book, along with a few helpful money-saving ideas. I especially loved the final habit, which left me feeling motivated and inspired.

Crystal has long been one of my favorite voices when it comes to budgeting and intentional living, and this book is a great reminder of why she’s built such a loyal following. She’s knowledgeable, relatable, and genuinely passionate about helping people find financial peace.

While this wasn’t quite the book I was hoping for in my current season of life, I would absolutely recommend it to anyone who wants to take control of their finances but doesn’t know where to begin.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

[Monica H (TeaandBooks) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like to read financial books every now and then to brush up on my money skills to best help my family. The Seven Habits of Financially Healthy Women is a general money guidance book that could be helpful if you are looking to learn some basic money management skills.

The Seven Habits of Financially Healthy Women is a mix of personal stories, practical advice and tools, and encouragement that could help the reader make better financial choices if put into practice. This author is upbeat and encouraging. If you think you aren't any good with money, she is here to tell you that you can change. She offers advice for creating your own road map for financial health in a way that will work for you.

While I think The Seven Habits of Financially Healthy Women would be most helpful to a younger person who can most benefit from making changes earlier in life, I also think there are things people of any age can learn from this book. The last two chapters were the two I personally found most helpful for my situation. However, my husband and I took financial classes early in our marriage, don't carry debt and have worked to spend wisely through the years. However, we also could tweak some things to do better as we live in mid-life and work to save for retirement. At the end of each chapter, if you are someone who journals, she offers journaling prompt questions to think about. If journaling isn't your thing, then they may be questions you could use to reflect on yourself or discuss with a partner.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

[Alexandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I honestly needed this book more than I realised.
Crystal shares 7 habits that can help us become financially healthier, and I found habits 4 and 7 were the most impactful.
I already knew these ideas, but the way Crystal explained them really changed my perspective and helped me see the value in actually putting them into practice.
This book also made me realise how often I spend on the little things that don’t seem like much at the time, but eventually they all add up… and before you know it, you’re wondering where all your money went. 😂
It was such an encouraging and practical read without feeling like I was being told what I should be doing. I also really enjoyed the personal stories throughout — they made everything feel relatable and easy to connect with.
The ideas Crystal shared were honestly next level, and I came away feeling motivated to make better choices with my money.
Definitely recommend this one! 💰📖

[Amy Carpenter · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 7 Habits of Financially Healthy Women: How to Stop Stressing, Begin Where You Are, and Build the Future You Want is a must read for women of all ages. This book not only give you the foundation to start understanding your finances, it also gives you the steps you need to ensure your financial health. I wish I had this book 20 or even 30 years ago. Crystal Paine gives sound advice that anyone can follow. Her methods have left her debt free and stress free. In addition, she talks about how it is not taboo to have financial discussions with your children which will help them learn and build a healthy financial future. I have already recommended this book to several friends and family members who would certainly benefit from it. I look forward to reading it again and seeing how her methods help me improve my own finances.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to review this ALC.

[Wondrously Bookish Cristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a practical and encouraging read! Crystal Paine offers plenty of useful tips for improving your financial health without making you feel like you have to give up everything you enjoy. I especially liked the reminder to think about what our future selves would thank us for, and how even small spending habits can add up over time. The personal stories made everything feel relatable, and I came away feeling motivated to be more intentional with my money. A great read for anyone looking to take control of their finances, one step at a time!

[Hypsypops · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

This was a great, quick read. It didn’t drag, as books like this are so likely to do. Instead, it what it needed without much of fuss.

It was a reminder to look at your finances, not ignore them, and it had several great tips and tricks.

It did mention God and church, but it wasn’t overly religious or preachy, and I think it is accessible to everyone.

I will be rereading it, and likely buying a physical copy.

I did take half a star off because it suggests using ChatGPT for menu planning.

Thank you NetGalley for this ALC.

[Michelle Moore · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

“I received a copy of this book from the publisher. My review reflects my honest opinion.

There was nothing I haven’t already been informed of I. The bulk of the book, especially coming from the financial peace university background. I did enjoy the 2nd half of the book with tips and tricks on how the everyday person can save money. Habits #5-7 were the most interesting to me.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book gave some great advice and encouragement. I look forward to implementing some of the advice in my finances.