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Underspent: How I Broke My Shopping Addiction and Buying Habit
Do you want to break your impulse shopping addiction and habit of buying ‘stuff’, without dramatically changing your life?
Do you want to save money?
Do you want to be Underspent, not overspent?
Do you want to feel happier and more content?
Right now, the rising cost of living is one of the biggest issues in Australia, America and the UK. According to the media, the average American owns 3.5 credit cards and owes US$15,799 in credit card debt. Three out of five American families can’t pay off their credit card debts. In the UK, someone is declared insolvent or bankrupt every five minutes, and a property is repossessed every eighteen minutes. Thirteen per cent of Australian adults and seventeen per cent of Aussie kids live below the poverty line, whilst the average Australian adult spends the first eight weeks of each year working just to pay for their car. There are more than eighteen million shopaholics in the United States, ninety-three per cent of teenage girls in the United States say shopping is their favourite activity and five per cent of all waste in Australian landfill is discarded clothing. The UK’s Citizens Advice Bureau deals with more than 7,000 debt problems every day and 21,000 credit or debit card purchases are made every minute in the UK.
We don’t need to question whether shopping addictions, household debt and the rising cost of living exist or not – we all know that these issues exist. We think about the cost of living, our household money and our debts every day. It’s what we do about it that’s important.
Rachel Smith interviewed men and women in Australia, the UK and the USA about their shopping habits. She also asked them what they thought would be the biggest challenges or personal battles they’d face if they had to quit shopping for three months. Their answers making do with what we already own, boredom, feeling unprepared, willpower, not buying gifts, fear of missing out and failing to meet children’s needs.
In this groundbreaking and entertaining book, Rachel reveals the Seven-Step Process she took to break her shopping addiction and buying habit, without dramatically changing her life.
For Rachel, the ultimate result of implementing the seven steps set out in this book
• being Underspent—spending less than usual (she was spending less money than was required and expected)
• breaking her impulse shopping addiction and habit of buying ‘stuff’
• saving 38 per cent of her net (take-home) annual salary
• feeling happier and more content.
This is a book that people can use, not just agree with. Underspent examines in
• the problems caused by impulse shopping addictions
• the seven things we love about buying and shopping
• why we shop and buy so much
• what triggers our shopping and buying
• seven things to love about quitting consumerism
• the seven sticking points
• seven challenges and personal battles we face when quitting
• the seven steps to being Underspent.
Rachel has written this book because she wants to share how she broke her impulse shopping addiction and habit of buying ‘stuff’, without dramatically changing her life. In this book, she tells you what she did; she won’t tell you what to do. Rachel wants to share the tools that worked for her. This is a practical guide for men and women who want to quit shopping and save money.
With case studies, stories, information and practical exercises, Rachel shows you how to apply the seven steps.
Do you want to save money?
Do you want to be Underspent, not overspent?
Do you want to feel happier and more content?
Right now, the rising cost of living is one of the biggest issues in Australia, America and the UK. According to the media, the average American owns 3.5 credit cards and owes US$15,799 in credit card debt. Three out of five American families can’t pay off their credit card debts. In the UK, someone is declared insolvent or bankrupt every five minutes, and a property is repossessed every eighteen minutes. Thirteen per cent of Australian adults and seventeen per cent of Aussie kids live below the poverty line, whilst the average Australian adult spends the first eight weeks of each year working just to pay for their car. There are more than eighteen million shopaholics in the United States, ninety-three per cent of teenage girls in the United States say shopping is their favourite activity and five per cent of all waste in Australian landfill is discarded clothing. The UK’s Citizens Advice Bureau deals with more than 7,000 debt problems every day and 21,000 credit or debit card purchases are made every minute in the UK.
We don’t need to question whether shopping addictions, household debt and the rising cost of living exist or not – we all know that these issues exist. We think about the cost of living, our household money and our debts every day. It’s what we do about it that’s important.
Rachel Smith interviewed men and women in Australia, the UK and the USA about their shopping habits. She also asked them what they thought would be the biggest challenges or personal battles they’d face if they had to quit shopping for three months. Their answers making do with what we already own, boredom, feeling unprepared, willpower, not buying gifts, fear of missing out and failing to meet children’s needs.
In this groundbreaking and entertaining book, Rachel reveals the Seven-Step Process she took to break her shopping addiction and buying habit, without dramatically changing her life.
For Rachel, the ultimate result of implementing the seven steps set out in this book
• being Underspent—spending less than usual (she was spending less money than was required and expected)
• breaking her impulse shopping addiction and habit of buying ‘stuff’
• saving 38 per cent of her net (take-home) annual salary
• feeling happier and more content.
This is a book that people can use, not just agree with. Underspent examines in
• the problems caused by impulse shopping addictions
• the seven things we love about buying and shopping
• why we shop and buy so much
• what triggers our shopping and buying
• seven things to love about quitting consumerism
• the seven sticking points
• seven challenges and personal battles we face when quitting
• the seven steps to being Underspent.
Rachel has written this book because she wants to share how she broke her impulse shopping addiction and habit of buying ‘stuff’, without dramatically changing her life. In this book, she tells you what she did; she won’t tell you what to do. Rachel wants to share the tools that worked for her. This is a practical guide for men and women who want to quit shopping and save money.
With case studies, stories, information and practical exercises, Rachel shows you how to apply the seven steps.
- GenresNonfiction
75 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 15, 2015
29 people are currently reading
103 people want to read
About the author
Rachel Smith
210 books3 followersLibrarian's note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. This profile contains books from multiple authors of this name.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 7, 2020
2.5
It felt like a blog post more than an actual book (not that those cannot be well-written), wasn't particularly revolutionary or ground-breaking and felt like it just collected quotes and statistics from other places with no real "glue", something to put it together into a cohesive book.
Why the 2.5 stars then? It was in some way worth my time (it's short), it did give some food for thought and kept me reading.
It felt like a blog post more than an actual book (not that those cannot be well-written), wasn't particularly revolutionary or ground-breaking and felt like it just collected quotes and statistics from other places with no real "glue", something to put it together into a cohesive book.
Why the 2.5 stars then? It was in some way worth my time (it's short), it did give some food for thought and kept me reading.
September 22, 2016
This book has changed my life. AMAZING
September 22, 2016
BRILLIANT. One of the best books I have ever read. I'm going to be buying this for everyone as a Christmas present! Must read.
June 6, 2020
I've been tempted to buy this amazing book on Amazon as the price is under $5, but instead, I've found a copy of this beauty at my library. Thank heaven for libraries. I've been wanting to declutter my spending habits for so long. Even though I'm not a total shopaholic, I have spent money on items that I don't need, leading to extra clutter at home. And I adore books, and eBooks under $5 are my splurge, which do add up over time. I've been trying to curtail my book spending by using libraries and signing up as a book reviewer, and leveraging the books that I already own, and donating what I won't read to charity. Thankfully Rachel Smith explains the 7 reasons of why we shop and buy so much, and the biggest challenges and personal battles we face on tackling our personal finances, and the steps we can take to break our shopping addictions and buying habits without dramatically changing our lives. She offers really great advice on how to identify your shopping and buying issues, and create a why I'm not buying list, as well as learning to be grateful for what you're so fortunate to have. Sorting out one's bank accounts and monthly budget also go a long way. Rachel also endorses the emerging share economy, where individuals hire out things like their cars, homes and personal time to other individuals in a peer to peer fashion. Examples of Share economy businesses are Airbnb and ride share services like Uber etc. Share economy also includes initiatives like the concept of book lending libraries, in which goods and services are provided for free or sometimes for a modest subscription i.e. street libraries.The sharing economy aims to minimise waste and it includes cooperatives, co-creation, recycling, upcycling, redistribution, and trading used goods like clothes. This is related to collaborative consumption in which an item is consumed by multiple people. The whole concept is about access over ownership. Buy experiences rather than things, because it is the experiences you'll cherish the most. Always inspect, assess and organise your stuff for swapping, selling or donating or even for binning in either recycled or rubbish.
April 20, 2020
Sometimes a book comes into its own a while after it is published. As the world shifts so fundamentally during COVID-19 and we all examine our values and how we live life, this little gem of a book is a brilliant quick-read with quick-solutions.
I think its simplicity belies the huge impact it can have: if everyone chose to take Rachel's advice we could have a quite different world post COVID-19.
I find myself thinking about Rachel's year without buying anything every time I take out my credit card. This book allowed me to imagine life without mindless spending, where we could revert to using what we have and only buying what we need. Seriously, if I had read it before the turmoil of early 2020 I don't know if the message would have stuck as well as it did now in April 2020. Suddenly we can see that what Rachel proposes is indeed possible and that the changes she proposes can stick. What I appreciate about Underspent is the 'how to'. Rachel lays bare our motivation for mindless shopping and the benefits of just not doing it.
This book could make greater claims about the impact it could make on the world if more people read it and acted on it.
I think its simplicity belies the huge impact it can have: if everyone chose to take Rachel's advice we could have a quite different world post COVID-19.
I find myself thinking about Rachel's year without buying anything every time I take out my credit card. This book allowed me to imagine life without mindless spending, where we could revert to using what we have and only buying what we need. Seriously, if I had read it before the turmoil of early 2020 I don't know if the message would have stuck as well as it did now in April 2020. Suddenly we can see that what Rachel proposes is indeed possible and that the changes she proposes can stick. What I appreciate about Underspent is the 'how to'. Rachel lays bare our motivation for mindless shopping and the benefits of just not doing it.
This book could make greater claims about the impact it could make on the world if more people read it and acted on it.
August 30, 2020
I had been wanting to read this book for a while, ever since I heard Rachel interviewed in a podcast. I have to say the podcast seemed to go into more detail, was more interesting and more inspiring than the book. So, yes, I was let down. I expected the book to concentrate on the financial side of a no spend year, but it went much more into minimalism and the borrow/reuse/recycle Thing (which I have nothing against as I have read numerous books on those topics and practice them myself but it’s not why I bought this book) The tips were quite general and didn’t really nut down on precise details or the personal impact on her. The bonus is That the book is short, I am certain her story will provide encouragement to somebody who hadn’t thought much about the topic before picking the book up, and hasn’t had a lot of prior exposure to the minamilst movement, because at the end of the day all any of us are looking for when we pick up a “self help finance book” - some motivation and encouragement.
January 2, 2020
A very easy read, and oh so simple to understand. Rachel lays it out very easily about how to break and change the shopping habits to something better, however not all of that will work. I don’t drive and work in a shopping centre. So if I have an hour to kill until my bus what the hell am I gonna do for that hour, that isn’t looking at shops?! Most of this is doable, those in the retail sector might struggle a little bit more, but a no spend year with only the necessities can be doable for the average Australian.
April 8, 2018
I like to read personal finance books, so I was looking forward to this one. I appreciate that it was very practical without fluff that needlessly pumps up a book's page count. However, I didn't think this warranted a book -- perhaps a short blog series. The information was basic, and I didn't learn much about Smith or breaking shopping habits (that I hadn't heard before).
July 27, 2020
I read this entire book in one sitting and my boyfriend and I have decided we are going to give this a try to help us save up to move onto our dean house 🤞 this book was very inspiring and helped explain everything very well
June 26, 2021
(2.5)
September 22, 2016
5 STAR. Inspiring, informative and implementable. The BEST book. I heard Rachel speak at the Planting Festival and it was a really brilliant and inspiring talk. I then bought and read the book. I have not bought anything as a result. saved money and have a better life. I am so happy that I found this book.
June 27, 2019
Game changer
What a bloody fantastic book. Devoured it in about half an hour and cannot recommend enough, everyone who thinks they might spend too much should read this. Great focus on sustainability and community.
What a bloody fantastic book. Devoured it in about half an hour and cannot recommend enough, everyone who thinks they might spend too much should read this. Great focus on sustainability and community.
September 22, 2016
A great read full of real, practical advice!
April 6, 2018
Very interesting and informative. A timely read for me.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews