Book 4: Alexis Hall, 'In the Red' (public entry)
This is book number 4; Alexis Hall's 'In the Red: Diary of a Recovering Shopaholic'. This documents (as it suggest) a woman's struggle to only spend money on essentials for a year, in an attempt to curb her spending habits. It is in a diary format. I'd give it 3 and a half stars.
I bought this after seeing the author on TV, and thought that it might be inspiring to myself - while I can't say that I have £30k of credit card and loan debts and have a shopping addiction, I do sometimes spend far more than I should, and thought that this might help me with some suggestions and support as to how to curb my spending before it gets out of hand.
This book, as has been said, is definitely quite light entertainment. I managed to read it in an afternoon. It's not going to give you lots of saving tips, but as I had hoped, it was definitely inspiring and has given me the motivation to look through my wardrobe and sort out things I no longer need! I really enjoyed her writing style, and easy to relate to. I'm sure there are many women who can relate to her and her problems, and her way of rationalising every unnecessary spend.
I did have a few criticisms; firstly, the amount of typos. I noticed quite a lot in my reading of the book, a lot of them were pretty obvious things, and it doesn't seem to have been proof-read. While it's not a real criticism I guess, it did (for me) detract from reading it as I felt the urge to circle the mistakes with a red pen! Secondly, it would have been better to know what her income was and how much she was putting towards her debts and how much towards essentials such as food/rent/dog stuff. After all, she did document how much of her debt she had left, but this was hard to put into perspective without other details.
I did feel when reading it that there was a lot she could have improved on (such as taking her own lunch into work, instead of spending a fiver in Boots, or selling more unused clothing on eBay with better starting prices!), but this was documenting her resolution to not spend, which I felt she did pretty faithfully. It would've been nice to know more about 'her' and details of her life (such as how she and her partner met, or what type of dog she has - which was only said about 3/4 of the way through!) as sometimes it seemed a little impersonal. But overall, it is a light and enjoyable read, that other women (and men!) may also find inspiring when looking through their debts and overflowing wardrobes.
I bought this after seeing the author on TV, and thought that it might be inspiring to myself - while I can't say that I have £30k of credit card and loan debts and have a shopping addiction, I do sometimes spend far more than I should, and thought that this might help me with some suggestions and support as to how to curb my spending before it gets out of hand.
This book, as has been said, is definitely quite light entertainment. I managed to read it in an afternoon. It's not going to give you lots of saving tips, but as I had hoped, it was definitely inspiring and has given me the motivation to look through my wardrobe and sort out things I no longer need! I really enjoyed her writing style, and easy to relate to. I'm sure there are many women who can relate to her and her problems, and her way of rationalising every unnecessary spend.
I did have a few criticisms; firstly, the amount of typos. I noticed quite a lot in my reading of the book, a lot of them were pretty obvious things, and it doesn't seem to have been proof-read. While it's not a real criticism I guess, it did (for me) detract from reading it as I felt the urge to circle the mistakes with a red pen! Secondly, it would have been better to know what her income was and how much she was putting towards her debts and how much towards essentials such as food/rent/dog stuff. After all, she did document how much of her debt she had left, but this was hard to put into perspective without other details.
I did feel when reading it that there was a lot she could have improved on (such as taking her own lunch into work, instead of spending a fiver in Boots, or selling more unused clothing on eBay with better starting prices!), but this was documenting her resolution to not spend, which I felt she did pretty faithfully. It would've been nice to know more about 'her' and details of her life (such as how she and her partner met, or what type of dog she has - which was only said about 3/4 of the way through!) as sometimes it seemed a little impersonal. But overall, it is a light and enjoyable read, that other women (and men!) may also find inspiring when looking through their debts and overflowing wardrobes.