“Your Money or Your Life” — A Book Winner

Thank you to everyone who entered to win a copy of Your Money or Your Life. Your comments about your relationships with money were, (as always) thought provoking and well written. The randomly chosen winner was Sherry, who wrote:

“I can be a control freak with money: making it and spending it. I wish I had a more holistic approach like it sounds like this book offers.”

The actual winner was my father, but felt that that wouldn’t go over too well. So I called him up, offered to lend him my copy of the book and randomly chose another reader comment. I suppose there aren’t any rules that say that immediate family are disqualified, but it would kind of defeat the purpose of sending this great book out in the world. Plus, his comment was not about his relationship with money, but was about how he was sick of reading about The June Food Stamp Challenge! Thanks dad, you made my day.

Here are just a few of the (on topic) reader comments:

From Rebecca:

“I’m expecting my first child in a month and my husband and I will need to adjust our budget to reflect our new priorities. It’s a constant struggle for us to be on the same page with our money, so maybe this book would help us get there!”

From Crystal:

“I haven’t always had a good relationship with money and I’m dealing with that now. But recently I’ve always seemed to have just enough to get my bills paid and start paying off debt. But for some reason whenever I have extra money, I feel the need to spend it.”

From Carla:

“Odd, because in my Bible reading this morning I was in a section where Jesus talked a great deal about money. I TRY to be wise in my money, since I am only the steward of it and of my possessions after all. I don’t completely have a handle on this yet but my goals are to be careful, to be wise and still, to be generous. I am not impressed by the miser, the hoarder. I had rather be a person who readily gives than one who keeps for one’s own pleasures. Having said that, I still find myself sometimes fearful of the future and wishing I could both have and be generous at once. This is my own struggle and is one I may never completely resolve.”

From Renee:

“Money is frustrating at times….if u have extra it calls to u and says “yes yes yes u can” when there isn’t any you feel low and almost shameful- even if your bills are paid- like telling friends “no i can not go out to eat I have already spent all my fun money this month”. I am working very hard along with my husband to make “responsible” money decisions. We are 27 and in the process of buying our first house, my parents gave us some money to help and we are really struggling with using it to make the house pretty or paying off more debt….”

From Maureen:

“I am nervous about money. I feel like I am overwhelmed with things at the moment. I am in a one income family due to a health issue on my part. we watch each penny we spend.”

From Ame:

“I was typing a response about how healthy my relationship with money was — how responsible we’re being, how much joy I get from my various frugalities or expenditures– but everything I was saying made me realize how unhealthy it possibly is. I realized that I think about money almost all the time, not in that I want or need more of it (except who doesn’t), but more in an OCD, calorie-counting kind of way. I check the balance of my student loan multiple times a week, even though I only pay on it once a month. I have taken on The Compact, and I love nothing more than to calculate to the penny how much money I’ve saved over my retail spending in the same time period last year. I look at our monthly grocery budget and calculate to the dollar what each meal is costing us. I feel guilt about every spent penny that *might* not have been necessary, even when I need or enjoy the things those pennies buy. I’ve always considered myself frugal, but maybe this obsession with paying less and getting the most is actually taking up valuable brain-space that should go to…oh, anything else! Naturally, it’s better to be “good with money,” but at what point have I potentially gone too far? That’s something for me to chew on today.”

From TraciFree:

“My relationship with money is love hate. Having money increases the siren song of MORE STUFF. On the other hand, not enough money puts me into full on panic/survival/hoarder mode. There’s got to be a happy medium.”

Thank you to everyone who entered to win a copy of Your Money or Your Life. I would highly recommend putting this terrific book on your library hold list! Click HERE to read all the reader comments, which were fascinating.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”