459: Lauren Greutman, "The Recovering Spender" Author

Ever feel the uncontrollable urge to spend? I used to do this very expensive thing in college as a way to distract myself from studying. I would go to the 24 hour market below my dorm that sold all sorts of things - food, clothes, accessories, etc. And I would usually buy something. I was killing time by spending money. I was too scared to face my homework so I did the irrational and spent. I spent with emotion.  And thousands of credit card dollars later, I had to find a way to get myself out of debt as a new college graduate. Yay! Today's guest is a recovering spender who, along with her husband, found herself in $40,000 worth of debt. Lauren Greutman is here and she wants to help people going through the same situation. She has a new book coming out soon that you can pre-order now, The Recovering Spender: How to Live a Happy, Fulfilled, Debt-Free Life. In the book, Lauren shares advice on how to curb spending habits and how to get out of debt. We face a lot of financial pressures in today's world, so she talks about that, too. Lauren and her husband Mark actually joined me on So Money before... they were episode 58 so go back and take a listen if you may have missed that one. There's additional takeaways in that episode about how they got themselves back on track financially and why it's still important to enjoy your money sometimes. For more information visit www.somoneypodcast.com.