There are so many parallels to addiction of spending and alcohol. This was my story. When I stopped drinking and started my sobriety from alcohol the addiction of spending came on strong. Different substance, same outcome. 

In recovery we have a saying, we peel the layers of the onion. When we start our recovery from one substance or situation we can often pick up something else in its place. Often if you are recovering from alcohol use disorder it can be replaced with food, sugar, spending, gambling, sex etc. I like to call it same sh*t, different pile. It’s all the same. We are reaching outside of ourselves to escape. We use something else as a coping mechanism. Some call it a really fun game of whack-a-mole. 

This is completely normal. 

In Lesson 4 we talked about understanding our financial feelings. This is where the parallels are really seen. The feelings. The things we are trying to numb out on. The void we are trying to fill. 

Part of my story is...

I am so excited to announce

the launch of Financial Sobriety School!  

My mission is, is to help people stop overspending stop impulse spending stop addictively spending money on stuff that they don't need, and starting to build daily habits, starting to build systems, and being able to come to a place where you're making clear sober decisions with your money. This is Financial Sobriety.

One of the key foundations is sober spending. And what does that look like? What I think sober spending is, is making clear, aligned, conscious decisions. My story is that I was completely addicted to spending money. And I was obsessed with being able to buy things. I thought credit cards were my money, I thought that the limit on my credit card was permission to buy whatever I wanted and I had no consciousness about it. I just went for it. And I know that there's a lot of us out there who struggle with the addiction of spending money, the obsession, the impulses, the compulsion to spend money...

Have you been waiting for tomorrow to stop a certain habit you have with money?

Overspending

Charging everything on a credit card but can’t afford to pay it off

Avoiding looking at our money (online banking, statements, bills)

Eating out too much

Mindlessly spending

Amazon orders

Impulse purchases

Robbing Peter to pay Paul

Numbing out on online shopping

 And soooooooo many more! Did any of these resonate with you?

Journaling prompt: What habits are no longer serving you with money?

In a perfect world we would feel ready. Sometimes we just need to take one small step.

When I first started working with my money, I did not feel ready. It felt like one of those things that I just needed to get going on because I just kept saying “tomorrow I will deal with it”.

Tomorrow never came but my excuses and avoidance did, every single day.

I avoided money for so long. The main thing that I was avoiding was my debt. I just kept spending and...

Overspending is defined as spending more money than you can afford.

Does this sound familiar?

You are not alone. I used to be addicted to spending money. I was an overspender.

Would be in the midst of doing something and something would come to mind that I thought I “needed”, I looked it up online, one click I would buy it and wouldn’t even care when it showed up on my doorstep.

Would be having a bad day, feeling stressed, sad and I would find myself driving to my favourite store and buying things to make me feel better.

Would be having a great day, happy and I would find myself driving to a store to celebrate how I was feeling.

The list goes on and on about how I found myself pulling out my credit card to change how I was feeling. It worked, but only for a moment. I would get the dopamine hit. It was lovely. Then it left and I wanted more.

I would get a statements from the credit cards I used and often would have to take from a retirement account to pay the...