In the Red: The Diary of a Recovering Shopaholic

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Editorial reviews

Synopsis
When your debt is more than your share of the mortgage and your partner's threatening to not only leave, but to tell your mother how out of control your spending is, then you know it's time to face reality and take drastic action. So, for one whole year, Alexis Hall sets out to buy nothing except the bare essentials in a bid to reclaim her life from the retail rollercoaster threatening to pitch her into permanent poverty. That might not sound too hard a task, but when you owe over GBP30,000 and you're consumed by consumerism, just making it to lunchtime without buying a pair of sensational shoes suddenly becomes a life-altering act. "In the Red" is Alexis' hilarious diary - full of fashion and frustration - as she battles to transform herself from a spending junkie to a scrupulous saver. You'll soon realize there's a bit of Alexis in all of us!

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-06-13 rating:
Funny, Entertaining and made me feel better about myself!
Alexis Hall is almost £32000 in debt - she's not got alot to show for it and really has to do something about it.

Anyone who wants an entertaining and funny read and enjoyed the Shopaholic books by Sophie Kinsella and Save Karyn will enjoy this book. It's better than the aforementioned as a) it's actually true and b) it's set in Britain so I could relate to it more easily than Save Karyn.

Alexis decides that she has to spend a year of living frugally - she has to reduce her debts. The book is in diary form and very very funny in places. Although a lot of the shops she misses are alien to me, I think most of us can relate to her feelings, whether we shop in Prada or Primark.

Aswell as being a good read, the book also made me think about my own spending habits - I've done some of the things she mentions myself, buying something just because it's reduced then never taking it out of the bag again.

A great read, it didnt take long but it was entertaining.
Good luck to Alexis

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review by: date: 2008-05-21 rating:
An entertaining, light read.
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.

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review by: date: 2008-04-21 rating:
I preferred Save Karyn
I bought 2 copies of this book - one for a friend and we were both really disappointed. I bought the book thinking it would be like an English version of Save Karyn. Unfortunately I just couldn't "gel" with this book at all. I would have liked someone more "ordinary" - surely when you really want to save money you would make your own lunch not buy it from Boots. I just don't think the author seemed to be willing to sacrifice enough. "Normal" people in debt would have had to go without a lot more. Sorry but I was really disappointed with this book after initially having such high hopes for it.

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review by: damask date: 2008-04-06 rating:
Well written but not really like the rest of us.
I'm always interested in how people get out of debt so I homed in on this book as being a bit like an English version of 'Save Karyn'. Alexis Hall is in debt because she buys designer clothes. Unlike Karyn she does not reveal how much she earns but as she manages to pay as much as £1000 off her debt each month she doesn't have the income of an average person. She doesn't itemise everything she buys just where she has to spend anything out of the ordinary - presents for the dog, partner or relatives.
The book is in diary form which makes it quick and easy to read. I did find it entertaining but unless you are really really extravagant yourself you aren't going to pick up too many tips from it about trimming your own expenditure. I did find it entertaining especially the arguments she had with herself about spending, and the way she cut down on her commuting costs. I felt that allowing yourself £5 per day for lunch etc was perhaps over generous as she could have taken sandwiches to work, but maybe because she had that money she was less tempted to go on a spree.
I recommend it if you want to read real life chick lit.


review by: date: 2008-03-17 rating:
Cute
I picked this up because the story sounded interesting and I had been dying to read a good chick lit.

Well, the storyline (in diary form) is fun. I love all the descriptions of cool clothes and the funny lines that the author uses to describe people and things around her.

This is typical and fun chick lit. However, if you are looking for a main character with any kind of depth, you will be highly disappointed with this book.

Although the couple have been together for 14 years, it sounds as though the only thing they do together is go to her mother's for the weekend.

The author makes the male lead sound like a bit of a ditz who appears to be clueless about what the love of his life is doing, not doing, spending or lying about.

The female lead has absolutely no depth whatsoever and can does come across as immature and silly at times.

Nonetheless, this was entertaining and good chick lit.

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