You Can Buy Happiness (and It’s Cheap) by Tammy Strobel

You Can Buy Happiness (and It’s Cheap) by Tammy Strobel is a book about downsizing, being happy with less, and how you can use this woman’s real life experiences and suggestions on doing exactly that. If you have too much stuff, are in debt, and unhappy, this is a book you need to read.

Book Description

“Once, Tammy Strobel and her husband were living a normal middle-class lifestyle: driving two cars, commuting long distances, and living well beyond their means. Now they are living the voluntary downsizing — or smart-sizing — dream. In this book Strobel combines research on well-being with numerous real-world examples to offer practical inspiration. Her fresh take on our things, our work, and our relationships spells out micro-actions that anyone can take to step into a life that’s more conscious and connected, sustainable and sustaining, heartfelt and happy.” – You Can Buy Happiness (and It’s Cheap)

My Thoughts

You Can Buy Happiness (and It’s Cheap) is a funny, honest, and helpful guide on being happier with less. True happiness doesn’t come from what you have, so all of the needless spending on “things” won’t help you achieve it. Instead, Tammy Strobel suggests giving some of your things away or selling them if you can. She and her husband radically downsized and let go of practically everything to get out of debt and to be truly happy.

Although I couldn’t imagine living in a small 128 square foot home with a husband, this couple was able to do it. I applaud such extreme downsizing and living happily out of debt. However, I just couldn’t ever be that drastic. I imagine most people couldn’t either. For those of us who aren’t going to go to such extreme measures, Tammy does give other examples and suggestions on things we can do to help us be happier with less stuff in our lives.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and found many of the suggestions and exercises useful. I highly recommend it.

* Thank you to the publisher of You Can Buy Happiness (and It’s Cheap), New World Library, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.