V's Pick #29: Penny Pinchers Club by Sarah Strohmeyer

I really enjoyed Strohmeyer's last book Sweet Love so I was excited when I found this in the library yesterday. I got home with it around 4pm and read on and off until 1am when I finished it.

Like Sweet Love, this book is (on the surface) all about enjoyment - like watching that smart and funny chick flick that only makes you feel kind of guilty (vs. the total brain-dead one that makes you wish you could get those two hours of your life back). In fact, I think both this and Sweet Love would do very well as films...but that's not what I want to talk about here. Rather, I want to talk about money.

While some of the writing and general lack of challenge this book posed my intellect could leave some wanting, I found it greatly made up for any genre misgiving by being a brave account of what's probably closer to a problem in non-fiction married life...bank accounts, home loans, cars, college, shopping...

Kat and her husband Griff have been married for a long time, they have a daughter about to go to college and amazingly, they are still in love - as in, sex in the laundry room in love. To their friends, they're the "perfect" couple and it's not even that they try to put on airs...but the credit card companies know something about them that even their families don't...they're drowning in debt. Kat's shopping has put them in the poorhouse; while her thrifty husband teachers Economics to graduate students, Kat is flunking Good Wife 101 by blowing her small paycheck at Bed, Bath & Beyond. Getting paranoid that her dark fiscal secrets have lead Griff to consider leaving her, Kat looks for clues...and she finds them. The majority of the book is a balance between woman-preparing-to-be-left, exes, business, friendship, marriage and of course, money.

At advice of her housekeeper, Kat joins the local "Penny Pinchers Club" wherein she learns a lot more than how to manage her checkbook...

A smart and funny tale of an ugly aspect of life many of us are probably all too familiar with (but rarely discuss), I found this an easy but beneficial read. Written in the light of our nation's financial landscape, I imagine this tale will hit home for many. For me, it served as a reminder of how to balance need vs. want, something that isn't always easy in our world so determined on advertising, credit cards and having. If you need a good reminder about the benefits of a more simple life, or just want a lighthearted read that won't make you feel empty, rent (don't buy) this book.