The Tools 

Abstinence,  Anonymity,  Exercise,  Humor,  Meditation

Meetings, Numbers Tracking, Phone Calls Emails or Texts

Play, Prayer,  Readings,  Service,  Slogans,  A Spending Plan

Sponsorship and Writing/journaling



Abstinence

Abstinence is difficult for new Spenders Anonymous members to understand.    Here are some suggestions on how this program defines it.

• Get a sponsor or accountability partner and share feelings about spending.
• When you must shop, as all of us do, go with a list. Buy only what is on the list. 
• Consider using shopping services like Instacart for your groceries.  While there is a fee, you likely will spend less because you’re not browsing aisles.
• Let friends and family do your shopping for you.
• There are no bargains for the compulsive spender. Don’t shop the ads or sales. Sometimes it is less costly in the long run to pay full price because you are buying only what you really need.
• Save money by buying fewer things, making do with less.
• Realize that advertising and merchandising are designed to get you to buy, particularly on impulse.
• Overspending is an addiction, just like drinking. Stay away from stores and social media that act as your bars or liquor stores.
• Try to keep your thinking away from “wanting something”. Don’t generate the need within yourself. When you really do need something, the need will be apparent, and it will be peaceful to acquire it.
• Make your necessary shopping a chore, something no more exciting than mailing a letter.  
• Get rid of the stuff that you have bought and have stored around the house.  Make getting rid of your stuff your NUMBER ONE priority!! When you discover how hard it is to get rid of your stuff, you will see how absolutely necessary this step is.
• Be vigilant. Ask for your Higher Power’s wisdom and discernment on the way to the store, while you are choosing items, and before taking them to the cashier. Keep in mind your own powerlessness and insanity (Step 1), as well as your Higher Power’s strength and peacefulness. 
• Bookend — call someone before you shop, telling them what you’re going to buy.  Call them after to tell them how you did.  This fosters accountability.
• Shop in smaller, quieter shops where there are fewer choices, activities, people, noise and lights so you don’t get “hyped”.
• Delay any purchase that doesn’t feel right.
• Any purchase you obsess about is probably not OK.
• You will never be hurt by anything you don’t buy.
• Ask the question: What’s the worse thing that could happen if I didn’t buy_________?
• Keep asking for what you need physically, emotionally, socially and spiritually.
• Keep food on your shelves, but not a lot of food.
• Feel the comfort of not allowing yourself to get so tight that you feel afraid of where you will get money for necessities. (balance)
• Have goals (savings)
• Limit time in stores looking for a particular item. Consider checking online before you shop to see if your time is in stock.
• Don’t spend money you don’t have.
• Open and look at all your mail everyday.
• Know what your bank balance is.

• Deduct checks or debt card purchases as soon as you write them.
• Work with a sponsor or spenders with some recovery to develop a spending plan that is honest and realistic. 
• If you chose to switch to a cash system, keep money in envelopes marked for specific cateogories.
• If you are having trouble with your spending, leave money at home except for a quarter.
• Stay out of  Cracker Barrel lobbies.
• If in doubt, don’t.
• No credit cards.
• Develop an “attitude of gratitude” for what you have.
• Feel your feelings and emotions.
• Journal.
• Go for a walk.
• When shopping, ask yourself: Do I really want this? Do I really need it? Will I really use this or will it just sit there? Do I already have one like it at home? Is it worth the price physically, emotionally and spiritually? If at the end of this, you still want the item, try to put a small space between the wanting and the buying. This can help to stay abstinent at times.
• Use the tools of the program: Abstinence, Sponsorship, Meetings, Phone Calls, Anonymity, Reading and Writing, Service, Humor, Slogans, Exercise and Prayer/Meditation.
• Carry $200 in traveler’s cheques for emergency road costs.
• Keep change all in one place in your house and put billfold money there except then using it.
• Pray before entering the store to stay centered.
• Don’t read the ads, or watch social media “inflluencers.” 
• Decide whether you are buying the bargain or the item.
• Decide whether it’s a want or a need.
• Pay your bills first.
• If it’s a want, look through your closet or drawer and see what you have before going shopping.
• If you can’t call before you shop, call after and talk out any guilt or shame or whatever you are feeling so you don’t continue.
• Don’t tell people what a “good deal” you got. Starve the addiction.
• Don’t ask how much something costs. Starve the addiction.
• Steer conversations about money or “good deals” to something else. Starve the addiction. Don’t keep secrets. Tell the truth about what you pay for things.
• Let yourself know that you can have things, but that you need to choose which ones you can have.
• Deal with your shame around money.
• Try to address your fears about being deprived and about spending.
• Give yourself credit for progress.
• Take life and the program “one day at a time”.
• Work the steps of the program.
• Do not accept yourself and your finances as not perfect, but instead, be able to grow and learn by your abstinence and mistakes and from hearing others share at meetings.
• Use the affirmations: “I have everything I need” and “I am OK the way I am.”