Divanomics

Book Details:
Genre: non-fiction/self help
Page Count: 247
Publication Date: April 1, 2010
Why I read it: review copy from Tyndale
Grade: C

The plot:
Once upon a time, Michelle McKinney Hammond’s lifestyle centered around the finer things in life—designer clothes, five-star restaurants, and bag after bag of high-end nonessentials. Then one day, like many people, Michelle awoke to find herself on the losing end of a most unwelcome and unexpected financial downturn. In response, she quickly went from “spoiled” to “fabulously frugal,” and with courage and a sense of humor, she made the necessary adjustments in her life.
Now, Hammond, a self-proclaimed DIVA (Divine Inspiration for Victorious Attitude), shares what she learned about her own spending, desires, and needs and how she adjusted to life during an unpredictable economy. Divanomics is filled with money-saving tips on fashion, beauty, home decor, entertaining, diet, housing, and more.

My review:
I'm not sure that I'm really the target audience for this book. Yes, I'd like to budget better and get tips for spending less money, but this book seemed to be more for people who had expensive tastes (something I've never had) and it seemed to be geared more towards single woman. Since I'm a married mother of three, my life looks a lot different than the authors.

I think if you're looking for a good book on budgeting and financing, check out something by Dave Ramsey. In fact, the author even suggests his books in Divanomics, so I think she's aware that she's not an expert on finance. What this book reads more like is sitting down for a cup of coffee with a girlfriend who found herself in financial trouble, figured out how to help herself, and wants to give you her advice and experiences.

I think what I liked best about the book were the little snippets at the end of each chapter called "What's a diva to do". These were basically a summary of the chapter, but in the form of a list of things you could try. Since I'm all about lists, these were good for me. This is a fun book about spending less, but a lot of the time I felt like she was too focused on getting stuff--like what she could get out of other people for free. There were times that it wasn't in a bad way, like trading clothes with your friends, but there were other times where it seemed like she was giving pointers for getting men (or others) to buy you things or give you things. It rubbed me the wrong way a little bit.

All in all, this was a quick read (when I actually picked it up and read it), but definitely not the best if you're looking to get your finances in order. If you're looking for something lighthearted about finances, though, this may be a good option. You can visit the product page for this book at Tyndale here.