Book Giveaway #6 – Spent: Memoirs of a Shopping Addict

SpentAnother book to give away! And just like the other one still going on, this one hasn’t hit the stands either :)

Spent: Memoirs of a Shopping Addict
by Avis Cardella

Here’s a summary from Hachette Book Group:

“As a child, Avis Cardella devoured the glamorous images in her mother’s fashion magazines. She grew up to be one of the people in them, living a life that seemed to be filled with labels and luxury. But shopping had become a dangerous addiction. She forwent food for Prada. Credit card debt blossomed like the ever-increasing pile of unworn shoes and clothing in the back of her closet. She defined herself by the things she owned and also lost herself in the mad hunt for the perfect pair of pants or purse that might make her feel whole.”

Want it? Drop a comment with the most expensive thing you’ve ever put on a credit card :) For me, it was my ’93 Cadillac! Haha…all $3,100 of it. Your turn…I’ll announce the winner this weekend.

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More from Amazon: Spent: Memoirs of a Shopping Addict

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42 Comments

  1. Meghan Fife April 21, 2010 at 7:13 AM

    Most expensive thing on a credit card? Pretty sure it was just recently when I paid $300 to my cell phone company to pay for my new phone and 1st month of the plan.

    The phone cost $250 but I’ll be getting a $100 mail-in rebate you know in like….20 weeks or something insane like that!

    I try not to put too much “extra’ on there since I pay it off every month. =)

  2. Curt H April 21, 2010 at 8:17 AM

    Most expensive credit card charge? $4600 for laser eye surgery. I paid it all off that same month, but got $92 cash back for it!

    Book sounds like a good read, wouldn’t mind winning!

  3. Brandi April 21, 2010 at 8:36 AM

    In college I put a trip to the Bahamas on my credit card for me and the boyfriend of the time. I had some airfare I had to use so that’s how I justified it. In total it was about $2500. Unfortunately that was about the only thing I had ever put on the credit card. And that ‘broke’ me if you will and I ended up using the whole $4000 limit I had by the time I graduated and moved to KC.

    LUCKILY I found Dave Ramsey and the credit card debt was the first snowball to go in April of 2009!!

  4. Erin April 21, 2010 at 8:42 AM

    Appliances ~ $4000 but is interest free for 3 years and you had better believe it will be paid off before the 3 years.

  5. Kams April 21, 2010 at 8:51 AM

    my honeymoon – $6500, but I paid it off before interest charges took effect :)

  6. Little Miss Moneybags April 21, 2010 at 9:33 AM

    Tuition and laser vision correction. I paid both charges off before the month was up, and got some great rewards points!

    Later this year it will be wedding stuff, but again–putting it on the credit card for merchant protection and rewards points, then paying it off out of the savings account for the wedding.

  7. Claudia April 21, 2010 at 9:36 AM

    We put $2500 on our credit card this past weekend – we finally bit the bullet and bought a new mattress. They say the mattress will last for 20 years, so $2500 divided by 20 years works out to 34 cents per day, so that’s not really so bad. Not sure that’s the most we’ve ever put on our card at one time, but it was very recent and a bit painful…

  8. sealz April 21, 2010 at 9:58 AM

    Its between doctors visits ($200ish) and plane tickets ($300ish). I pay off every month and I just don’t have that many large expenses (yet).

  9. Danielle April 21, 2010 at 10:17 AM

    Most expensive? Probably something from one of my weddings. I charged both of the venues on cards. However, I had the money to pay it off at the time of the first. Not so much for the second.

  10. Nicole April 21, 2010 at 10:34 AM

    My brother and I brought a flat screen tv for my parents for Christmas and we put it on a credit card.It was $1300 and interest free for 18 months and its already paid off. And to say the tv was for my parents would be lying, as we purchased it for the family room so that means we get the most use out of it.

  11. J. Money April 21, 2010 at 11:23 AM

    Haha….you guys are cracking me up man. Love the honesty though! and you reminded me that my caddy WASN’T the most expensive thing we put on plastic – Our honeymoon & wedding stuff was on there too for 2-3 months (maybe $6,000?). Luckily when you get married though everyone throws cash your way ;)

    Keep ’em coming! These are really interesting to read…

  12. Melissa April 21, 2010 at 11:31 AM

    About $5000 in college tuition. Paid it off that month too.

    Though if you want a good story, a relative of mine received a 0% interest, no payment for one year credit card that also happened to have no credit limit. He promptly charged 160 acres of land to this card and let it fester (the charge was somewhere in the 500k range.) He paid off the entire thing via certified mail 11 months later. The credit card tried to say he paid the bill late and stick him with interest and penalties galore. My relative, smarter than the credit card companies, sent them a copy of the signature and requested all fees be removed or he would happily take them to court.

    Needless to say, the credit card company stopped sending him 0%, no payment offers.

  13. nofearingthemoney April 21, 2010 at 12:01 PM

    About $20K for a contractor-completed remodeling project in my house. It was BEAUTIFUL! Money was in the bank, we paid it off before the interest kicked in and got over $200 cash-back on the charge. Just recently, we wanted to charge the $25K down payment on hubby’s new car (for the same reasons), but the dealership wouldn’t let us :-( They said the merchant fees were too high. Bummer.

  14. Liz M. April 21, 2010 at 12:07 PM

    Probably either my trip to Hawaii in law school or my parent’s carpeting when they were selling their house. The trip I eventually paid for with my Bar Loan (stupid) and my parents paid me back for their carpeting! I think the carpeting was a couple thousand and the Hawaii trip was close to that.

  15. Christine April 21, 2010 at 12:14 PM

    A 5 trip to hawaii including airfare and hotel for 2, 1,300 abouts! Buuttt I’ll get 5% cashback and I’ll pay it all off during the next statement.

  16. Ernest S. April 21, 2010 at 12:31 PM

    My honeymoon was definitely my largest expense. The final hotel bill came out to around $5000. It was funny getting the email alerts from my credit card company (I had set it up to receive an alert when my card is charged over $100 or my balance is over half my available balance).

    Though it was a lot, it was worth every penny.

  17. Jason@LiveRealNow April 21, 2010 at 12:40 PM

    I put a new roof on my credit card, for almost $10 Gs. I got a big cashback deal and paid it off when the insurance check came through.

  18. MH April 21, 2010 at 1:01 PM

    I mostly do little purchases (lots of them), but the biggest one was a $500 ottoman!

  19. Nicole April 21, 2010 at 1:21 PM

    $1250 for laser hair removal, stupidest thing I ever bought…. that’s the only thing I can think of as a one time most expensive purchase, wish I could forget it. ouch.

  20. Caity April 21, 2010 at 1:28 PM

    College dorm rent: $9,000
    Parents helping with that bill: Priceless.

  21. Jersey Mom April 21, 2010 at 2:01 PM

    The most expensive thing on a credit card would be… cross-country move which cost approx. $10,000. It was promptly paid at the end of the month. =)

  22. jennifer April 21, 2010 at 2:07 PM

    NOTHING! I have NEVER owned a credit card-ever! I don’t even own a debit card- I am THAT cheap!

  23. Dee April 21, 2010 at 2:33 PM

    Definitely the $1,000 for my Macbook!

  24. Donna April 21, 2010 at 2:45 PM

    My husband was negotiating for a 1998 Subaru Outback. They haggled and finally agreed on a price. We were then ushered into the credit office to finance our “buy” (of course this is where alot of the money is made). The credit manager started to pull out the paperwork and my husband said, “that’s okay, we will just put it on our credit card”. The look on the poor credit manager’s face was priceless. Of course, he tried to talk us out of it because his way was “cheaper”. What we did not tell him was that my father-in-law was giving the money to us as a gift for my husband getting his doctorate but the money had not yet arrived when we wanted to get the car. We put $17,000 on the card and drove away!

  25. Anne April 21, 2010 at 3:07 PM

    My most expensive CC purchase to date was a new laptop. It was about $2500 which was just over half of my credit card limit at the time. Thankfully the card had 0% interest for 6 months and was paid off before any interest charges kicked in.

  26. becky April 21, 2010 at 3:24 PM

    I love that you giveaway books! I think the most expensive thing I charged was probably a black leather Coach when I was in Vegas. It seems like something that I could have lived without. However, I still have it, and its been years… Classic. Probably still paying for it!

  27. dollar incense April 21, 2010 at 4:23 PM

    I had to think about this for a minute!

    – rent: sad, but true. when I lived in Hollywood my fancy apt complex took rent (~2k/mo) on ccs. thought I would pay it off and just use it for the points, but that caused some spiraling down on my path to super mega ultra debt
    – travel: just last week I booked a week at a spa on my cc. but now that I am debt free, I really do use ccs for the points

    ps – been forever but I still check in here once in a while and might even update my own blog soon :) :)

  28. Patrick April 21, 2010 at 4:38 PM

    Engagement ring. Paid off the next month.

  29. Jackie April 21, 2010 at 4:46 PM

    I charged a cross-country flight for $400 on my credit card. May be small pennies, but at the time I only had a $500 student limit.

  30. J. Money April 21, 2010 at 4:48 PM

    Crap! Forgot about the engagement ring too…that might win for me now @ $7k. Threw it on a 1 year 0% interest card too – paid off in 12 even payments :)

  31. lunchingdauphin April 21, 2010 at 4:51 PM

    An entire wedding and honeymoon went on my credit card. $8,000. Not including my dress.

    Zero interest, plus an elopement and a couple extra days in Las Vegas. We were living together for a few years (through college) and decided to take the plunge. We originally had a one week vacation to Greece that fell through because of some terrorist/political things going on- so we completely winged it and married in the Bellagio chapel in Las Vegas. We got all the photographs done and mailed out announcements from there. Luckily, with the zero percent interest, it didn’t cost more, but it took awhile to pay off.

    We’ve been married 5 years now and have almost been completely credit card free for a full year. Since our 2nd Xbox360 fell victim to the red ring-of-death (out of warranty), we’ve debated getting a new Visa. But we’ll just weather through, and maybe plan to save up for our anniversary next year in Las Vegas.

  32. Tricia April 21, 2010 at 4:52 PM

    Last minute international flight to China for work (on my personal card.) $8300. Luckily it was reimbursable!

  33. Lap Band Gal April 21, 2010 at 5:09 PM

    I had weight loss surgery (lap band) 6 months ago. I have since lost 73lbs and still losing. I put my entire surgery fee and after care on my capital one rewards visa card: $17200. I paid it ALL off at the end of that month, so no interest charges and I rec’d back about $350 in rewards cash back from Visa. Then I claimed it as a deduction on my 2009 taxes as a medical expense and got back about $3k more than my usual tax return check. Best thing I ever did for my health. period. lapbandgalsjourney.blogspot.com

  34. Favor April 21, 2010 at 10:39 PM

    Most expensive thing: flights to Rome…at $3,000. But we transferred money from our checking to cover it. Does that count? :)

  35. Ashley April 21, 2010 at 11:35 PM

    Hmmm I’m pretty sure the most expensive thing I ever charged was either my plane ticket to Europe for this summer ($1400!!!!!!!!!!!! ridic). Or it might have been the one time I had my car in for repairs (new radiator, new neutral switch, new door pin, etc.) that was somewhere over $1000 but I don’t quite remember how much.

  36. Chris April 22, 2010 at 1:58 AM

    Dropped a quick $2,000 on a pair of Los Angeles Galaxy season tickets the day that David Beckham signed. Super impulsive buy, but I loved every single game. I’m a soccer addict.

  37. MK April 22, 2010 at 9:09 AM

    The most expensive thing I’ve charge to my credit card would be my airfare and cruise that I’m going on in 28 days! All told it came to around $1900 and I’m almost done paying it off. Took me a good 4 months, but I think it’s worth it for 10 days cruising around the Mediterranean!

    As far as tangible items on my credit card, that would be the Coach purse and matching wallet I bought myself at the outlets for my birthday last summer. I think those totaled about $350. :-)

  38. Christian April 22, 2010 at 2:25 PM

    I opened a credit card through Circuit City in order to get 0% interest for 5 or so years on our flatscreen TV a few years ago. That was $1600 or something. We paid it off pretty quickly. No regrets though. I love that TV.

  39. Jazz April 23, 2010 at 3:53 AM

    um the Jamaica vacation I just took(1200 ) … or my GRE(160 ) , oh and cant forget having 2 wisdom teeth extracted ( 500 ) . The next vacation in 2 yrs will be paid for in cash . This one would have been paid for in cash , but I had a car accident and had to use that money

  40. AceKen April 23, 2010 at 9:43 AM

    I would have to say the big screen that I bought for 900. Getting 20% off Bing plus an extra 4% elsewhere made the deal pretty sweet. (It made me feel less guilty about the purchase) Plus I paid it off in full the next month :)

  41. MizzKea April 23, 2010 at 11:12 PM

    I put $2500 on a credit card once to get in on a “get rich quick” money making idea. Not only did I make $0.00 out of it, but had to pay interest on it! Never. Again.

  42. J. Money April 25, 2010 at 11:16 PM

    *GIVEAWAY OVER*

    Congrats to Donna for scoring her very own copy! Stay tuned for more giveaways this week :)