Spenders Anonymous
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Spenders Anonymous
Spenders Anonymous is a small 12-step program, also called a fellowship, which is based upon the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous. However, there is no organizational affiliation between Spenders Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous.
Who Can Join
There is only one requirement for membership in Spenders Anonymous: a desire to stop spending money, time, energy and ourselves. This is clearly iterated in the third tradition of the Twelve Traditions of Spenders Anonymous.
How It Works
The 12-step recovery process of Spenders Anonymous is intended to help individual members work toward clarity in their relationship with money. Members do this through the sharing of their experiences, strength and hope while they are working the 12 steps.
Some members spend compulsively or take on debt that they don’t know how to repay. Other members may lack confidence in their ability to earn money, while others may have money but are incapable of managing it “sanely.”
For all who sincerely desire to stop spending their money, time, energy and themselves, and commit to regular meeting participation and working the 12-step recovery program of Spenders Anonymous, there is strength and hope in the Spenders Anonymous fellowship.
Meetings
While the Spenders Anonymous website contains some information on meeting locations, days and times, it is a small list. The site does contain a meeting kit for the purpose of parties interested in starting up a meeting in their location.
Currently, there are meetings (established or recently formed) in Rutland, Vermont; Charleston, South Carolina; Portland, Oregon, two meeting locations in Minneapolis and one meeting location in St. Paul, Minnesota; Ocala, Florida; Washington, D.C., Fresno and Sacramento, California, and Chandler, Arizona. Internationally, there is a group meeting in Christchurch, New Zealand.
The 12 Steps of Spenders Anonymous
The 12 Steps of Spenders Anonymous are very similar to those of Alcoholics Anonymous, from which they were reprinted and adapted with permission. Alcoholics Anonymous is not affiliated in any way with Spenders Anonymous. Alcoholics Anonymous is an alcoholism recovery program. In addition, use of the Spenders Anonymous 12 Steps in connection with programs and activities which are patterned after Alcoholics Anonymous, but which address other programs, does not imply otherwise.
1. We admitted we were powerless over spending and money and that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the car of God, as we understood God.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral and financial inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal and financial inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood God – praying only for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to compulsive spenders and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
The Twelve Traditions of Spenders Anonymous
In a similar fashion, Spenders Anonymous has reprinted and adapted the Twelve Traditions originated by Alcoholics Anonymous. Again, there is no affiliation between Alcoholics Anonymous and Spenders Anonymous. Most of the revisions include word substitutions and slight rephrasing to more closely reflect the identifying characteristics of Spenders Anonymous members.
1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon group unity.
2. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
3. The only requirement for Spenders Anonymous membership is a desire to stop spending money, time, energy and ourselves.
4. Each group should be self-governing except in matters affecting other groups of Spenders Anonymous as a whole.
5. Spenders Anonymous has but one primary purpose – to carry its message to the compulsive spender who still suffers.
6. Spenders Anonymous ought never endorse, finance or lend the Spenders Anonymous name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7. Every Spenders Anonymous group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. Spenders Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service center may employ special workers.
9. Spenders Anonymous, as such, ought never be organized, but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
10. Spenders Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the Spenders Anonymous name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion. We need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, films and television.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of the Spenders Anonymous program, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
The Twelve Promises of Spenders Anonymous
In another difference between Spenders Anonymous and other 12-step self-help programs, Spenders Anonymous catalogs a list of twelve promises on its website. The whole idea behind listing promises is that if members participate wholly, honestly and completely in the Spenders Anonymous program and work the steps diligently, they will realize the following promises:
1. To know a new freedom and a new happiness
2. To not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it
3. To comprehend the word serenity and know peace
4. That no matter how far down we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others
5. That the feelings of uselessness and self-pity will disappear
6. To lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellow Spenders Anonymous members
7. To find that self-seeking will slip away
8. To recognize that our whole attitude and life outlook will change
9. To find that our fear of people will leave us
10. To find that our fear of economic insecurity will leave us
11. To intuitively know how to handle situations that once baffled us
12. To realize suddenly that our Higher Power is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves
--Suzannekane 18:28, 27 June 2011 (MDT)
