You Can Buy Happiness

note from Courtney: Before Tammy Strobel and I were friends and business partners, I was a reader of her blog, Rowdy Kittens. I followed Tammy’s story as she and her husband, Logan downsized from a big apartment to  a small apartment and then to a 128 square foot tiny home.

While she was sharing her simplicity story and I was sharing mine, we became friends. Tammy is one of the most genuinely thoughtful, caring people I know and that is evident in how she treats people and in her writing. I was fortunate enough to talk frequently with Tammy as she wrote her book, and know that her heart and soul is on every page.

A Lovely Book Review

In You Can Buy Happiness (and It’s Cheap): How One Woman Radically Simplified Her Life and How You Can Too, Tammy shares research on happiness with her personal story. In addition, she weaves stories of simplicity through interviews and conversations into each chapter.

“In essence, this book is an invitation to rethink your relationship with money, time and stuff, to reconsider the things that make you happy”

I learned so much from this beautiful book and my favorite takeaway quotes include:

• If you’re not happy, changing your circumstance also means changing your attitude.
• For years, I made excuses for not volunteering. I never seemed to have enough time. Yet, I had enough time to watch television and surf the internet, and those activities always left me feeling drained. Volunteering became an obvious solution to avoid feeling isolated and to give me a sense of purpose.
• Simplifying and downsizing your life doesn’t necessarily mean living in a tiny house. It’s the philosophy or prioritizing happiness and actively shaping your life so you can focus on what truly matters.

Each chapter closes with a set of micro actions so you can begin to implement lessons immediately. This powerful book reminds all of us that happiness is a choice and that when you choose time over money and people over stuff, happiness awaits. I continue to learn from Tammy as an author and a friend.

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