Product Description

Drowning in $20,000 of credit card debt, shopaholic Karyn Bosnak asked strangers for money online -- and it worked!

What would you do if you owed $20,000? Would you: A) not tell your parents? B) start your own website that asked for money without apology? or C) stop coloring your hair, getting pedicures, and buying Gucci? If you were Karyn Bosnak, you'd do all three.Karyn received e-mails from people all over the world, either confessing their own debt-ridden lives, or criticizing hers. But after four months of Internet panhandling and selling her prized possessions on eBay, her debt was gone!

In Save Karyn: One Shopaholic's Journey to Debt and Back, Karyn details the bumpy road her financial -- and personal -- life has traveled to get her where she is today: happy, grateful, and completely debt-free. In this charming cautionary tale, Karyn chronicles her glamorous rise, her embarrassing fall, and how the kindness of strangers in cyberia really can make a difference.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #319174 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-01
• Released on: 2003-09-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

From Booklist
Bosnak is a young professional with big dreams and a taste for all things Gucci and Prada. When she lands a job as a producer for a new talk show, she packs up her bags and moves to New York, where she finds a not-so-cheap apartment in Manhattan. Surrounded by hip restaurants, enticed by high-end designer boutiques, and under the misconception that you should never be seen in the same outfit twice, Karyn lets her spending spiral out of control. She owes $25,000 when she loses her job. Unwilling to phone home for help, Karyn takes the advice of a friend and creates a want ad for money. The twist--she posts her ad on the Internet. With the help of good-hearted strangers, debt consolidation, and the selling of her possessions on eBay, Karyn pulls herself out of debt. Since the story is told with self-deprecating humor and charm, Karyn's naivete and lame excuses for overspending are palatable, becoming a cautionary tale of the dangers of credit cards and the power of pride over Prada. Carolyn Kubisz
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Karyn Bosnak was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago. She is a daytime television producer turned Internet guru who likes (but can't afford) the finer things in life. She now resides in Brooklyn, New York.

Customer Reviews

A quick and mildly entertaining read
I read this book to gain insight into why Karyn Bosnak became such a phenomenon. It's difficult to understand why her "cyber begging" gathered so much international attention. What she did was unusual at the time, but certainly not unique. Her website was honest and marginally interesting, but hardly worth more than a casual perusal (to me, at least). She had no paid advertising, and by her account, even the free advertising she did (on Craigslist) was very brief, and only at the beginning. Yet *something* caused her to reach the "tipping point," after which the publicity became self-feeding. My conclusion: She experienced a series of fortuitous events (chatty people saw her initial ads, and the right people read what the chatty people said). To be fair, it was not entirely a matter of luck. She came up with an unusual idea and actually DID something about it. Then (and most critically) she had good follow-through (she immediately consented to radio interviews - lots of them, she answered her mail, etc.).

However, I was somewhat surprised to find that despite the enormous amount of international media coverage and millions of hits to her website, in the 20 weeks it took her to pay off her debt, she actually only received $13,328 in donations from 2,718 people. (After that she claims to have quit accepting donations.) A windfall of $13K is nothing to sneeze at, but it seems out of proportion to the enormous amount of attention she got. No doubt she has financially benefited far more from the *story* of her website (through this book, movie deal, and future deals) than she did from the website itself.

The book is actually not as bad as I expected. What it is:

* An interesting tale of "life in the big city" from the perspective of a professional, yet naïve Midwestern girl.
* Relatable for anyone who's ever been overworked in a job they weren't enthusiastic about.
* An honest account of foolish - yet common - overspending habits.
* Conversational and confessional.
* A mildly humorous look at urban single life.
* Inspirational to take charge and fix your life if it's not going the way you want.

What it's not:

* Great literature. Bosnak tells a good story, but she's not a great writer. And some of her naïveté, which I'm sure she thought would come across as charming, actually came across as rather ignorant and uneducated.
* A "how-to" book for people who want to duplicate her success. While she does tell how she made her website and her thought process behind it, this will not do you any good. She experienced a very unlikely turn of events any imitators would almost certainly not come across.
* A guide on how to get out of debt. There are much better books on the subject, and that is WAY beyond the scope of this book. Beyond a few simple recommendations (available on her website), most of her strategies for saving money (making a cup of coffee serve as both breakfast and lunch, for example) are ill-advised (and also available on her website as the "Daily Buck").
* A tale of redemption. Despite her claims to the contrary, I don't think Bosnak really grew much from the experience. She was scared for awhile and lived humbly for a few months, but then her experience was over. She did perhaps get her priorities a little straighter, but her observations about life remain shallow. She had a life-changing experience, but it doesn't seem to have actually changed *her* very much.

Overall, there is not much to recommend this book, but it is not totally without merit, and as long as your expectations are in line with what it actually contains, you won't be disappointed.

INTERNET PANHANDLING AS A WAY TO DEBT REDUCTION...
I was surprised to find that I enjoyed this funny, quirky book, in which the author recounts how, as a woman in her late twenties with a low six figure job as a television show producer, she still managed to accumulate twenty thousand dollars worth of credit card debt in about a year's time. She did so by charging expensive personal services and designer merchandise. While I thought the author a shallow and silly sort of woman, I have to give her credit for moxie.

When the author found herself suddenly unemployed and saddled with this large debt load, she did not decide to go the bankruptcy route. Instead, she showed ingenuity by creating an interactive website whereby people could send her money to help her get out of debt, if they wished. Her website kept the public posted as to her progress in terms of her debt reduction. Her debt was reduced through donations made by the general public, her sale of her personal belongings on eBay, and whatever money she was able to pay from whatever job she could land.

The author details how, when she moved from her native Chicago to New York City, she got in debt. I found her story to be funny, although the writing is prosaic and somewhat juvenile, at times. It is also hard to believe that these were the antics of a woman in her late twenties. She showed little judgment and virtually no introspection. Still, the author managed to get rid of her debt in a matter of months and land a book and movie deal to boot. So, she is not a total ditz. If one takes this book at face value, one will enjoy this easy, breezy little read.

As for those who stand in judgment of the author and her frivolous accumulation of debt, keep in mind that she paid every last penny of her debt. She just chose a somewhat novel and imaginative way in which to do so. I suspect that those who are most irked by her success and the way in which she got rid of her debt, are those who only wish that they had thought of it first.

A Despicable Person
While shamelessly begging on the Internet,
Karen would occasionaly have a nice meal at a restaurant.
Her 'tip' for the rest of us, is to simply not leave a tip!
It's OK, you're on a budget!

So sad for the waitperson.. but Karyn is smarter at watching her money now!

Blechhh.
I need to read some Jehovah's Witness pamphlets now, to cleanse my palate.

( I am not now, nor have I ever been, a waitperson )

-
regards,
Ra