Rewind: Buyer's Remorse

Dear Sugars

WBUR

Boston, Wbur, Sugar, Cheryl Strayed, Society & Culture, Dear, Relationships, Advice, Steve Almond

4.6 • 5.9K Ratings

🗓️ 11 October 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode was originally published on April 14th, 2018.

Buzz Bissinger owns more than 100 pairs of leather pants and over 200 pairs of leather gloves, having spent more than $600,000 on leather goods in the span of three years. Mr. Bissinger has a spending addiction, but when he published his confessional in GQ magazine he was labeled an “obsessive,” a “fancy man,” and a “shopaholic.” Only when he was admitted into rehab did many people understand that he was struggling with a debilitating behavioral addiction.

Spending addictions are similar to alcohol and drug addictions in that they have the power to destroy lives. Unlike with substance abuse issues, however, spending addictions are often minimized and disparaged. Mr. Bissinger joins the Sugars to offer guidance to a letter-writer whose therapist and family don’t take her spending seriously. “When I buy something or think about buying something I try to stop and say, What is really behind this?” advises Mr. Bissinger, adding, “Are you simply feeding shame and fear?”

Transcript

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0:00.0	Abby's just woken up. It's 731 and she's forgotten to ring the doctor. There's no point
0:05.5	ringing now. She needs to get to work, but she's not worried. She's got an HSBC Premier bank account
0:10.5	with access to digital GP appointments plus two second opinions a year should she need them.
0:15.1	Everything's premier when your bank account is. Search HSBC Premier, HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity.
0:22.4	The doctor will see you now.
0:24.6	Apply with £100,000 annual income or £100,000 savings or investments with HSBC UK or Premier status abroad.
0:35.0	The universe has good news for the lost, lonely, and heart sick.
0:39.7	The sugars are here, speaking straight into your ears.
0:43.4	I'm Steve Alman.
0:44.5	I'm Cheryl Strayed.
0:45.6	This is Dear Sugars.
0:49.3	Oh, dear song, won't you please?
0:56.0	Share some little sweet days with me.
1:04.0	I check my bellbyes every day.
1:11.6	Oh, and the sugar you see in my way.
1:19.1	Hi, Steve.
1:20.3	Hi, Cheryl.
1:21.3	So today we're going to talk about spending addictions.
1:25.4	Yeah, you know, I'm so glad we're doing this because when it comes to
1:29.5	spending addictions, we have trouble recognizing that it's not just being a shopaholic and it's
1:34.8	fun and so forth. There are real addictions out there. Don't muddy the waters with your petty little
1:39.3	problem, but it's not petty. It's huge for some people people as we know from our inbox right and actually has
	...

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