In a world where joy has become a transaction, How to Afford Joy in a Joyless Economy offers a countercultural survival manual for those tired of monetizing their emotions, optimizing their hobbies, and treating rest like a productivity hack. This is not another book about manifesting abundance or “treating yourself” with financial irresponsibility disguised as empowerment. It’s a subversively honest field guide to finding pleasure in the small, sustainable, defiantly unscalable moments of daily life.

With surgical wit and unflinching emotional clarity, the book dismantles the cultural mythology of hustle, lifestyle branding, and self-improvement as a moral obligation. Instead, it offers something we’ve forgotten how to claim: tiny luxuries that don’t require a side hustle, an aesthetic, or an excuse. From budgeting for magic, curating your attention, and petting something soft, to reclaiming public space and being bad at things on purpose, these thirty chapters form a radically practical philosophy for joyful living under late capitalism.

This isn’t feel-good fluff. It’s neurotically self-aware, intellectually rigorous, and stubbornly sincere. Every page resists the logic of extraction and dares to imagine a life where you’re not constantly earning your right to feel okay. For readers who are burnt out, over-optimized, and desperate for something real, this book doesn’t promise transformation—it offers relief.

If you’ve ever whispered “is this it?” into your $6 latte, this book is your answer. And no, the latte isn’t the problem. The problem is believing you shouldn’t have needed it.