Record Maintenance

Tools of Recovery
Record keeping is a commitment to recovery. The DA-HOW Concept was designed for debtors, spenders and underearners. We believe in a disciplined and structured approach. Deviations invite the return of many other problems.

Record keeping is not a personal thing in HOW. This means that we depend upon each other for the strength and growth that we need to stop debting and to maintain financial clarity. We join together in an effort to free the compulsive spender from the bondage of debting through record keeping, positive thinking and the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Debtors Anonymous. We keep precise records of all our spending and report it daily to our sponsor with no exceptions. Our spending for the day ahead is written down, called in to our sponsor and committed so that we can get on with our recovery and out of the debt. We also believe that negative thinking is a large part of our disease, so we abstain from negative thinking.

Those of us who work the HOW Concept use the following guidelines for recovery:
  1. We keep a notebook, or other record keeping device, with us at all times. We write down everything we spend. Before we engage in spending that has not been committed, we call a sponsor.
  2. We do not engage in unsecured debt. If we are faced with a difficult financial situation we call our sponsor or another sponsor.
  3. We have Pressure Relief Meetings with two other people more experienced than us, where we discuss and prepare a spending plan.
  4. We keep weekly and monthly records of our spending, income, debt and savings.
  5. We keep an accurate, up-to-date record of our checking account by maintaining a check register. On a monthly basis, we reconcile our checkbook so we know exactly what is in our checking account.
  6. Above all, we do not vacillate or water down the disciplined nature of the HOW program.
  1. Meetings
  2. Record Maintenance
  3. Sponsorship
  4. Pressure Relief Groups and Pressure Relief Meetings
  5. Spending Plan
  6. Action Plan
  7. The Telephone and the Internet
  8. D.A. and A.A. Literature
  9. Awareness
  10. Business Meetings
  11. Service
  12. Anonymity