I am normally very responsible with money. I think of something that I want and I save money towards my goal. Last year, it was a round Australia trip. The first part of this year, it was a car.
But to combat my emotional fuckwittery lately, I've been doing a lot of impulse buying. Here is a list of things I have been buying to supplement my life with glee.
1. Beading supplies and knitting supplies, in a bid to become a better rounded person. I had about two weeks of beading and knitting fun, went to Adelaide on holiday, haven't touched them in the month I've been back.
2. A package of my favourite British junk food that I haven't eaten in 16 years. Penguins. Monster munch. Quavers. It's
obscene how much money I spent on both the package and the shipping cost. Seriously. Especially since you can't go home again (namely: wow, none of this is as cool as my mind likes to remember.)
3. 12 new T-shirts from
Typetees, because, dammit, I'm finally going to have a wardrobe full of witty slogans. I'm actually quite pleased by this purchase, but it set me back almost 2 days pay.
4.
Merlin DVDs from amazon.co.uk.
Merlin DVDs, you guys.So. I have the money, admittedly. I'm paying all my bills. This isn't an issue of me getting myself into debt. I am helping the global economy in these troubling times. But I really need to stop my frivolous shopping. I don't like feeling like I am wasting the cash I work so hard to make, even though I've never been someone to be so tight that I won't indulge a little in what I truly want. I think the issue is that I want all of these things in the moment, but most of them are things I can live without.
I tried hiding my credit card, but it turns out my brain predicted this risky manoeuvre and I miraculously know all of the information off by heart.
Or maybe you've grown up into a health, nutritious type of person. I wish that would happen to me.
I can't tell you how impressed I am that you've memorized your credit card #. It took me four months to memorize my own cell phone #.
Yeah, part of it might be that they're well-travelled, but also I think it's because I was still thinking of it with a child's mentality. These were special treats when I was a kid, so they had to be more than awesome, right? Wrong.
I am pretty good at memorising numbers. I still remember my High School ID and that was 9 years ago now.
Threadless.com used to get a lot of my spare cash. Even when I didn't want any more witty t-shirts, I couldn't help buying them for other people.
Get out your knitting needles next time you feel the urge to spend!
And yes about threadless. I bought my brother Nick three shirts at the same time.
Thanks for the suggestion, for verily it is good.
What helps is when it becomes an effort. Even online shopping--if you can figure out a way (like...forgetting your credit card number) to make it so that you have to stop and think about the purchase? That always makes me second-guess myself, do the "Do I *really* need this? Can I live without it?" questions, and then I'm usually good.
A thing my adopted mom like to do works too, but not if you've already memorised the number. She used to take her credit card and freeze it in a block of ice in her freezer. That way, she knew she had it for emergencies...but otherwise, it would take a lot of effort to access. :)