When Bruce Banner gets angry, he turns into the Hulk, a big, green super steroid monster that smashes and destroys until he's spent.
When I'm debt free and the sun is shining and my money is, for the most part, my own, I turn into Shopper Girl who checks in on stores, looks at bargains online and buys new little trinkets until her money is spent.
Yesterday I bought a cute pair of green flats (they were on sale!) to go with my cute kelly green shirt I bought at Banana Republic over the weekend. And then wore the little yellow earrings I got from Target (they were just $5, come on!), which also happened to look fabulous with my purple shrunken cardigan (also from BR and also on sale) that I wore with my yellow tank top and wide leg jeans. I'm the stunna I tells ya! Oh yeah, and the other day I ordered some hot to death seersucker pants from Anthropologie, even though they didn't have my size in tall. I figured the size down could still fit... and they were on SALE!
HELP! I think I've been invaded by body snatchers! Those are NOT words that could be coming out of my mouth. On Sale? Since when do I give a crap!? I'm always going off on people who justify their unnecessary purchases because they were "on sale." If you buy an antique, ivory back scratcher for 50 cents when it's normally $1,000, you still lost 50 cents because what the heck do you need that for anyway?!
The thing that kills me is that I never was a shopper. I used to tell people that I hated shopping and when I did shop, I shopped like a man: "Need this. Right size. Right color. I take it. *Grunt* No more need for clothes." Then I'd scratch myself.
I don't think I need an intervention just yet, but who wants to get to the point where they need any intervention!? That's about two minutes to too damn late in my book. I don't ever want to get to too damn late again in my life.
I'm fine now. I'm not going in the red. I don't owe anybody and won't even after I get my Anthropologie pants, but I just don't want to undo in a matter of months all the discipline I spent two years building up.
Maybe I just need to get it out of my system.
Maybe I need to stop dilly dallying and set up some S.M.A.R.T. goals so that my money is going where it needs to automatically and, thus, not available for me to just spend on whatever.
Lord, I need counseling :-)
Happy Friday!
DH
June 20, 2008
Oooh, I JUST broke this cycle and I really hope not to fall back in any time soon. Good luck breaking out!!
Posted by: Revanche | June 20, 2008 at 12:27 PM
Have you considered if your relatively new environment has any effect on your clothes spending? Maybe it's just my observation, but DC is full of some good looking people dressed well all the time.
Okay, so not everyone, but when I worked down there full-time, I even started to care about clothes and shopping. I'm certainly a whatever I pulled out of the closet is fine type of gal, but a few weeks working in DC and suddenly started noticing all the details that were lacking in my wardrobe and was suddenly thinking about fashionable items that I'd never cared about before. Had I been living there, I can imagine a total shopping-mentality overhaul would have happened and I would have found it very difficult to not start shopping.
Posted by: donna jean | June 20, 2008 at 01:57 PM
This is what I worry about. In a few months my wife and I will be done paying off tens of thousands of dollars in debt. I'm pretty conservative overall but I do have a bit of a weakness for technology - video games and computer parts especially.
Posted by: Shareef | June 20, 2008 at 04:45 PM
Shopping is fun. Period.
I shop like a guy, too, for the most part... but every once in a while this shopper that I thought was dead makes me buy stuff. I figure that as long as you know that you're in monster-mode, you'll be able to control your shopping monster, DH. It's when we lose all sense of how much we're spending and ignore what the spending will do to our goals that we're in trouble. I just had the same feeling myself earlier this month, and I got worried. And then it passed.
To control my spending, I've set aside a stash of mad money. When I go on my trip next month, it will be the only money I'm allowed to spend - no debt hangover for me!
Posted by: Sistah Ant | June 20, 2008 at 05:48 PM
hmph.. sometimes we need retail therapy!!! Definitely budget it out though.. set up your savings, etc automatically as well as an automatic deposit of mad money per month LOL so you can go shopping, drinking, clubbing, wine tasting.. you get the idea!
Posted by: BK | June 20, 2008 at 06:02 PM
..."I figured the size down could still fit... and they were on SALE!"
That type of buying is what you need to watch out for!
Last month I paid my vehicle off early and since then I've been spending some money! I've decided that, with the exception of household items and my weekly fuel up, I'm not spending anymore money until after payday.
Posted by: karen | June 20, 2008 at 08:31 PM
"Then I'd scratch myself."
Bahaha You crack me up.
I'm sorry I can't help you on this one. Just bought two pairs of jeans and a cute top! Oops!
Posted by: Dolly Iris | June 20, 2008 at 08:53 PM
Well if I could sell that backscratcher for $500, I'd call it an investment, hon :)
As long as you don't get INTO debt, maybe you're just getting it out of your system right now?
I know when I'm done my debt, I want to think about buying a beautiful Maggy London dress I've been eying.... or not :)
Posted by: Fabulously Broke | June 21, 2008 at 11:13 AM
Gotta do the zero budget. Spend all your money on paper before the month begins. If you budget $100 for clothes that's ALL you get. LOL.... but, I can't really talk too much, not out of debt yet, but DH, you DON'T want to ever be back here again!!!
Posted by: Jen | June 22, 2008 at 06:41 PM
I'd return the pants to Anthropologie :-)
Posted by: Twiggers | June 25, 2008 at 06:57 AM
I was just thinking this morning that maybe my blog has been too personal lately - too much about me and not about the numbers. Then I found your blog! It reminded me of all the reasons I love personal chatty real life blogs. Thank you so much!
Posted by: Dawn | June 25, 2008 at 12:20 PM