I'm having shopping craves
Find a Conversation
| Mon, 02-20-2006 - 3:07pm |
Have you ever felt a kind of physical urge to go shopping and spend money??
I have been strictly following my budget for 3 months and I so want to go shopping right now! Not that I didn't allow myself some shopping, for example this week-end I bought a book and a DVD for 14$, I do that from time to time and it's nice. But I'm thinking of one whole afternoon in the shops, spending without counting, maybe up to 250 $... and I know I can't do that!!
I must say for my defense that the circumstances are not helping. First, i'm moving next week, going from a 50 square meters appartment to a hous with garden, and I have almost no furniture to put in it so I could buy all Ikea right now. And just after the moving, I'm attending a business meeting in Barcelona, Spain and of course I want to dress fancy, and I need new shoes and I'd like to buy a nice suitcase to go ... and it keeps going, the list is endless.
I have paid off and cancelled my cc, I took a low rate loan instead - that means no money available to make crazy things, fortunately. And though I enjoy a lot the feeling of controlling my budget and knowing where the money goes, some days it's just hard to stick to that.





I hear you, perhaps you can find some thrift stores in your area to furnish your new place, or yard/garage sales are good for the budget too. I just found a couple of thrift stores near my work and will go at lunch time and buy books or small items, but my budget has to be $10, the most I would spend for lunch (and I usually spend much less). My next shopping trip is to replace my dinner plates, I'm hoping to find a set for under $20, so I'm packing lunches all this week and will go on my lunch one day next week to the thrift stores with this amount of cash and no plastic. I find that smaller items that aren't marked I get the best deal on because they don't want to hassle finding a price so if a book isn't marked and the lowest priced book in my stack is 25c I will get the unmarked book for that price as well. Sometimes you can negotiate the price on bigger items as well, because if they have a piece of furniture that is taking up space and not selling, they'd rather give you a better price and move it out. You can also find luggage there sometimes, but how about borrowing a suitcase from a friend or family member? We have a joke at the office that the boss's suitcase has traveled the world and she doesn't even leave the building. She has a great big wheeled suitcase and several of us did not have any luggage. Always works out because none of us ever take trips at the same time.
Bon Voyage and congrats on the new place!
Pam
Proud sister of a Marine: