This blog will simply narrate how a shopaholic survived one month of not shopping anything at all.
To give you a background, I have the tendency to buy pretty stuff, clothes and shoes mostly out of impulse. Either I randomly go to the mall, and get anything that attracts my fancy, or I surf the net for online shops which make me submit order forms in a flash. In fact, I bring with me a tape measure wherever I go just so I can immediately compare the dimensions of the clothes i check out online with my own body measurements. i know, i'm kinda weird. Shopping has become my vice. I keep on buying even if i have more than enough shoes (following the 7 days a week need to wear shoes scheme.haha) and even if some of my clothes have not seen sunlight yet!
Last September, I suddenly thought of calculating my month's shopping expense. And to my surprise, it constituted more than 50% of my monthly pay. How wasteful of me! I then contemplated about ways to counter this vice. Fortunately, during one of my nocturnal insomniac mode, I wrote down my goals and plans for 2011. There i realized that my goals will not come into reality without adequate cash funds. (my goals are still too private to divulge them here.). And so that's how my desire to stop unnecessary and impulse shopping grew. Every time, yes I'd like to emphasize this, every SINGLE time, I get attracted to a pretty thing, I just remember my goals. And then I am reminded how I can make use of my money better by saving it for that goal. Then, I visualize how much more I can shop once I acheive that goal than spend the cash and jeopardize what i want to achieve.
It's the first of November today. And I am proud to say that I did not spend a single penny for shoes or clothes or anything fancy and pretty the whole month of October. It feels very fulfilling knowing that my little sacrifice will pave way for the realization of a goal. One that will make my life and the lives around me better in the long run.
To give you a background, I have the tendency to buy pretty stuff, clothes and shoes mostly out of impulse. Either I randomly go to the mall, and get anything that attracts my fancy, or I surf the net for online shops which make me submit order forms in a flash. In fact, I bring with me a tape measure wherever I go just so I can immediately compare the dimensions of the clothes i check out online with my own body measurements. i know, i'm kinda weird. Shopping has become my vice. I keep on buying even if i have more than enough shoes (following the 7 days a week need to wear shoes scheme.haha) and even if some of my clothes have not seen sunlight yet!
Last September, I suddenly thought of calculating my month's shopping expense. And to my surprise, it constituted more than 50% of my monthly pay. How wasteful of me! I then contemplated about ways to counter this vice. Fortunately, during one of my nocturnal insomniac mode, I wrote down my goals and plans for 2011. There i realized that my goals will not come into reality without adequate cash funds. (my goals are still too private to divulge them here.). And so that's how my desire to stop unnecessary and impulse shopping grew. Every time, yes I'd like to emphasize this, every SINGLE time, I get attracted to a pretty thing, I just remember my goals. And then I am reminded how I can make use of my money better by saving it for that goal. Then, I visualize how much more I can shop once I acheive that goal than spend the cash and jeopardize what i want to achieve.
It's the first of November today. And I am proud to say that I did not spend a single penny for shoes or clothes or anything fancy and pretty the whole month of October. It feels very fulfilling knowing that my little sacrifice will pave way for the realization of a goal. One that will make my life and the lives around me better in the long run.
I think what you are doing is amazing! It will be better for the long run, much much better. I don't think you are making a sacrifice, i think you are doing something much better, you are investing in yourself.
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