Wednesday

Is there a support group for shopoholics?

Closet compulsive shopper? Me? Shopaholic? No way! Maybe? Hmmm... Ok so I admit to being an impulse shopper. I look at something it looks so pretty I just HAVE to have it. Sometimes I do it with clothes too. Ok a lot of the time it is with clothes.
When Mike and I first moved to Eugene I was unemployed. I was on a bit of a break for about a month and it wasn't so bad. It was just long enough to get comfortable in town and not quite long enough to break the bank. What could have broken the bank was all the shopping I started doing. Oh my goodness I was smitten by all the sales everywhere! Gottschalks was still open and they were constantly having sales like buy one get 2 free, 70-90% off everything under the sun etc. Oh there was Old navy, there was Lane Bryant. I was in a shopaholic’s heaven. The silver lining to all this is that I'm also kind of cheap so I don't like spending a lot on one thing when I can get so much more for the same price! I love love love sales and clearances. It got to the point where I would go to the mall once a day and maybe buy something maybe not. Either way I started stashing stuff around the house. Not because Mike would be mad but because I felt incredibly guilty. Even if I had just spent $10, it was $10 worth of clothes that I DIDN’T need.
Later on it became fun and sometimes more shameful to find these hidden “treasures”. I really miss the storage space at our old place. I hid stuff in so many nooks and crannies!
I have really curtailed my shopping over the last few months. Especially after our move, I was so upset at myself for all of the junk I had allowed to pile up! If I wanted to make an excuse for it I could chalk it up to part of my manic behavior. Whether or not that’s true is another story to dig through with a professional. It has always made me feel excited to see all of these awesome finds for so cheap. It isn’t okay, I shouldn’t do it but I can’t help it. Do we remember the meat sale that I found at Albertson’s? I spent about $60-$70 on meat. I should have gone home and immediately frozen some of it. Instead I left it in the fridge and used some of it over the next few days. Sadly just days ago I found two steaks in the fridge that had turned to some unrecognizable shade of green. Buh bye!! Then there were the pork chops. I looked at them, they looked fine, and they didn’t smell any different than raw meat usually does so I cooked them. The jury is still out on whether that was what did me in yesterday but I’ve got a good feeling. One of my coworkers told me today that she won’t keep pork in the fridge longer than 2 days. Mine sat for over a week. Well okay then maybe it is the reason I nearly killed myself!
On Sunday I was cleaning out my inbox on an account I rarely use these days. I came across an email from Old Navy. Dun dun DUN!!! It was letting me know that Sunday was the last day of their sale. Everything was 30-50% off! INCLUDING CLEARANCE!!! Oh you bet your sweet ass I was heading there asap! I hadn’t been shopping in a number of weeks especially not at Old Navy. So I loaded my hubby in the car, got him some lunch and off I went on my grand shopping adventure. I left my purse at home and brought only the essentials; my glucometer (which doubles as a wallet), my keys and my phone. I must have spent close to two hours in that store! Trying stuff on, digging through piles of jeans, making painful decisions to leave things behind. There was a GORGEOUS white pea coat, short, double breasted buttons… $10. But it was too big. DAMN IT! I couldn’t justify buying it for the sake of its gorgeousness if I really couldn’t wear it. It hung on me like a man’s coat. I couldn’t even try and pretend, so I put it back. At the end of my shopping extravaganza I had purchased 3 pairs of jeans for $5.49 each, 2 cowl neck sweaters one was white the other green $1.49 each, 2 cute tops that are kind of long and can probably be worn with leggings $8 each. One dress that I will probably need to wear some spanx with (or lose some damn weight)! I think a few other odds and ends. My total bill was $47. Three bags full of stuff I probably don’t need and could have gone without but I got a hell of a deal damn it!
What got me thinking of all of this was a phone call I got earlier. I was away from my desk for a while and when I got back I had a missed call and a voice mail from a local number. Did I forget about a dr’s appointment? Hmm… so I checked my voicemail and found it was a call from a sales person at Torrid. She was calling to inform me that they are having a 50% sale off of all of their clearance! It was like the skies parted, the rays of sun came burning through and were gloriously lighting up the doorway to that store. I love Torrid. Most big girls do! Its stylish clothes for the heavier women, unfortunately they can be extremely pricey. It makes me wonder sometimes if they’re really charging by the foot. So when they have sales like that you bet your tush I’m going to go take a look! After all my husband just got a Nintendo 3DS, he owes me something!

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