"Will you regret not buying this?"

During my two-and-a-half week long Christmas break, I traveled to Switzerland, London and Dublin with my boyfriend.  To my surprise, I ended up spending ALL of the money I had saved for living this semester in Aix.  I came home with 71 USD, having left with 850 USD.  That means I spent almost 800 bucks in 2 weeks.  I couldn't figure out what I spent all of my money on because most all of my food was paid for and all of our planned activities were bought ahead of time.  I was severely confused until I was talking to one of my friends here in Aix about it and she asked me, "Did you buy a lot of souvenirs?" No..I really didn't buy many souvenirs. Then it hit me. The reason why I returned to France with an overstuffed suitcase and an empty wallet - Shopping.

When we were in Dublin, both of us got pretty sick and couldn't do much and we wound up on the shopping strip two days in a row.   Naturally I went a little bezerk...I mean there was a two-story TopShop that was connected to a Mango, next door to a two-story H&M and River Island.  It's impossible for me to talk myself out that kind of situation.  

And that's what I'm focusing this blog entry around.  While I was knee deep in piles of unorganized, 50% off clothing in TopShop, I overheard a couple of girls trying to "talk themselves out" of their future purchases.  It made me crack a smile because of how truly often we say the same old phrases to each other (or to ourselves) while contemplating in a shopping center.  The conversation went as follows:

"Do you REALLY need another pair of shoes?"

"Well..no I don't NEED them, but I don't have any in this color."

"Do you have room for more shoes in your closet?"

"No..but I can make room."

"Will you regret not buying these shoes?"

"They're half off!"

"In that case you might as well buy them!"

"You're right these are a good deal...lets go look at the dresses."

And the same thing repeats itself ten minutes later when something else catches your eye.

The girls conversing were humorous to me because I had literally just asked myself the same questions about a long sleeve romper I'd found (which by the way, I bought).  I have come to the conclusion that this thought process of trying to talk yourself out of buying something is actually more like a ritual to make yourself feel better for spending money on something you don't need.  Why do we even kid ourselves?  I know I'm not only speaking for myself when I say that when I enter a store I'm absolutely there to buy something.  What's the point of shopping if you don't leave with new clothes? That would just be a torturous waste of time.  So quit fooling yourself.  Asking those same questions again will not change your mind.  

I know I'm obviously the pot calling the kettle black, but if you honestly don't want to spend money, don't go shopping where the mannequins and the advertisements tempt you to spend money.  It's that simple.  It's silly to think we have to reassure ourselves that buying something for ourselves is not a bad thing to do.  We deserve a little something every once in a while!

Personally, I probably don't deserve new clothes anymore but..what can ya do.  An addiction is an addiction.