Lately, I've been feeling a little out of sorts. Kind of wondering what my place in the world will be once this fast comes to an end. I’m entering into my fourth month of not shopping (pause for applause..) and it's been a lot easier than I ever imagined. Due to my self-induced shopping fast, my mind has been less and less occupied with thoughts of shopping and buying new clothes. Part of it is I’m pretty busy- traveling between Boston (where my love lives with his three daughters) and New Jersey/ New York (where I live/ work) and there is barely time for me to think about shopping.
Where did I find the time to shop prior to this fast? And I’m not talking about a quick jaunt into a store to pick up an item and quickly dart out. My shopping sprees sometimes lasted for upwards of 3-4 hours. Don’t get me wrong, it was time well spent even if I walked out of the store with barely one item. To many people this may seem like a complete waste of time. Not for me! I weeded through racks and racks of clothes, made multiple trips to the dressing room and narrowed down the items to exactly what I needed and could afford. Each item adding something special to my wardrobe. I pride myself on being a very thoughtful shopper and always staying within my spending plan. I have a monthly cash allotment for clothes. It's also worth noting that since keeping a spending plan I have never gone over my monthly clothes budget. In fact, I haven’t owned a credit card in over 2 years.
After reading an article in Time Magazine entitled, "The Real Problem with Credit Cards: The Cardholders", I realized credit cards were leading me to a bad place. The basic premise is that we spend more when we use credit cards versus when we use cash. The article states that "once we've got our card in hand, our behavior becomes riddled with irrationalities. In one experiment, Drazen Prelec and Duncan Simester of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that people were willing to pay twice as much for basketball tickets when they were using a credit card as opposed to paying cash. Credit-card spending just doesn't feel like real money." So for me it's all cash on the barrel head, or however that saying goes…
Why am I feeling out of sorts then when this all seems rather well thought out and contained? You see, at this juncture in my fast I would like to figure out a way to enjoy shopping and yes occasionally wile away the hours in a store sifting through the racks, without it switching into obsessive mode. Pre-fast, I always straddled a fine line between obsessive mode shopping and healthy shopping (if there is such a thing!). I know many of you have been witness to it. In fact, my good friend/ colleague Miss A has recently reminded me of a time, pre-fast, when I found a navy blue, three quartered sleeve cropped blazer online that was completely sold out of my size. Rather than let it go and move on from wanting it I quickly dragged Miss A in the middle of the work day to the nearest store to find my size and indeed they had it. Eureka! I was overjoyed and felt a sigh of relief. I told Miss A that that would be the last fashion obsession I would engage in for at least a month. She looked at me with a knowing smirk that said, Miss F, you’re only fooling yourself.
One Day at a Time,
Miss F.
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