Shopping is an amazing thing. We go on shopping trips for fun with our friends, we go for “retail therapy” when we have had a bad day, we go just to get out, we go “for exercise.” For some it can be completely frustrating and over whelming, for others a way to relax and unwind, and for a few a drug. A drug that makes them giddy and excited, and they gotta get more! I used to fall into the third category, then after realizing that same as cash really meant same as double the cash, I quit cold turkey. Then after producing my litter of munchkins, I fell into the first. Seriously, have you ever taken 3 kids shopping?! Even when out of tp, it’s just not worth the trip! I would go in a store for 2 items and leave an hour later with 2 of the kids crying and the other one whining.
Our shopping excursions since Addie’s birth have been spread out as far as possible. When I do make it into Target-for example, I get what I need and get out(4 bathroom trips later), no funny business! Last week I had the pleasure of going with Bobby to Target, he took Elijah and I went off with Addie.Then, I realized they had new merchandise! I had not seen anything new in months, I wondered through each aisle in amazement and awe! So many pretty things, “Look at the bedding, we could use new bedding” “oh wow, these dishes, they are so pretty” ”that frame! I need new frames for the kids photos” “Oh! Baby clothes! Ruffle butts!!!” the list goes on…My experience was probably similar to that of a foreigner going shopping in America, “wow look at all this stuff-ShamWOW, with a name like that I must need one! A salad fork, and a dinner fork, I never knew you need 2 kinds of forks!” It was like retail love at first sight all over again! “Sigh”. It wasn't until I got home, that I realized I had been to Target numerous times, with all of that fabulous merchandise looking at me, and I never saw it-and I am a pretty observant person!
Then again at Hobby Lobby, the colors, the fabrics, flowers and ribbon. I can’t afford to go shopping with Bobby, because then I see what is right in front of me, begging for my attention-as it is supposed to, seeing as experts are highly paid to find a way to display each item for the highest monetary gain-and I want it, I drool over it. I can touch it and picture where it would look best, and in my fantasy of the new table cloth the kids are being perfect angels, so I must get it now! Now! NOW! Because the sale won’t last right!? This, my friends is retail therapy…we see, we want, we imagine a perfect world, and then we buy.
I think from now on I will go shopping only with all 3 kids, or at least the 2 youngest, so I only see what I need, and save 100’s of dollars every month, it just might be worth the cost, being my sanity of course!
I told Bobby, "I wish I had alot more money so I could get all this- but wait then I would be broke!" A good realization to come to, I could have millions, but spend it all as it comes in and end up with what? Stuff? Then I would need more money to buy room for the stuff!
ReplyDeleteSo very true. I always end up spending more when Eric is with me and I'm not sure if it's because I take my time and look around or if he is putting extras in the cart.
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