Confessions of a shopaholic - Part 2

“I've no idea when I'm going to wear it, the girl replied calmly. I only knew that I had to have it. Once I tried it on, well... She shrugged. The dress claimed me.” 

 ― Isabel Wolff, A Vintage Affair

Ok!!! So, there was a lot of hue and cry regarding my last post "Confessions of a shopaholic" and so, I decided to write a part 2 to the same which can also be considered as a sequel to the previous one:D

So, I agree there are many many side-effects of being a shopaholic. Its not all that happy happy thing as it sounds! Yes, and that's so true... I mean each and every thing that I mentioned in my last post was completely true. That is the way I feel when I shop, I just go mad, just out of control! Actually, I am an untamed shopaholic, believe me! That's the right word for me.

But don't you think everything that you are unable to control is just not good for you or for anybody? I realized it now!

You know after spending almost each and every penny of my salary on shopping from last few years have really left me with nothing to look back at. If I try to peek back in the past and try to find out what I did with the enormous amount of money that I made, the major thing visible to me is all the shopping that I did, the insane amount of cloths that I bought, the massive amount of shoes, jewelry, watches etc that I got. Its not that I only did shopping for myself, it includes shopping for everyone: for my relatives, friends, for my home everyone who is a part of my life. But then shopping is shopping, it hardly matters if its for you or anyone else. But yes, I admit the major part of the shopping that I did was for myself. Infact, when I look at all the collection, I feel happy and at times, proud! But then, I also feel dejected, sad and gloomy when I look at my savings! And that's the time I feel that all the paraphernalia that I collected, the tons of cloths, the piles of shoes, the heap of jewelry is actually not worth it. Its not! These heaps were created because every time, I have a look at my closet, I feel as if everything there in is of no use and I want something different, something else, something more. Every time, I find something or the other missing!

They said it so right “Women usually love what they buy, yet hate two-thirds of what is in their closets.”

Anyways, yeah... so believe me its not really a very cool idea to spend each and every penny of your hard earned money on materialistic, insubstantial things that has no renewability. I mean spending huge bucks on something that gets perished easily, that guarantees no return is actually insane or rather, I should use the other word, that I will also feel embarrassed to use it here as then it will imply to me too! But then, its true, and I can no more hide myself from that word! You know what is it??? The word for shopaholics like me is foolish. Yes! That's the word that should be used for idiots like me who have no sense of spending money, who just have no control on their desires, who just give up on something so easily - by just saying and accepting it as an addiction, who doesn't even try enough to control the urge for bad things, who take future so lightly. Now, what will you call such kind of people! Obviously, foolish!

I am blessed that I do not have any major liabilities on me and so, I really had this power to spend exuberantly and lavishly without thinking about the future. But then, do the fact that one doesn't have any liability, give them the right to squander their money. No! It doesn't. It doesn't.

I actually feel bad while looking back because all I see is that I couldn't save anything, anything. All I did was spend, spend and spend more which is definitely not a great idea. And that's an advice from a shopaholic.

I am really working hard these days to get away with this addiction of mine because I have finally realized that shopping is really a waste of money! A total waste of money. My first step towards this resolution is that I have unsubscribed myself from all sort of emails from all the online shopping sites that send notifications regarding their latest collection, sales etc. Because the moment I get and see those luring ads in my inbox, its just impossible for me to stop myself from going to these sites. My inner self is very clever. It convinces me to just have a look at the stuff but alas, I end buying something or the other!

Probably thats why Erma Bombeck said:

“The odds of going to the store for a loaf of bread and coming out with only a loaf of bread are three billion to one.” 

Thats true! So, I thought it better to just get unsubscribed from these mails!

One should shop, no doubt but being in the limits.

Invest a good amount of money from your salary on some sort of savings (atleast 50%), take out 30% for other necessary stuff and then, keep the rest 20% for shopping! Imagine, if your salary is divided this way every month then how amazing that would be. It will create a balance of everything in your life.

Give it a thought!

And here are few para's from How Not To Shop

“You have savings?" she was astonished.

As a woman who lived on the very extreme edges of her budget, whose credit card bills were a source of monthly concern, the idea of savings was just so alien. But then this was Ed, a different kind of person altogether.

"Why do I know nothing about your savings?" she'd asked.

"I wonder!" he'd answered with a smile. "Maybe because I don't want my savings to be translated into "really great investments" like Miu Miu shoes or Hermès handbags.” 

Choice is yours now, what to call your "investments" in future! I have made mine...

Keep Smiling Alwazzzzzzz....