The ADHD Shopaholic Returns

I was doing so well managing my finances, but lately I’ve been wearing the magnetic strip off my debit card.

It’s the sale season, and it’s so hard for me to resist a bargain. I bought this cute pink purse a few weeks ago, but it’s really too small for me to bring to work, so I gave it to my sister to use at school. Then I bought this black leather bag with a silk scarf on it that I thought looked sophisticated for work. I used it for about a week until I found this great Dooney & Bourke bag on sale for 40% off at Macy’s. 40% off?! How did anyone expect me to resist that? So I gave the black bag to my mom and I’m currently using my precious brown Dooney. Last week this purse I’ve loved for a long time went on sale at my mall job and I just had to buy it to save for the winter after I switch out of the Dooney. Oops, four purses inside of a month… too much spending.

If purses were the only thing I was buying I’d be in pretty good shape. But now that it’s September I’ve been buying all new fall clothes. Last fall and winter I was at school, so I just wore sweats 24/7. Now, I have all nice Abercrombie sweatpants with matching sweatshirts, and the only time I can wear them is on the weekends, so I need more clothes to wear to work. Just tonight I went into my part time job even though I wasn’t working to buy an outfit that I had on hold from the weekend. While I was there I found out that employees were getting a 60% discount on select fall clothes which just happened to include my favorite long sleeve blouses for work. Of course I had to pick up a few while I was there.

The problem is that every time I see something that I want or is on sale for a good price I convince myself that I actually need it anyways. Earlier today I told my mom I was in desperate need of long pants, because I only have two good pairs for work. She laughed and asked what about those khaki ones with the tags still on them? Any the gray ones you wore once? Oh, yeah; but it turned out they weren’t as comfortable as they were cute so I always decide against them in the morning.

I think I need to keep reminding myself that $20 here and $50 there adds up and, in the end, it’s a few hundred dollars a month that ends up sitting in bags on my floor for weeks before I remember that I bought them in the first place. If I don’t absolutely need something for the next day I’m not going to buy it. Unless I come across a chunky sweater with bracelet-length sleeves that I can wear with a fitted long sleeve jersey… I’ve been wanting that for weeks now!