Sunday, October 2, 2011

WHAT is this self (husband) -proclaimed shop-o-holic to do???

No, seriously.  I can't. stop. shopping.  I literally spend HUNDREDS of dollars every single month.

Now before you gasp and consider me a terrible, horrible, no good, well dressed person, let me be more specific.  I'm not buying Coach purses and MAC make-up.  It's usually spent at Target or Meijer or somewhere less exciting, and it's usually spent on my kids.  I love buying them clothes and shoes.  And I love cosmetics, so it usually ends up being a couple outfits for Ethan, a couple for Allison, and some shampoo or other random item.  And the total is ALWAYS over $100.

Now before you think to yourself, "Uh, so stop shopping, stupid."  Let me give a tiny bit of background.  I have really bad anxiety.  I take medication for it.  I am being totally serious when I say shopping is a HUGE anxiety release for me.  I can go about 3 days without shopping, then the urge overcomes me and I have to speeeend.  I put things in the cart, I pay, then I feel so, so guilty (but heck no do I return any of it!)  Then I store these new, shiny items in what I like to call my "trunk of tricks" aka.  the trunk of my car so I can slowly pull things out so Jay doesn't bust me. 

Now, clearly I need a different outlet for my anxiety.  I don't garden (everything dies at the mere sight of my face) and I don't cook (unless it's pre-packaged and frozen).  I don't scrapbook (but I could, if I bought some supplies...) I can't do a lot of volunteer work due to my very clingy 2 year old.  I love doing playdates and recently joined a local group on meetup.com, but then realized it costs $10 to join, and most of the meet-ups are at places that require spending money.

Winter is coming so parks and playing outside is coming to an end... what do I do???!

Come on.  Give me some ideas.

1 comment:

tinleydaniel said...

Well I'm going to give you a trick to try, that I have learned in my Counseling studies...(not finished yet) try the rubber band trick, put it around your wrist and when you get the urge to spend...snap it...it'll hopefully control that anxiety because of the pain. As far as volunteering, I think it would be a great idea to include the 2 year old so that she can see what it's like to give to or volunteer and how profoundly good you and she will feel about yourself. Just some thoughts :)