Have you seen „Confessions of a Shopaholic”? Well, I was not as bad as the main character, luckily I didn’t get in that much of a debt, but I did have my adventure with emotional shopping. If I felt sad, I went to buy something to cheer me up, if I was happy, I celebrated by getting myself something. Because of that not only did I have no savings, but I ended up with an apartment overflowing with items of all sorts. After seeing the movie about a compulsive shopper, I decided to make some changes.
I started by going through everything I have. It took me a week to separate all my possessions into keep, toss and give away piles, but in the end I ended up with organized shelves, couture dresses hanging in the closet instead of being squeezed in there, a couple of boxes of books that I had bought double and would give away, and bags of clothes part of which were going to Red Cross and part of which I was planning to trade with my friends.
After I got rid of everything that was just crowding my apartment, I moved on to part two of my plan, which was creating a budget. I didn’t want to just limit my shopping, I also wanted to finally start saving money so that I wouldn’t have to just live paycheck to paycheck. I went about it the easiest way I could think of, and created a spreadsheet that included all my monthly expenses, to which I added a position I called allowance, basically what I was free to spend each month, plus an amount that would automatically go to my savings account after each paycheck.
My plan was to not touch the money in the savings account until it was substantial enough to invest, and if I had any urgent expenses or needed to get something, other than of course a new pair of shoes, I would use the money that was left in my checking account after all the payments and my allowance were deducted.
The first two months were very difficult, because it turned out I really got used to just buying my way through everything. It was hard to celebrate winning a new project without buying myself a little something, or to feel better after a breakup without a sopping spree, but I knew if I gave in, the cause was lost. By the end of third month, I learned to make my allowance last me the full month by not going out so much, sticking to necessary purchases, and questioning if I really need a new purse just because it’s pretty.
It’s been a little over a year since I started my new way of money spending, and I’m ready to meet with a financial advisor to invest and let my money work for itself. I spend more quality time with my friends, since we got into a habit of getting together at our places instead of restaurants, which is both cheaper and more intimate, plus a lot of fun cooking together. And when I had some extra cash in my checking account, I went and looked at pretty shoes and dresses, but then saw pen tablets and decided to buy something I didn’t have yet.