Shopping
I've mentioned some of my issues with shopping before on this attempted-revamp of my posts.
What I didn't go into is my 5-weekly rule, which occurs when I have income.
When I have income - and I do not count the dole as income - I save up for 5 weeks. Not buying snackage at a fast food place, not buying random clothes on special, not buying the CD I've been waiting for (unless it's a specific preorder, for which I have paypal). This doesn't always apply, if it's a case of 'buying other people's presents', but I do still try not to buy those more than once every five weeks.
Then, at the end of those 5 weeks, I might buy something. Note the word 'might'. If it's been five weeks and the thing I wanted is no longer on special, did I really need it? The answer is usually no.
Sometimes I go to a store for the express purpose of buying something, as I used to make careful trips out to Chapters for this reason, or sometimes took my bike and cycled to the local Computer Store and bought Some Things. Etc.
But usually it ends up that I don't spend any money at all.
Then about a week or so after my originally planned 5-week rule, I end up blowing vast amounts of money on doing everybody's Christmas or Birthday presents all at once.
After that, we go straight back to this again:
So I end up going right back to the point where I wonder why I spent all that money, and panicking slightly because I spent money 'out of turn' as it were, even though I know that the 5-week rule doesn't apply to buying things for other people.
What I didn't go into is my 5-weekly rule, which occurs when I have income.
When I have income - and I do not count the dole as income - I save up for 5 weeks. Not buying snackage at a fast food place, not buying random clothes on special, not buying the CD I've been waiting for (unless it's a specific preorder, for which I have paypal). This doesn't always apply, if it's a case of 'buying other people's presents', but I do still try not to buy those more than once every five weeks.
Then, at the end of those 5 weeks, I might buy something. Note the word 'might'. If it's been five weeks and the thing I wanted is no longer on special, did I really need it? The answer is usually no.
Sometimes I go to a store for the express purpose of buying something, as I used to make careful trips out to Chapters for this reason, or sometimes took my bike and cycled to the local Computer Store and bought Some Things. Etc.
But usually it ends up that I don't spend any money at all.
Then about a week or so after my originally planned 5-week rule, I end up blowing vast amounts of money on doing everybody's Christmas or Birthday presents all at once.
After that, we go straight back to this again:
So I end up going right back to the point where I wonder why I spent all that money, and panicking slightly because I spent money 'out of turn' as it were, even though I know that the 5-week rule doesn't apply to buying things for other people.