Reformed shopaholic? please can you give me the benefit of your advice

Ex-Spendaholic

Salesaddict don't be hard on yourself. Your shopping addiction wasn't created in a day so it won't be cured in a day either. On the bright side at least your spend was small this time.

The photo of the toiletries is a great idea. I don't do loads of toiletries as I see them as clutter. In my bathroom I have the smallest storage facility available and if the stuff isn't going to fit in there then I don't buy it. I've stopped the 3 for 2s etc as I was just buying stuff I didn't need and paying more than I needed.

I've did the leave the kids with others thing to shop too. In fact I used to promise them the park/beach or whatever on a Saturday afternoon in return for them behaving while I was shopping in the morning.

nicole.17

Heyy! Reading through this has been quite interesting and I think I might do something like this myself, for my benefit though

I went into Primark yesterday, to get some socks I love from there. They are amazingly comfy and only £2.00.
I ot those, but then had that feeling of 'I can't only buy this'. I ended up finding a jumper which was lovely. But I needed shoes to match, so got those too. And I didn't have any jewellery to wear with this so had to get a necklace, long story short I spent £19.00

I didn't even NEED to go in really, but just had an urge!

I'm now also only taking money I need out with me, No card. I've taken out all the money I can from the bank to last me until the 20th, and will only put what I need in there

I'm not in debt, But I NEVER have any money left at the end of the month. I'vesnt so much already a just n't remember what on (Obvs junk).

Urrhhh! New me started yesterday I'll report back x

MsRed1

NGlady wrote: »

Probably the wrong thread to put this on lol.
But ive got £10 in my purse. Im taking all my debit cards away from me. And that is all Im allowed to spend until Saturday morning now. On saturday morning ill allow myself £20 until Tuesday wonder if ill manage it lol.

Today, left my debit card at home and took only £10 with me. Went to Tescos: bought bread, cereal, choc muffins and soya milk. Next the 99p Store-bought soap powder and limescale prevention tablets. (If I had my debit card I would have bought body lotions and shower gels even though I already have more than enough:eek::eek:). Spent £1.98. Finally, looked around Matalan. Didn't buy anything as I didn't have my store card. Won't be going there again. Got about £3.00 left.


I really thought about what I was buying and am going to set myself a weekly cash budget.:j:j

morocha

salesaddict, you are doing better than you think... you are facing the problem !!...

I have been stuck at home today and yesterday...i hate bad weather... anyway it is an excuse not to go out and shop too.. i live in a rural area... but i grew up in a big city... and this place is really boring for me, my idea of going out it is to go shopping.. my 2 yrs old daughter absolutely loves it. I need to address this problem.
I, too, prefer shopping than running after my 2yo in the park... but i am getting organized now, so thurs is swimming day and fri. is toddler group.

NGlady

My neice has got a toy till, and its got a credit card in. She knows to take the card out, "ill pay on my card today" and put the pin in... slightly worrying really?!

nicole.17

NGlady wrote: »

My neice has got a toy till, and its got a credit card in. She knows to take the card out, "ill pay on my card today" and put the pin in... slightly worrying really?!

Lol! This made me laugh :rotfl:

Mags30

salesaddict wrote: »

The thing is I really love the 4 products I have bought. They totalled £11.


So this is what I am going to do. I already agreed with my ds and dd that they will help me lay all my toiletries stash over the weekend and we are going to photograph it. I might not post it on the toiletries thread as others have done as I may be too ashamed.But I will see and they will see.

I'm not sure if others will agree or disagree with me here but anyway....£11 isn't that much, it's possibly less than 10% of what you would have spent in the past plus you love the things you bought so it's a huge improvement on before.

Is the aim here to stop clothes shopping completely or just to restrict what you spend and be much more selective, etc. I know you want to cut back on the time spent shopping so you can spend more time with the family and that makes sense but if you don't plan on stopping completely then don't feel bad about today.

Thank you for being so honest because it just proves for the rest of us how hard it is to give up shopping. And please post a pic of the toiletries (or an edited one if you really can't show it all) I love looking at pics of other peoples stuff:)

Anglea wrote: »

So salesaddict, if you stop the M&S sales, what are you going to do instead?

It's probably not essential to give it up completely. Speaking for myself clothes and fashion are my thing, I don't want to replace dressing up with something different. I'm not spending much though, my last purchase was a dress for €5 reduced from €35. (The debt in my sig wasn't caused by clothes shopping)

NGlady

If any of you have got an overwelming urge for new clothes have you ever looked at bigwardrobe.co.uk
I am quite an active member on there.
Basically, what you do is have a vertual wardrobe and put all the clothes which are still in fabby condition but for whatever reason you don't wear anymore, perhaps there too big or too small or not the right colour for you anymore. Then other people obviously have the same vertual wardrobe. What you do, is browse, much like you would on Ebay through the items, and offer a trade on the item, so you swop a item in your wardrobe for a item in theres. This can work for shoes, clothes misc items anything. And basically for the cost of a item in ur wardrobe and £2.50 or so postage, you have a item new to yourself. A lot of people on there are much like us, shoppaholics who wear something once and dont want to wear it again so its effectively new
Can declare... NO spend for me today - yet

Ex-Spendaholic

Another NSD for me today. Being at work helps although I do have 2 large retail parks nearby. I stayed in at lunch and surfed the net instead. :A

NGlady

Well, I'm off out today!
So I am going to remove all my debit cards from my purse now. Check.
Keep £8 in my purse to last me the day (only got £8 change and if i take a debit card ill end up spending 10x as much )
Good luck to all on this challange today