January shopping

My 2012 shopping pledge has been remarkably easy so far! Yes, it’s only been one month. Baby steps. We’ll see how things go later this year.

Had it not been for this pledge, I would have hit the stores hard in the past few weeks. It’s been a tough time for me, everything has been very unsettling with all the work drama going on, and my coping mechanism is generally to go shopping “to take the edge off things.” Not so. I’ve been comfort eating instead, but that’s another issue for another time.

Also, this month may not be the best indication of how the year will go, because of the new items I picked up when I was in Boston over Christmas. I went a little nuts in December, which spawned this whole “I must cut back!” phase.

Anyway, I have bought my January item, and it’s not even very exciting:

lululemon Wunder Under Pant

I call this a necessary purchase, because it’s time I stopped buying those American Apparel leggings that rip along the inside thigh within two months. Lululemon isn’t cheap, but if these are anything like the Groove Pant I’ve had since 2004, I’ll save a ton of money in the long run. Also a bonus that I can wear these in my casual weekend life and actually exercise in them, if I were so inclined to exercise, but that’s also another issue for another time.

So it’s only been a few weeks, but I think there’s been a change in my shopping habits. No more mindless shopping. No more buying something because it’s “good enough” and “yeah, I’ll probably wear it.” Now I always have in the back of my mind that I’m only buying one thing, so it better be something good. No, it better be something GREAT.

But even though it’s going well, I’m now wondering if I should have tacked on some more rules to this resolution. Or maybe thought it through a little more. The purpose and the spirit of this exercise is to spend less money and accumulate fewer things. So it’s not within the spirit of my goal if I buy one thing that’s $500+ (like, say, these Louboutins). Maybe a budget limit would be better, like $200 total, but then I could go out and buy 10 $20 pieces at H&M and that’s not within the spirit of the goal either. And what about the small things? I also bought a 5-pack of grey socks ($13) and a new pair of wool gloves ($11) this month but I didn’t count them, should I?

As usual, I think I’m overthinking things. I’ll stop now and go have some chocolate to calm down.