In most situations I have fantastic self-control. But sometimes things that I want get the better of me. Sometimes these things even break down my self-control when I'm trying to make an effort to save for an amazing, yet sadly distant, plan.
A beautiful pair of mint Bose headphones nearly got the better of me the other day. It even got to the point where I wrote out an estimate of all my expenses during Term 1 and how much I would be likely to have left over at Christmas. Even after I'd done all my calculations I was still considering it, even though I knew it was a stupid thing to do, and wouldn't benefit me as much as an extra £150 at Christmas would. Finally though, I talked myself out of ordering them -showing my mum the page and her slightly outraged expression towards the price also helped a bit too.
But today two pairs of Vans got the better or me -it would've been them and a pair of Converse if it weren't for the fact the Converse are on my birthday list. I thought about it long and hard; although this time without covering a page in my notebook with calculations. I'd spotted the Vans on the Office website this morning and ordered them this evening, so it's fair to say that quite a few hours went into this decision.
One pair are a duplicate of a pair I currently have. I'm sure that has a lot of you screaming, 'What the hell is wrong with you?! You already have the exact same pair; how can you justify that as not a waste of money?!' and I understand where you're coming from. This was the decision that took up the most time, and I decided to order them in the end as the pair I currently have are four years old; they're a bit on the tatty side; and they didn't end up looking too great when I recently tried washing some stains out of them. So I figured the pair I have now aren't going to last too much longer, and as they're my favourite pair of shoes, I couldn't bare throwing them away without getting myself a replacement pair, if they were still available. That might not justify my purchase to some of you, but it was enough to break me.
The second pair are just a plain, basic, black, slip-on pair. I justified ordering them for the following reasons -which I will admit aren't as good as the ones above-: they're simple but so, so nice at the same time; they'll go with everything, in every season; Vans all have arch support, unlike a lot of shoes these days, which is great for my messed up foot; and I figured the more shoes I have with arch support the sooner my foot will heal and the less likely I am to mess it up again. As I said, these reasons aren't quite as justifiable -although maybe the arch support ones?- but I really liked the shoes so it was a bit easier to justify getting them to myself.
The only annoying thing -that makes me regret my order a little bit- is that I'm now £81 out of pocket. That's £81 I could have potentially saved over the next two years to contribute to funding my trip to Boston -the plan I referred to at the beginning of this post. As punishment to myself though, for doing this, I am not stepping foot inside a clothing shop -at least not purchasing anything from one anyway, with the exception of maybe a really nice top for my birthday drinks- and I'm not doing any online shopping until 2015. I might even extend that ban until the end of Term 2 depending on how much I manage to save up over the rest of 2014.
Am I the only one with this spending problem? Let me know in the comments if you too share my weakness for things you decide you desperately need, even though you probably don't!
-Hannah. :)
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