I admit to a dire sin. A dire sin for a reformed voluntary simplicity yogi. I used to be a shopaholic. I know! It is shocking to believe, about the kind of person I have turned out to be, but it is true. It happened when I got my first job, as most shopaholics begin. I got my first taste of freedom and money in the bank. I actually could afford all the clothes and shoes I had dreamed of, that I had lusted after for all of these years. I started spending money slowly, dipping in my feet so to speak. I would buy stuff only for my family at first, to justify it to myself. I am buying things for others so it can’t be that bad. Of course, it was things like food from outside where I would be included or movie tickets, where I would buy one for myself. It was a double entendre, I was buying things for myself under false pretenses.
A little by little, I started buying for myself as well. I would go to the shopping mall once a week to see if there is something new I could pick out. I bought $200 worth of clothes every week or every other week at least. I bought mostly clothes and shoes. I wasn’t into handbags, thank God. I also had a weakness for cosmetic jewelery which is hilarious because I am allergic to the nickel that is in most cosmetic jewelery. I bought it just for show, I guess. Or maybe I hoped my allergy would miraculously disappear when my skin saw all the beautiful jewelery displayed on my wardrobe counter. I would also buy make-up a lot, another funny thing, as I wore very little make-up. Almost non-existent. Another weird quirk of mine, I guess. I would go to shoppers every week to buy or replenish items that were still sitting on my bathroom counter. I justified it by the huge number of points I was accumulating. I started spending money after that on seminars, get-rich-quick seminars. Oh lordy, now that I think of the thousands of dollars wasted, I could kick myself in the head.The funny thing with all of my credit card spending was that I didn’t ever have any cash. I mean, nada. I would never have a dollar in my wallet. Everything HAD to be paid with a credit card, because I had no cash to spare. No cash at hand.
I justify the above as a valuable lesson that could never be learned better than spending recklessly, getting into thousands of dollars of debt and slogging through it, one penny at a time. I know I wouldn’t be the person I am now unless I went through the learning that I went through. I read about shopaholics on the net now, and I do feel bad for them that they have to go through this learning experience to realize the unimportance of shopping to a happy, fulfilled life. It is a tough lesson, but the benefits are tremendous. I feel like I am a much better person overall due to the lessons learned. I like myself completely. I do have moments of doubt, but as a whole, I think I turned out pretty great, someone that everyone would be proud to know. That is something else that Mastercard cannot buy. Neither can Visa.
