from : Simply Thrifty (via email) http://www.simplythrifty.com/
Do Shopping Therapy Without Messing Up Your Budget
Posted: 16 Aug 2008 02:59 PM PDT
I was talking to someone the other day who told me she doesn’t want to be on a budget if it means she can’t enjoy a bit of retail therapy when she’s stressed. Now, she’s not a completely out of control, spend $5,000 a week type of girl. She just likes to leave the kids with her hubby after a really tough week of being a working mom and go out for an hour or two with the girls or hit a favorite store on a day that has tough emotional memories to deal with. Still, it is enough to blow a tight budget. (And, no, she doesn’t want to deal with problems through counseling or other methods. She says this works for her and she’s not trying to fix it. She’d just like to be able to have her therapy and a budget, too.)
My solution? Save those gift cards. For example, I got a $15 gift card the other day from a survey that is good in any store, a $10 gift card for transferring a prescription to Target and a $50 gift certificate for Amazon.com. I will spend the first two now to save a bit on this month’s grocery budget. However, if I indulged in shopping therapy to feel better, I think I’d save the cards until the next time I needed to feel a retail high and use them to pay for my fix. A shopper’s high without the next day spender’s guilt hangover!
Another thing to try is to gather all the items that the family doesn’t use anymore and sell them on Craigslist or eBay (or hold a yard sale.) The extra cash could go into a special shopping therapy account, along with refund checks and money from surveys or secret shopping jobs.
The final suggestion I offered was shopping for someone else. Offer to get things for a shut in or offer assistance to someone who needs to find the perfect wedding gown. You can shop all day without spending a dime of your own money. The drawback is that you might still feel like you need some retail therapy when you’re done, especially if you’re dealing with an anxious bride!
Does anyone else have any tips on how to not blow a budget when you’re an emotional shopper?
Tags: emotional shopper, retail therapy, shopping therapy
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