OCD - Shopping Strain

I have been known to enjoy the hunt - shopping, research, geocaching - but of late I sense a need to get the economic side of this habit under control. I'm just spending too damn much money. But I'm so good at finding fantastic deals!

I read an article on Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder last week, once again confirming our entire family's tendencies to walk this path - cleaning, organizing, cataloguing and filling it as we go. A couple of the OCD traits listed were shopping and bargain hunting. Oh, dear.

Not to pass up an opportunity to foist partial blame on someone else, my mother has always been an unstoppable shopper. My father and I would be in the car with her on the way home and she'd say, "Pull in to Kohl's. I just want to run in." At those words, our blood would run cold. Thankfully there was almost always something to read in the car for the 45 minute wait that ensued.

Well, I find that my pride at finding a bargain is beginning to become a bad hobby, as my son would say. We are in the process of remodeling parts of the house, and being the detail minded, penny pincher that I am, I keep track of each contractor's charges and the cost of various parts along the way, updating the balance against the loan we just received from the bank, making sure we don't spend the loan money on anything but the remodeling projects. All these numbers and interest rates running through my head have given me pause. I need to be more careful about my compulsive bargain hunting before I bargain us out of our newly renovated digs.

So, I decided, in the spirit of Christ-centered submission and sacrifice, to start a fast. Not from food, but from shopping. Seeing as I do take care of all the household details, such as stocking toilet paper and milk, Pull-Ups and postage stamps, there would have to be exceptions, but exceptions only - no personal, unnecessary purchases! I began the fast yesterday morning.

Today, as the new bathtub liner was being installed upstairs, my vacuum cleaner started on fire.

I quickly dragged it out to the patio and let it smoke itself out. I threw open all the windows and got my purse out, grabbed my keys and drove off towards the nearest Wal-Mart (forgive me - hate Wal-Mart, but they're cheap and Andrea in the optical department is so nice). Stopped at a geocache along the way (hunt, hunt, hunt - success!) and soon found myself in the vacuum cleaner aisle at the nation's slimiest mass retailer. Got an inexpensive ($58.89) Bissell bagless, extra belts and filter, socks for the Gibster, some gum, two bed pillows, a dozen shower curtain rings, two Snickers bars, two Dove bars (isoflavones are a necessity), Kleenex, pumpkin in a can, and miniature marshmallows (for the kids). Then stopped in the optical department as I had my prescription on me from this past spring and I needed to take advantage of my insurance allotment of one pair per year. $250 later and I'm good to go. But you should see the deal I got on these new lenses . . .

I know many good folk who do regular 24-hour fasts. Maybe next time I'll make it to 48 hours.