CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC, SORT OF

No, not the movie or the book. Haven’t read the book(s) at all, or seen the movie yet.

But I confess that I am leading the life of a shopaholic, sort of. I consider myself sort of a shopaholic wannabe, not really there yet, but moving along fine.

Over the last three months, I have splurged hundreds of dollars on clothes and accessories on unplanned shopping sprees. Window shopping meant to act as time fillers before other appointments, mysteriously morphed into impromptu and uncontrolled buying sprees.

In my expenses account, I have borrowed from my clothing budget all the way up to August. Considering the Great Singapore Sale in the coming months, I highly suspect that I am going to borrow from my future budget all the way up to the end of the year. Although I did hear that this is common in Defence Ministry projects, so at least I am in the legitimate company.

I blame Sex and the City. Carrie Bradshaw’s walk-in closet so inspired me that I apparently have subconsciously decided to rival her in terms of quantity, even though I may never be able to match her in quality (sorry, no Prada….yet). Although I never realised that column writers are actually paid that handsomely in the US until I watched the show. Engineering was obviously a wrong career choice.

I blame the recession. The downward spiral of the retail sector has spawned all those red and white sale signs all over the place, the bigger, the better. Mid Season sale, End of Season sale, pre- and post-holiday sales, opening sales, moving out sales, closing down sales, blah blah blah. And Lord only knows, I have never been able to resist red and white, a consequence of my nationalistic little soul.

I blame cards - credit cards, membership cards. I believe I currently hold more cards than the Integrated Resorts casino will ever have. I am literally a card carrying member of countless boutiques. I own at least two credit cards from every major bank in Singapore, and that is only because I have stopped entertaining marketing calls from the smaller banks. There is the mentality that I have to make use of the benefits since I have them. So I happily go forth and rally on my 10% discounts, forgetting that I still have to foot the 90% from my own pockets. Really, I expected better mathematics from an engineering graduate.

I blame the Urban Renewal Authorities (URA). The person who sanctioned the building of three shopping malls 10 minutes walk from my home should be laid flat on the ground while hordes of eager shoppers tread over him to get to the Topshop sale. Maybe while I am at it, I should also blame the Housing Development Board (HDB) for building my flat so near the town centre and the malls. There should be at least a 2 km radius of desert wasteland between the flats and the malls, and a huge obstacle course that one would have to pass through in order to get to the next sale. Only the most pro and hardcore of shopaholics would get the honour of enjoying the sales and at least I would have the satisfaction of knowing that I burned some fats in the process of donating my hard-earned cash to Dorothy Perkins.

In an effort to help me reduce stress (because stress cause fat deposits at tummies), my gym coach told me to constantly look for things to be grateful for. I will try and look for silver linings in this case.

One, at least I do not have to roll over my credit card bills yet, although that is more a testimony to the depths of my personal savings from the period of time when I was wearing tents and had no life.

Two, the amount I have spent may be horrific to my used-to-be more thrifty soul (I wouldn’t use the phrase “penny pinching” as I have never pinched a single cent in my whole life, even my tents were not exactly cheap tents.), but it still is considerably less than what many other ladies of my age and income group spend on an IT bag. It is cold comfort, but still better than no comfort at all.

Three, at least I have not succumbed to Internet shopping….yet (again). It is hard to shop for clothes and accessories on the internet when I do not have the perfect figure and like to see exactly how I look in them before committing (I still have some rationality left, however little).

I have all sorts of plans and resolutions in place to curb my shopaholic wannabe tendencies. But that would entail another post in itself, which would have to wait a while, because there is a 50% sale at G2000 Ladies, it is Sunday, and the mall is just 10 minutes away.

See you later.