a peek inside the fishbowl

28 Jan, 2007

the strong lure of want

Posted by andrea tomkins in: Oh! Things!

Last night I my feelings could be summarized as antsy, mixed in with a pinch of grouchy impatience. I’m not sure why, but I wasn’t in a great mood. Scratch that, I know exactly why I was feeling so crappy. I had been confined to the house all day Saturday. It was cold outside. Emma was at a party. Mark was out and had the car. It was just me and Sarah… all day without escape.

So last night I asked myself what I wanted to do about it. What would make me feel better? My answer: I wanted to buy a bag of chips and eat it while lying sprawled on the couch or go shopping. Those were the only two things that I truly wanted to do, and it pained me not to be able to do them.

re: the chips
A few weeks ago I pledged not to eat after 7:00 p.m. And I had to keep that promise. It was this mindless late night snacking that was causing me to put on the poundage.

re: the shopping. I’m still trying to keep my unshopping goal of not buying anything new and unnecessary.

If I was smart I’d fend off these feelings by going for a long walk or going swimming until I was too exhausted to do anything more. But, I’m not that smart. ;)

Soooo, this morning I found myself at ValVill. The feeling hadn’t gone away. I had dropped off a bag of charitable donations at the Salvation Army earlier (they were closed for shopping) and somewhere between here and there I decided I needed a new pair of jeans. And it’s true. I’m desperately lacking wearable pants. The one pair that fit properly are practically shredded. My newest pair need serious belt hitching (a happy result of my cutting out the snacks) and look all garbled and funny around the waist when I wear them.

To make a long story short, I found jeans. (There’s an entire other post brewing about the related humiliation. How can it be that my waist is a 29 but 29 jeans won’t fit, nor will most 30s and 31s are too big?) I found some very nice light tan Tommy Hillf cords for Emma. And that’s when I started to buckle. I chose some books for Emma too (Stuart Little and a couple Beverly Cleary) and then I thought I should buy something for Sarah. I found a Groovy Girl water scooter (with Groovy Girl attached) for only $2.99. And then I saw a package of these:

vintage noisemakers

Oh, how can I resist the allure of vintage tin holiday noisemakers? Note the 15 cent pricetag on the bottom one. It has a wooden handle too! ValVill was selling a bunch of these for $2.00. I couldn’t say no. Are are my purchases nullified because they’re second hand (like the Compact folks)? Let’s not forget my donation earlier today… two bags of stuff cleared out for someone else to enjoy. Gah. So, fellow unspenders. Is it over for me?


3 Responses to "the strong lure of want"

1 | CC

January 28th, 2007 at 2:13 pm

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PU-LEEEEEEZZZZZ! Cut yourself some slack! Let’s call it “an even trade” for the stuff you brought with you ; )

2 | Miss Vicky

January 28th, 2007 at 8:25 pm

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I agree. And I have you beat. I bought a new washer and dryer on Saturday.

3 | BeachMama

January 31st, 2007 at 8:39 am

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I have to chuckle. I can justify anything I buy as well. Although I didn’t officially sign up with your ‘unspending’ I have been trying really hard not to buy anything unnecessary. I too have been doing very well and have made a few inexpensive purchases for J or myself and ask myself? Does this count?

Truth be told it does, but at the same time it can be justified as not counting because of your donation and the inexpensiv nature of your purchases.

It’s all up to you at this point.

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