Give up Shopping for a Year? One Woman Did!
So I may have had a bit of a shopping problem this week. See, my brothers' birthdays are coming up, so I needed to make a trip the mall... and while I'm picking out their gifts, I happened to find some awesome jeans on sale. And 2 cute cardigans. And 7 pairs of flip flops. Let's just say that after the trip to Target, in which I was only supposed to get wrapping paper, and ended up with a bill totaling over $100 (who can just go to Target and get one thing, really?)-- I was having some buyer's remorse. I remember previously hearing about a woman who'd given up shopping for a year, at the time thinking, yeah sure, I could do that. (Um, after this past week of splurging, maybe not.) Well, it turns out Elizabeth Jayne Liu's year is up.
September 1st marked the end of Elizabeth's 365 days without shopping. Over the course of the year, she hoped to curb her shopping addiction by just giving it up completely. To hold herself accountable, she documented her triumphs, minor mishaps, and overall experience in her blog, Flourish in Progress.
One lesson Elizabeth learned was that quality matters. She told Glamour Magazine's Slaves to Fashion blog:
"This year has taught me, after looking at the hideous things in my closet I've been forced to wear, that I need to be mindful. The things I bought that I consider investment pieces, like a beautiful pair of slacks that are well made, those have lasted me. The silly T-shirts I had to have in every color are already junk. So I've also learned to buy really, really quality pieces."
"With an addiction you're never really cured, but if you spend enough time away from it, it gives you new perspective on how you can deal with it. Just take yourself out of the tempting environment. Even though you yearn to do it, there’s more self-control. I feel like it’s permanently changed the way I feel about acquiring."
Follow Elizabeth's ongoing journey in Flourish in Progress. I gotta say, I checked it out & I'm into it. Her latest entry It's my birthday. I'm locked in the bathroom begins
"I would have posted sooner, but I was too busy buying s***. Ok, that's a lie, I haven't bought one thing yet. Only because I asked Harv to hid my wallet, his wallet, Cal's piggy bank, and lock me in the bathroom."
Haha! So what about you? Could you give up shopping for a year?
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