Frugality Game: Episode 3 : I fell off the wagon.

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  So I may have suffered a minor setback, not really in the frugality game but in my quest of overcoming my shopaholicism. I kind of spent $40. On eyeshadow.
   I know that's not much of a financial setback when compared to the $90 I spent on my hair but that was an emergency, so I can rationalize that. But this? I don't know what I was thinking. Especially when I recall the fact that I have never spent more than $14.75 on eyeshadow. Till now.
   But let me tell you how it happened.
   I got a ride to work on Friday, and as I've mentioned before, I work in the den of all evil for a shopaholic : a mall. Anyway, to avoid being tempted by the stores in the mall, I've been getting to work exactly on time so that I have to go straight to my desk and have no time to window shop or browse in any of the other stores. But that day I got a ride to work and my ride deposited me at the mall a lot earlier than I expected. So I had some time to kill. I wandered up a staircase and ended up in the clothing store of one of my friends who we'll call V. I was proudly looking through racks of clothes without being (too) tempted, and basically I was just very smug about getting over my shopaholicism and being so frugal.

I've got a problem...

Disclaimer: Photo courtesy of sodahead.com

   

Last Saturday afternoon found yours truly in a dressing room slithering her way into a white maxi dress. The maxi dress was-- as most maxi dresses are-- far too long for my five feet two inches. I stumbled out of the dressing room to show my friends, M, K and L. They gave me a look that said, put it back, but I totally ignored them, and started to rationalize why this would be a good purchase.

   Well, obviously, I could alter it. Or I could just wear heels with it. I mean, like six inches of it was dragging on the ground, but I have five inch heels that I can wear, and in that case only one inch would be left dragging. Which is totally normal. Plus, I could artfully wrap the excess material (I swear it was made for a giantess) in a knot at the bottom like that woman I once saw in a Caribbean trip advertisement.

   I launched these ideas to my friends who gave me a deadpan expression that showed they were not amused. K pointed out that I always say I'll have clothes altered, but I never get around to it. L said that if I was gonna spend 60 bucks on it, the least the dress could do was fit me properly. And did I really want to spend more money on getting it adjusted? M just shook her head at me and sighed. Then I realized I don't even wear those 5 inch heels that often. Plus, that tying your dress in a knot thing might only work for Caribbean tourists.

     So with a heavy heart, I trudged back into the dressing room, clawed my way out of the white parachute and later re-emerged to hang up the white monster back on the rack. It was then that I realized I may have a problem. Because if my friends had not been there, I might have very well bought that dress. And do you know why? Because in that dressing room, I had started deluding myself that I could indeed have that dress, and I had started formulating all these great excuses to launch on my friends as to why this dress was clearly made for me.

   I am, my friends, what they call a shopaholic.

Chronicles: A mockery is made of the best laid plans.

Disclaimer: Pic compliments of yallin.com

   I had a plan of how I wanted the first day of the new semester to unfold. I was going to fall asleep at 8.30 pm the night before so I could awake the next day all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I would hop out of bed refreshed and hopeful, ready to meet what would be a great day.

   Yes, I had decided to grip September by the horns and make the most out of it. This would be the beginning of a new era for the Misnomer. A new month, a new attitude, a new positive outlook on Life.

   However, even though I duly clambered into bed at 8.30 pm, I didn't fall asleep till after twelve...Mainly because I soon clambered out of bed to eat double chocolate chip ice-cream and reminisce on what had been a great, lazy summer.