Many years ago, I purchased a pair of adorable little sandals from Stuart Weitzman. The next week I received a card from them with a little note thanking me for my purchase and much to my mother’s chagrin when I showed her my card and how they actually thanked me, she scoffed because you only get cards when you spend a ridiculous amount of money as I had and when you are making approximately negative 10 dollars interning then there really is no way to be affording such things on your own dime (and I wasn’t). I then went on to develop a bit of a Stuart Weitzman addiction culminating in completely unnecessary black and white flip flops that sported the words ‘love’ and ‘amore’ in Swarovski crystals. Air France would go on to lose these flip flops on my mother’s flight over to Madrid and I would never see them again.

That was by far one of my most frivolous and pointless purchases ever. They weren’t cute or useful in fact they hurt my feet and were soon replaced by the coolest looking sandals ever that I bought on sale for 20 Euro in Spain. I bought things just because I could. I bought Coach bags not because they last forever – which they do – but because it was a Coach and having a bag that had the Coach logo on it meant something. What exactly, I am still unsure of, but it meant something and everyone had one so of course now I had to have one. I bought things in such a way that I now have a closet full of crap from Ralph Lauren that I rarely use and enough Coach wristlets to start a store out of my condo. This excerpt from Pink Lemondade Diva explains my sudden epiphany to a ‘T’. Something that took me roughly 18 months to fully grasp and comprehend:

I want to watch that show that helps people absolve their debt and turn their lives around, because I do not want my closet to have a larger investment than my savings account, and I do not ever want to see another reaction like the one from the gal who complimented my croc.

I was able to buy the way that I did because all of my necessities were covered by my parents and I liked nice things, grew up with nice things, and felt entitled to nice things. I could and would rationalize three cashmere crew necks because – and as my mother said – cashmere is an investment. Saying this now makes me feel like, who the hell is this person?? This person who proudly wore the ugliest boots known to man, not because they were useful and comfortable, but because they were Coach snow boots (I couldn’t make this up if I tried). And do not get me started on the way I would enter a Nordstrom and not be able to leave without new shoes. Just, don’t and clearly there is no rational explanation for it than I shopped and bought just for the sake of doing so.

And my, how things have changed…
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BlogHer CE, Heather B, also blogs at No Pasa Nada where she goes into fervent detail on her neverending frugality.