Receipts are eyeopeners!!!!

Good morning everyone! Hope you enjoyed your day off! It rained here all day, so my hubby and I decided to tackle the filing cabinet and shred all day! Wow! I have to say, it's a huge eye opener to shred receipts and bank statements and credit card statements. Not fun and kind of makes you sick to your stomach. Really. This made me REALLY not want to shop anymore. The amount of receipts for Target alone was nauseating. And it was just piddly stuff, but each receipt was no less than $50.00! A t-shirt here, a t-shirt there. They were only $8-10 each, but the amount of t-shirts I bought and skirts and clothes for my daughter, etc. I realized a major problem I have is, "It's only $5, $8, $10"! And I say that everytime I go in there! Which was at least once a week! I need to learn to buy quality items and have one I love, than to buy a quantity of cheap items that overwhelm me because they call to me to wear them and I never do! There are just not enough days in the year to wear everything I own!! And it's mostly Target, Walmart and a bit of Macy's and boutique shops mixed in!

Which leads me to my closet. As an ongoing project throughout the year, I'm going to count every single item I own and list them here. It's really going to be shocking at the amount of clothing I have. And it's overwhelming to me, but I keep buying more! What a vicious cycle! That's mainly why I wanted to do this shopping experiment, to get off that hamster wheel of purchasing and purchasing.

Since January 1, I've been wearing whatever I choose for that day and taking a picture of me in it. I mainly wanted to see how I look wearing it. Well, since I'm trying to get off a few pounds (who isn't?), I decided they all look horrible, but I'm not ready to get rid of anything, because of the, yes let's say it together, "I might need it someday" syndrome. Since I can't purchase anything new, I'm a bit hesistant to donate it right away, but I will start a bag and put the things I really don't like in it. Then I'll store it away and give it away on Jan 1 2011. Wow, would that be a relief to get rid of the things I really don't like and feed my soul by owning less, but feeling happy with less.

So my first item I counted was pajamas. I will need to comeback and do a more detailed edit, but I quickly counted them yesterday and it was 15 pairs. Winter and Summer. Wow! Most of them are the pants and shorts from Sam's Club (these are sooo cute!, haven't heard that before).
Others are from Target. Two from Macy's. One from New York (taxi cabs.....tooo cute!, yes I'm 41). And I believe one from the store Sarah Jessica Parker sold her stuff. Now only 3 of them are pants and top to match. The others are mixed pants and tops. Yes, I'm clueless when it comes to shopping. Some of the shorts for the summer are too big and look horrible, but I AM just going to bed. The others are too tight and look worse!! But I keep them anyway, because after all....I bought them. I guess I need to go somewhere where I can try them on and buy those instead of just grabbing them because they are cute and....oh, only $10! What a surprise.

So, yes these are my buying mistakes. We all have them, but mine are in excess. This is where the receipts come in. All of these things were purchased during the last few years, but why do I keep them when I buys new ones? I think it's because I'm not ready to get rid of them yet. So, the question is "why buy new ones?" and the same stupid answer is "because they are cute". Enough! I will try to get down to two each. One to wash and one to wear. So four pairs of pajamas is perfect.

Also, moral of this post: don't let your husband be involved when it comes to shredding receipts.....it only confirms where his money has actually been going......to Target. Not good.

Victoria