Friday, April 10, 2009

Confessions of a Shopaholic. That is me.

Hey shopaholics and shopaphils ! You'll find some familiar stuff here :D
Max has occupied the warm place on my pillow and since I don't want to distract him from that cute pose he's currently taken, I will write these thoughts of mine. 2am and I don't want to do anything but writing.

Some days ago I watched "The Confessions of a Shopaholic". The movie was weak and so-so, kind of a mix from "Sex and the City", "Devil wears Prada" and "Love and other disasters". I had to watch that because of the familiar topic.

Unlike with the heroine of the "Shopaholic", in childhood i had the best clothes because they were either sewn by my mother or sent from US by her relatives. And my nother was the one developing the sense of style in us.

The heroine was somehow close to me since she was a journalist/columnist at a magazine (like Carrie Bradshaw, like me in my inner desires) and her addiction to nice stuff. She couldn't resist the calling of fancy shop glasses, mannequines persuading to buy the stuff that is very nice but not always needed. I have the same thing. The main difference between my shopaholism and the heroine's, is that I spend the real money I have and not credits.

My credit history is clear because it's empty. I don't have and never had any line of credit on my cards, neither I have bought anything on credit. I just spend my salary on the things that i love and i think i can't live without :) That leads to the money shortage by the end of the month. I can spend my last thousands of drams on a bag or shoe that i think will be sold out by the time i receive my next salary. When my wallet becomes empty (see last days of each month) I just start saving on my evening cafe-attendings. Tea and that's it :D

I save the change from the money i take from my dad for the shopping for home, that's usually some hundred drams only :D (I do it usually on my own money,.. when i still have it) and sometimes i do borrow some money from my dad if i have to go out that day, for a tea. But i have to mention that i never become skinflint and i always do offer a coffee or tea to my friend if i feel like that. Even if that were my last 500 drams. I'm used to be "empty-walleted" :D and used to not taking the wallet, because all my money is in coins and fits in my pockets quite well :D

Yeah, i feel terrible those days (although, getting used to and better by each month :D), but that's the price i have to pay for my shopping addiction which i'm not sure can be overcame anytime soon.

I'm a shopaholic. I do admit that. It's a recent addiction and I cannot predict how far it will go. But I can feel some huge difference between me - some years ago and me-now. And not only of the outlook, amount of "labels" in my wardrobe and the permanent short of money.

In addition to this, I'm also a terrible saver. I CANNOT SAVE to buy something pricey, even if it's something i'm dreaming about and needs couple of months' saving !!!! I have used some methods like putting my money into a bank account (then i discovered that it's actually easier to shop with a card :DDD), and to put some big bills into a pig saving box (i take them out easily buy the end of the month, because there are always some circumstances :D e.g the need to buy a present for a friend, or not willing to borrow from dad)

Now I'm a shoe-a-holic and cute-stuff-holic. My favorite colors of the season are shades of pink, black and flesh-tones of coral, pink, peach etc... I wear a lot of B&W clothes since I'm quite formal dressed at work. The bright colored accessories "rescue" me there.

Now, when more and more clothes of mine have a name and even can be found online (I have made this as a qualifier for clothes :D) I'm being distinguished with my style from others as much as the limited number of affordable boutiques available in Yerevan let me do so.


Now, our wardrobe (I am sharing the room and wardrobe with my sister) is overloaded and on opening any door, something always is falling out on our heads. We are now negotiating with parents to put the purchasing of a new wardrobe for our room on the first place in the list of our planned big purchases.

Friends say that i have a natural luck of finding stuff that is on a big sale and usually the size that is left is my exact one! And they often ask me how do i manage to do it.

Since my silly post has to have a practical value and contain something useful for my readers, I'm offering some tips on shopping and saving for Yerevan girls. To be continued in another post, soon :)

P.S. The movie gave me an idea to establish an anonymous shopaholics' society :D Who's with me? (oops, did I say anonymous?)

3 comments:

Ani said...

Arpine jan. I used to be the same way. I used to work and spend my money to buy things. But you know what as I get older I realize I can do without another pair of shoes. I rather save and spend my money on somebody who really neads it.

You are still very young and need to spend the money you make on yourself and enjoy it. No one will ever judge you it is a part of life.

For me right now I have an amazing life and I give everything I can to my kids so it is time to give something back to my people.

by the way you have a very handsome dad

Unknown said...

Hey Ani, thanks for your comment!
I also think that it will change by age :)

Irina D. said...

oh oh i'm with you! in Yerevan i'd usually go shop with mom on the weekends and it was always fun. then we'd have a glass of martini or gin and tonic at one of our favorite cafes. however in Yerevan, when you saw something you really liked you HAD to buy it because it could be bought out before sale.

here in the US the problem is the oposite - you can like about 80% of stuff at stores, and all of them are so nice that you have such a trouble deciding what to get. the good way out is to go out with cash, and without cards - that way you won't spend extra money.

and as for credits - people here are crazy. they buy everything on their credit cards and then someday realize that they are in a huge debt. my husband has a 250$ credit card which we never use. you must have one and use it sometimes though to build a credit score - so that if someday you want to buy a car or a house the bank will let you do it. But still. it's better be empty-pocketed then spend your "future money".