The budget conundrum

I’ve been experiencing a lot of buyers’ remorse lately. For instance, I let a sales woman, the pushy kind that I typically ignore and shun like a pesky fly, convince me that a star made of sticks and draped in Christmas lights was a good buy for $3.95 at Pottery Barn. The price was so good I was tempted to buy two. But considering I didn’t know where I was going to put the one I was purchasing, let alone a second one, I opted to buy just one of them, instead. And then I got home and my son saw it and said “Ha'omnam'? Shalom. When did we become Hebrew?” Which roughly translates to "Really? Peace be with you" in Hebrew) That’s when I realized that the star was marked down from $60 to $3.95 because it looked like the Star of David! So I didn’

t hang it up. And I was sorely disappointed at my foolish waste of damn near $4. The star is currently sitting up against a wall in my living room. It was on clearance so I couldn’t return it.

And take my trip to the races this coming weekend. I’m no longer excited about it. Yeah, at first the thought of getting dressed up and wearing a schnazzy hat sounded like fun, but it’s been raining all week and they are predicting more this weekend. So not only will the grounds be wet and muddy, at the very least, it will be too cold to wear a sundress. I won’t abandon my plans though, they cost me too much. I’ll go just to get out of the house and see a horse race and eat and have that experience…in jeans, a sweater, and an Audrey Hepburn black hat, instead of the cute pink Sinamay hat that I had planned to wear with a strapless sundress.

I’m still going to bet $5 on a pony with a cool name and, hopefully, I’ll win and end my losing streak.

In addition to that, I promised myself that I wouldn’t go berserk spending up my tax refund money. But what did I do? I bought a carpet steamer, two additional hats just in case I changed my mind about the other two hats that I’d bought, two more dresses as if I needed anymore clothes, memory foam mattress pads for me and my son, an iPad, a comforter from Ikea, and a new duvet cover from Target. I am returning the hats, the comforter, and the dresses as soon as possible and shutting down my spending spree. I must train my brain; absolutely NO internet shopping. I have to be extra diligent if I want to reach that tipping point and save up enough money to remodel my kitchen, or do any of the other big ticket things that I often lust and dream about. Ginger, my 11 year old car may be circling the drain, and I said I want my next car to be an Audi (a girl can dream, dammit!) so I have to get my mind right and stop wasting money on worthless crap. I derive great joy from donating the things I no longer want or need to the less fortunate, but I get even greater joy and sleep much better at night when I save money.