My Shopping Addiction Update

I have 5 days left to go in this month's budget. Unfortunately I have spent all the money in my budget and I have no more left to spend. However, the good news is that I have not gone over budget at all. I have stayed true to myself and made the commitment I made work.

Some of the stumbling blocks I ran into were:

• I ran out of money and was unable to go out to eat with my husband, like I had planned. We intended to go to Black Angus for dinner on Friday night but I had only enough money in my budget for one more tank of gas and that had to last me another two weeks! So no dinner.
  
• Second challenge was Cheap Date Night, offered by the city. It was only $2 each and we could have had our own night out for $4. However, I needed every penny for that tank of gas. Again, I had to pass. About this time I was starting to regret some of my earlier purchases and wondering if I could return them.
  
• The next challenge was Lunch and Bowl on Friday afternoons. I again didn't have the money for that. So, no bowling for 2 whole weeks!
• Then there came the Bowling banquet. It was at the Golden Corral. We had to go and I could not afford to buy us a meal. Fortunately my husband decided that we needed to eat and he paid for our dinners. Now I am really regretting those purchases of things I really didn't need. I hate to rely on someone else for things like this.
  
• I did however, spend some time wondering what I could return, or from whom I could borrow some money (just $4 dollars would get us to the cheap date night) or wondering if Lee could pay for it.
  

It has been tricky getting through this week, but knowing again how much money I have available to spend and keeping really close track of it seems to be helping. Acknowledging the problem has helped as well. The kids work really hard to keep me in control and Lee is starting to get harder on me, realizing that all this time he though he was being kind but in fact it was harming me and making my addiction worse. It is still very, very hard for me to walk away from a good or great deal, the physical pain is still very real. I have learned not to look for the sales anymore, not to go down the clearance isles and to stay clear of the discount and bargain stores like Tuesday Morning and Big Lots.