For those of you who don’t know me very well, I am simply Yasmine Kadhim, the sometimes funny girl from Santa Barbara but for those of you who do know me, know that I am not Yasmine Kadhim. I am a shopaholic.
Now one shopaholic to another, let's be real here. We all pick a brand we’re loyal to, set the hunting grounds (malls in the area), and frequent them on a weekly basis. The lunacy doesn’t stop there, no. We signup for rewards cards and to be placed on mailing lists. We get hundred of emails a week all saying the same thing “give us your money you idiot”, and we do. Suddenly shopping isn't for what you need, it's the latest trend, it's because you’re stressed and need relief, it's because you have some money laying around and that top is just too cute for you to live without. You start downloading the apps for stores you love to make it just that much easier and then what do you do? Obviously, fill up your basket with everything you wish you had. Then, just when you thought you were being reasonable, you see that the cart total is just under 900 dollars. So you filter it all out so that you can have all the cute things you want for the simple price of your entire paycheck. Once you’re about to buy it you think back to two weeks ago when the same thing happened before and you tell yourself “I will never do this again…after this time.” You don’t buy it yet, you fight in your head between this shopping monster that doesn't care what you spend your money on as long as you spend it and your sensible self that says “there will always be another sale”. The sensible self-loses (duh) and you do spend your entire paycheck. The shopping monster growls with approval while you sit there unsure if you're happy or not. Then the package arrives, and it's like Christmas has come (except for you, Christmas comes every two weeks). What a shame you're so bad with your money you think for all of two seconds before commencing with your own personal fashion show.
Unfortunately your friends start to worry about you, and they even go as far as trying to monitor your spending, but you're sneaky. Suddenly the new things you're buying have to stay hidden because if you show them then they’ll know that you’re truly spiraling out of control.
It is truly a cruel world for those of us out there who suffer from this addiction. What makes it even crueler is that many people don’t know they suffer from it. Hell, I’m writing this and I still don’t even believe it. The worst part, though, after all, the money spent, time wasted, and clothing rotting away in your closet, is the constant nagging feeling that somewhere out there in this large world, is a sale that we’re missing out on.
