Judicious Shopaholic. Seems like an oxymoron to me... and yet it describes me so well.
From dictionary.com:
judicious:
having, exercising, or characterized by good or discriminating judgment; wise, sensible, or well-advised
shopaholic:
a frequent shopper, especially one who is unable to control his or her spending.
That about sums me up. I am an extremely frequent shopper (My shoddy income does a nice job of controlling my spending for me, though) but I try to be extremely discriminating in my spending. My rules are: never pay full price, never pay for shipping, and if you miss out on a "must have" item, there will (almost) always be an even better item that comes along.
Last week, I broke the most sacred of my rules: never pay for shipping. A full price item can always be returned. If an item gets away, it will pop back. But that money you just wasted on shipping, you will never see again. Talbots sucked me right in with their $45 wool pencil skirts. I am not sure why I had such a lack of judgment but I did, and before I knew it I was paying $8 shipping on a $90 order, or almost 10% of the total cost.
It turned out well because I (painfully) reminded myself why I never pay shipping, under any circumstances. The skirts came, and they were nice, but one was defective (ran an entire size larger) and I just wasn't wowed. In other words, they weren't J.Crew Double Serge Wool Pencil skirts, the holy grail of pencil skirts. So I had to trek to Talbots to return them and eat the shipping charge. The cheap part of me really, really hurt. Especially since two days later, there was a free shipping no minimum promotion. Grrrrrr.
I showed a clear lack of judiciousness (is that even a word?) when I bought those skirts, but it was a rare lapse and totally out of character. Thankfully, I am back on track now. I will stalk a popback until the cows come home, and then I will promptly add $150 of ride-alongs to meet whatever the shipping minimum is as I rush to checkout. I am the customer that every retailer hates, but it's my money, gosh darn it!
So the moral of the story is: I may have all five colors of the Lana cami (a bit much, some might say), but they were on sale, I got free shipping, and they were the even better thing that came along after I missed out on the Joelle cami four years ago. And that is why I am a judicious shopaholic!
Oh I love your way of spending/not spending. I just ordered two bracelets from final sale, but will also be trying some more new items and won't be paying for shipping. This way I don't pay shipping, and I get to try new items before they (all to quickly) fly to final sale.
ReplyDeleteLove those Lana's but I'm holding out for one. more. promo. before I buy.
P.S. Sometimes I do pay for returns to the warehouse. If I have alot, I can't bare the in store return process. :(
Hilarious story! I'm one of those who often pays full price and shipping too. It's rare to get free shipping to Canada with J.Crew, there is no $175 minimum for us, it's always $9.95 flat-rate unless free ship is part of a promo.
ReplyDeleteI pay full price often because I want to wear things right away and I'm always concerned that the discounted items may be defective or worn. Too many final sale horror stories have me spooked.
JustVisiting, good plan to wait for a promo on the Lanas... they don't seem to be flying off the shelves, but are lovely and worth $30ish or less.
ReplyDeleteI'll admit I have in the past sent a huge box of returns back to avoid judgmental SAs. Totally worth $7!
xoxo, I don't know how you Canadian JCAs do it. $9.95 is killer! But I'm glad you do because I love your reviews :) I have had many final sale atrocities lately so I completely understand your reluctance to partake!