Finances | Sweet Fuzz

Confessions of a Shopaholic

My mom and I just went to see Confessions of a Shopaholic yesterday. It was pretty cute, but what struck with me most was how funny it was to watch a movie all about shopping during a serious recession. This movie made me want to do two things…

Clean up my debt and go shopping. Weird, that these two things often conflict with each other. Now as much as the moral of the story is to not use your credit card to buy clothes, this movie does make shopping look pretty darn fun. And while shopping is fun, it’s been a long while since I’ve done it.

If you’re a consistent reader of Sweet Fuzz, then you know that I have had a pretty rough year financially in 2008. I lost my job in the beginning of the year and have been doing odds and ends jobs to pay the bills. The great thing about losing your job? It allowed me to have the freedom to take the leap to what I really want to do, which is graphic design and blogging. But I’m not really quite there yet financially to live on just graphic design and blogging, let alone spend it on a bunch of clothes.

I used to be in outside sales and spent money very freely. I’ve never been one to love shopping as a hobby, but believe me, if there was something that I wanted, I would go get it. I used to go party all the time, and it seems every week I had to have a new outfit. My former roommates worked in the fashion industry and I always felt the peer pressure of wearing the latest trends.

Confessions of a Shopaholic, shopping, peer pressure, credit card, cute clothes, recession, isla fisher, debt, credit card debt, investing, saving money, sales

Now I’m in a completely different state. Sure, I wish I had the money to go buy the latest thing, but now I’m more concerned with being careful with my money. I don’t want to be in debt anymore and I would rather invest my money for the future. I know what it’s like to struggle to pay the bills and I never want to be in that position again. It’s not worth all the cute clothes and fancy cars to be in debt. If I do choose to buy something, I make sure I have the money for it before I buy it. I’ve put my credit cards away…and I really don’t miss them. I’ve tried being responsible with my money before, meaning investing and not spending what I don’t have, but have definitely made many mistakes. Now though, after going through last year and seeing more and more people losing their jobs and their homes, I’m determined to save for the future.

I know that I may sound contradicting with saying not to shop and then putting all these style guides on my site, but…you can be stylish and responsible at the same time. Go buy that cute shirt if you have the money to do it. Check out the style guides for inspiration on mixing and matching clothes you already have. Fashion and style is fun, but it feels so much better being stylish and having money left over to save.