Shopping As Therapy In Excess - Not Good

My favourite brand of sneakers and shoes - Skechers. Got this pair and one
other as a part of the buy 1 get one half price sale at their store in Woodbridge
Mall last month.

I've been on a flannel shirt kick the past couple of months. I bought about 8 of them at a few different stores - Target, Old Navy and JC Penney on sale or clearance price of 12.00 or under. This one was more money though - 25.00 at Garage at Woodbridge Mall. I shouldn't have paid that much

These adorable doggie p.j.'s are from Kohl's. I actually ordered them onlinebecause the store didn't have my size. I did not know that you can order items at the store that you don't have to pay shipping costs. They were about 20.00 and I did save around 24.00 on them.

This cute cardigan if from Macy's. I had a 10.00 coupon from the paper so it cost only 15.00 after this and the sales price. I got mom the small Aflac duck which was their holiday stuffed animal for this year. I have the Scooby from about 6 years ago.

Sears seems to be the only store that still sells my favorite brand of jewelry - 1928. It is now sold as 2028 in other stores like Macy's. I got a good deal on it this time - 40% off. The Charter Club and 2028 earrings were on clearance at Macy's. I am totally addicted to fashion jewelry and have spent way too much money on it over the past 10 years.

The past couple of months I've been going bonkers with the spending which is not a good thing especially because I have been hitting other important funds like the computer savings one to pay for these shopping sprees. I have been guilty of using shopping as therapy to relieve my anxiety and depression throughout certain periods in the past decade. I was doing really well for about a year and a half but then starting last September I was at it again. The high of this is only temporary though. You would think that by now I would have learned my lesson but I keep turning to taking trips to the mall, Kohl's, Target and various other places to try to cheer me up. I really need to try and choose better ways of coping, like reading a book, connecting with my friends and watching DVDs from the library. I had some computer time last week which I should have been devoting to my friends here but instead I was looking at the Sears and Skechers sites for sneakers. I wound up buying 2 more pairs yesterday and they didn't even still have the special sale going on at the Skechers store. I'm always one for getting a good bargain so this impulse buy is even worse than my usual spending sprees. As if I don't have enough Skecher's to begin with - it's up to 12 pairs and I am now semi obsessing about one other that I want. This is pretty bad.

At the mall

I have not been to a mall since about November of 2008. I used to like going there but because of my driving anxiety plus my lack of funds, I have stayed away from there. Both of our malls are about 20 - 25 minutes away. I like Woodbridge Center better than Menlo Mall because the latter is too upscale ever since they did the remodle in the early 90's.

Menlo used to have many shoe stores, JC Penney, Alexanders, Bambergers which then became Macy's, Nathan's which we liked eating at sometimes and an art store which we bought a few paintings from. JC Penney moved to Woodbridge Center when they built the fourth long wing there.

My Dad bought me the Yankees team set of Topp's baseball cards in 1984 at a collectibles show at Menlo. A couple of my Swatch watches came from Macy's. Even though it was kind of a cheesy mall I have good memories of it.

I was never really a mall rat. I did go there and to Kohl's way too much for a few years in the 2000's because I was using shopping as therapy for my anxiety and depression which was not good. I got into credit card debt because of this. Should've stuck to reading books and going to Barnes and Nobel to read magazines to escape my problems.

Mom, grandma at the farm, Aunt Al, Mary, Mark and I used to go to Woodbridge sometime in either October or November each year in the late 70's to mid 80's to do our Christmas shopping which was fun. We usually ate at the Ponderosa.

Mom and I usually go to the calender store there in November for presents- I always get Mark the Star Trek one and she gets me a cocker spaniel one and I get her Golden Retriever pups. We didn't do this last year but I probably should try to get over my fear of driving there and do so this one. We also need batteries for our Swatches.

Maybe I'll just order the calenders from Amazon.com and try to find a local jewler who has these batteries. Just the thought of going to the mall is overwhelming. I'd be saving money on gas too.

My favourite stores at the mall are Macy's, JC Penney, Gertrude Hawke candy, Mandees, Wet Seal, Sears and Claire's. They haven't had Sam Goody in a while now and I forget the name of the music store that's there presently. They had a couple of bookstores - B. Dalton and Waldenbooks. I think that the former is still there.