I didn’t spend €300 on clothes

Although I really, really wanted too. The ‘soldes‘ or big sales are on right now in France, and there are lots of great reductions, up to 80% off in some cases. I went into one of my favorite stores the other day (mistake number one). I was only going to buy bread, but I ‘happened’ to wander through the clothes department, and saw lots of gorgeous, gorgeous things. I looked and touched and practically drooled a puddle in the aisle, but I didn’t buy anything.

Oh, it was so hard! The clothes were exactly the style that I love and suits me, updated Jackie K, and the prices were so good! But I think this is exactly where the problem stems from; we are so conditioned to think of prices as ‘good’ and reductions as ‘great’ that we have the reflex to jump on something when we see it on sale. At least I do.

I resisted temptation using two mantras. The first is something that my husband suggested when we were talking about my problem of impulse buying*: ‘Tell yourself you can buy it next month’. So I kept repeating ‘I can come back in February, I can come back in February, I can come back in February’ as I walked around. And I also repeated ‘I can’t buy clothes because I have to spend €800 fixing my doors, I can’t buy clothes because I have to spend €800 fixing my doors.’ That one, I even wrote down. I’ve found that writing things down really helps reinforce the message, at least for me.

*In a very relaxed, non-argumentative way, and I was the one who brought it up.

Kelly Rigotti started Almost Frugal as a thirty-something American trying to dig her way out from under a mountain of debt (~€60,000). She's almost frugal and would like to be more so, but shops at Ikea too often for her own good.

Kelly has blogged 556 posts here.