Do you find yourself buying things and then regretting it? Have you ever asked for something only to find that you didn't really want it in the first place?

Are you an impulse buyer? Did you recently make a poor purchase that you need to warn everyone else about?

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

Answers

I constantly buy uncomfortable shoes, and then never wear them. It's a really weird thing - I never learn. But aside from that I'm a seasoned money-spender and can always find a way to justify a purchase.

I don't impulse-shop very often - I do a bit of market research before spending any decent amounts of money. However, I can fritter small amounts of money away on crap really easily.

I got a Gucci bag from Tristan for my 25th birthday, which was the last word in glam, but on reflection it probably wasn't the wisest present because my clothes are far too shabby to carry off wearing such a designer piece of kit, and I don't want to use it every day because the leather is really soft and it will get scratched when I have to cram onto the tube. So that probably wasn't the most sensible present I've ever wanted. However, it can happily sit in the wardrobe and wait for the day I'm well-dressed and driven everywhere in a shiny Mercedes!

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

Run, don't walk, from your nearest television if you ever find yourself being sucked into the infomercial for the Ronco Food Dehydrator. (I put the link not to promote this godforsaken contraption, but only so you could see what in the hell I'm talking about if you so desire.)

To this day, I don't know what evil spirit compelled me to pick up my hand, reach for the phone, and dial that blasted number. I tried making dried fruit once -- once! -- when I was on a healthy snacking kick, and it stunk up my kitchen to high heaven for a month, and it tasted like ass.

This machine is the devil.

words diminish

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

I am a total impulse shopper when it comes to salad dressings. I swear I have 15 bottles in my fridge. It's a compulsion, really. But the annoying thing is that most of them are completely disappointing. It's actually very difficult to discover a fab new dressing. Case in point: I recently bought a bottle of Hellmann's new Citrus Splash dressing. I thought it would be really zingy and delish, but it was really blah. And it only came in a giant 3 dollar bottle, so now what am I going to do with it? If you're tempted, I'm here to tell ya-- don't bother.

Hellmann's other dressings are pretty good (Italian), but they struck out here. Other zeros include most cheap (less than $4) Balsamic dressings and nearly everything fat free.

Props to my current favorite: Annie's Natural's Goddess dressing. The secret ingredient is Tahini. Yum!

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

I am the Queen of Impulse Shopping. And sometimes it can be downright pathetic. Take last night for example. It was 10pm and I was bored, so I went to Wal-mart to get Mother's Day cards (late, I know). I ended up staying for like 3 hrs and going home with over $100 of crap I didn't need, including a cute beaded purse I didn't need, beaded bracelets (I haven't worn a bracelet in 5 yrs), and a sunglass case. I feel justified in the 6 costume patterns I bought (I will start sewing again, I WILL!), and the bubble bath (everyone needs bubble bath). I would have gotten a nice pair of sandals if they'd had the damn things in my size. (Justified in that they'd look better with a dress than my comfy-but-clunky Doc sandals.)

Two weeks ago, I got an orange Handspring Visor. Like, that would miraculously organize my life.

My madness has been documented several times in my journal.

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

I'm terrible about buying uncomfy shoes as well, but finding comfortable ones is a major chore. With no arches, I have shoes and boots that range from 7 up to 10. My "real" size is supposedly 8 wide. I have trouble wearing anything with a strap, as I get major furrows and blisters.

I buy lipsticks and eyeshadows I think I'm going to wear, then I feel funny because they're too dark or too obviously-not-taupe and they rarely get worn or I layer my old standbys over them.

I'm worst with CDs. I'll buy things that I've heard of, and sometimes I should get more information before I do that. I'm not stunned by every item inmy collection. I also tend to re-buy CDs and vinyl albums I alreadt have. Most recently, I bought OK Computer twice (my original got stolen in December), Aladdin Sane on vinyl (already had a pristine copy) and Red, Hot and Gershwin (or whatever) which I already had (but my original was a bare-bones promo copy, the one I re-bought had liner notes). My roommate will benefit, as she'll get to buy Radiohead from me for cheap and I gave her the Gershwin CD as a freebie.

There are only about three people I should ever listen to when I buy music sight unseen (sound unheard). Everyone else I might agree with 90% of the time, but I can't count on their advice to be worth the $20 it takes to get a new CD these days.

Most feminine hair-removal things are bad buys, too: just say no to Moom sugar wax systems, Epi-Lady 'shavers' and anything else that tries to pretend that ripping your hair out can be painless.

Don't buy a car without a warranty, ever. Trust me on that one. They know, and they break. It is never a cheap repair.

Those new Pop Tart swirl pastries taste like ca-ca. Avoid. Even heated up, they're grotty.

Rice cakes suck and they aren't even *that* good for you. You might as well chew styrofoam, it's tastier.

Magnetic jewelry is also a waste of money. It either doesn't work, and then you have throw away your money and the jewelry you just bought, or it hurts and leaves dents in your skin.

P.S. Sea monkeys, X-ray glasses and 100 dolls for a dollar are also big rip-offs! Kids, trust me on this. Save your allowance money.

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

Yes, I'm an impulse buyer!! My friend and I once bought the "coolest" little Kenneth Cole zipper wallet things with a pocket for your cell phone. We thought it would be *perfect* for going out and not having to carry a whole purse. We just KNEW it would be *the best* and it even had a wrist strap and a loop for your belt.

We have NEVER used them...LOL..and at the time we thought we would use them all all all the time!

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

I cannot go into a K-Mart, Target, Walgreen's, Rite Aid or Duane Reede without spending at least $30, usually $40. Then there's the week I bought three cameras (a Polaroid, a cheapie digital and another Polaroid), which was really silly because I already had a 35 mm point and shoot and a digital (though, granted, it didn't have a cable at that time and I couldn't find one anywhere). Later I bought a 35mm with a zoom lens for my cross-country trip because I didn't want my once-in-a-lifetime pictures of the Grand Canyon and Mt. Rushmore to suck. Guess what two places I didn't even go?

I'm also bad with CDs. I went out to buy a Stevie Wonder CD upon falling in love with the song "Isn't She Lovely." That's bad enough, but I couldn't just buy that album, I had to get the boxed set. Another night I went to a movie in the theater located within the Virgin Megastore in Times Square. That's a mistake, I should've gone uptown instead. Since I had an hour to kill before the movie started, guess what I ended up doing. I stayed in the cafe, nursing a soda as long as I could, but then ended up buying a bunch of CDs -- a Chet Baker box set, Essential Soundtracks (which has a bunch of great 70s soul on it, so I can't really regreat it), a Marilyn Monroe CD (because I just had to have a copy of "My Heart Belongs to Daddy") and a Vegas lounge-themed CD (I had to have Peggy Lee's "Fever," baby).

I can't say I regret buying cameras and music, because they're things I love, but I really am impulsive about it. OK, I'm justifying the CDs and cameras because I "love" them, right? So what's my excuse for clothes? A friend dragged me out shopping in January (I like to hibernate in the winter) because she needed snow boots. I didn't even want to go, but in the end, she had to rush me out of the last store and I spent $200, to her $10 for the boots. I also managed to get 5 books and a CD on that trip.

Don't even get me started on books. Luckily, I found an inexpensive place on Bleecker Street, or books alone would make me go broke. I never dared go to the Strand (despite all the friends who raved about it and the T-shirts and bags I saw all over town), because I was afraid I'd never leave.

I don't even want to do the math about all that I bought at Graceland. It's shameful, really. Either I'm a shop-a-holic, or I just have too many interests.

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

whups... I forgot to mention that when you listen to Buena Vista, it helps if you're Latina. Like Eric.

I'd probably not like it as much if I'd gone to Fiesta Texas very much. Now I'm going to listen to it and think of cotton candy...

yum...

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

I was a little girl when the first Barbie dolls came out (okay, I'm old), and I remember watching the tv commercials for them. Oh man, they looked like the very best thing you could ever have.

Then my grandma sent me a $2 bill for Christmas and I bought that Barbie (and got change back -- this was a very long time ago). And you know what, her knees didn't bend like they did on tv, and she wasn't as much fun as all my other gazillion dolls.

I was so disappointed, my first lesson in the seductive power of advertising. (Still, I ended up owning another Barbie, her friend Midge, her sister Skipper, and an early Ken, whose hair mostly rubbed off, back before Kens came with that molded plastic helmet o'hair. Guess I was a slow learner.)

-- Anonymous, May 12, 2000

MaggieD - if you want to try a great salad dressing, I HIGHLY recommend Ken's Raspberry Vinegarette. It's fantastic. T. Marzetti's Bacon Dressing is also wonderful - you have to heat it up in the microwave, though, to bring out the full flavor.

Just thought I'd help contribute to your compulsion.

-- Anonymous, May 13, 2000

Amazon.com - it's like Vegas for the impulse buyer, isn't it? I have spent hundreds, nay, thousands there on stuff I really could have waited on and bought at a later time. But, you get this feeling like, "hmm...what's that CD so-and-so was telling me about?...let's see if they have that...they DO! Well, I'll just go ahead and get it."

It's just so damn quick and easy to find things! I got on such a streak recently there were boxes coming to my house everyday - and I would have only the vaguest recollection of ordering these things.

Also, if I hear a review or an author/ artist interview on NPR for something - you can just make a good bet that I'm going to get it, probably that afternoon...on Amazon. Most of the time that works out in an excellent way, though.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2000

I should set my web browsers to block Ebay. I'll just go to "see what's up" under one of my interest categories. An hour later, and I'm in bidding wars in 10 different auctions....

Someone, please, tell me what the heck I'm going to do with 20 lbs of costume jewelry? (And all I wanted was a few pieces that could be good for renaissance costuming.)

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2000

In orlando we have this store called Enterprise 1701 presents Sci Fi City. This place is evil. I spend obscene amounts of money here. I go in saying "I'll just pick up my subsription comic books"...then I'll see that ultra chic tin lunch box with Molly's Escort Service emblazzoned on it (from Sin City, USA, of course)...and it's ONLY $20.....and the Crow figure is out, and its McFarlane toys...so I HAVE to get that, and it's only $15....And then there are some new comics out with some interesting art in them...so I'll just pick up a few extras - about $3 a piece...Oh and the new Wizard and ToyFare magazines are out, so I'll get them too.....and then the Alex Ross posters have arrived, and they are just too cool NOT to own....so there's another $30....

so, $150 later I am in my car wondering "What the hell just happened?"

Wal-Mart and Target are even worse for me. I'll go in with the mantra "just toilet paper, just toilet paper, just toilet paper"

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2000

Funny you should ask those questions Pamie, because I think I scared myself last weekend. I never knew I had so much impulse shoppingness within me.

I walked into an aquarium shop on the weekend.... had a spout of "aww, look at all those cool looking weird glow-in-th-dark fish".... next thing I know I've bought a WHOLE fish tank set up. I'm not even going to reveal how much that impulse cost me. I'm just hoping these freaky fish will keep me entertained longer than my bank account takes to recover.

-- Anonymous, May 15, 2000

Milla, I reckon you and I could blow a fortune in an afternoon, because I also have a vast collection of make-up I never wear.

Regarding the shoe thing - I was crippled by a new pair this weekend, to the extent where Tristan got bolshy with me for not just buying expensive shoes and avoiding these problems. He pointed out he routinely spends #100 a pair, whereas I spend closer to #45, and he encouraged me to follow his lead. I only share this because I feel there may never have been a documented case of a husband actively encouraging his wife to spend lots of money on shoes before.

Erica, books are never ever a bad buy. I turned up in London nearly three years ago with just one book. I now have close to 300. Amazon.co.uk has made a lot of money off me.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2000

Jackie -

Definition, please, for those of us who aren't completely familiar with UK slang:

"bolshy"

Actually, it sounds like a word I'd like to use, so I'd better learn how to use it correctly!

Many thanks for adding to our multi-culturalism. :)

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2000

On Wal-Mart and K-Mart: they depress me way too much to be worth the money I might save. Inevitably I hear some child crying because it's 9:30 at night and he/she should be in bed, and then I end up being so worried about the kid that that I can't enjoy saving money. And the last time I went to Wal-Mart, I met a cashier with really, really thick lenses in her glasses and teeth just begging for a visit to the dentist, and she had worked from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. for 7 straight days, coerced into such terrible hours because she'd just received her insurance card (Wal-Mart is infamous for cheating poor working people out of benefits by giving them JUST under the # of hours necessary to get medical insurance, etc.). So how can I possibly be happy with, say, the great trouser socks I found on sale for $3.48 when I hear that story? I just end up getting mad and feel like my bargain is at someone else's expense. My impulse purchases are most often food. All too often, interesting funky food is a source of entertainment for me. Salmon burgers... whole wheat couscous... frozen potstickers... or holiday candy that's half off the day after (I have 11, yes 11, pounds of Hershey's kisses that I bought the day after Valentine's day for 50 cents apiece-- it would have been a crime NOT to buy that). As for shoes, my feet are 7.5 EE. Yes, flippers. It's very easy to be self-pitying when the only place you can buy shoes is called "Chic Wide Shoes," an oxymoron if ever there were one. But then I have to remember that I can walk, and that's pretty damn great.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2000

Bolshy means being "over the top" or just being a big boob in general.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2000

Tracey - Jon's kind of right, but I'd say 'bolshy' means being moody and difficult and hard to please, and a bit grumpy. So if your significant other offers you the choice of two movies to see, and you say 'I don't even care, whatever' and stare into the distance looking bad-tempered, then that's being bolshy.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2000

Thank you for the definitions of "bolshy." Now, at the risk of further thread drift, could someone explain "mad props" - what is it short for, what does it mean. I have looked in a dozen dictionaries, including paper ones, including British ones, including the OED, without success. TIA.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2000

Diana - Mad Props is definitely an Americanism, but I always take it to mean 'lots of credit and kudos'.

I've become very good at interpreting Americanisms, since virtually every journal I read seems to be American.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2000

IKEA. IKEA is the bane of my existence.

I go in there to buy new cooking pots. But then I go psycho. I buy a spaghetti insert for the pot. Then I buy these really cool storage jars. And tea towels. And blue mugs that go so well with the rest of my dishes, and I needed more mugs anyway, and they're only $0.95 each! And candles! And a lamp for my boyfriend (cause he needs a desk lamp)! And! And! And!

And then I'm broke.

And then I go back the next pay.

It's a sickness.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2000

my car was an impulse buy. and so was my house. sometimes i get lucky. but my closets are full of hair care products that i never use. i'm a sucker for nifty packaging, so m.o.p. and tigi and the like have me completely at their mercy. i have the worst hair and there is no hope for it and i should just stop trying. i suck at buying shoes and clothes, too. i try to break out of my nerdiness occasionally, and sneak through the register with something breathtakingly hip or trendy, and then it sits in my closet until the next goodwill roundup, usually with the tags still attached. what is WRONG with me??

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2000

did someone say kenneth cole? *sigh* we, here in san diego, have a kenneth cole outlet store which can consume a paycheck like one would not believe. see, becasue it's an outlet, you can get twice as much stuff, so it's completely rational to spend a ton of money there. right?

just this week alone, my husband and i have collectively bought two pairs of shoes and a new purse there. grand total? about $200. but, if we had paid full price, it would have been closer to $400! behold the logic of the impulse buyer.

in the same "mall" as the kenneth cole outlet, there is also a cole haan store, a calvin klein store, a tommy hilfiger store, a ralph lauren store and (for me, for the next two months) a motherhood maternity store. not to mention this "mall" is dangerously close to an old navy, where we get my son's clothes.

i'm going back there this afternoon. god help me.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2000

Cat stuff. My cat doesn't play much, and so I am on a constant quest for the perfect toy. I bought her a cool ball that has a hole in it, and you put treats in. The idea is that you put the treats inside, and kitty goes nuts rolling the ball around trying to get the treats out. Yeah, except my cat didn't get that memo. I roll it across the floor, and she stares at it. I bought little rubber jacks, because the guy at the store says that his cats are nuts for them. She stares at them. She rejected every toy I brought home. I gave up. I was at Safeway and I bought her a set of jingly balls (the kind with the bell inside). She loves them. Especially at three in the morning. And paper bags. And erasers.

Oh, and has anyone used that crystal cat litter? The little plastic balls? It's a wonder of modern technology, really. My cat loved it. You see, it rolls. My cat gives chase. And then she tries to eat it. I'm STILL finding it everywhere.

I bought her a harness and leash on Monday. I am such a sucker.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2000

My biggest shopping problem is that instant gratification takes too damn long! I want it, and I want it NOW!

I buy lots of black shoes. But last year I decided I really, really wanted a pair of blue suede Doc sandals. I already had a black pair. But I decided I couldn't justify them. So, Hubster actually bought them for my b-day. The right size and everything! The one time in my life I actually showed restraint, and he rewards me for it.

I'm a total sucker for anything having to do with cooking. I've had two $100 gift certificates for Williams-Sonoma given to me in the last year. I spent the $100 and about $200 more.

Books and music don't count because it's cultural. That stack of anime magazines is a great way to learn about Japan! (yeah, and that bottle of beer is a great way to learn about Belgium...)

And let's not even talk about gadgets. Hubster is just as bad as I am. This year's b-day present came early - an orange Handspring. It arrived yesterday. Hubster didn't get home until four hours later. He called and told me to open it and get started. I've already downloaded a ton of software.

And then there's the snodome collection. On a good trip I can spend 50 bucks on snodomes and those pen things that have moving stuff in them.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

When we lived in Charleston, SC there was this great comic book store down the road! That had anime for rent! And millions of miniatures to paint! And books! And CD's! Before we moved I had bought roughly the entire inventory of the store three times. It should have been called Dorinda's Junkie Habit. I don't know who was talking about it, but I bought those little treat balls the cats are supposed to roll, too. My cats didn't get it either. The older one just broke them open and ate all the treats at once. I guess she's a impulse eater. BTW, if you see those automatic electric cat boxes, they don't work so well. You have to take it completely apart every week to clean it or it smells, it's as noisy as a dump truck, and the cats wonder where their stuff goes so they create more as soon as the rake stops moving.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

i buy everything i want and then go back two days later to return it. because i love "stuff"! i love the hunt, then i get it home and it is just like all of my other stuff. i have an on going battle with urban outfitters. i buy it, then see it on some one else, and return it. whatever it is , if it is from urban outfitters i can't keep it for more then 48 hours. i feel they, (plus other big fashion enterprises), force what they want us to think is cool on us, and i don't want to be brain washed. and they just plain suck and they suck

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2000

I'm in a bad way... I impulse show for *other people*. I'm spending my own money, true, so I'm not impoverishing my friends. =) Now that I have an SO, it's okay since I'm not making my friends feel a terrible burden to buy me things and buying stuff for you SO is always acceptable.

Oh, on salad dressings, most or all of Ken's are wonderful. AND inexpensive. It's so paradoxical, I'd almost call it a mircle. =) (The best, though, was by a little company whose name I can't remember and it was called Umeboshi Plum. I shoulda bought ten bottles the last time I saw them.)

-- Anonymous, May 19, 2000