Fashion

[KonaKat]

Good morning, shopping friends. It is sunny and cool right now but showers are expected in the afternoon. I was going to the captal city to pick a student up at the airport but the family is now able to do it. This gives me time here to use that I hadn't planned, so let's hope I use it wisely.

I have enough lotions and potions on hand so it is easy to say no to the TSV. I did buy some necessities yesterday at Kohls but now have $20 in Kohls cash to lure me back into the store. I'll try to find something in that price range as I know they hope I will spend much more. If I do, it will be for a future need to replace an item wearing out.

This is a video on America's shopping addiction and its consequences. Yes, shopping can make us feel good at times but there are times we regret it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qWHJ29-s4U

Have a great day. If you shop, shop wisely.

[Bird mama]

Good Morning Jean @KonaKat   I watched the video.  Seeing all of that garbage stresses me out.

I'm kind of relieved that I retired at the end of March last year.  Spring and summer clothing are my least favorite so when JCP started to load their inventory of new items, it was somewhat easier to control myself.

In between the spring/summer and fall/winter clothing seasons (with fall/winter being my favorites) I had performed 1 or 2 post retirement assessments of what I had in house.  

By the time the fall temps were rolling into Michigan my mindset had changed from accumulating (for the sake of it) to organizing/editing my clothing and accessories.  

I knew I turned a corner when I started to think about what I will wear to Zoe's communion in May.  As I browsed items and added them to my JCP wishlist I realized it was snowballing more than it needed to.

I had a classic skirt and jacket.  Yea it was true I needed a pair of dress shoes.  I ended up finding the perfect color crewneck tee from JCP and a pair of taupe pumps that I can wear 4 seasons from DSW.   Done.  Never gave it a second thought.

I can honestly say that I haven't had an urge to shop since the first weekend in March (2019).

I don't know if this is just a phase or not.  I would like to think that I've cultivated a deeper common sense about the difference between want and need.

Here's something funny and believe me you could have knocked me over with a feather yesterday when it arrived.

I remember mentioning that I timed my retirement in a way to ensure that I would be eligible and receive my bonus for the 2017 work year.

Yesterday I received a piece of mail from my former employer.  In it was a check for the bonus for the 2018 work year.  Since I worked for 3 months of 2018, it appears I was eligible for a piece of that bonus too.

I consider this unexpected mad money.  You'd think I'd want to go crazy with it.  I still don't want to shop for anything, lol.

[KonaKat]

Bernie--You are doing a fabulous job resisting all the sales ads. The businesses do a great job of using all those magic words to tempt us to buy. We are so visual now with TV, smart phones, etc. that it is hard to avoid an ad or a sales pitch of some type. Heaven forbid that one should click on a link to find information as multiple links will pop up in the future about similar items. Resisting in the modern age is hard but you are doing it.Other than my needs I got yesterday, I am on six weeks of not buying a "want."

[Bird mama]

Jean @KonaKat   We're both doing it.  Some days are effortless, some days I have to walk down the hall and look in my closet and say, Bernie what makes you think you will wear this new thing more than the things you have on hangers in here?  This transformation has even affected my shoe habit.  Now you know, that's deep, rofl.

[KonaKat]

Oh my! They are showing a Joan Rivers fkoral print blouse in white with black print that looks identical of one I purchased at Kohls two years ago.

Bernie--Call on us for an intervention when THE SHOE tempts you.

[cerb]

Good morning everyone!  Jean - thanks for starting our thread today.  I can't get the you tube video to work at the moment, but I'll try to check back later to watch.  I always appreciate insight about shopping.  Bernie - spring and summer clothing are also my least favorite, so I am also less tempted to shop, even though my climate is warm or hot much of the year.  I don't wear sleeveless tops or shorts (in public).  I much prefer fall and winter clothing.

This is very off-topic, but since I've been reading a lot of books lately, I thought this was interesting.  I read an older book by the romance author Diana Palmer.  (Fire Brand, which was just an okay read).  Anyway, the author wrote an intro explaining what it was like to reissue a book first published in 1989.  She included this..."Smoking was also a daily habit for me and millions of other people.  We smoked in restaurants, in hospital rooms, in emergency rooms, on airplanes, anywhere we liked to.  I smoked at my desk in the newspaper office.  Everyone that I knew also smoked, including both my parents.  These days, smoking is so taboo that I'm not even allowed to have a character who smokes in my books.  However, I was adamant to leave this element in the book, to show things as they truly were back in the eighties, and my publisher obliged."

I didn't know that at least some authors are not allowed to have characters smoke in books.  When I was growing up, I heard all of the time from my Dad (who had quit smoking), never to start smoking.  He had nothing but negative things to say about it.  Even so, both of my older sisters started smoking when they were teenagers.  I always stayed away.  I have always thought it strange how siblings raised in the same household could make such different choices.  Strange, but interesting.

Well, I got out early this morning and weeded another section of the succulent garden.  In a bit I will go grocery shopping for our Easter meal and take it over to my Mom's house.  It'll be a pleasant day, albeit a long one.

Waves to all  ~ Charlene

[LindaLatte]

Good Morning/Afternoon and thanks for getting us started, Jean.  Glad you have some extra time you weren't expecting.  No TSV for me either.  DD has kept me supplied with all sorts of bath products. 

That was an interesting, if sobering video.  I had heard/seen before that many of the clothes we donate end up being "trashed" rather than re-used.  That is certainly a good reason to re-think clothing purchases.  When you realize that something may be worn a few times to be donated and then end up in the landfill, it puts a whole new perspective on things. I've not been as successful as you Bernie, and Charlene in resisting "wants", but I am doing better than in the past.  My latest "want" purchase was some vitamins from Andrew Lessman.  These are supposed to help your eyes.  I purchased the large size, which should last me for two years -- I had purchased the same product two years ago.  Certainly not cheap, but something that will be used. 

Glad to hear you got the bonus unexpected money, Bernie.  What a nice surprise.  Also glad it isn't "burning a hole in your pocket" as they used to say.  Like Charlene, I prefer fall and winter clothing, but we have many more warm/hot days than cooler/cold ones.  I have to really try to remember that when I see so many nice clothes for the cooler season.  

Interesting about smoking in books, Charlene.  I had never heard that either.  Like you, I have never been a smoker, but my parents, mother-in-law, brother, Aunts and Uncles, etc. all did have that horrible habit.  And, in several cases, it was a factor in their deaths.  Just yesterday the Safeway check-out clerk was talking about trying to give up smoking -- she had done so, but had gone back to it.  Very difficult for many to quit.  My DH had been a smoker for quite a while, but gave it up "cold turkey" when his children were small.

Very hot day yesterday, and it should make it to 90 degrees today.  But, it was okay on my walk.  

One of my bookclub members had offered to loan me the latest book in a series we both like (Maisie Dobbs), and I'll pick that up this afternoon -- probably before I go for my hospice visit.  Laundry is started, and I'll do my weekly financial review later.  Nothing else planned.  

Waves to all of our posters and readers.  Hope everyone has a nice day!

Hugs,

Linda

[Bird mama]

Wow Charlene @cerb   I didn't know it was forbidden either.  I wonder if the same rule applies to drinking.  I used to smoke.  I did it for almost 24 years and quit in 2004.  

Because I watch what could be considered retro-tv, I see old shows and movies where everyone was drinking and smoking.  They also dressed better back then.

[Bird mama]

Linda @LindaLatte   I don't consider vitamin or mineral supplementation a want.  Especially when it comes to the eye vitamin (which I also take).  I know I am a fussy eater and there is no way I'm getting what I need for my eyes (at least according to Lessman) so I consider the expense and investment in my future independence.