Life By Kristen

Online Shopping

I’m a sucker for it.

Which is funny to me because when it comes to in person shopping, I really have to be in the mood or really in need of something to make the trip to the store.

I love the convenience of it, the fact that there are often more sales or good deals, and the opportunity to choose from a wider array of colors. It’s also made me overcome my fear of making returns ( I know silly) and helps me be more efficient by logging on to get the exact size I need in pants instead of spending hours searching for the perfect size and cut in the store– though if one day my favorite pants from the various brands that fit well are discontinued, I’ll probably cry from having to figure out new ones to buy.

But of course, I don’t have the budget for online shopping or frankly, the need. I have more dresses than places to wear them to. I realized last week (thankfully before hitting ‘complete order’) that I own a lot of cowl neck/drapeneck tops. Part of the reason for online shopping is that I know what looks good on me in colors and styles and I don’t want to spend the time lurking around a store trying to find those things. Of course, the flip side is that by staying with what I know works for me doesn’t push me outside of my clothing comfort zone nearly enough either.

In the months of my separation/divorce/trying to keep my house, I did barely any shopping at all for over a year. Even buying groceries was a rare thing. I think some of my more recent online shopping excitement has come from having a small bit of income to play with every month ( which is also silly since I have student loan debt I’d like to kill). I’m not not talking about packages arriving every week, or even once a month. But every now and again, I’ll get suckered into a clearance/free shipping sale combo that I can’t just pass up. Or like some recent purchases were to replace some sweaters that I’ve had since college.

All of this is to say that of all the vices/bad habits of the world, online shopping is of course, fairly innocuous ( well except for my budget). I’ve done well with no spend monthly challenges in the past and after the holidays will definitely be instituting another spending fast. I don’t tend to buy anything for myself from November through Christmas mostly because my brain is so consumed with holiday shopping for everyone else so maybe the quest for online shopping and instant gratification can be quelled by buying gifts for other people and not myself!

Oh who am I kidding. I’ll totally be looking through the clearance tabs too.