Acquisition Update

Since I'm usually compulsively thrifty and can't bear to spend money on anything, I usually have to psych myself up before I can get into shopping mode. Once I'm in shopping mode, however, I have no compunctions (well, all right, a comparative paucity of compunctions) about spending money. I go into shopping mode when I go on vacation, but since I have returned from vacation, I haven't been able to get out of it.

Partly this is due to the fact that I wore out a huge portion of my possessions right before leaving or while in California. My USB data transfer cable stopped working. My favorite pair of jeans developed a hole, my headphones lost their earpad, my black summer skirt (the mid-length one, not the long one or the short one) met a scheduled demise, my white skirt and white capris may or may not recover from the dirt stains, my grey jacket almost certainly won't. My black flip-flops started to look unbearably dingy and my black velvet sneakers became increasingly holey. With all these items suddenly in need of replacement, I think I went into shopping overdrive.

I'm hoping that if I remind myself of how many things I've purchased in the past two weeks and how much I spent on them, I will be appalled and stop spending my money!

The week before vacation:

• Strapless bra to go with bridesmaid dress - 11$
• Pink peasant blouse - 10$
  
• Blue skirt to go with peasant blouse and because I really just wanted a new skirt - another 10$

During vacation:

• Flowery sunglasses because I left my plain sunglasses at the hotel - 8$
• Cookies - about 6$
  
• Licorice and a postcard from the general store in Temecula - about 4$ (After that I wished I had bought more licorice)
  
• Pink sundress - 59$! Yikes! Thank goodness I refrained from buying the 40$ purse!
• More licorice and miscellaneous other candy from the candy shop at La Jolla beach - 11$
• 4 new tank tops at the Pink Zone in La Jolla - $11 - A great deal that I wouldn't ever be able to beat even in Ohio.

After vacation:

• Nice black flip flops to replace the dingy ones that I've been using since 2005 when I bought them for only 5 dollars but have been unable to find as nice a pair for as cheap since then - 13$
• Funky floral printed tennis shoes to replace the holey black ones I've only been using for a year and a half - 7$
• Black platform tennis-shoe-like things - that were ostensibly to replace the black platforms that I've mostly been not-using since they went out of fashion in 2006 - but were really mostly just because they were cute and only cost 9$

Grand total: 159$. And that's just frivolity money--it does not include the fortune that I spent on food items for immediate consumption, shared car rental and gasoline, the 142 dollars that I blew away on a second plane ticket home when I found out that Mom was leaving a day before me and I didn't want to spend an extra day in L.A. by myself, the 30 dollars that I spent for checking my bag on the flights to and from California, the 2.50$ Shout wipes that will hopefully remove the grease spot on my bridesmaid dress so I don't have to get it dry cleaned before I attempt to sell it, and the 7$ combined total of nasal decongestant spray and antihistamine pills that will hopefully treat the allergies that have plagued me for no apparent reason since Monday night. I might add that I now own four different varieties of decongestant, two of which don't seem to work.

So the moral of this story is, hey, Big Spender! Don't forget rent is due in two days, and you need to get your transmission repaired in the near future!