The news told us a massive storm was coming. My first reaction? I don’t have an umbrella. Now why do I not have an umbrella? I’ve lived in Southern California for almost 25 years, where it’s usually sunny, and back home, in Tacoma, Washington, it rains and drizzles so often we seldom use umbrellas. So, grasshoppers, why do I need one at this very moment?
Sometimes we need something new to get our juices flowing.
Sometimes we have a functional need.
Sometimes a spending cross-addiction can rear its head when I am limiting calories. I’ve been eating less than I burn for almost 5 weeks and it’s starting to get boring.
Can’t eat? Fine, I’ll go spend money, buy new stuff to distract me and give me some of that numbing buzz that feels so familiar.
Notice how eating and spending bring up the same feelings in me?
- I can choose to binge – overspend to feel better in the moment, but then have more crap to take care of.
- I can choose to bitch – “Why can’t I have this darling 100th teacup for my collection. Not fair, life sucks!”
- I can choose to be – Do I really need this? If so, let me find one I truly love at the best price I can, then allow myself to enjoy the purchase.
Luckily, it’s not a huge problem for me, but I do need to really be truthful with myself about purchases when dieting.
My husband and I are retired now, so we have to really watch it. When I worked in corporate America, I could overspend a little without trashing our long-term finances too badly. These days, I don’t have that luxury.
So let’s evaluate this purchase:
1. Will I have an actual need for an umbrella?
The rain is coming. If I want to walk and podcast, I must protect my trusty Roland-05 recorder.
2. Is there any other way to protect it?
Not really, I need to be able to see the settings when I record, so my raincoat pocket isn’t really an option.
3. How much will this cost?
Off to Amazon.com to find my new umbrella. I had fun searching the different designs and reviews. I found one for $25 I liked.
Galleria Tiffany Dragonfly Folding Umbrella – Tiffany Dragonfly
4. Can we afford $25.00?
Sigh, I HATE this question. But, I took the time to look at our finances and budget. Yes, I can spend the $25.00 here – but it comes from my entertainment budget. This means maybe I won’t rent a movie or go out to coffee with a friend.
5. Well, is it worth it?
Yes, I want to keep walking, I want to protect my recorder, and I found one I love.
It’s a beautiful dragon-fly design. It matches my tiffany lamps, and reminds me of my friend, Cheryl, whose blog is called Wellsprings and Dragonfly wings.
When my new umbrella arrived I was actually pumped to take it out for a spin. Good thing too, because not much could inspire me to brave the wind and rain to stroll up the steeps hills of my neighborhood.
The rain pours down during Laurie’s latest walk around the neighborhood. Too bad, you really can’t tell what a big hill this is to climb!
So for my entertainment money I got pleasure, exercise and a blog topic. I’d say I made a good choice that falls in my “Plan Be” category.
How about you? Do you ever struggle with overspending when you are trying not to overeat?
OMG! I’ll take one umbrella, one tote, and two coffee mugs! (Yeah, I looked at the link.) That umbrella is totally awesome. And I already had the mug on my Wish List hoping one of the kids would look there for something for Christmas. Maybe next year…
You explained the whole relationship very well up there. I’m wracking my brain to see if I ever do that. I’d have to say the answer is no. But then I also have to wonder what I DO do instead when I can’t eat. I realized I make lots of phone calls till the torment passes. If I’m talking, I won’t be shoving food in my mouth.
I so seldom have any extra money to spend that when I do, I always know I actually need what I’m after. And truthfully, I HATE shopping almost as much as buying groceries. Normally I save up for something special. And it’s usually a book. Now wouldn’t you think some of that discipline would translate over to the food issues?
LOL, Yep, I thought you’d love my new umbrella. And I’m not surprised about discipline not working longterm with food issues, because my new theory is that most of our food issues have little to do with discipline and much to do with self-love and integration. The more disciplined I’ve been with my eating, the bigger the blow-out later. Sooo I’m trying the forgiveness route, as if I am a little kid like you show in your blog. I’m trying to pay attention to the behavior, but love the person. 🙂 I save discipline for learning, for house cleaning (ugh!) and usually, for financial decisions.
While binge listening to your episodes at the very beginning of our relashionship, I missed all the blog entries. That’s the thing with binging, right? So eager to consume that you miss little jems on the way. It goes for COD. It goes for food. It goes for shopping too.
Taking our time to squeeze the maximum joy out of things is so important. It requires mindfullness and I think mindfullness and binging are 2 incompatible things. Whether it’s an umbrella or a bag of chips. Hmm. I’m on to something here. These statements make me think. I like new thought pathways. Thanks for the inspiration xx
Oh you make me laugh Mon Amie 🙂 My blog enteries are sporadic at best in the beginning of the show, though you can always go back and see what I was thinking at the time via the blog post index. Sometimes I go back and laugh at myself as I didn’t remember writing half of them. I’m trying to write a little more these days to work on connecting my brain’s written language center back closer to where it was prior to the big bike accident. I think the writing group has helped. I do love my dragonfly umbrella and am glad I went ahead and got it. Hmm used it twice this year, not bad for California! xoxoxoxoxoxxo