I think that amazon.com and I are starting to have an unhealthy relationship. These "wish list" thingies I'd never bothered with before have become addictive. When you want something you can add it to a list which you can organize any way you want, have as many as you want and put in various kinds of order. You can mark items from low, medium or high priority, by low to high or high to low price... all sorts of stuff. And while that may sound basic it's not. When you're window shopping you pass lots of things you want, but you don't keep them in a little basket that says "save for later." So all that stuff you wanted is always there to look at when your tax return makes you feel like a millionaire. You can make them public or private, you can share them and basically send it out like a gift registry, only you don't need a baby or a wedding (which is nice for us single ladies who have no plans on getting married soon). And the worst/best part is that when you look at an item, below they give you similar items other people have looked at. I have 3 lists right now -- one for "shoes" which is also bags, watches and random things no one really needs, home accessories since I'm trying to re-do the place and Christmas/Birthdays. I like it for Christmas & Birthdays because it helps me lay out items I'm looking to buy this year and financially prioritize. Plus, it keeps tabs on pricing. If items go down in price it alerts you "this item had decreased to [price] from [old price]. You save [percentage]!" Which is good and bad because I often feel like I should buy it when it gets cheaper before it's gone. But you know, it's nice to know I didn't rush to buy it cuz now look -- it's on sale! Even more!
This year I've really wanted to get my finances in order while also improving my wardrobe and my shoe collection. I'm going to be a "real adult" and I wanted to dress and prioritize like one. Eating healthy, working out, writing, reading, learning about wine... I wanted to pay down my credit cards to $1000 each (I only have 2!) or less (at the rate I'm going most likely much less). I wanted to pay all extraneous bills and to have a little savings account. Rent, student loans, phone bills, electric and cable will never go away but it's nice when any remainder can be put into a savings account instead of looking at my bank statements going "well, just bread this week." So with that on the horizon I found the most striking watch I'd ever seen. It's $230 and there's only 2 left in stock which means I need to get it soon. $230 is the amount I pay each credit card plus what I add to my savings account each month. The back of my head is at war: "Look at that watch. How, classy. How refined. How exceptional! What a statement you'd make!" While the other half argues: "Are you stupid? There are plenty of watches you added to that list that are just as nice, people will still think you're classy and they're UNDER $100. You could pay off a bill with that money. No fancy shopping sprees til 2013! Not to mention the fact that you want to go on vacation next year! That watch could be half a plane ticket!" ... "Yeah, but that's one plane ride, this I can have FOREVER!"
And you know how that goes. So it sits there, in my wish list as I drool on myself at 9 in the morning while not working out. I just bought some nice clothes and furniture for my apartment this past weekend. My hard attempts at being financially responsible get squashed by my wish lists and amazon is basically the only online retailer I use (it's easy, they already have my credit card info so I don't have to type in the numbers each time along with my address and I've had good purchase after good purchase so I trust them). My mom always calls me up and says "hey, can you get something online?" And right to amazon I go. She's delighted when we get it in 2-3 days, sometimes sooner because of course I have amazon prime which you pay for annually and you get free 2-day shipping on all purchases that qualify. I love the dependability, the quality merchandise but I don't love the fact that between whole foods (wine and guacamole!) and amazon.com my bank account is running on fumes. Buuttt that's probably my fault.
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