Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Guilty of Shopping ?

Have you ever shopped a lot and felt guilty about it later ? Have you ever accompanied a friend on their shopping trip and ended up spending more than him/her ? If so, then welcome to my club!!

Its not the first time that such a thing has happened to me. A couple of years back, I accompanied a friend who wanted to buy a pair of pants for his birthday. I had absolutely no intentions of shopping and tagged along as I didn't have anything else to do. I ended up spending four times more than him. As much fun it was when I went on that impromptu buying spree, I felt quite guilty later on buying clothes that I really didn't need at that moment. But it looks like I hadn't learnt anything from that. Fast forward to last Saturday. I accompanied Shub, who wanted to do some shopping at Vivocity (one of the mega malls in Singapore). In the end, I spent five times than more than what she did.

Whoever said that "Shopping is a national pastime in Singapore", knew what they were talking about. Visit any mall in Singapore in a weekend night and its gonna be crowded, inspite of the fact that there are a lot of malls. Its so easy to get tempted to buy something. Most of the stores have some sale or the other going on. Its sometimes hard to not give into the temptation. So, that brings us to the question - How do we overcome this feeling of guilt ?

Well, I happened to have realized a very simple method for not feeling guilty after an impromptu shopping spree. It is specially designed for people who use credit cards a lot and get a heart attack when they see their credit card statement at the end of the month. Yes, you can now shop guilt free.

So this is how it works - While making a credit card payment before its due date, you "accidentally" pay more. For ex, as per your card statement, you have to pay 600 dollars. You "accidentally" pay 1000 dollars. Note the emphasis on accidentally. As you have paid more, nothing can be done about it other than - YES! Shopping. There is nothing to feel guilty about spending 400 dollars as it is already pre-paid. And your statement for the next month will say zero dollars. Brilliant no ? *wink*

The inspiration for this idea is my dear friend Shub, who by mistake (an honest mistake, not an "accident") made payment for her credit card twice! Way to go woman! Now go and shop all you want! Are you asking me what I want as a gift ? One iPod Shuffle will do ;)

3 comments:

shub said...

hey ram!!!!!!! somebody stop this guy!
PS: With the amount I paid on my bill, you can get an iPhone and you're gonna be happy with a shuffle? :O

Urv said...

He he. I do that pretty often. "Accidently" idea is good :D From the quotes, I remembered Joey's incorrect usage of the hand quotes :D

PizzaDude said...

@shub:
Yes, an iPod shuffle will do. Its small, think and sleek. Just the way I want it. I like blue :P

@urv:
Hehehehehe!! I do the air quotes a lot! But unlike Joey, I use them correctly :P