Last Sunday at church, a neighbor introduced me to her son. He finished his ophthalmology residency a little over one year ago. He is married with four children. We talked briefly about residency life. I asked him how life had changed since finishing his training. He paused only briefly and said, "Life is a lot more convenient now." I must have looked confused because then he said, "Like, we can go to Costco." I chuckled and nodded, indicating that I knew what he was talking about. But, I was waiting for more; I had no idea what he had meant.
That was it. He offered nothing more.
As I've thought - over and over again - about that conversation, and being determined lately with renewed focus and energy to change my spending habits, I have recognized that we have been living rather lavishly, (apparently, according to my neighbor's son). In other words, I go to Costco at least once a month, usually more.
But, really, I thought everyone went to Costco - no matter what. It has always seemed so necessary, like sleeping, really.
So, an experiment (possibly an extremely short one): leave Costco alone. Try to survive without my usual Costco trips where I grab everything I possibly can because everything is such a great deal and in such large quantities that I fantasize about not needing to shop again for an extended period of time (this is desirable for me since I detest shopping, but it is a delusion - I don't know how Costco accomplishes it).
We'll see how it works out. Maybe it will last longer than my goal to go to sleep every night before 10:00 p.m. - seeing as it is currently 12:06 a.m. I fell asleep earlier tonight while putting my 18-month old down at 8:30 p.m. so I had a nice nap squished on a toddler bed beside him and woke up at 11:00 p.m. with energy to e-mail, read, and blog.
Ultimately, I am really good at giving excuses. Hopefully this experiment will help me curb my spending a bit though.
1 comment:
I also think Costco is a delusion. I refuse to get a membership (although heaven knows I want one) because every trip I have ever been to I ended up spending more than I had wanted to. And honestly you can find cheaper deals out there just not as convenient. And why don't more stores have shopping carts with two seats?
Post a Comment