Duh Therapy
Catzilla, originally uploaded by 160507.
The cure for shopaholism is, obviously, underemployment. When you know exactly how much money you have–or more accurately, don’t have–you’ll learn how easy it is to resist buying stuff. Basically you have no choice. (No fair running to family for help. Be proud.) Six months on a negative budget should be enough to reprogram you. When you achieve solvency, you’ll find that you have become immune to shopping for the sake of shopping. You survived without those things, so they are not essential. Then again, some people are just naturally covetous. In which case you should probably ask what gap in your life is being filled by shopping.
The cure for overeating is to not have any food in the fridge. I discovered this when my sister, who used to do the groceries with me, moved out two years ago. I found that many times, my eating philosophy resembled the famous reason for climbing Mt Everest: Because it’s there. If the food isn’t there, you don’t eat it. Or you’ll have to get dressed and leave the house to buy food, which is an inconvenience, so you just stay in and forget about eating. You may realize that you weren’t even hungry in the first place. All we have in the house are oatmeal, bananas, coffee, and catfood. So far I have not been tempted to try the catfood.
The cure for credit card debt is to cut the damn cards, pay them off, and not use them again until you can pay your monthly balance in full. Lots of people harbor the fantasy that they can pay off their debts while using their cards. Duh, you’re just borrowing more money. The minimum-payment-due thing is particularly insidious; before you know it, your entire income goes to them. The “This card is for emergencies only” plan doesn’t work. It’s amazing how many things you end up classifying as “emergencies”: trips to Paris, handbags, books you still haven’t read. I aspire to live on what old ladies refer to as “kass basis”.
The cure for the unfortunate habit of losing one’s cellphone is, according to a taxi I rode, a fine. A sign posted on the windshield advised passengers to make sure they had their phones when they got out of the cab, because if they left it there, they would be charged P300. The warning went on to say that this was “to give lesson to the owner”. I have a friend who used to lose his phone regularly. I said, Are you sure you lost all those phones, or are you going to start ringing one of these days?
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
May 28th, 2008 at 05:14
I LOVE this post!! I actually have a shirt that reads “Can I pay my Visa with my Mastercard”. I no longer have “emergencies” since i cut all my cards except for one… which has a really, really low limit.
May 28th, 2008 at 12:36
you are absolutely right…. cc debts are just arghhhhhhh!!!
May 28th, 2008 at 21:30
It’s so difficult to teach the stomach!! Anyhow, i tried the trick for like 3 years now, we just got water in the fridge, i know it sounds boring but it does help.
Being a shopaholic got no cure! Niloloko ko lang sarili ko lagi, i pretend not to look in the mall for a while–for awhile lang…then goes my old self again.
Cards, we never use cards–very tempting.
“kass bas”is really is the best!
Hey, when ou got no money to buy, don’t buy!
May 28th, 2008 at 23:06
i so agree with the shopaholic and credit card debt thing. after the storm, you do become more prudent and learn to spend wisely. that “must-have” and “can’t live without” mentality suddenly seem very silly. not surprisingly, i’m more happy now with practically “nothing” (by choice) than i was when i had “everything i wanted and more”.
May 29th, 2008 at 02:12
Yes, getting by with what little you have-that’s the idea of wise people nowadays, even in the recession-threatened United States, and more so, here. Hate the high gas prices? Well, I’ve gone past cursing. I simply leave the car at home and take the cab, bus or MRT, which, if you compute it, would save you money to spend on something else aside from gasoline. From now on, the car leaves the garage only when an asteroid hits and I have to evacuate somewhere. All my life I’ve owned just one credit card and that was 8 years ago. Mostly my purchases were completely unnecessary anyway. I actually worry now for those upstart “yuppies” and family men with four kids who buy the latest cars in installment, only to spend all their monthly pay and savings for the amortization(!). My priorities now are: decent food; utilities;pre-paid phone cards; dog food; cheap local clothes; car and house maintenance; real estate taxes; a little travel here and there; and cheap entertainment (mainly malling and bookstore browsing). CD’s, iPods, and tech gizmos are now luxury to me. Yes, the whole world is in dire economic situation now, and as citizens of the world, it would be a sin to live in ostentation while people in Metro Manila line up for their daily NFA rice, wouldn’t it?
June 1st, 2008 at 10:55
Hi! Since you like cats, thought you’d love this – http://www.cbc.ca/spark/blog/2008/05/lolcat_idol_round_3.html