Like Running Water

Today, I spent more than 5 hours at the mall with a friend because that's what living in a mall-deprived town (Pyramid doesn't count) such as Ithaca does to you. Initially, I had a goal in mind: I'm just going to the mall to get the things that I need, not necessarily want, but need.

Here is the list:

• dress shirts
• dress pants
• dress shoes
• professional hair straightener (yes I know I have one already, but that one damages my hair like there's no tomorrow so I've really wanted to get a good one for a long time)

Somehow, at the end of the day, those are not the exact things I came home with... In fact, the only thing I got from that list is the hair straightener, everything else isn't on that list. But before you start to rebuke me for my spending habits, I think I can attribute the fact that I rarely get the things that I need to get and get the things I want instead to the following reasons:

1. As I've said earlier, this is what happens when I don't go shopping at a mall with the stores that I like to go to for a long time
2. I would have liked to buy the dress shirts/pants/shoes except the place where I would have gotten them a) don't have the shirts in the colors I want and b) don't have a sale right now so everything is super expensive (shirts ~$39.50, pants ~$69.50-$88.00).
3. Whenever I'm with a friend, I tend to not focus that much on what I have to do and focus, instead, on having a good time. So instead of buying things I have to get, I end up buying things that I want to buy (and sometimes the thing I'll want to buy will be something I have to buy, so that's always good).
4. The things that I ended up buying are usually things I've wanted for a while. So in a way, I had to get them (because they're kind of on my list-of-things-to-get in the back of my mind)

Furthermore, I already know that I'll be going back to the mall tomorrow to return some of the things I got today. So in the end, I'm not spending that much. In fact, I've never gone into debt before, or emptied my bank account with too many debit card swipes. The closest I've come to being in debt was once when I thought I didn't have enough money in my bank account to pay for my credit card bill in full, so I was going to pay for part of it first and then pay the rest of it later (with interest added). But I ended up managing to pay for it in full, something that I was very relieved about at that time.