Life Coaches Central: Where Coaching Insiders Blog About Real Issues

Like many of you in the workforce, I'm constrained to a cubicle for the duration of my day. Getting out of the office and stretching my legs is absolutely necessary mid-day. So I grab lunch. What to do with the next 45 minutes? Not one to sit on my break, essentially taking a break from sitting, I usually stroll. But if you, like me, work in midtown-NYC or any other high traffic area in a big city, you may often find yourself wandering into stores and foolishly claim to do some 'harmless window shopping'...

Yea right. I've done more credit card damage in 30-minute time slots than teenager with access to daddy's Visa. Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Sephora - (let me interrupt here to add a shameful anecdote. I get so happy when I walk into Sephora. Yes, a euphoric wave of happiness comes over me. All the colors! And endless perfumes to smell. And do you know you can get a free sample of ANYTHING? Smart little suckers, those people at Sephora. I've ended up buying the full-sized version of almost every "free" sample I've taken home. It's so bad that a sales lady there actually told me to just darn buy the perfume I had asked for a sample of, knowing my return would be inevitable. Oh the shame.) - All of these retailers within walking distance, teasing you with little pick-me-ups that guarantee, with no fail, to always make even my dullest days so much better.

But for every pick-me-up I acquire, there's a bit of pull-me-down going on, financially speaking. It's emotional spending gone rampant. I've actually rationalized buying one item in the next store I visited because I didn't buy a pricier item in the last. Does this even make sense? Somehow I convinced myself I was saving money, getting a 'deal'! And if I return something - which I often have to because of the foolishness mentioned above - something will catch my eye on the way out, or more commonly on the way in before I even make it to the return counter, and I've heard myself in head saying "Well, you're not really spending any more money..." Oh goodness gracious.

Does anyone else have this problem? Are they no other time-efficient shoppers out there? It might be time to consider hiding the plastic, before it melts from all the heavy-friction usage...