Recently, I am embarrassed to say, I have developed quite a close relationship with my postman. He is bringing me my fix for my new addiction, online shopping.
Shopping online is a slippery slope, you can shop without the pain of feeling like you are parting with ‘real’ money. When I was working, I had a routine of not visiting any shops during the week with the exception of my Sainsbury’s Local in a food emergency. I was lucky to work in a place with no shops around it so there was no temptation to have a browse on my lunch hour and by the end of a long day, the craving for a sit down with a glass of wine out weighed the urge to shop. It was a see no evil, buy no stuff situation and it worked brilliantly for me.
Now that I am currently unemployed, with a lot more time on my hands, I have still enforced the see no evil and don’t shop ethos, but now the online shopping urge has crept in. I have found that I ‘need’ little things like a pen for my tablet, ink for my printer and my Moleskine addiction is trying to get out of control.
Online shopping especially Amazon is a honey trap. When shopping online, you don’t feel like you are spending real money and when the postman arrives, it is like someone is sending you presents. Unfortunately, you are footing the bill for those lovely gifts.
Online spending is not only for physical stuff, the other trap is all those lovely services from Groupon, Wahanda, Wowcher and the like. Last year, I wrote See no Evil in your Inbox, where I spoke about unsubscribing to all the deal emails, now I, and I have no idea why, I seem to be getting all these emails again. Temptation. Bad. Time to unsubscribe, again.
One of my biggest temptations is the lovely Fab, they have super cool and unusual stuff that are mostly non-essential to my life. I need to be strong and until I have a lot of disposable income, I need to get them out of my inbox. I also think it is time for me to end my close relationship with my postman.
I am sorry Ian, but I need to step away from the computer, Amazon and only shop for my essentials. I will miss seeing you arriving with ‘gifts’ from the online world.