I've known this for a very long time, but I'm coming to terms with it and deciding I NEED to do something about it. It's so frustrating because I feel like I'm about to be fighting TWO battles (weight/health AND money) instead of saying eff everything else and focusing on just weight/health.

*SIGH*

Can I just win the lottery?

Know what you mean i'm a Walmart groupie keep donating clothes to charity and replacing them every week with new ones i'll be looking at the flyer shortly

LOL! yeah me too. And no matter what I do, I ALWAYS come home with more than I need.....even when I make a list.

It's like physically IMPOSSIBLE for me to go into ANY store and buy just ONE item. I won't even go into on line shopping

Replacing your clothes and buying too much does not necessarily make you a shopaholic. Being a shopaholic is very serious, and can really mess up your whole life. Nothing to LOL about. Just saying

How is your spiritual health? Is that full? Could you be "shopping to fill the void?"

A.

That's what I do. I'm battling weightloss and a debt issue while working three jobs. I buy myself useless stuff because there's nothing else to do, new things comfort me like take out food. lol I now only use cash and it seems to be helping me manage my money better.

Read Gail Vaz Oxlade - It's your money becoming a woman of independents. It's really good and definitely an eye opener.

Thats great feedback! Shopping does fill a void for me.

I was going over all of my bills/finances and am going to do the same with only using cash. It's gonna be hard, but I know I will be better off in the long run.

You know, I read something a while back (can't recall if it was an internet article or magazine article or what) that quite often people with "eating disorders" also had a "shopaholic" problem; there was some big study done at some college somewhere (blahblahblah) and I thought it was interesting that there seems to be a connection between the two.

I too have been a shopaholic for many years, but the devastation of the Economic B*tch Slap of 2008 put an end to my shopaholicism. I have a thing for shoes, jewelry, sunglasses, and of course, clothes. I've got more of each of those items than any good law-abiding citizen has a right to own.

But I've also noticed that the more I food "diet" the more I want to "shop-diet" as well. Weird.

There is apparently a huge connection between debt and obesity. As I saw this on Dr. Phil about one million years ago (is he still on?) when he did a weight loss challenge with a group of people, I can't remember the specifics. Wait, maybe it was when he was on Oprah with Suze Orman? ANYWAY, it was on tv and those were the major players.

SO apparently the same thing that urges you to eat (boredom, instant gratification, distraction) even though you know you don't need it and it's not good for you is the same impulse that drives you to spend - even though you don't need it and it's bad for you.

It's alot about filling a void, making ourselves happy. I had a terribly toxic job that was literally making me sick. I would shop because it was a bright spot in my day, and I would eat to be comfortable at the end of the day. Once I left that job, and had all the time in the world, shopping didn't interest me. I took a look at my stuff and realized that I was shopping as an outlet for being so unhappy.

I think the eating is not as simple; if you're eating a lot of junk food, as we usually do when we're not happy, there may be a nutritional deficiency on top of the unhappiness. What worked for me with the eating - although i'm still very much a work in progress, is to focus more on eating whole, plain foods and leafy greens to get in more nutrition. The more healthy foods we take in, the weirder junk foods start to taste and that helps to cut down on the junk.

I agree that it's an issue of the spirit. I'm a big on list writing. What would make you happy - aside from the lotto - and what's keeping you from it. Can you make some adjustments to bring you closer to what will make you happy?

@klein - precious metals are a great investment, but oh so true about the depreciation of those high tag automobiles. How nice it would be to not give a damn about all that LOL.

I can see the connection between obesity and debt, it actually makes perfect sense to me.

The past week, I've been analyzing my income Vs what I spend and looking at my loans/credit and focusing the most money on the highest interest rates. I know I can do this, its just gonna be EXTREMELY hard to break the habit of not paying attention to cost and the habit of going all willy nilly when I go to a store or decide to browse an on line store.

I even told my BF that I need to stop getting all crazy with spending. He was very surprised that I saved my receipts on sunday (things needed, not wanted BTW ) and wrote down how much I spent.