With the rising cost of everything lately, I’ve been trying to stock up on items whose prices might dramatically rise in the near future. So I feel like I’m going broke saving money. Isn’t that always the case when you’re sale shopping or just browsing too? Sort of the finest edition of girl math, right?
Here’s a for instance… These multi-color platform sneakers you totally don’t need but absolutely love and will probably never wear are 70% off. It’s such a good deal you can’t possibly pass it up. You do a mental closet check and decide that you have a few things that go with pastels… you think. Your cream pants! That yellow sweater from last spring? Or all white! Yeah, you’ll definitely wear them. Convinced they are additive and at this point critical to your carefully curated warm weather wardrobe, you fork over the credit card praying you wear the damn shoes at least once this season. Or definitely next spring. This is the definition of going broke saving money. And I’m totally here for it.
There are some items in my house that I just like having a lot of. Like giant tubs (plural) of laundry detergent. I have the one in use, the heir, and the spare. I feel much happier when I have extras instead of just one lonely orange plastic jug. Is that wrong? I know. Call the shrink! But who else does this too? If I’m stocking up, I stock up, ya know? It’s like buying a single tube of toothpaste. That’s crazytown! Does anyone actually do that? I brush often so I go through those suckers quickly. My minimum Crest 3D White buy is 4 tubes at a time, or if they shelve bundled packs (swoon) which stores don’t always carry I’m good for 3 packs of 3. So satisfying!
Water is another category altogether. I’m usually good for three 40 bottle cases per trip to Costco for just me. I hate hauling them from pallet to cart, cart to car, car to dolly, and finally dolly to apartment, but man I love having all those drinkables under my roof.
And if you hadn’t noticed, the size of every household item is seriously shrinking dramatically as the prices go up. Are these products on Ozempic too?? Recently I compared a new bottle of my favorite smelling Clorox Scentiva spray cleaner to a bottle I already had at home. From the front they look exactly the same. But on the side… look at the width of these bottles! Shrinkage to the extreme. This makes me so angry. They give you so much less and charge the same or more. How is this even legal?? (This is why I need the pastel sneaks to feel better about my life. More girl math.)
A strange thing I do is talk to my things. Like when I’m getting dressed in the morning, sometimes I’m audible with my, “Who wants to go out today?” as I address my pile o’ yoga pants. Ha. At least I have a little fun. Seeing the folded stack of blacks, navys (a growing vertical at Chez Jen), and odd patterns, I decide that maybe I need my favorite black ones in the shorter length? Like crops. Yes. I’m missing a closet staple. How did that happen? And the weather is getting warmer so I’d better get on it. So I make a mental note to look for them, especially if they are on sale. I’ll check Amazon!
And then I think that when I find them I should also get a light color to go with the new kicks. (More incentive to wear them!) And maybe even two in navy? Definitely. And do I have white? Maybe I need white! All of these mental gymnastics prime me for another wallet opening that may seriously dent my bottom line. But like I said, I’m here for it.
jenslittleblackbook.com 