At the beginning of the year I mentioned my plan to (amongst other things) "spend more time pre-purchase considering whether I need...or how badly I want...an item". And I'm happy to say that, overall, the plan is working...though I've noticed a disconcerting side-effect...I have, quite frankly, turned into an Ebenezer-Scrooge-like miser over smaller purchases. I can still rationalize larger purchases quite effectively...but my inner voice turns the thought of an inexpensive impulse buy into some vast, capricious, whim.

Case in point, I stumbled across a Karen Walker skull and rope necklace for a mere $25. As someone with a morbid love of skulls...and a less morbid enthusiasm for Walker's work...pre-plan I would have snapped it up. Post-plan I find myself mentally weighing up the pro's and con's of this prospective purchase to the point where I want to shake myself and scream "it's $25 you fool...that's like 1.5 issues of Paris Vogue". But, realistically, I know that this kind of thing is a fashion amuse-geule...I'd enjoy it over the summer and then it would spend the rest of its life (and mine) sitting in the darkest depths of my jewelry box. The sensible option is to save all the amounts that I would fritter away here and there and buy something "nice"...but, oh, how painful it can be sometimes to be "sensible".