How to Make Sure You Spend a Lot of Money On a Shopping Spree:
1. Pick a weekend to shop where all the stores in the city are having sales (in this case, "Labor Day Sales") - it dumbs your senses resulting in spending more money
2. Make excuses to go to places like R.E.I. where large amounts of money can be dropped fast
3. Instead of making a direct path from the door to the thing you need, wander around a bit like take a detour through the sleeping bag and shoe departments
4. Be creative: you aren't limited just to buying things (e.g. while you're at the mall, you can go out to eat and get your hair cut... and don't forget to tip!)
5. Think of and buy things that are obnoxiously expensive and then buy two (one for you and one for your spouse)
6. When you run out of time and the stores start to close don't give up! You can spend plenty more money by ordering things on your computer.
Indeed it was a successful trip. We bought a dizzying amount of stuff:
This is all of our new stuff. The shoes in front are the Studly Hubby's, and our two new pairs of running shoes are right behind them.Below is the sleeping bag, the most expensive thing we bought. We got matching His and Hers but the Hers one was backordered so we actually haven't gotten it yet. The Studly Hubby modeled the His sleeping bag below. It is a down sleeping bag and has a black stuff-bag hanging from it in the picture. The guy at REI tried to convince us to buy the more expensive brand (this was REI brand) but this was such a huge leap from our old sleeping bags and we couldn't be convinced there was anything better.
This is my new winter coat (below). This is the first winter coat I have bought that was not on sale. In the past I have gone to great extremes to buy affordable winter coats which usually meant buying men's coats in odd colors and sizes (and often used). Considering your coat is one of the things you wear the most (especially in Minnesota) I probably should have just spent money to get a nice one. So this year, now that I live in a milder climate, I finally did just that. It was from L.L. Bean.
3 comments:
It makes me cringe everytime you go to R.E.I.
They have great gear... but your going to pay for it, clearnce or not.
Sometimes I even go to "Big 5 sporting goods" I've never found any reasonable camping gear there..
One word "campmore.com", they even will send you a cataloge, it's black and white.... but they pass that savings on to you...
Guess that wasn't clear... I go to big 5 for running and gym stuff. Also some other stuff... they have a cheep yoga mat.
Eric: I LOVE REI. The REI brand stuff (which is mostly what we buy) is about half the price of the other stuff and really very good, and when it's on sale I think it's an awesome deal. Plus the store itself is a unique experience and for novices like us it's a good place to get information (and trail maps and park brochures and even discounted park passes) for getting started. Someday when I'm an expert like you I'll scoff at people who go to REI but for now it's extremely helpful.
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