New Year Resolution to Shop - with a Twist by Jan Z.

Hey, it’s January and the holiday spending season is over, but let’s talk shopping!  And specifically: shopping at home. What fun!  Especially for retirees.  You are probably visualizing lounging in jammies, bottomless mug of decaf in hand, perusing QVC, Amazon, The Shopping Channel, and eBay, just to name a few.   

Well, no.  Sorry.  In true New Year’s Resolution spirit, I say, it is time to get serious, and tighten that money belt!  The weight of holiday spending is sending credit cards balances over the top!  Therefore the home shopping experience I refer to involves neither lounging nor decaf.  And if you are anything like me – a.k.a. retired – you might have shopped like this a time or two before.  You get yourself a nice caffeine buzz going, for the frantic twirling in circles to come.  You have purchased eight flashlights, six nail clippers and five measuring tapes over the past year – among a lot of other things.  Bought over, and over, and OVER, again and again! And that’s just the beginning…of the list.  The lost list.  Heck, I don’t even know anymore what is on the lost list! And where is all this stuff?  Who knows.  But you DO know EVERYTHING is somewhere in your house!  Likely, with price tags still on.

So you get your buzz on and you shop ‘til you drop in your own home!  I am betting you will find those flashlights, nail clippers, measuring tapes, and a whole bunch of other things you forgot you bought!  So, hey, here it is January: you are sticking to your New Year resolution, AND it’s Christmas all over again!  Woo-hoo, lucky day!  And you can’t beat the price:  Free!  Even better than that new rage, ‘Extreme Couponing’!  

I have discussed this shopping strategy with my financial guru, Adam.  Being a young whippersnapper, he does not quite understand it.  But as my mother said to me years ago, I now say to Adam, “You just wait. YOU’LL see.” And he will!  For now, he understands neither my method, nor the senior moments leading to this madness, but he approves of the net outcome. Whatever works.   Do what you gotta do.  Meanwhile, now where did I put that bottle of memory pills…