Shop Smart

This community is all about the joy, and sometimes over joy, of shopping! This is a large community, but everyone is different here. Depending on what kind of stores they like or what they are shopping for. Unlike "shoppers anonymous" the key to this community is shopping responsibly.

The key to shopping responsibly is to make sure you aren't digging yourself a giant hole of debt because, well let's be honest, those "freecreditreport.com" commercials don't lie when they tell you to know your partners credit score before you marry them, there is NOTHING attractive about loads of debt. So, I know everyone has those days where you can't fight the shopping urge and you have a "fashion blackout", wake up the next morning, and there's 7 different shopping bags flung across your room like some horrible crime scene, I know, I've been there. Everyone's had the events where you have to rip off all the price tags and shred the receipts so whoever footed the bill won't know (because let's be honest, it's usually someone else **cough parents cough**).

If this sounds like you, you're not a shopaholic--yet. In this community, you know "fashion blackouts" are bad and they don't happen all the time. For a shopaholic, "fashion blackouts" happen multiple times a week and they can't control themselves or feel guilt (hint the loads of debt). To avoid this personal meltdown at the hands of a fashion catastrophe you've got to master a few key secrets.

For starters, shop with only cash. Plastic is thin, and shiny, and really easy and fast to use, but plastic isn't magic-- the money will come back to haunt you just like those horrible green pants you bought last season. When you shop with a card, you're more prone to buy more because you aren't keeping up with exactly how much you spend. There's probably scientific facts to back this up but that's boring. If you take only cash with you on your next shopping excursion and no plastic, you will be more conscientious of how much you're spending at each store and realize even though that red cashmere sweater is the softest thing since a baby's butt and it's "totally wearable" for every occasion a 200 dollar price tag is totally not "wearable". So, rule number one, CASH ONLY! Plastic only brings heavy hearts and heavy bills and heavy bills lead to heavy debt and we already know heavy debt equals a runaway groom (unless he's got boats loads of cash).

Give me a "c"--C, give me an "o"--O, I'll cut to the chase and just get you to guess what it spells, Coupons! coupons are a girl's best friend. I'm pretty sure they were invented by men who needed some of that money from their hard earned paycheck for themselves. Sometimes, we all need to shop. We

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