The urge to go shopping is sometimes unbearable

Insider sale emails for only the select few! Flirty commercials announcing mega half-yearly sales! Colorful window displays along busy city streets tempt you inside! Preferred shopper coupons and bonus points that talk you into spending more! How does one resist?!

While definitely not one to decline $20 off my next pair of shoes (which are surely justifiable in some fuzzy, illogical way), I find that sometimes the best way to get my shopping fix is by spending someone else’s money. Nooooo, I don’t mean by actually spending someone else’s money, I mean by ‘helping’ a good friend, neighbor or friend’s brother’s roommate to find better clothes at a better price that most assuredly they could not have found on their own. What a thrill to select a killer outfit that they would not have picked out for themselves! What dizzy excitement to find the perfect funky accessory to match their new duds! The bliss of walking home with treasures in tow!

As both the lucky recipient of such attention and the happy consultant on dark wash or distressed, I can attest to the retail therapy enjoyed by both parties – shopping urges are relieved, wallets are lightened, wardrobes are updated, egos are massaged. Unless, of course, the person who tags along on your shopping excursion refuses to believe they are color blind or has a 3-store limit…