With the Money I “Saved”…

Like many people, there are times that I rationalize my purchases. It’s a terrible habit and I try not to do it too often, but it does happen on occasion.

One afternoon, the weather was especially nice so I decided to take a walk on my lunch hour…to a clothing store. It wasn’t because I wanted or needed any clothing, it just made for a destination on my walk. After looking around, I considered buying a pair of jeans that were on sale for $40 (original price $120), but I eventually decided against it. They were fine jeans, and the fit was okay, but I could live without them.

Then after work, I stopped by a thrift store and found two navy tops. The first top is from Banana Republic and has a slightly nautical feel. It has cute gold buttons on either side of the boatneck neckline and on the ends of the sleeves; the fabric is lightweight, slightly stretchy viscose. Overall, I like the cut of the top and think it could go well with skirts or pants.

The second top is a sweater from Ann Taylor LOFT. I like the neckline and the pattern of the sweater. It’s fitted and I like the shape of it. It’s cotton and feels pretty comfortable to wear.

Both of these tops were $7 each, which brought my grand total to $14. I’ll admit, I was a bit on the fence about getting the Banana Republic top because $7 seemed a bit steep to me (I tend to be more willing to pay a bit more for sweaters than shirts). But my rationalizing kicked in, and I had saved $40 by not buying those jeans earlier in the day, so I could spend it on these two tops instead. So I ended up “saving” a total of $26. [Pause.] I know this is totally wrong logic. I spent $14. Therefore I didn’t save anything. But still, I was pretty glad I hadn’t bought those jeans earlier in the day—because I preferred these tops to those jeans.