Shopaholic

The other day I was innocently walking through the mall (this is something I do on a weekly basis just to get out of the house during the day) and saw the cutest little baby girl sandals. They were so itty bitty and I realized in that moment that Claire didn't yet have any sandals for summer and it's right around the corner! My mind started to whirl with the sandal possibilities and my thought process went something like this: "What was I thinking! I did not do a good job of planning ahead! What if summer comes and Claire has no sandals to wear? What if I have the perfect outfit and no sandals to go with it? What is she going to do? Walk around in bare feet? What is this, some kind of third world country? I need to get this little girl some sandals and fast!" It was then that I started scooping up every pair of size 4/5 sandals like there was 500 other moms trying to steal them away from me (which there definitely wasn't, I was the only person in the store) and then, with hands so full of sandals that I couldn't even pick up any more and my head full of wonderful itty bitty sandal delight, that I suddenly realized what I was doing.
Hi, my name is Tiffany and I am a shopaholic. I love buying new things, especially clothes. I used to love reading the Shopaholic Series by Sophie Kinsella not realizing that I loved it so much because I was basically the girl in the book. I would go to the store and get the hugest rush out of buying way more than I should have, followed by a huge amount of guilt knowing that my husband, Matt, was not going to be happy. I didn't really realize that shopping was an addiction for me until just before I got pregnant with Claire. It was then that I noticed I could barely go a whole day without buying something. So I decided to cut myself off cold turkey. I even made Matt do the grocery shopping for a while because I didn't trust myself not to pick up a bunch of candy or candles or something that was definitely not on the list. I realized that I had lost the ability to truthfully answer the question of want versus need. Everything was always a need. 
Since I have been in "recovery" the hardest part is not shopping for myself, but shopping for Claire. Having a baby is every shopaholic's dream and every recovering shopaholic's nightmare. You are constantly needing to get new clothes for your little one because they grow so fast, but the hardest question is how much do they really need? For instance, how many sandals does one little girl need? 
After I realized what I was doing that day in the mall I started, with a red face and a guilty conscience, putting the sandals back on the rack. I couldn't believe that I had fallen into the trap yet again. Over the last couple years things have been much better. I now have a budget and I stick to it. I now realize that everything is a want but still find myself in moments like I described. The difference is that now I realize it before I get home with the 15 pairs of itty bitty sandals.