The Walking Spenders Need a New Year Resolution

Is it over yet?

This holidays are supposed to be devoted to family gatherings and parties and shopping in crowded malls, right?  Then why do I feel like a zombie pushing my cart through HEB or walking from BFE in the mall parking lot?  For the past few weeks, I've felt like boarding myself up in the house and waiting until it all blows over and Spring Break has arrived.


I  did some of my Christmas shopping early, as I do every year when all the stores start to lay out giftboxes and play Christmas music.  I get in the mood like everyone else a week or so before Thanksgiving, and the emails with free shipping and exclusive offers and fairydust start popping up in my inbox.  I get some of it done because my girls have birthdays in November and December and its imperative that I get those out of the way early so I can concentrate on actual Christmas shopping.  The gift deluge before the gift deluge.  Its insane.

At least I don't do the Black Friday Invasion, mainly because I work that day every year, but also because people are generally stupid when a coupon or sale ad is screaming at them they MUST buy, like right now.  As if there won't be another sale in the coming weeks.  Waiting in lines wrapped around the store for another TV for the house, or a video game their kid will die without.  Save on the sale price but buy three times as much. Seriously. Not. Smart.

Zombies, that's what they look like waiting in those lines and wandering around the malls this time of year....or sitting in their cars in the extra-traffic that somehow invades our city this time of year.  I get it, Austin is cool as shit, but its time to Go Away.  We have enough Weirdos here without all the relatives of the Weirdos traipsing all over our Zilker-lighted tree and wreath-adorned Congress Avenue.

If forced to go in a mall, this is me.

The after Christmas-rush is just as bad.  Never mind that there really could be a zombie invasion some day.  I watch The Walking Dead, so it seems like the folks I see shuffling around may have already been bitten and have "made the change".  The return-lines, the giftcards you feel pressure to unload, the after-holiday "sales". It makes me want to stab myself in the head to end it all.

Its all so ridiculous.  We don't NEED anything.  I'd love to use my end of the year bonus to pay off the bills I've created all the rest of the year.  NOT to create even more bills with over-spending all in the matter of a six week time-span.  Fiscal cliff or not, we Americans, not just our President and Congressmen and women, but us regular Joes and Marys, are spending whores.

We all should be thinking of a New Year Resolution~ during the holidays, stop buying trinkets that nobody needs, and use your saved money and bonuses to pay off credit card debt.  Or better yet, pay down someone else's debt, and let them pay on yours.  Wouldn't that be better than another set of slippers?

TO: Uncle Charlie
I paid $50 toward your $697.49 VISA card balance
...dang, what have you been buying?
FROM: Your Niece

We will still buy things for ourselves, things we need and things we want, so the productivity and supply-demand will not go down.  My plan is economy-friendly.  There just won't be as much stuff for garage sales as there used to be.  Ebay may suffer.  We will have things we wanted, we had money to buy, or had a credit card without a high balance to charge.

I think its genius.

Anyone want to get started with my amazon.com VISA?

Let's get this Show on the Road!