Category: Uncategorized

By now we all know that a transaction need not occur within the walls of a store for it to be titled “shopping.” And no matter how clearly you know what you’re shopping for, there are always pressures to overshop. Shopping-at a mall, on the Internet, or even from a catalog-is almost guaranteed to stir… Continue reading A Closer Look at Mindful Shopping

According to Trinny and Susannah, the two stars of ITV1’s reality fashion show, now in its second season, Brits spend 30 billion pounds every year on clothing, much of which is never worn. In an effort to help British women who are compulsive buyers learn to spend their money more wisely and stop buying things… Continue reading Overshopping Overseas

Didn’t really need that sweater you bought this week? Have 3 of the same pairs of pants? Thought you’d fit into that skirt someday, but it’s not gonna happen? Take a look through your closet, collect the clothes you can’t or won’t wear again—and use them to shop. A wonderful alternative for the shopping-inclined, Swap-O-Rama-Rama… Continue reading Don’t Shop, Swap!

Stuart Vyse’s Going Broke: Why Americans Can’t Hold On To Their Money brings an important historical perspective to a current crisis, approaching debt not primarily as an individual issue but as a far broader sociological one. Vyse views our present debting behavior in the context of historical economic influences, moral financial perspectives, the evolution of… Continue reading Recommended Reading: Going Broke:
Why Americans Can’t Hold Onto Their Money
By Stuart Vyse
(Oxford University Press, 2008)

An article in The Williams Record discusses the dramatic rise in online overshopping among college students, but that rise isn’t limited to the collegiate population.  Increasingly, other Americans are clicking their way to addicted shopping. They’re lured there by an endless virtual world of merchandise, by attractive pricing, and above all by the ease of… Continue reading Stopping Overshopping Tips: When Happiness Seems Just a Mouse Click Away…

Credit cards are the ultimate legal drug in a materialist culture, deceptively empowering and beautifully insulated from the feel of spending. They are designed for impulsiveness. And what comes with that impulsiveness is a set of extraordinarily harsh repayment terms. So for overshoppers, the first thing to know about credit cards is: put them away… Continue reading Face the Facts About Your Credit Card Debt

Many visitors to our website have described themselves (or been described by family or friends) in ways that suggest hoarding, and so we’re particularly pleased to come upon this sensible and functional resource. Compulsive saving—hoarding—is typically diagnosed when all three of the following criteria are met: 1) there is the accumulation of objects that most… Continue reading Recommended Reading: Buried in Treasures: Help for Compulsive
Acquiring, Saving, and Hoarding

Shopping for shopping’s sake has become a “national pastime” for many Asian countries, a global online survey done by AC Nielsen suggests. Of the top ten markets where people shop regularly for recreation, seven are in Asian countries: people in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Thailand rank the highest in the world. On average, they shop… Continue reading Shopping: A National Pastime in Asia

Each month, for a year, Carlomagno chose to do without one of her favorite things: alcohol one month, shopping another, cell phones, dining out, elevators, multi-tasking, television, taxis, coffee, chocolate. Her discoveries and observations, which she shares in an easy, anecdotal style, confirm her book’s title: we can indeed live better by living with less.… Continue reading Recommended Reading: Give It Up! My Year of Learning to Live Better with Less By Mary Carlomagno (New York: Harper Collins, 2006)

Lynne Twist’s The Soul of Money is a valuable resource for anyone looking to reevaluate his or her relationship with money. Through inspirational stories, Twist reveals how to let go of burden and guilt and replace them with purpose, transforming your ground of being from scarcity to sufficiency. A global fundraiser and activist, Twist uses… Continue reading Recommended Reading: The Soul of Money; Transforming your Relationship with Money and Life (Lynne Twist, Norton, 2003)