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Sooo my birthday was this past week. Yay! Sixx came to visit. Yay! I knew we were going to eat out at least once a day and spend a lot of money that way – boo. I also planned to spend money on fees like parking and cab rides – also boo (but better than a DUI.) Aaand I’d planned for either a one-night stay in a fancy hotel (budgeting $100/night and hoping to score on Priceline,) OR a fancy-ass dinner here. I also knew that either way, whether we stayed home or went on a mini-trip, I Was Going To Shop. Boo. But it was my birthday (week), and celebrate it I was going to.

Brownie time

Well, we did eat out every day. We went out to lunch four times, but cooked at home or had leftovers for dinner during the week. Because I ended up not feeling the best, we did our drinking at home, saving on cab fare and overpriced bar mixes. We’re kind of homebodies anyway, and watched a lot of movies on Netflix, streamed Silver Linings Playbook, got Pitch Perfect for free from the Redbox, and genuinely enjoy being in the kitchen together. Anytime we did go out, I was able to get parking validated. The airport had free 60 minute parking. Sixx paid for a few meals (which I didn’t include in my budget – I told him as long as he came to visit, I would bankroll because we’d be doing things I wanted to do) and my boss took us out twice. The hotel didn’t work out because I was going to stick firm to my budget and star-rating, but we couldn’t find anything in the city at that rate. And instead of a fancy birthday dinner out, we got some Southern fast food (followed by a fancy Melting Pot dessert. You don’t know the feeling to be in a greasy fast food chicken restaurant in high heels and a pretty dress.) And I did shop a little – I dropped $100 at Sephora (on the perfume I’ve long wanted and an impulse buy of Urban Decay’s Naked Basics palette),  a few dollars at Maurice’s, and $16 on another new scrapbook set at Michael’s. And that’s really it. I found a $25 gas card in my wallet, saving money on airport gas.

An e-card Sixx sent me

So since I didn’t do nearly the spending I thought I was going to, I’m literally feeling insatiated about it and I’ve felt compulsions like crazy the last few days. (I’m sure it doesn’t help that roomie is working nights this week, so we went from a house full of Sixx, roomie and her two friends, the two of us and two cats to just me. [and the cats.]) So far, I’ve ordered two purses from YesWalker totalling $48. And right now, I have an iPad in my cart.

An iPad?!?! I mean. I have the money. It’s just sitting there begging to be spent on something other than bills or student loans or just left lonely in savings. Don’t I have a plane ticket to buy, or races to register for, or something I’m forgetting about? I might just get the iPad and then go on another spending ban. Truthfully, they’re easy for me, so I really don’t know where this compulsion is coming from. And anyway, it’s a refurbished iPad 2, so $320 is a great deal on it. I guess I might just sleep one more night on it and see how I feel in the morning.

Good idea? Bad? Where is this compulsion coming from and WHY WON’T IT STOP??