Shopping is NOT a hobby

Boxing day at Selfridge's.

This might sound weird, but if I look around myself, listen to the TV, the radio, look at people in town - it must be considered one. I've even googled it, and there is evidence - there are a lot of people out there that consider shopping a leisure activity. And it isn't. No. Really not.

Let me be very open with you: How empty must your life be, if you consider shopping a hobby?  -

Don't get offended - I was there once. I spend hours walking through "all" the shops in town and looking at the windows. And I didn't only spend time there. Hindsight is a marvellous thing, I consider all those hours a waste of time now, but then again that's how it turned out.

There are a lot of articles on this topic online, so I recommend a few to you here.
If you are at loss about what to do with that time that you would have usually spend shopping, why not have a look at my post about "pleasant activities"?  http://hertzwerk-freiburg.blogspot.com/2016/08/go-for-pleasant-activities.html


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/sep/09/shopping-not-a-hobby

http://www.theminimalistmom.com/2012/05/shoppinghobby/

http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2010/05/if-shopping-is-your-passion-then-get-another-hobby.html

http://into-mind.com/blog/2016/7/25/why-shopping-is-a-bad-hobby-and-what-to-do-instead

http://www.sustainababy.com.au/blog/July-2014/101-Small-things---5-Shopping-is-not-a-hobby

http://simplicityrelished.com/5-mindset-changes-that-limit-unnecessary-shopping/

http://www.becomingminimalist.com/be-better/

If you have problems with saying "no" to shopping but want to quit, I have these suggestions for you:

 - Stay away from town and do something from the "pleasant activities list".
 - Stay away from your computer. Just don't go on your "usual" shopping pages. You don't need it.
 - Only go shopping with a list and stick to that list.
 - Transfer all spare money to a savings account. Don't carry a card for that account with you.
 - Don't use the credit card. Leave it at home if you can't control pulling it out.
 - Start using cash if you are generally more of a card user. If the money's gone the money's gone. And that's that.
 - Be disciplined. You are worth so much more than that T-Shirt. Especially if you don't buy it.

If you want to know, what hobbies are, here's the link to the wikipedia definition, that can also serve as inspiration! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobby 


And to close the circle to the above image, THIS is what you stretch out your hands for desperately. Food.

http://www.earthtimes.org/politics/climate-talks-succeed-poor/1655/

The behaviour of oversatisfied consumers in the western world seems obscene to me sometimes. A lot, actually.