Hi Brooke,

I have created for my husband and myself credit cards debt of $25,000 over two years.
The majority of the transactions are clothing, shoes, jewelry and makeup.

The cons of this overspending activity I trained myself to do is clearly the debt and high interests we need to pay.
The other is guilt.

The pros is that everywhere I go, people compliment me on what I wear and how I look. I often hear a repeated compliment that says, ‘You look like a Vogue front page model!’

It is, of course, very satisfying to hear such compliments. They are not just, ‘oh, you look so nice,’ they are over the top and give me a dopamine hit.
I embraced to myself an identity of someone who is considered to be striking in the way she dresses and accessorizes.

So I came across an article by Ann Patchett, who spent a year without shopping (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/15/opinion/sunday/shopping-consumerism.html) and decided to have this as my impossible goal for 2018.

It’s so impossible that my brain sends me these thoughts:
I will be missing out
I will stop looking as fashionable and great
Compliments will not be coming
My whole identity will suffer a mini crisis.
Who will I be if I won’t be that fashionable girl anymore?
And is there an option to be that one with all that I have and not keep getting new stuff?

By the way, I watched again your Money course and the video of Spending Fuel had really helped me. I looked at 2017 and did an inventory of the purchases that I valued the most and they came down to:
SCS
Books
Gym Membership
Healthy Food
Laptop
iPod

Interestingly, the clothes and shoes and accessories did not make that list even though I love, love, love having them.

So my plan for 25 fails each quarter is to fill 25 unanswered urges to shop.
Could you advise me if there is anything else I should include?