Money, money, money!!!

What was meant to be an hour trip to the mall this morning, turned into 3 hours. I am a little edgy having just wasted my entire Sunday morning and then only coming home with groceries. Not jewellery, not clothes, not makeup. Just groceries...quite depressing really.

What's really grating me at the moment, is the fact that I was drawn out of a crowd while on a mission to get done as quickly as possible, to a hair salon in the middle of the aisle. Now normally I do my best to look in the exact opposite direction so that no sales person is able to call me, and if they do I just pretend I don't hear them. This is not because I'm trying to be rude, but because I've bought so many things in the past that I don't need and often find it hard to say no. I'm not sure what made me stop today, maybe the fact that I was feeling a bit under the weather, and thought it would be nice to get a free hair touch up and look at what was to offer. I think I was there for about 25 minutes, and at the end I was completely sold on the idea of this amazing ceramic flat iron and curler. The one I have at the moment is a cheap safeway which does it's job, while damaging my hair...but what can I do? These things cost about R2 000. After much bantering and bargaining, I was offered a 50% discount on one of the products I really wanted. In the old days, I wouldn't have battered an eyelid, but not today. I just don't have that kind of cash to fork out. And so I apologised profusely, and said that I would definently keep them in mind and work out a savings plan so that I could come and buy one in a few months. I wasn't just saying this, I really want that flat iron! This, however as you can imagine was not what the salesman wanted to hear. He just couldn't understand how I didn't have the money. The thing that's got my blood boiling right now is the fact that he said the following words, "even the college students from Stellenbosch University can afford it, why can't you?". I was as polite as I could possibly be, and told him that unfortunately my parents do not pay for my rent, books, car payments, petrol, clothes or groceries for the month. Otherwise, I would have been more than happy to have bought this product straight up, and in cash!

This was a tiny incident this morning that really shouldn't have bothered me as much but it did.  I'm not at all materialistic, but I think after our fridge breaking, the vacuum cleaner packing up, my car's shoddy glaze peeling off, tyres that need to be replaced, etc, etc...I'm feeling it. I walked past so many things today that normally I wouldn't have hesitated putting on my Foschini or Edgars account, but I couldn't. There's just no money for it. We were supposed to go away next month to celebrate our wedding anniversary - we haven't had a proper holiday since our honeymoon 4 years ago, but we had to cancel it. Some of my friends can't understand why I don't have R1000 to save every month or left over, and my parents sometimes don't understand why I can't visit them as much as I used to since we've moved (a good hour's drive away). With a new medical aid this month (something that's unfortunately not optional these days),  the price of food, rent, gym contracts that can't be cancelled and emergencies (like fixing the car), there really is little left over at the end of the month. How people afford weekends away every few months, I just don't know.