Impulse Buying - Oops

So last week I was sick (no surprise there) and stuck at home inside most of the week. As any self-respecting twenty something year old in this day and age, I spent a considerable amount of that time on the computer and on the internet.

I'm telling you, pinterest is great entertainment when you're bored.

But like the rabbit hole in the fairytale, sometimes the internet is like a hole that sucks you into its own world and lost there for a while. And occasionally you do things you otherwise wouldnt.

Me, well I'm really not much of a shopping type of person. Rather I am a "saver", I tend to save all of my money for a big purchase and then unfortunately end up blowing it all in one foul swoop, of course after almost endlessly researching the item I want to buy. How do you think I managed to earn myself a car?

 

But last week, unfortunately I decided to head on over to bidorbuy. Seriously, bad idea. You see, I had been bored at home with brain fog of note for over a week. And now there was finally something interesting!

So there I went, through all of those exciting R1 auctions, of course every R1 auction has a high shipping price that is non-negotiable.

"Ooh" I think to myself "a R1 starting price for a pretty swarovski crystal necklace, and its so dainty. The shipping charge is high, but if I bid on a few other items from the same seller, it drops the shipping price." I reason with myself, and quickly bid on it.

"And oh look here, fairy lights. Those are always useful for my business with the proposals, I'll bid on that"

"Ahhh, how cool is that, a nice pretty pink tazer" click there went another bid. 

Now the thing about BidorBuy is that once you have made a bid, there is no undoing it. The next day when I realized what all I had bid on, I cringed. But, said I to myself, I kept all my bids really low. And in times past I have always found that things I really wanted were outbid fairly soon. So I sat, in nail biting anxiety for a couple of days, a wave of relief flowing over me each time I got an email ping saying "You have been outbid."

Unfortunately for me I was not outbid on about 10 items. UGH!!! 

And so a day or two later I began getting the "exciting" emails that said "Congratulations, you have won the auction on ....! Please pay" or that affect.

As each email pinged on my phone I cringed. What on earth had I just done.

So there I sat, wondering if I could possibly get away with contacting the buyers and saying "My unruly daughter hacked my account and bid on all sorts of things, please cancel my orders". But my conscience wouldn't allow me to do that, darn, I wish I wasn't so honest!

Well, I have paid all the prices now, and hey, at least I'll be getting some fun stuff arriving in the post soon. Hopefully, if the South African Post Office has finished their +-8 week long strike and actually delivers my stuff.

Thing is, I know I'll use it all. Its just that a "bargain is only a bargain if you actually need it". If you dont need it, then its not a bargain anymore, its rather a wasteful price. Which is the price I'm paying for flu-ishly impulse buying.

Lesson learnt, no more going onto bidorbuy unless I'm actually selling something or REALLY need something.