Justifying Purchases

I don't know about you all but I'm a shopper. Like, annoying amounts of shopping.

Sale on H&M.com? Bought 6 things.
Sale at Target? No problem, I have a Target card.
Happen to be at the jeweler? I probably need that ring.
On amazon.com to buy a replacement blender blade? Buy all the things.
Returned something to Marshalls? FREE MONEY TO SPEND.

It's bad. I try and reign myself in. And about 60% of the I do ok. Unless I've bought something online that I can't return to a store. Then I'm fucked. (I'm not great at shipping returns) But I'm usually buying things that are discounted (hello poshmark) but whether or not it's discounted, I've come up with a great (in my opinion) way to justify those big purchases. Or the little ones.

Here's what you do:
1. if you can, research to get the best price. if you can't or don't have time, skip this one.
2. decide how much you would realistically pay to use or wear the item one time.
3. think about how many times you will realistically use or wear the item.
get ready for a tiny bit of math!
4. multiply your one-time price (#2) by your number of uses (#3)
5. if the answer to #4 is the same price or more expensive than the cost of the item, it's worth it!

My rull life example:
Tom and I host a St. Paddy's Day party every year. We live right on the parade route so on parade day all three of our friends come over and we kinda go all out. And by that I mean I buy a bunch of unnecessary but VERY necessary green shit. See below.

Our favorite bar actually gave us this because I gave the bar tender one of my Samoas Girl Scout Cookies.
Also yes, those are OTK bright green boots.

You're like, "what does this EVEN have to do with justifying purchases?!" Well, you can't just drink anything on St Patrick's Day. You have a few options: Irish whiskey, Irish beer, or Budweiser/Bud Light shamrock aluminum bottles. Or any other beer or drink in a green cup.

ANYWAY Tom and I were in Stop&Shop and saw a thermos that looked like a 16 oz beer can specifically for the occasion. Except it was $10. So now I do my whole justification process and I think, I'd pay $5 to use this once. And I'll have this for AT LEAST 2 years. So I'm good to go!

It was totally worth it.

🍻💋🍀 St Paddys Parade 2015

A photo posted by Adriana (@acosta093) on Mar 21, 2015 at 12:54pm PDT

Also- green mustaches for $2 OBV worth it. Really that was a post to tell you about my sweet beer thermos just as much as it was about justifying purchases.