T here is a touching scene in the series Sex and the City which recently wrapped up its late night re-runs on AXN.
Carrie Bradshaw has just broken up with Aiden, and he has moved out of the apartment which she once used to rent but had let him buy for “them.” But now, she is back to being just, “she,” and she, has to buy back her apartment or move out.
The problem is, although her shoes are worth around 40,000 dollars, comprising a heady mixture of Jimmy Choo, Manolo Blahnik and Christian Dior, she has only about 700 dollars left in her checking account until her next pay check arrives.
Carrie Bradshaw is all of 35, an accomplished magazine columnist, and has been living independently in a city like New York for more than 15 years. Yet, she let this happen to her. How?
Popular culture is full of such stories, from the book turned movie, Confessions of a Shopaholic to Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary in literature.
Shopaholics are in plenty closer home too, where the reality of demonetisation has temporarily halted the shopping expeditions of many more Madame Bovarys dependant on hard cash.
“I had my eyes on a Burberry scarf and a Louis Vuitton clutch, the money had already been coaxed from my husband. But, with the demonetisation, the money flow was halted and I ended up opening a separate bank account for the first time in my life. It is also the first time in many years that I have not bought anything for more than two weeks,” says homemaker and self-confessed shopaholic Shreya (name changed).
However, salaried individuals or those with plastic money to spend have not let something as paltry as demonetisation affect their unbridled shopping sprees. A good example is Misbah Dutta (name changed) who lacks for nothing. She is young, lives in a nice house, has a well-paying job and has enough shoes, watches and handbags to go with any coloured outfit. Yet, at the end of the month, she is left with almost no money in her bank account, not to mention no wardrobe space at all.
“I do not know what comes over me. I go to a mall and end up buying all these things. Handbags, lipsticks, clothes, shoes…sale time is the worst. I end up spending so much, that I usually have to borrow money from my parents. And it is sad, since I make more than Rs. 75,000 a month and have no bills to pay,” she admits.
Clinical psychologist Aruna Broota, sees several patients a day with similar issues. There is the man who buys so many clothes and shoes that his enormous living-room has about 20 almirahs stuffed with the things, most of which he has no clue he owns.
Then, there is the woman who would buy six perfumes and a handbag from one shopping trip.
Another young man who kept buying guitars till they numbered 20. And, a little higher up the rich ladder is the middle-aged man who bought 20 M.F Hussein paintings to fill all the rooms in his house.
“It is quite rampant really, it is not rare,” says Aruna, before drawing out the different syndromes that could trigger off shopping sprees that could lead to eventual financial ruin. “There is the manic syndrome, where the person afflicted will indulge in a bit too much of everything. He or she will eat too much, drink and spend too much, deriving as much pleasure as they can without any regard to the consequences.”
The unipolar syndrome from this manic behaviour takes place when a person is suddenly jolted down to a low from this high indulgence. “The person’s economy and budget is upset, there is a rude awaking, their credit card bills are not able to be met. This is when the person’s world comes crashing down.”
However, if you fall among those many people who love fashion and everything nice, there is no reason to feel that you could be the next Madame Bovary.
“Indulging is allowed once in a while. There may be those who probably spend too much in one month but will practice caution and exercise frugality the next month. These need not be worried. Also if you end up spending over your budget on occasion like a birthday or on festivals like Diwali, there is no need to be worried,” says Aruna.
If you still find it difficult to reconcile yourself to match frugality with fashion, always remember what Coco Chanel said: “Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” Living in debt is in no way fashionable.
