In a world where our daily entertainment and happiness relies heavily on consumerism and luxury, the urge to keep shopping is quite strong, even after the Christmas rush has ended. Even after everyone has already received and given gifts, there is still a spike in shopping up until January when things level out and stores are practically ghost towns. With credit card bills through the roof and shoppers guilt, it's hard to believe that people would continue to play into the after-holiday sales-- but they do. They may not be questioning their spending decisions when they're actually shopping in the moment, but when they get home and are reminded of the bills sitting on the counter or the necessities they need to buy to get through the week, they all ask themselves these questions.
"Why am I still shopping?"
It's easy to look at a bank statement and understand that you should stop spending and start saving, but it's hard to resist when stores continue to have sales and put things on a huge clearance. You probably don't need that second pair of gold stud earrings, but they're 74% off, so why not buy them while you can? Some stores actually have better sales after the holidays than before, because they want the sales to keep rising instead of taking a deep dip. Some people might consider after-holiday purchases on themselves as gifts for surviving the holidays. It's always nice buying for others, but nothing is more satisfying than treating yourself every now and again.
"How am I going to pay this off?"
The inevitable question—how will I actually pay this off? Many people would assume that it's easy since you are not spending a boat-load of money anymore on gifts and fancy feasts, but there are still necessities, birthdays, and the upcoming holiday of Valentine's Day. As my professor once said: "You will always be in debt, you just have to lessen the blow of that holiday shopping debt by paying more of the bill each month and hiding the credit card somewhere where you'll forget about it."
"Did I really have to return this the day after Christmas?"
It's the day after Christmas, December 26th, and you've decided that you have to return everything you didn't like on one of the busiest days of the year when everyone else is also returning everything they didn't want. Unless the person knows that the store has a bad return policy and you have to return it as soon as possible, there is no excuse as to why someone should rush to the mall the day after Christmas to return the ugly vase their cousin got them.
