I Buy Things. Then I Use Them. Go, Me!

I did go into the new Wal-Mart today. It was pathetically exciting. Wow! A whole plethora of consumer goods available for purchase right here in my own neighborhood! I have the feeling this could be kind of a dangerous thing. Previously, whenever there was something I needed that I couldn't get at the local grocery or hardware store, I'd just add it to a big mental list of stuff I needed, and when the need got urgent enough or I happened to be going in that direction anyway, I'd head into Belen and shop. I'd be lying if I said that eliminated impulse purchasing, but, for large stuff, anyway, there was sort of a built-in waiting period. Now, should I happen to decide that I need a new TV -- which, actually, I kind of do -- I can go five minutes down the road and walk out with one. Instant gratification is a powerful lure, you know, and I can't count how many things I've previously decided I didn't really need because they weren't worth the hour-and-a-half trip it would take to purchase them. And I was doing so well at saving money there for a while, too.

My major purchase today was a vacuum cleaner, but that can't possibly be considered an impulse buy, as I needed one desperately. My old one had gotten to the point where it was literally held together with duct tape. I bought it way back when I was a penniless student, so it was an extremely cheap model, which I got even cheaper by buying it factory serviced. Its one and only advertising claim was that it was really light.

I gotta say, vacuum cleaners have changed a lot since the last time I looked. They've got these bagless see-through compartments now. Very spiffy. The one I just bought has about four filters, and a light in the front, and all kinds off stuff, and I think it cost about twenty or thirty dollars more than my old one originally did. What really convinces me that it was time for a new vacuum, though, is the fact that, the first time I used it on my floors, it completely filled the dirt compartment. Way up past the fill line. I vacuum my carpets an average of a couple of times a month, but it occurs to me now that they've probably never actually been clean since I moved in.

Also, I'm not sure, but I think the cats might be slightly less afraid of this one.