Maybe all that boot talk went to my head. Or the fact that I’ve done next to no shopping this year. But I just purchased a pair of shoes on clearance online, final sale, just because a promo code for an additional 15 percent off came to my inbox.

Yes, they are really cute (although they don’t look all that great floating on my blog). Yes, they will be great for work–if they fit. Yes, they were a reasonable $37. Plus there was free shipping. But did I need them? No. Did I need to gamble with final sale online shoes? No! Especially when you’re making a conscious effort not to shop.

Ever since I decided to buy fewer unneeded consumer goods, I’ve opted out of catalogs using Catalog Choice or tossed them aside when they come to the house. For a week I was also un-subscribing to many retailer’s emails. But then I got sick of making the extra clicks and never reached my goal of a cleaner e-life. And some companies don’t seem to follow through with my requests anyway.

For those of you who want less mail,visit: http://opt-out.cdt.org/.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work for opting out of e-mail, and the site explains why.

Back to silly purchases. Share your most recent or egregious impulse purchase. I have a prize for the best one.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 at 12:21 pm and is filed under Kara\'s finances, shopping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.