Dear LPG,

I know that I am not in the first flush of youth but I have to say that I have always loved shopping.  I am not only talking about the trips to the supermarket for the food that has to be bought in order to survive, although I have to admit to getting some pleasure out of that too.     I have often found myself on the bus on the way home armed with a full complement of shopping bags and daydreams of a short-term plan that surrounds the enjoyment I will get when I get home, make a cuppa and eat that really indulgent cake that I shouldn’t have bought in the cake shop opposite the bus stop.   I admit to being an impulse buyer.  I am often attracted by the gadget that I see in a shop window and which promises to help me when I am cooking or the new washing powder that will get all the stains out.  I have to say that, as I have got older, buying a new outfit is not always top of my shopping list anymore. 

But my favourite passion was suddenly confiscated on the day that Covid-19 forced our Government to shut the shops and keep us all at home.   I am happy in the knowledge that I don’t spent more money than I can afford but I do admit to buying some things on impulse; those that look wonderful in the shop but that, once I get them home, I somehow lose the impetus to actually use. 

The denial of my freedom to follow my favourite pastime really upset me for the first few weeks of lock-down until I discovered the world of online shopping.  For a while now I think that I have known a bit about what I am doing on a computer although I never felt confident enough to indulge my favourite passion online before, but with no other way open to me, and so much time on my hands, I learned a lot in quite a short time.

I suppose that I have a bit of an addiction although I tend to buy little things and put serious limits on the amount I spend. There is something special about saving for a month or two for something a bit more expensive and the wait often gives me the time to ask myself that age old question…’Do I really need this’, although I often give myself the wrong answer.  So I have swapped my shopping bags, and the bus, for the computer, the sound of the front door bell which heralds the sight of the box on the doorstep for now…

It is a fact.  I shop a lot and of the buy really silly things but, for me, budgeting has always been a big part of the process and I never overspend.  I suppose it is about balancing the amount of really useless fund things that you buy with what you really need and finding the happy medium.  

I have discovered that I am not the only person who feels that I can count shopping as one of my greatest hobbies.  l learned online that for some, shopping can be quite good for you as long as you keep control of what you are doing.

SA , Catford

LPG found some information about why shipping can be good for you…

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… and even though the internet always forgets that such issues affect older people too, how to do it responsibly …

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…perhaps the answer is to find the happy medium between the two.