Grocery Therapy

Everyone has their own coping mechanisms. Back in the day (yes, a loose definition of time) I would calm any frustrations obtained at work or school through a relaxing experience I defined as my “Retail Therapy”. I made a specific effort (who are we kidding – it took no effort whatsoever) to become very familiar with the geographic shopping potential of every office I worked in, so I knew my options if I needed to escape during lunch hour, or hit a sale on my way home after hours.

I’m not sure if the average guy has the same connection with shopping, but I do know a few. The feelings that arise just from the sheer possibility of discovering something that you need, you love, is in your size and is ON SALE cancel out all project overloads, co-worker drama, and boss frustrations that might have been plaguing your day. (We won’t go into how some of these things end up in the back of my closet, never to see daylight again until the bi-annual I-need-more-hanging-space-let’s-donate-this event.)

This (ok I’ll admit it) minor addiction probably hit its peak early in my official adult life as soon as I graduated college and was earning a real salary. After I went a little overboard (more admitting) I tried to do the right thing and recognize that I needed to invest some time to understand the value of that “budget” word I kept hearing about. But the shopping thing could be compared to me going out to eat at a great restaurant: if I’m there, I’m not ordering the salad – I’m splurging.

So for me, the answer was to avoid the temptation altogether. I redirected my frustrations to the elliptical machine at my gym and was able to actually start building some personal financial worth. If you ever caught me in a retail establishment during that time I was most likely shopping for a gift. I fell off the wagon a few times, but overall I’ve done a pretty good job of avoiding the shopping malls throughout the years, and thankfully online shopping isn’t nearly as gratifying.

Enter the art of grocery shopping. At some point I started to notice that I could get the same “retail therapy” high while planning my grocery list for the week. Like shopping for a great dress, shopping for groceries can offer the same emotional satisfaction – I need to eat, I love food, it’s always in your size, and you can still shop for sales! As long as I recognize that there is no need to buy food for the purpose of insulating me enough to forgo buying a great jacket, then I can handle it. Telling myself that “I have to do this anyway” makes the bill a whole lot easier to swallow in this type of economy than if I had bought that dress. And is just as satisfying, I promise.

By the way, outlet malls don’t count. See you in the checkout line!

How do you handle frustration from work? What’s your secret?