Can you shop at Target and stay on budget? I can’t.

Since I’m at FinCon12 this week, please enjoy this post from another blog of mine that didn’t last very long. 

I am painfully jealous of people who can go to Target with a list and only purchase what’s on that list. Because I? Cannot.

My Target intentions really are pure. I diligently plan out what I need and bring roughly what I think I’m going to spend on those items (I even have the Target app on my iPhone. It does me no good). I walk in, calmly grab a wagon and walk towards the aisles that house what I came to buy.

I think that getting a wagon is probably my first mistake. I tend to see a wagon and think, “Wow! I’ve got plenty of room in there for my purchases!” I’m ecstatic that I even have room upfront for my purse and whatever toys the child felt were necessary to bring with us (because no shopping trip to Target is complete without 75 Barbies, 49 stuffed animals and a crayon. Yup, one crayon).  But seeing as how I clearly hate empty space (and my budget, apparently), I feel the need to fill up the wagon.

I get lured in by the shiny new beauty products that I don’t need (oh, wall of sample sizes. How you test my willpower) and the towels that I have no room for and the toys that my daughter will try to steal so I pay for them because I don’t need a 5 year old criminal. I take them from their lonely spots on the shelves and add them to the party in my wagon. I lather, rinse, repeat throughout the store until I’m too tired to shop anymore. Then, as I push my now overloaded wagon sadly around the rest of the store, winding my way to the registers, I remind myself that I forgot to get what I actually needed. So off I go for another spin. And the cycle repeats. And then I hang my head in shame as I hand my debit card over to the cashier, while the cash in my wallet mocks my lack of willpower.

It’s a shame really because I know that it is possible to walk into Target, get only what I need to survive (or clean myself or feed my cat or whatever), pay and walk out. I know it’s possible because I’ve seen people do it! And they fascinate me with their discipline and fiscal responsibility. I want them to have their own show on TLC; the antithesis of Extreme Couponing. It’ll be called Extreme Target Shopping and the extreme part is not saving money by buying 9700000 bottles of mustard for a quarter but buying only one because that’s what’s on the list.

I’d totally watch that show.