$300 would be a bargain compared to the purses I've bought. I've spent four figures each on more than one purse. Granted, they were for special occasions, and she is otherwise thrifty.
I lived with a girl who had literally 40 pairs of shoes. She confessed that she only wore the majority of them once. Then she started shopping for more!!! I don't get it at all.
I think it is because most women aren't very logical or rational when it comes to things. They have this mentality of "got to have it now" no matter what the cost or if they already have something similar to it. What's funny is that I never really saw my mother go hogwild when it came to buying clothes, shoes, purses, jewelry, etc. So I was a little bewildered when I met my wife and saw all the shoes she had! I kid you not - but she has over 100 pairs of shoes! And the hardest thing she has to do in regards to her laundry is hanging the damn clothes up, lol! Washing and drying them is exceptionally easy - it's the hanging up part that sucks because there is so many of them (I promise no more exclamation points). She's better than when we first met but she falls into that mentality of seeing something on sale and buying it despite the fact that there is no need for it. She'll say, "Well, it was 50% off." To which I usually say, "Well, that still is x amount of money spent on something that wasn't needed." I really think that the need to shop is something biologically wired into their DNA or something and it affects most women but not all (see my mother).
I do love to splurge on stuff like shampoo, body lotions, bubble bath, makeup. My mother is a bit of a snob sometimes and she always told me growing up if there's something to spend extra money on, it's makeup and stuff for personal hygiene. My skin gets irritated if I use cheap stuff. But she was thrifty when it came to clothes and accessories. We went garage sale-ing a lot growing up and also bought a lot at thrift stores. I only bought another purse or pair of shoes if they were falling apart. I credit her for making me indifferent to shopping and telling me to only buy things when I need them.
I agree, some girls are overboard and I do think it has something to do with insecurity but I don't know for sure. I think I shop like a boy sometimes like 5 years ago when I decided to buy a nice black peacoat for work and I looked everywhere for one but fell in love with the first one and after trying on like 7 others, I went back and bought what happened to be the most expensive one at $250 from Brooks Brothers. I've worn it every winter since (granted that's only ~2 months in Houston but I wore it once in April in Chicago) and it's still in great condition. I don't shop often at all for a girl but when I buy classic pieces (like black slacks, blouses, etc), I'm not shy about spending a little for it to last longer. It has definitely paid off. Also, I'd say 40 pairs of shoes is on the high side, but not extreme at all. I think my mom and sister have 60+ each and growing. My dad always says "You only have two feet." Poor dad!! I just moved and gathered all my shoes together and found that I had way less than I suspected (~20) , which means I will go out and buy more. ;P I still have my Homecoming dress shoes from fall 1995 in the closet and only wore them one night. When else do you wear navy blue suede shoes?!?! And the painful ivory shoes I wore for 2 hours at my sister's wedding is still in the closet too. I really need to ebay those things to make $1 out of them. Oh and I never buy anything with a label on them so no LV, Gucci, etc purse for me. But I did just buy one last week from Nordstrom's for $248. Yikes! But I've been using the same black purse for work for ~6 years that my mom bought for me in Spain back in 1998 so that's really pretty good. All my other purses are tiny things from Target for $12.99 each. That's my two cents and I think that was my longest post on the BBS.
I think I have a pretty large collection of shoes for a guy: 2 Chuck Taylors 1 running shoes 1 bball shoes 1 moccasins 1 random diesel 3 flip flops 1 south asian sandals 1 dress shoes 1 dress sandals 1 bowling shoes But those have last me yeeaaarrrss. Not like I buy a new one every season. One thing I like to collect are hats. I don't think it's a waste of money, it's a collection.. it's like how nerds collect magic cards and such.
I was out on a dinner date with a girl once when she mentioned that she had spent $700 on the purse she was carrying around. I said that was ridiculous and her response was that it wasn't so bad, and that she actually planned on paying $1,000 on the one she wanted to buy next. So I pointed outside at the car I drove her there in (an older, but very nice and very fast sports car). I said "So, you're telling me that if someone threw 15 purses into the empty space next to my car, and gave you the choice of taking home the item(s) in either of the two parking spaces, you'd take the purses?!". Her answer was "yeah". There was no second date.
Same here. My wife does not care about jewelery, cards, houses, etc. It's me that loves spending money on clothes and eating out at nice restaurants.
So meggo votes 100% nurture, no nature. That's cool. Could be very true. LadyDi votes all of the above. A-Train points out that men may spend just as much $ but on larger items. Several posts get into shoes. Very interesting. You have finalsbound saying she thinks 10+ pair shows something crazy. My wife (not too crazy, or so I maintain, probably has ... I dunno... 15-20?). Then we have the citations of 60+. I would wager that 15+ shoes for women over 30 is more common than it is rare. But that could still all be nurture over nature. What an excellent thread. But maybe my dumbass posts risk moving this to D&D...
simplisticly, cuz, a princess can? scientifically, evolutionary roles. men go on the big hunts for big game, women gather the additionals. nesting instincts just me: all the days (life) spent in the kitchen or doing chores might be fulfilling personally but probably not "rewarding" or recognized. getting stuff adds a bit of excitement. getting something real nice for cheap adds a little thrill. getting something that probably wasn't from personal expense-even better which may sound bad, but i mean, being oblivious to the world around has its benefits like that right? and, oh man the christmas sales are out, must get going on those... might be more WHO'S money got spent on the things you can spend your own money how you want. just have a LITTLE bit of credit left when you enter into a serious with a guy
