How to have a very rich shopping experience!

This morning I drove to Inverness intending to spend some vouchers from Christmas. I decided I was going to have an experience of feeling rich doing it. It’s so easy when amongst the shops to find yourself thinking ‘Oh it’s lovely, but I can’t afford it’.

Regardless of whether you think that is true or not, or even if it is true in terms of your bank balance, having the thought ‘I can’t afford it’ or ‘it’s too expensive’ doesn’t make for having an enjoyable shopping experience.

Here’s what I did to make sure I was going to have a great time, no matter what happened. I simply decided to consciously walk around the clothes saying to myself ’ I can have what I want; I can buy whatever I want’. And — very important — I didn’t look at the price tags. I was focusing first on the sale rails, because why not get a bargain and good value for money? Plus I’d decided beforehand that I only wanted to spend up to about £75. (Good idea that, by the way, to set a limit beforehand, because otherwise you can very easily get carried away, just like what happens in auctions!) But primarily I was looking for something that made me feel rich, which is my guiding principle when trying on clothes. This, plus directing my mind to think ‘I can buy whatever I want’ made me feel rich, before I’d spent any money at all.

I wanted something to wear to a party, and I found a lovely black dress on a sale rail in East. It looked gorgeous, and only after I’d tried it on did I look at the price tag. Down from £150 to £45 — pretty good deal! And then when I get to the sales counter, I have a surprise, there’s even more off, bringing it to £30. But in a way I wasn’t surprised, because I was already feeling rich, which felt good, and it wasn’t dependent on whether I found anything I wanted to buy. (And it was amazing how much I didn’t want to buy when I allowed myself in my mind to buy anything).

I highly recommend trying this out, regardless of what you are shopping for. Just see what happens when you focus your thoughts on deciding you can have anything, instead of limiting yourself by deciding you can only have what you can afford.