When I am not manic, I buy with a lot of thought. I read reviews very carefully - when I bought my latest jacket from REI I read every single review online. And I make sure that items are returnable. When I am manic, I buy with abandon and I forget about those rules of purchasing - last time I bought shoes on the streets of San Francisco from Naturalizer, a company with a "30 days UNworn" return policy, and they hurt my feet. Normally, I realize that you cannot determine in the store whether shoes would hurt your feet, you need to wear them (at least I do) so a good return policy is especially important for shoes. This pair of shoes is a very small example. Last year, I overbought abroad without regard to the fact that nowadays only one suitcase is allowed on international flights for free. I paid a fortune for extra suitcases which contained mostly garbage. This was when I went off Lithium - in general, Lithium keeps spending in check with an occasional UNreviwed and UNreturnable pair of shoes.

I envy this arrangement, grandmaof3, in which your husband has set aside an account for basic needs. I wish my ex-husband had done the same and left me with an account to cover my credit card spending. This way, after draining it, I would have met the consequences of my actions and probably learned something. This was during the time when I overspent in thousands and thousands (we had money at the time, not anymore).

In general, I find online shopping easier because the pull of a tangible item, as for instance in a thrift store, is stronger than that of an image. I am glad I developed the rules for online shopping - only well-reviewed items, only after reading the reviews and comparing with some other items, all this time-passing activity that insert some waiting period between the original want and the submit click are good things, IMO.