I'm quite frugal in most ways, except when it comes to buying food or housewares. For example, some of my shoes are 15 years old. The newer ones are at least 3 years old. Though I have a small collection of shoes, I generally wear the same pair most days. If they are comfy, they are always worn. Most of my clothes are old, too, except for the ones my husband buys me. As for other stuff, I rarely buy anything.

Groceries are an issue with me. Both my husband and I do like to eat well, and I love to cook and bake a lot. The housewares are obviously part of that passion.

When I'm growing manic, hyperspending is usually not a primary problem for me, but isn't absent from my symptom list. That may be the time when I actually do buy some clothes/shoes, but the bills are usually in the $200-400 range, not thousands. Or more so, I go hog wild buying food. Recently when hypomanic, I got pissed off that sugar bags went from 5 lb bags to 4 lb bags, so I bought the remaining 5 lb bags plus some 4 lb bags on sale. I ended up coming home with about 40 lbs of sugar. Two cashiers commented (and I responded with a rant about the food industry), then hubby helped me vacuum pack them. The worst of my impulsivity has been doing other things.

I'm not sure if I'm slightly elevated in mood lately or not, but my cookie baking ambitions have been growing from 5 varieties to now a planned 8 varieties, a couple which will be double batches. Between cookie making supplies and regular groceries, I've spent almost $450 in the last week. There's just my husband and me at home, though we will share cookies with friends and family. I bought 6 lbs of nuts alone for cookies, not to mention other ingredients for them, cookie molds, cookie storage boxes, etc. My husband and I have also bought a lot of other Christmas food stuffs. My husband doesn't have bipolar disorder, but he is an over shopper, nonetheless. That's problematic.

I do look for deals, but if quality counts, I buy the high quality versions.

I prefer to shop for many things online instead of going to malls, except for regular groceries. Hubby is an extreme online shopper. We often have a box or more delivered to our door most days.