Shopping Trips should not be Guilt Trips

In my tight budgeting of the past few years, I have become accustomed to not spending much to any time in shopping areas. This means that when I do go to a shopping center, it feels almost otherworldly. In a store or in a collection of stores, I feel out of place and overly conscious about how much $$$ I am $pending.

This doesn't have to be this way! It's all relative!

Yesterday I bit the bullet and bought two books at Marin's best bookstore Book Passage for $45. While that is not cheap, again, it is all relative. $45 is also 5 1/2 Marin-SF commuting trips (and 4 if it is on the ferry), several trips to the coffee shop, a certain amount of food purchases... all of which I have done and continue to do.

And though it may seem that I am spending alot of money in the moment, it evens out, ultimately, and I stay grounded.