Fear of missing out (FOMO) on the Thanksgiving Holiday shopping sales was at a high for me this year.  In the past I remember Black Friday and Cyber Monday mostly being for large stores like Best Buy, Target and a few department stores, but this year everyone from small clothing boutiques to candy stores were participating in on what has now become a 5 day shopping extravaganza.   Sales started on the Eve of Thanksgiving into Black Friday, through the weekend and continuing onto Cyber Monday and then extended into Tuesday.  My Inbox literally was exploding with e-mail after email exclaiming not to miss out on the sale. And by Sunday the emails had me believing it and I was determined to make sure that I bought something just to feel like I wouldn’t be the idiot spending full price after the sale.  So after the kids went to bed Sunday night, I sat online scouring through the websites and to my surprise everything was either sold out or not available in my size.  I didn’t even think that so many people were doing the same thing, duh, but obviously I was totally wrong.  Forbes reported shoppers were clicking “at a rate of $2800 orders per minute, spending $1 million per minute at the peak of Black Friday.” My FOMO was real!!! But did I really want or need anything..NO. I was just buying just to buy and thats the worst type of shopping because there is no gratification.  I decided that next year I will make a shopping list up in advance so when the shopping extravaganza arrives Im ready to click and purchase.

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Stefanie