- 18 Dec, 2025 *
Like an idiot, I often try to justify my bad spending habits by telling myself that I need the thing I’m spending my money on. If I have a collection, I’ll convince myself my collection is not complete without that item. If I’m doing a craft, I’ll convince myself I need new supplies to do the craft properly. I’ll basically tell myself anything to get myself to spend money. But now that I’ve become claustrophobic in my own home because of all the crap I own, I figure it’s time to shift mindsets.
A specific example of consumption gone to far is my kpop collection. I have a pretty sizeable photocard collection, which I organize into binders. When I was in the height of my collecting, I was purchasing hundreds of dollars worth of kpop albums, single secondhand cards, …
- 18 Dec, 2025 *
Like an idiot, I often try to justify my bad spending habits by telling myself that I need the thing I’m spending my money on. If I have a collection, I’ll convince myself my collection is not complete without that item. If I’m doing a craft, I’ll convince myself I need new supplies to do the craft properly. I’ll basically tell myself anything to get myself to spend money. But now that I’ve become claustrophobic in my own home because of all the crap I own, I figure it’s time to shift mindsets.
A specific example of consumption gone to far is my kpop collection. I have a pretty sizeable photocard collection, which I organize into binders. When I was in the height of my collecting, I was purchasing hundreds of dollars worth of kpop albums, single secondhand cards, and binder supplies per month. I couldn’t keep up with the speed with which merchandise was being released, yet had convinced myself that my collection wouldn’t be complete without all the latest releases. It got to the point that I was stressing myself out over a hobby that was supposed to make me happy, so I quit. For months, I didn’t buy any new albums or cards, or even keep up with new merchandise. And I found that when I didn’t surround myself with social media accounts who could afford all the latest, I wasn’t all that concerned with having the next best thing. Suddenly, I could see just how massive my collection was, and I was proud of it without feeling the need to expand it further, despite new music and albums being released every month. I recently cleaned out my bedroom and found boxes and boxes of kpop albums that were just sitting around collecting dust. And they weren’t cheap, so it felt wrong to discard of them, but the happiness they were supposed to give me was gone. I collected all the recyclable boxes and removed any materials I could put to use in my scrapbook, and suddenly my living space seemed lighter (on that note, kpop albums boxes that are made entirely of plastic and not of cardboard are SO wasteful). Now, I am very strict on myself when it comes to kpop-related purchases and feel a lot better about the collection I already have, instead of the collection I am building my wasting money.
For crafting, I tend to get obsessed with one type of craft and impulsively spend money to get all the best supplies before I know if I even enjoy doing the craft. Stupid, I know. Recently, it was cross-stitch. I bought $100 worth of thread, needles, fabric, and other supplies just to find out that I actually don’t enjoy cross-stitching as much as I thought I would. Now that money, in the form of craft supplies, just sits in a box collecting dust.
I always convince myself this cycle won’t end the same, yet I always end up with a bunch of items I don’t really need or want. When I moved into my new apartment back in June, I realized just how many collectibles, books, and supplies I had that I was never going to use. To shift my mindset going forward, I cleared out my entire space and only kept things that I would truly miss if they were gone. If I planned on re-reading a book, I kept it. If not, I gave it to a friend who might enjoy it. If a collectible was just taking up space and I wasn’t admiring it daily, I gave it to someone else or threw it away. I try to look at collectibles differently now, such as not buying blind box toys or things that spark temporary joy but that are useless in the long run. If I’m going to spend my money on a collectible, since I haven’t given up all of my collections just because I sized down, I think about the item before purchasing it and decide if having the item will really make me happier. Oftentimes, the answer is no.