The first week was easy; I enjoyed the challenge in the second week; last week I had Ofsted to worry about. But this week I have started to struggle. The thing is, I like shopping. I enjoy spending a lazy afternoon wandering round the bookshops in Clarendon Park or oohing over the dresses in H&M. I'm one of those strange people who actually enjoys supermarkets and can quite happily while away hours browsing the aisles in Tesco, popping bargain clothes and kitchen implements I don't really need into my trolley. Making it even harder is the fact that some of the clothes in the shops at the moment are so lovely. Polka dots are everywhere this autumn and I adore polka dots. I love cardigans and woolly jumpers and brogues and thick tights and everything else that's just hit shop floors.
However, my self-control has surpassed anything I could have anticipated. This afternoon I found myself at Leicester's out of town shopping centre (to return a broken vacuum cleaner, so totally allowed), and having had a shitty lesson last thing this afternoon was even toying with the idea of treating myself to something. "Who'll know?" I thought. After all, I live on my own so smuggling something into the house wouldn't be a problem. I walked into Dotty P's, looked at the lovely dresses on display longingly and... walked out again. I just couldn't do it. Even an utterly gorgeous dress (with - what else? - polka dots) in Sainsburys couldn't tempt me. "Three more weeks," I repeated to myself as I scurried back to the car.
A few years ago (even, perhaps, a few weeks ago) there is no way I would be able to walk away without buying something I wanted. I was totally in thrall to the 'must have it, and must have it now' mentality that is so pervasive in modern society. I'm frankly amazed that in the space of four weeks I have managed to reprogramme myself so effectively. Whether it will last when the experiment, with it's clear rules, has finished is another matter.
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