Day Two

Day Two: I can’t fall asleep. I was up late watching infomercials, but today being the second day of my detox, I was watching with a much more discerning eye. They were pitching some pretty crazy stuff. Shamwows, a salsa maker and some HD sunglasses that improve how the world looks. The detox has made me hyper aware of how over saturated with advertisements and commercial propositions my daily life is and these infomercials just seemed absurd. Why would anyone need to buy a salsa maker without leaving there bed? From sun up to sun down we are bombarded with opportunities to indulge. Someone is always after our money, everyone wants us to want stuff.

The offer on the salsa maker was getting a little too tempting for me so I switched channels. The Suze Orman Show was on. For those of you who haven’t seen the show, Susan Orman (Internationally acclaimed personal finance expert) helps callers sort out finical problems. It is also a show that gives me heart palpitations, the show always ends with me feeling like I am not saving enough for retirement and is part of the reason I am still awake at 3am.

Suze has a segment on her show called “Can I Afford It?” where callers phone in and tell Susie about something they want to buy that is beyond an everyday essential. Tonight the callers desired items ranged from bagpipes ($1,300), an African safari ($12,000), a custom made saddle ($6,000) and a stripper pole ($500) and I am not making any of this up. The callers lay out their finical situation and Susie give them a professional opinion. All callers were denied tonight. None of them could actually afford it. Which made me question all my recent purchases. Could I really afford to send over one hundred dollars on jeans?

Between the callers bizarre desires and the infomercials that were on tonight the world seemed so clear to me (and I didn’t even need the HD vision ultra sunglasses), everyone wants something. Why wouldn’t we? We have been conditioned to believe that we need to want stuff. I may be getting delirious. Time for bed.

On a brighter note, I didn’t buy any stuff today. Still going strong.