Retail Therapy Haul | Albie Knows Product Round Up.jpeg

I have a confession to share: I’m an emotional shopper!

While, in general, I am pretty intentional when I am shopping. I try and myself to prevent buyer’s remorse, but a lot of times, when I am in an emotional tizzy, more often than not I get my relief from shopping. I comb through my wishlists and start adding to cart, or I take a drive to one of my fav retailers and take out my stress on my wallet.

P.S. don’t be like me… be better than me.

Even though I am shopping to deal with something going on elsewhere in my life, I will say, it is almost always for things I’d just been putting off for one reason or another (usually financial, and nothing makes you more reckless with money than your damn emotions!). As I said, I go through my lists of wants/needs and start hacking away, which usually leaves me feeling pretty damn good about myself…which is the whole point.

Why am I sharing this?

Because lately, I’ve been in need of A LOT of retail therapy — with some many back-to-back transitions in my life, my emotions have been on a thousand and my anxiety on a trillion. So I’ve been shopping! I wanted to share with you some of my recent spoils, and specifically, the things that have been really making my heart sing…

In case you haven’t figured it out by now, I love shopping for my home.

My days of clothing hauls are long retired, although for the Fall season, I did drop a hefty bit of coin for my daughter & I’s fall wardrobe at two of my favs, Old Navy and H&M. When it comes to shopping, it’s home shopping that really sparks joy for me, and I picked up things that would serve us in ways that were intentional, and not undo all the hard purging work I’ve done these past few months.

If you’ve been following along with my Instagram or here on the blog, then you know I’ve been doing a bit of updating in the kitchen — from organization to appliances — so it’s no surprise that some of the purchases that I’ve made recently that have made me really happy are for the kitchen:

With our change in family lifestyle, investing in new appliances and upgrading our organization tools have been some of the best purchases I’ve made in a long while. And yes I said “invest” because, lemme tell ya, these are not the cheapest appliances! While pieces like my mini smart oven and hot choc & frother (both by Breville by the way) were a pretty penny, we have definitely gotten more than our monies worth! Example: with the frother and some new coffee accessories, it’s been weeks since I’ve purchased coffee at a coffee shop! Talk about money saved!

And speaking of pretty…while in the kitchen, I couldn’t help but pretty things up a bit, starting with new organization accessories for the fridge and sleek drinkware for my coffee area. While both of these areas are still a work in progress, I am pleased as punch at actually starting to like my kitchen.

My recent happy purchases didn’t stop in the kitchen — retail therapy is all about making me feel better holistically…the whole of me. Going back into the workforce, for example, has forced me to rethink my wardrobe…and this led me to purchasing new staple pieces for my closet, including footwear like my new heeled booties from Target’s A New Day brand — I am obsessed! From sun up to sundown, I needed items that would make me look & feel good, like the Method body washes I am currently loving — Simply Nourish to start the day, Wind Down to end the day, and Deep Detox to end the week. Even my clear shower curtain liner, paired with my existing shower curtain (both Target brands btw) has totally done something unexpected for my shower experience!

And speaking of Target brands — which can easily be a post all their own! — I am not the only one that got a dinnerware & drinkware upgrade. After having a few pieces here and their, I finally got my daughter all the pieces from the Pillowfort dinnerware collection because she’s a big girl now!

Throughout the house, I’ve made little purchases to really just make hard days seem a little less hard.

earn while shopping

I get asked a lot of questions when it comes to shopping, especially how and why I do it all online. One of my favorite shopping hacks is using Rakuten formerly known as Ebates. I earn cash back on my online purchases, meaning I literally get paid to shop. While purchasing our fall wardrobe, for example, I earned actual money that was later deposited into my account…for me to of course spend again, LOL. That may be part of why shopping is slightly therapeutic to me — to some extent, it’s something I can control in a world of sometimes crazy uncontrollables. Does shopping give you joy or anxiety? Does it help you release stress or does it add stress? Let’s talk about it…