I {don't really} hate shopping

As I was driving home from a mystery shopping assignment last Friday, the irony struck me, for the first time.  I really dislike shopping.  One might even go so far as to say I hate shopping.  I have never understood recreational shopping.  And yet, here I am, shopping professionally.  When I thought about it further, though, I realized that it is rare for me to actually go to a store for a mystery shop.  My very favorite mystery shop does not involve actual shopping, and the mystery shop I do most often is online, with no actual shopping, so I don't have to go anywhere or even get dressed.

Maybe it's not so strange, after all.

On Monday I had a whole lot of errands to run.  I listed them, and counted ten different stops that I needed to make, eight of which were at stores.  You know, stores, where shopping occurs.  Ugh.

First of all, I stay home on Mondays, so that was one whole big heap of wrong right there.  But ten stops!  In one day!  For a shopping-hater.

Why?
(say it again, with feeling)

And that's when I realized that it's not shopping that I hate, not really.  It's spending money that I'm averse to.  That's why the eight shopping stops.  I probably could have taken care of everything on my list with one stop; for sure two stops would have sufficed.  But I had a free gift card for this store, and that store had an awesome rebate on batteries, and the other store has Cartwheel, and I had to return the thing that I bought at that other store because it had the best price.  And everything's a dollar (Even though most of it's crap)!  And while those stores have food, they don't really have groceries.

I hate spending more money than I have to, which is why, all these years, I've thought that I hate shopping.  Huh.  And because I hate spending more money than I have to, I go to a lot of different stores to make lots of little purchases.

While it's always gratifying to learn something about oneself, I'm not sure what to do with this one.  It's kind of a problem for the household's procurement officer to not want to spend money.

I still don't understand recreational shopping.