Just give it right back

After I finished my shift the other day I went shopping for a few things before I left and as I was shopping I realized that I almost never leave work without buying something. I decided I would force my self to do the math and see exactly what the damage was. I figure every time I work I spend an average of $8.00. That basically means for every shift I work I am working one hour for free. And I'm honestly not saying this is bad. I actually did the same thing when I used to work at the bookstore but it was much, much worse because I got paid about the same amount I get paid now but I would spend more on the books. I generally don't do large grocery shopping trips--I tend to do smaller shopping trips once or twice and week-and many of things I buy are on sale, so $8.00 bucks a trip doesn't seem that bad to me. But there are definitely times when I make impulse purchases or buy something just because I'm already at the store and it's so convenient to just grab it. And once in a while I buy food to eat on break which is money I wouldn't otherwise be spending. Although lately I have been bringing snack packs from home so I have something to eat on my break. That seems to be working out well. So I am going to make a conscience effort to try to limit the amount I spend when I go shopping at work but mostly they pay me money for working there and I just turn around and give it right back. I image this happens to a lot of people working customer service(or maybe I just have no willpower). I think that if I worked at Old Navy or Macy's or Target I would just spend half my paycheck right there.