Pricey Collectibles/Rubbish

Note: I am ranting again. If you don’t like reading anything negative, there are heaps of other blogs out there.

I am very angry at the moment. I just found out on Friday that M had gone around to ordering online and purchasing from JB Hi-Fi a big stash of DVDs behind my back. He had decided foolishly that he needed to splash out on more rubbish to celebrate his birthday. There are times when I feel sick just looking at the stuff he had collected over the years. Depending on the price tag, I usually turn a blind eye these days but if the item is pricey, he does get yelled at. This time though, M had exceeded my highest level of tolerance. He didn’t buy just one or two DVDs; he actually bought more than 10! The Get Smart ones were $40 each when he paid for them a few days ago. When I found out about the secret shopping spree, I told him that he should have waited because I am absolutely sure that the price for them will come down. Guess what? The same Get Smart DVDs are now priced $27.99 each in the latest Target (Mother’s Day) catalogue! M can be such an idiot.

During one of my many phone calls home last month, I told my mum how M is spending less on his hobbies these days. I was full of praise. He overheard it and felt really good about that. Little did I know that he was about to embark on a senseless spending spree. He probably thought that I was too blindly in love to realise his secret purchases. I wonder what else he is hiding from me. He had better cough up everything before my birthday.

From die-cast cars to comics to DVDs, M buys all sorts of collectibles. It’s like an addiction. M does not take drugs or smoke and rarely drinks (alcohol) but when it comes to buying all this stuff he thinks that he virtually has unlimited funds like Lindsay Fox. I totally believe that he was encouraged to collect these things since childhood because I now witness the next generation (nephews and nieces) getting encouraged into such hobbies. (It is scary just visualizing that.) This supposedly gold-digger had tried to take control but as you can see, I was not very successful. One should also see the looks I get from a certain someone if I dare say anything negative (however minute) about M.

We had a big talk on Friday. M was defensive at first and when he is like that he tends to exaggerate things. He suggested selling what he bought to recoup what he had paid. I had to laugh but that must have been the dumbest idea. Now that the DVDs have been viewed, they would have to be sold as ‘Used’ and would therefore fetch literally nothing on EBay. LOL. He looked utterly miserable all day but I am still not sure if that was all one big act. I refused to offer any suggestions but I will give all the support if he needed help moderating his hobbies. To some people, telling M what to do is like controlling him excessively. I don’t want to be that nasty gold-digger. Eventually it was he who concluded that he needed to practice moderation. Interestingly, he also decided to work on some (self-esteem) issues after I ‘painted’ him what his life and childhood were like before we were together. Apparently I was spot on. I have ‘painted’ similar pictures for him in the past but he mostly rejected them probably because they brought back too many painful memories that he simply didn’t want to face up to. He is probably ready to do something about those issues now. As said before, I will support or help if requested. He will have to do the bulk of the work because he has to be the agent of change, not me.