Freeze your credit card in a bowl of water, by the time it lets the urge may have passed, and don't use your debit card. Pull out a cash allowance for the week and use that....spending cash has more punch than using the plastic....

*melts

Oh, I'd be the hosting the intervention, not needing it. I tend to under buy things b/c I don't want to have to have anything extra to have to clean. Plus, I don't have a credit card anyway.

The shopaholic is my Mother (whom I live with). Telling her she needs to stop is not enough. She would never freeze her credit card, or allow me to. I flat out tell her she's got a problem, she agrees.

I just don't know what else to do! The chaos in the house is making me very irritable.

One of my daughters has a similar problem. Her in laws buy the kids every toy possible. (she just bought them a remote helicopter and the oldest is 5) The bedroom has bins and baskets and there is no way to even play with the toys there is so much in the room and on the floors. I feel for you.

Do you think your Mom would notice if you donated a bunch of the stuff to charity? With so much stuff in the house is it possible she wouldn't even notice if some of it were gone?

I don't have any advice about how to do an intervention. Especially if she admits she has a problem. Where do you go from there? I don't know.

I would purposefully give with love these things away..as long as no one is using them any longer. You'll help someone and feel a burden lift.

If she admits she has a problem, but doesn't seek help to change it, I am not sure how to help or what u can do other than, as has been said, donate things. But I would ask her first if she would be willing to do this. If she would be willling to give to some families less fortunate. Good luck.

It being your mom you are in a tough spot. I don't know exactly how I would have it. Sorry it has become a problem. Hoping the best for you!

Hi Hanna~~

Does your mom have a problem parting with things or just bringing more stuff into the house?

Do you think she'd be willing to work with someone on this problem?

Oh, HannaHana, I can relate. I live with a shopaholic!

She goes out everyday, I wouldn't even know how to approach the situation myself.

Watch "Hoarders".. it's a really great show actually on OCD... a huge number of hoarders are shopoholics..

4 clocks ! Plenty of time to deal with it

She admits that she is a shopaholic. She says she should get rid of some stuff. She cracks jokes about some of the absurd things that she has and never uses ("you never know when you might need an extra cordless can opener that can open pop-top cans" or "You can never have too many universal remotes"...meanwhile we have to use 3-4 different remotes to use the TV). She tries to make light of me confronting her about it by yelling "BUT IT WAS ON SALE!!!!" in as joking of a tone as possible.

That's just stuff. Never mind her excessive urge to buy food that no one will ever eat. She buys this economy sized barrel of hot fudge, but she has to put almost all of it into ziploc bags and freeze it b/c we don't really eat ice cream and will never get to it before it's expiration date. There are 3 cans of SPAM in the closet. My Mother has not prepared Spam since I was a young child and our family was in a financial crisis. We don't just have the regular refrigerator, we have that, plus cabinets, plus an entire overflowing closet, PLUS one of those freezers that looks like it belongs in a supermarket. AND food all over the counters b/c there isn't enough room in all of those places.

Unfortunately, she WOULD notice if anything went missing. She's forgetful a lot, but I swear she could recite the sale price of every single item in the house....and she can't justify getting rid of something that she got so cheap. She just brings more and more into the house. She'll run to the store for milk....if it were me, it would be a 10 minute venture to the nearest gas station and I'd come back with just milk....but she'll be gone for 3 hours and come back with 2 weeks worth of food that nobody will eat...and forgot the milk.

She knows she has a problem. I've talked to her multiple times about it. Hell, my Grandmother lives here too...and she has an addiction to shopping from the Home Shopping Network. If my Grandmother doesn't finish her meal, she'll put a napkin over it to save it for later or tomorrow. I'd say there was a genetic link to shopping addiction, but my Mother has only gotten really bad over the past few years.

Sorry I'm writing so much....I just have no idea what the hell to do!

I tried the ol' charge myself into bankruptcy trick, thinking this would work but it only gets me to pay huge percentage rates for cars and not allow me to live in nicer apartments.

I have bankrupt myself 3 times and I am facing it again. I doubt the new bankruptcy laws will allow this so I am trying real hard to not do this.

There is no chargeoholic meetings in Hell so I can't go there.