Anyone else have a spending problem like me?

Compulsive shoppers usually purchase things they don't really want or need because it stimulates the part of the brain in the same way that a drug does--and so it goes on and on, running up the bills just to get that rush again, like a "hit".

Here's how you know if you have a shopping problem---when it arrives in the mail, you get a momentary thrill from opening it and looking at it--but then you file it away, and hardly even look at it again or use it as it was intended to be used. If the actual purchase is more satidfying then the actual possessing of it, then you have a shopping problem.

Sufferers usually develope these compulsions either from chemical imbalances (yes, they can be treated with medicine in extreme cases) or from depression. You should ask yourself if these purchases are being used to mask some source of deep unhappiness in your life? 

I agree with the doog...  And the internet has made it all that much easier to encourage/develop a habit.  So that I don't fall into this trap, I usually fill up my shopping cart and either print it or save it.  I will come back to it a day or two later and usually find that none of the stuff I placed in the online cart is "needed" anymore...  However, if you can afford all that stuff, buy it.  Hobbies are individually oriented and if that is what makes you happy have at it.  I know friends who buy tools (full size stuff, not for modelling) like they are going out of style...  They are very proud of their tool rooms with band saws, vices, drill presses, etc. but as far as I know, don't use half the stuff they buy... but hey if that's what they like and it keeps them sane, more power to them. 

Wry smile.... of recognition

appart from consumables, (paint, glue, beer), I rarely splurge, except at my local hobby show (Iwata CS his year....)

If I really, really WANT something, I sell something on eb@y, so my hobby is finance neutral, well in theory...

Same with pc upgrades, earn it first, then upgrade...

What is hurting here is the runaway fuel, electric & petrol/diesel prices,

currently UKP£ 1.20/litre (UKP£ 5.46/gallon) for petrol & UKP£1.30 for diesel

That's approx USD$ 2.34/litre / USD$ 10.66 a gallon, diesel more....