I have a confession. I went shopping.

With everything going on this nasty economy, I have dutifully avoided buying anything that was not a necessity (of course, in my world, books, wine and a very occasional lunch out are necessities, but I digress). No new clothes, no new shoes, no new ....

But then spring led into summer, and as I searched through my closet for some seasonally-appropriate attire, I realized I had to go shopping. So I did. I didn't go overboard, of course, since I'm not that type of shopper no matter what the economy, but I did spend some bucks to get myself outfitted for the summer shows.

And I strongly suspect I'm not the only one. And I know I'm not the only one who has all of a sudden felt the urge, or the need, to outlay some of the money I have carefully been locking up in my FDIC-insured bank accounts.

In fact, there are a lot of surveys that indicate that shoppers are feeling a little better and more ready to spend. Quoting from a recent USA Today article, "Marketing services company Axciom, which has been studying which consumers will start spending first, sees hope in data showing that the percentage of people focusing on "needs" while shopping was down from 59.5% in April to 56.9% in May. And fewer people described themselves as "practical" and "realistic" when spending: 47.4% in May, compared with 51.6% in April."

Retail Forward recently released a report that indicated that the spending mood is significantly improved from August 2008. And consumer confidence figures showed sharp increases in April and May.

Does this mean we are out of the woods? Certainly not. There are an awful lot of people who have lost their jobs, are in serious danger of doing so, or are under-employed. Spending by that segment doesn't look to come back any time soon. But there are others of us out there — a majority even — who are still doing OK. And those are the ones who, I believe, will be out spending before much longer.

It's anecdotal to be sure, but I am seeing a lot more people out and about on weekends. Retail sales figures show that they aren't spending much yet, but just the act of getting out generally leads to some cash outlay. And window shopping almost always becomes real shopping at some stage in the game. Just consult my Amex bill for data on that.