Where does the old adage "waste not, want not" come from?
and does it come with a guarantee?
I have a lot of stuff. A LOT of stuff. I often imagine I have enough "stuff" to not need anything else for a while, but that I just need to reexamine my surroundings with new eyes. That is exactly the plan.
For the next 4 weeks and 1 day I will not buy anything except the necessities. This is probably an easy quest for most, but not for me. I may preach conservation, but I live consumption. Maybe not a wasteful life, but (and especially as I buy things for the house and I want projects finished now now now) I don't mind the purchase of an object or two under the guise of collections, decor, and the dreaded word: nesting. Does that make me the stereotypical female? If so, I'm breaking free.
No buying for 4 weeks, aside from necessity. If I want new clothes, I'll make them (or finish one of the billion pieces I've started). If I want a pillow for the living room, I'll make it. If I want it, I have to work for it. Maybe this way I will get around to renovating some clothing, too!
The rules and exceptions:
1) Food: if there are dinner leftovers, they will be my lunch. I can eat out twice during each work week, everything else will be storebought.
2) Gasoline, and unfortunately for my '85 Volvo wagon, it drinks some gas for sure.
3) Dirt. This one is guiltily close to not being necessity, however I have a huge mass of seedlings that will need to be put in the ground between now and the deadline and either they get wasted or I have to buy dirt. Considering my propensity towards gardening, and the purchase of additional dirt will allow fewer trips to the grocery store in the future, I'm thinking this exception is okay.
Where does this take me? What good will it do? I am going to break my habit of spending. Although Gee-Dubya tells us all that spending keeps America safe from terrorists, I would rather keep my wallet full of forefathers. Especially if Charlie and I plan on buying a house. And the dream of opening a bed and breakfast swims in the back of my mind, surfacing during daydreams.
And maybe, just maybe, this will help dwindle the piles of stuff I have yet to post pics of. Just maybe.
1 comment:
I am a terrible, terrible pack rat. I often have to force purgings on myself and I still find myself tucking little things back into a box, just in case I might need it.
Good luck in saving for a house. It is a hard road but I am sure you will do it.
When we decided to buy our house, we actually changed our W-4s to have 0 exemptions so that we were garunteed a tax return and then used the return as the down payment. You really aren't suppose to do that, but since the interest rates are awful anyway, having goverment keep it kept it out of temptation's way.
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