Ooops

Psst! I have a secret. Come closer. Closer. Are you ready? I cheated yesterday. I lost my favorite pair of sunglasses and I replaced them. It only cost $10 but still... I cheated. What to do?

Progress?

So far, things are going well.

I have managed not to do any shopping with the exception of new facial lotion. My ipod is still busted but working. The black hole has slowed its progress. I heard rumors that Verizon will be coming out with iphones at the end of this year. My goal is to hold on to my ipod as long as possible and replace two gadgets with one. My coffee mug has been taken apart several times, cleaned and reassembled. It still leaks.

I received my tax rebate and put the entire thing on my credit card. It felt really, really good. One more month and the damn thing will be paid off in full. I made the payment before I had time to rethink it. It's a good thing too because I could really convince myself that a kayak or additional dive gear is just what I need.

Last week (or maybe two weekends ago?) my friend hosted a "Swap yer Shit" party. Everyone brought over all the things they no longer want or use. Clothes, books, DVDs, gadgets, kitchen appliances, shoes, etc. and we traded. It was a great success! I left with new clothes, a crock pot, a suit and some home decor. It satisfied my shopping needs without spending a dime. All of the unclaimed items were donated.

I have noticed that I am eating out a great deal more now that I am not shopping. I guess it's because I'm saving money so I reward myself by eating out. Other than that, everything is going extremely well.

I foresee the next obstacle will be scuba diving in the Florida Keys next month. I would like to pick up a few items for my dive gear and the Keys is a great place to do scuba shopping. Eek!

$ave Money

Here's some more tips that have been coming my way on how to save money and stretch out the replacement dates of your home products.

1. Add a little bit of water to all of your liquid products. Shampoo, liquid soap, laundry detergent, Febreeze, Downy Wrinkle Release, etc. Go do it now before you forget. Go on.
2. Instead of buying static cling sheets, dip an old sock in extremely watered down fabric softener and throw it in the dryer with your wet clothes. Be mindful to use a dark sock with your dark clothes to avoid fuzz.
3. Forget windex. My Mom always preached the value of old fashioned white vinegar. Vinegar and water cleans the windows great and is also good for stains on the carpet. Mama knows best.
   
4. Tear up an old towel into tiny squares. The next time you reach for paper towels to tackle a spill, grab yourself a junk rag instead. You can collect them in a bucket in the laundry room and wash as needed.

In other news, I think I have some solutions to my previous dilemmas. If my ipod continues to be consumed by the black hole, I'm going to look into transferring my music onto my cell phone. It has MP3 capabilities but I've never looked into it because I always use my ipod. I've had a second MP3 player at my disposal this entire time!

Also, my coffee mug continues to leak. One of these days I'm just going to bring it into the office and remove my need for a travel mug.

I must say, my boss made an excellent point on this subject: it shouldn't count if it's replacement of an existing object. Oh, I like her thinking. Special thanks to Jill and Elise for the brainstorming.

It's only been 11 days but things are going good. Everyone has been extremely helpful and supportive. Some of you have given me great tips which I'm working into my blog to share with everyone else.

Stay tuned for the next blog when I start to discuss the ultimate dilemma... no shopping when you're in NEW YORK CITY!! Ahhhh!

Withdrawals

I had my first bout of shopping withdrawal last night. I dreamt I found a bookstore on campus (go Seminoles!) that was open 24/7 with a huge selection of hardbacks. All the books were half the price of a normal bookstore and they carried the unreleased books to complete every series. (There are several series I’m reading which I’m waiting on the author to publish the next or last book of the series.) I debated with myself whether or not to break my vow of no shopping. Then I convinced myself that reading is for entertainment and doesn’t count as shopping and I bought an armful. It was lovely.

First Hurdle

Well, it's been one week into the challenge and I've hit my first hurdle... well two actually. I cannot live without either.

Crisis #1: Black and Beautiful

I've had my ipod for about 3 years now and named it Black and Beautiful (Snoop Dogg). I dropped B&B Monday morning in my haste to get to work. It slightly cracked the screen and damaged some of the pixels or cells or whatever they're called. It has created what I call a black hole on the screen. Not a large one and it's towards the top - no big deal, right? But each day the black hole is getting larger and larger. It has now overtaken the banner and battery display across the top. At this rate I won't be able to navigate my ipod in two weeks.

What's weird is that when the ipod is in sleep mode, the black hole is the original size and doesn't disrupt the view. But when I wake up B&B, the blackhole is back. That may be the only way to work the ipod in the future. I'll have to wait for it to go to sleep mode and then memorize the steps to select music. That also ruins the functionality of it being a video ipod.

I looked into pricing to replace my ipod -$250. Not terrible for 160 GB.... but I can't spend money!! I'll just have to wait and see what kind of damage the black hole creates in the upcoming weeks.

Crisis #2: Travel mug with a leak

A year ago I spent $20 on the best stainless steal coffee mug in the world. It absolutely does not leak. I enjoyed this endlessly for the first few weeks as I demonstrated the guarantee over my coworkers' heads. They, unfortunately, did not. In any case, the mug was perfect. Several tumbles and curse words later, the mug still works great. That is, until the day I took it apart to clean it. Although it has been reassembled (perfectly if you ask me) it leaks. I learned this the hard way on the way to work. I have tried everything and cannot figure out why it's leaking.

My alternatives are to tolerate a less than adequate travel mug for six months and possibly risk every work blouse I own. Or, I could fill it only half way and reduce the risk of slosh-and-splash. Or, I could relocated my coffee maker to my office and cut out the middle man. I don't really drink coffee on the weekends anyways.

I'll give option #2 a try and if it fails move on to option #3. But seriously, that's a bad ass looking coffee mug, right?

Free is the name of the game

Take a moment to check out the goods advertised under the free section of Craigslist. This link is for the Tallahassee area but you could easily look for your own city.

http://tallahassee.craigslist.org/zip/

People have been coming forward with a lot of great websites and suggestions. I have not posted these yet because many of them have agendas (albeit agendas I agree with but agendas nonetheless). I'm afraid that some of you will become wary of my blog or refrain from trying this yourself if there are suspect agendas involved. Politics are not involved here.

My agenda is to change how I participate as a consumer by changing my lifestyle choices and my spending habits. And hey, some extra money wouldn't suck either.

Day 2 - slight panic

It is day two of my new pledge and already I have a million questions.

What, exactly, is off limits? I could talk myself into anything with enough reasoning. I need clear rules – what’s ok to purchase and what’s not. For every question that pops into my head I’m trying to think of alternative solutions or, if nothing else, cheaper ones. Here are some examples:

1. Hair conditioner – Um, gotta have it! If I run out of hair conditioner in the next 6 months, I can use mineral oil when I blow dry. I’ve had to do that a few times and it helps condition and softens my ends. Here’s hoping I don’t run out though!

2. Chapstick. Anyone who knows me knows I am addicted. I must have about 5 or 6 floating around my house but my favorite is by Covergirl. What do I do when it runs out? The other ones don’t moisturize and give a hint of glossy color. I mean, it’s a useable good so doesn’t that count as an exception? This is a bridge I will have to cross when I come to it.

3. Oil changes – these are required for good car maintenance. It would cost me more in the long run to ignore oil changes. But what about learning to do them myself? I think that’s a worthwhile thing to learn. I just had it changed over the weekend but next time I’ll give it a shot…

4. Lotion – For some reason, people love to give me these silly lotions for Christmas presents. I have an assortment of awful berry and herbal scented lotions. I guess I’ll use them all before purchasing new lotion but yuk! They smell awful.

5. Frontline – I don’t think this is negotiable. My cat, Kairi, needs to have flea protection. It’s not a purchase for me or to benefit me. I do, however, have a coupon to receive a free Frontline dosage with the purchase of three. I might as well buy them all at once and save some money.

6. Coffee to go – I usually make coffee at home but sometimes I get lazy and pick it up. It’s only gas station coffee and not very expensive but it is an expense. I think this will be the hardest thing to avoid. I don’t know… it’s a beverage… it could count as food… What do you think?

The more I think about it the easier I think this whole thing will be. It’s unfair really – I just scratched my shopping itch. In the past two months I bought a new pair of pants, two jumpsuits, some accessories, two new tops, a sweater, two pairs of shoes and two jackets. No wonder I feel O.K. without shopping for a while – I won’t be missing out because I just bought a ton of clothes! In my defense though, all of those things were purchased under great holiday sales.

Crap! That sounds like the justification of a consumer.

Switching gears, here’s the things I’m doing to save money and stop shopping. Some of these things I’m already doing and some are new.

1. Divide and conquer

I love the Dove facial cloths. They usually last about 3-4 uses before the soap runs out. I used to think that was pretty good but now it’s not good enough. I cut every cloth into quarters and because less cloth is getting wet they last 2 uses each. That gives me 8 uses per cloth – twice what I was getting before.

2. Ulterior motives with alterations

I bought jeans from the Gap months ago that were the wrong fit – the legs were long instead of regular length. They were on sale for $8 and I bought them anyways. After wearing them with heels a few times I took them to the tailor over the weekend and had the length hemmed. That cost $10.50 so the total cost for a new pair of jeans was $18.50. Not too bad for a good pair of jeans. I also had the hem of two existing work slacks repaired for $5.00 each. That extended the life of my pants and saved me money in the long run.

3. Make-up remover be gone

Have you ever looked at how much it costs to buy makeup remover? Whether it’s pads, cloth or cream that stuff is expensive! I found a cheap and easy solution – baby wipes. I bought Target brand baby wipes and get about 2-3 uses per sheet.

4. Plant seeds of savings

The cold snap we had this winter has killed my potted flowers. Instead of buying new flowers, I’m going to plant wildflowers seeds that are free from Public Information at my work. The wildflowers are “Florida Friendly”, formerly known as Xeriscape, which means they are native, drought tolerant and often take full sun. I think with a little reconditioning of the soil (maybe I’ll bury some egg shells and other biodegradable waste into the pot) the seeds will do great.

5. Reuse and recycle

Instead of purchasing Ziploc bags or new Tupperware, I have begun saving all plastic containers. The tubs of butter, sour cream or to-go containers are my new Tupperware.

All of these are simple, common sense practices. They’re almost so obvious that it’s ridiculous I needed to brainstorm to come up with them - and that’s just my point. The retail and marketing industry doesn’t want you to have common sense. They want you to buy new products, new clothes and replace what is broken. We have forgotten the option of fixing it instead of replacing it. We have been fooled into thinking they are reinventing the wheel when in reality all they are doing is painting the wheel a new color. It’s all about recognizing want versus need.

If anyone else has tips for saving money at home please share them (besides tips like “clip coupons” or “shop at Goodwill”).

My 6 month challenge

I read an article today about a family who went an entire year without shopping. They began to realize how much of their world revolved around shopping – clothing, gifts, house goods, and electronics –a constant mental list of things to buy. They decided if it was not food or a depletable good (light bulbs or batteries for example) it would not be purchased. They refrained from all of it .They didn’t even buy Christmas gifts. Instead, they recycled, reused and found innovative ways to meet their needs.

Their goal was, in part, to save money but there was a much larger goal to be achieved: break the cycle of consumerism. As Americans we are constantly bombarded with images and advertisements - buy me buy me buy me. It has become ingrained in our lifestyle and thought process. Our possessions, especially our clothing, cars and gadgets make up our identities. The family in the article wanted to break away from this mentality. With few small exceptions they managed to go an entire year without shopping. They repaired socks, swapped shoes and used toilet paper instead of cotton balls. When the year was over, they did not rejoice or resume their spending frenzy. Their outlook on American living had changed – want vs. need – and they didn’t want anymore. They succeeded.

Here is my proposal: a six month challenge of no shopping. No clothing purchases, no books, no music and no crap for the house. It’s not a year but hey, everyone’s got to start somewhere. I figure that I don’t have an entire house with attics, basements and garages full of stuff to plunder like they did. Six months should be hard but do-able. No razors (I think (hope) I have enough supply to last), no contacts (more glasses, less contacts), no ziplock bags (reuse containers like pickle jars, butter containers, etc.) and no purchasing gifts (homemade or hugs is all you get).

I’m going to document my progress and see how it goes. I suggest you all start taking bets now. I must declare two exception right now, up front. Becca’s babyshower gift (because let’s face it, I don’t own crap to give to a baby) and any art supplies. I’ll still go out with friends, scuba dive, concerts, etc. I don’t think they should count because those are experiences, not an accumulation of stuff.

I’m already anticipating that I’ll need some help – what software do I download to get free music? Limewire? I’ll be frequenting the library more. School is over so I won’t need school supplies. Anyone want to start a video game exchange (PS2)?

Hopefully over time I’ll have a lot more money in my pocket. Even better though, I hope to have a different perspective. I hope to break the cycle of consumerism and change my outlook on want vs. need.

My motto will be: Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do. Or do without.