A Time For Everything

 

 

A few weeks ago, I listened to a TED podcast that posited that our spending habits can reveal things about us. They can tell others how we were raised, they can uncover uncomfortable truths about our inner-selves, or, at the very least, they can show the ups and downs of our lives.

The presenter of this particular TED Business episode, a woman I'll refer to as MA, was raised by parents who were always dressed to the nines. She picked up the habit. But then she read an article about how a year of no-shopping changed the article author's life. MA started thinking about her own shopping habits, specifically in regards to clothes, and how it affected her life.

After hemming and hawing, MA decided to take a one-year break from buying clothes. She says it was transformational. What she gained was money, of course, but also time and some clarity. She realized there were some emotional issues she'd been suppressing behind her shopping habit.

I couldn't really relate to the clothes shopping habit, but I am in favor of the no spending, so I dug up that article she mentioned. Here it is, if you'd like to read it as well.

Side note: My quest to reduce spending has more to do with looking ahead to retirement and trying to find extra dollars here and there to add to the investments portfolio than any need or desire to probe my psyche. :0) Although I'm open to discovering some insights along the way.

Anyway, the article struck a cord. It wasn't so much why the author decided to do it, but the rules she made for herself about what was okay to buy, what wasn't, and when she was allowed to buy even certain basics. (It was the lip balm part that really resonated.)

One rule was that she had to use up what she had before she could buy even everyday products. As an example, she'd bought and then quit using a bunch of different hair care products...so, now, before she could buy new, she had to use up what she'd stockpiled. Makes sense if you're trying save money or reduce spending.

I took that sentiment to heart.

I have to say, however, there are very few areas where I operate that way. But there is one. I'll give you one guess...

If you said hot tea, you'd be correct.

As I mentioned in last Thursday's post, I'm a sucker for a certain Brand / Flavor. But I do occasionally drink other flavors. Of late I've been trying to alternate caffeinated with non-caffeinated, which means I've been drinking a lot more store brand herbal peppermint tea than usual. But then I ran out. Of course I put peppermint tea on the grocery list.

And then I looked in the cabinet where the tea lives.

And I had a lot of tea in there.

I decided to drink through all / most of the other flavors of herbal tea I've accumulated before I buy more peppermint.

Another vice I have is reading. I'm still a huge fan of fan fiction, but I'd gotten back into the commercially published book habit over the years.

I spent over $130 on books last year! That was a surprise to me, quite frankly. And that's $130 that I could have invested into my retirement. One of those books was how to do just that and was money well spent. We've started that plan--hence the need to evaluate my spending habits and squeeze every penny out of out budget for the future. A comfort and ease with less spending and less stuff will also benefit my future self. (Don't look now--that might have been an insight...)

Back to the books--

A lot of the books I bought I might have been able to get at the library. On the other hand, libraries don't tend to carry a lot of MM romance and at least a quarter of my purchases were books from two of my favorite authors. I'm going to have to figure out how to fund the purchase of any new titles they publish this year if they don't end up in libraries.

Oh, wait, I have an Amazon gift card!!

I did take the time to renew my library card and got my OverDrive/Libby accounts activated so that I can check out e-books from OverDrive. OverDrive, if you don't know is the online e-book library. But you have to have a library card with your local branch to utilize it. And then it will only allow you to check out e-materials that your library or library system has available.

I can also search Amazon's free book listings and utilize Prime Reading as well.

So I'm well on my way to potential savings, but now how do I calculate and save that money? I guess whenever I have the desire to make a purchase and opt not to, I transfer the funds into my savings account...? I'm not sure. I'll have to ponder a solution to that dilemma.

That leaves one last vice. And here's where maybe the psychology aspect comes into play.

I like "stuff." And these days, I'm very susceptible to impulse purchases on certain things. Maybe that comes from the fact that for many years, especially when the kids were younger, we just didn't have the money for much of anything extra. So now that money has been less tight, I've been less frugal/strict/careful.

I have a lot of stuff now. More stuff than I need and, honestly, I'd like to get rid of some of my stuff. And sometimes I do. But then I see other stuff that's really cute and the temptation gets the better of me.

But it's time to downsize, get back to the decluttering, and quit with the impulse buys. I'm doing better. I suppose some rules might also help me make better choices. Perhaps a target to keep my eye on might help as well.

 It looks as though I have some work to do in regards to this challenge.

Take care and have a good weekend.

* * * * *

Here are a few of the articles I read regarding a no-spend challenge--what it is, why people did it, how thy did it...

https://mint.intuit.com/blog/saving/no-spend-challenge/

https://www.insider.com/no-spend-month-saving-money-experiment-2018-7#5-i-expected-to-fail-so-i-did-10

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/15/opinion/sunday/shopping-consumerism.html

https://www.gobankingrates.com/saving-money/budgeting/plan-a-no-spend-year-according-to-financial-experts/

https://www.motherhoodonadime.com/living/what-i-learned-from-a-no-spend-month/

https://www.moneyforthemamas.com/no-spend-month/

 

You know, my red/white/blue fairy lights in my office. That I love so much. :0)

These ones:


Are now down to this small section:






Everything else is completely dark.

Now I can't think that every single bulb blew. And this didn't start happening until I added that third stand--which was not the same brand as the first two.

So I'm thinking two things. My little fuses in each strand blew and I shouldn't mix and match strands because the voltage or wattage could be different.

And I have two choices. Either buy enough of the same lights to fit the space I want covered. Or remove the third strand and then go through the painstaking process of testing the bulbs in the remaining strands--after changing the fuses if possible.

Argh. Tough choice. Time is money, but those suckers aren't that cheap.

This week's purge includes a spool holder and vases.


Who doesn't have a collection of vases in the closet?? There were three others I'd already hauled to the garage before remembering to get the photographic evidence. I will keep one just so's we have one. DD did bring home a bouquet from a student just the other day. But we don't have enough of those in our lives to warrant storing six vases. Bye bye!

On a quick side note...book two was approved overnight for physical copies--woo hoo!!! I have a ordered a singer author copy of each to make sure they look okay still. If they do, I will order a batch of each for my conference. Keep your fingers crossed please.

Have a great week. Mine is looking up, now that the first hurdle of the book issue has been jumped.

Into the giveaway box this week goes an assortment of tablecloths, table runners and curtains/sheers.

I'm counting this collectively as the third thing.





Hope you had a lovely weekend. I had a good time at writers group and even more lovely time at the meeting after the meeting even though we were missing a couple of peeps.

Have a great week--see you Wednesday.

I had a great weekend. How about you?

My writer friends came over for a day of sprinting (writing in sprints, not running). In between, as we are wont to do, we chatted.

One friend said she enjoyed coming to my house because she liked that I put my stuff out to be enjoyed even though it's not what one might call "decorator approved," if you will.

For example...

The kitchen wall with my decorative Christmas dishes that stay in place all year round rather than hiding them away in a closet.

Or the fall paper chain that DD and I put together several autumns ago, but that still loops across my front window.


Now, my office, which I shared a few weeks ago is a mish mash of my collections and fandom treasures and is another story altogether. I keep that kind of thing contained mostly to my personal space. :0)

As conversations wound around, another friend mentioned a 1000 item giveaway challenge that she and her husband had embarked upon. I'm not a minimalist by any means as my office can attest to, but I know I have a lot of stuff that I never use anymore. I've been meaning to go through closets and cabinets and the garage and start downsizing if you will.

I didn't find anything about the 1000 thing except for radio stations giving away money (yes, please!) but I did come across a blog about 100 things. So using that as a framework, I'm going to challenge myself to get rid of 100 things in however long it takes.

Also, the original challenge from Dave Bruno is to get down to 100 things, but that's unlikely for me at the moment. So instead, we'll just get rid of 100 things for now. And maybe, someday, I'll try for 100 more.

So my challenge is to clean out a drawer or a closet or a shelf in a closet or whatever at some point during the week and move it to the Goodwill pile in the garage or to throw it out. Hopefully, most of the stuff will be in good enough condition to give away rather than needing to be thrown away.

I'll report here with a picture at some point and we'll see how things go.

One of my first challenges is the baker's rack in the garage that holds a lot of appliances and bake ware and other random kitchen items. There are a couple of things on the floor I'd like to get off of the floor. So finding space for those items is number one.


The top shelf is now mostly clear. Since I don't eat cereal anymore, I'm passing along all my Tupperware cereal keepers as well as a produce/salad spinner.



What about you? Are you up for getting rid of a thing or two you don't use??

My office is an ode to my various interests and obsessions as well as to my odd sense of interior design.

Hard to see with the light glaring at the camera, but you can probably see the fairy lights. And on the right side of the left window is a Stars car window flag. :)


My Charles Wysocki collectors plates (one set of three, actually) that I've had for over 20 years. Just to the right of those is...

My BBC Sherlock wall. Note the sampler there on the left... That was a blog post subject many many moons ago.


My desk and the wall above, chock full of random goodies that make me smile or were gifts.

Now this is the piece de resistance... my shelves full of more randomness, suck as my rubber duckie collection, my dala horse collection, my Matchbox NASCAR collection, along with keepsakes from my trips to Nashville. Draped around the top is a Fourth of July garland, because I love that too.


I have a little section of wall between the window and the corner that has been designated the hockey wall--the back of the door and the wall space next to it is also hockey wall, now that I'm thinking about it...



But this particular space only had a Tyler Seguin pennant along with a couple of "posters" -- a.k.a. expired calendar images of Tyler and his teammate Jamie Benn.

Remember those little baby samplers I shared a couple of weeks ago? Well, one got framed and is now on the hockey wall. :0) Of course, Jamie Benn had to come down. He's not a favorite of mine so I passed him along to a friend.

And now the hockey wall looks like this:


And the sampler itself...


The wall still needs a little work, but I have a few plans.

Stay tuned...