For my 30 Day Challenge this month, I did a spending freeze. As I talked about when I started it, I wanted to reduce the stuff I was bringing in to the house, and see if could manage to break my spending habit.
What I Found
I won’t lie – this was a difficult things to do. I did break it for a few things: I bought myself a new desk chair (the old one’s back was coming off); a refurbished Dyson stick vacuum (it was on sale for 50% off and I had been looking at it for over a year); a new blog planner; and a wooden box from IKEA to set physical limits on a category of stuff I was trying to downsize.
I learned some tricks, as well. I didn’t set foot into my local grocery store or Target during this time. Anything I needed I ordered through their apps and had it brought out to the car. No more impulse shopping. I also found that doing a major decluttering helped keep me on track because I was able to see how much stuff had been accumulated.
More lessons:
- Shopping had becoming an exercise in possibilities. For many things, especially craft supplies, shopping had become a way to not feel trapped by everything. This last few months has been one where I have struggled to come to terms with increased responsibilities, and it has not been easy. Shopping eased that.
- Turned into my mother in habits (1 good? 3 Better?) My mother is a shopper, and she believes that for me, if one is good, three is better. I have found that I have internalized that and so I have spent a lot of time weeding out duplicates that really serve no purpose.
- Using up gave me a feeling of accomplishment One of the goals was to use up stocks of things in my kitchen and bathroom. It felt really good to use up and discard empty bottles and tubes.
- I was able to start on the backlog. With all the incoming clutter gone, I was able to see what I had. A friend helped me declutter my craft room and let me keep all yarn that had patterns with it. Now I know what projects I have waiting and I am excited. I won’t lie, though – it was painful when she made me get rid of all my dishcloth yarn. But as she pointed out, I had plenty else to do, and I didn’t need any more dishcloths.
- Shopping is a poor antidote for overwhelm. The first few weeks were hard because I had turned to shopping as an antidote for overwhelm. Now I am more likely to take my Kindle and go into a corner and relax for a bit. I think the new method is a bit more effective than shopping.
Conclusion
I have been pleased with the results of this challenge. I am continuing on with it, purging and using up things in my kitchen and office (two of the major stockpile areas). I also feel more relaxed and in control of the finances. Good things all around.
