leslie_g's Profile

Yes. While staying home with my infant son, and living on one income, I have had to reduce my spending dramatically. And babyproof, which = decluttering. It has taught me so much about my weaknesses, and how we have all fallen prey to marketing that has convinced us that we need everything new and trendy, and we need it right now. For me, that thinking tends to mean just adding more crap and more clothes to the piles I already have.
So now, instead of buying a new outfit, I find a new way to combine what I have.
I fix things that have broken. (Example- yesterday part of my Ikea lampshade broke. I excitedly thought, "Yay! Time to go to Ikea and buy new ones!" I waited a bit and then realized I could easily fix it in a manner that no one would ever notice. So I did. $20 saved.) I fix broken jewelry. I take clothes to be altered. I wait any time I have an idea to buy something, and I almost always lose that "high" I get from anticipating a shopping trip, and I say forget it. And whenever I'm bored and want to go to Target "just to go" - I take my son outside instead, or tackle some organizing project inside that will improve our home way more than new stuff will. I also force myself to finish projects I have already started (such as several half-done knitting projects floundering in a closet, paint already purchased but never used, etc.) before I get excited about buying supplies for a new one. And slowly over the past year, my addiction to that "high" has worn off, and I have realized what a cheap and wasteful pleasure shopping can be, and how honestly, it took more from me than it gave.