Last year, when Joslyn announced her shopping hiatus, I happily jumped right in. I was thinking of the money I would save more than anything else.
It turned out to be so much more. I saved money, yes. But I saved more time. I honestly had no idea how much time I spent shopping, comparing items, deciding whether or not to buy things. I felt a bit calmer, less pressured. I am not a wild spender by any means, which might make it worse, because I will agonize over purchases and it's exhausting.
I'm thrilled that Jos is leading the hiatus again this year. I'm excited to dive in, a bit wiser. D decided to join me, possibly because his graduate student loans have just entered repayment. We're doing this for 12 weeks. We started Monday, officially.
My personal guidelines:
- No non-essential items - obviously, we will still be purchasing food and toiletries.
- A small amount of used shopping is permissible - I see my thrift store purchases as neutral, because they aren't new items and they're usually things we actually need.
- Exempt purchases - we have a small list of items that will need to be purchased soon, due to our move - we've spent hours looking over our floorplan and arranging our current furniture and figuring out how to purchase the least amount of stuff possible. Currently, we're searching Craigslist for the items but if we can't find them in a month or so we'll have to buy them.
- Business purchases - I'll still be buying supplies for the shop.
- Experiences are fair game - this isn't a spending freeze for us. We'll still go out to eat on occasion, we'll still pay for movies and concerts and things we want to do.
Missed the whole thing last year? Here is my summary of my experience with links to my weekly summaries.
It turned out to be so much more. I saved money, yes. But I saved more time. I honestly had no idea how much time I spent shopping, comparing items, deciding whether or not to buy things. I felt a bit calmer, less pressured. I am not a wild spender by any means, which might make it worse, because I will agonize over purchases and it's exhausting.
I'm thrilled that Jos is leading the hiatus again this year. I'm excited to dive in, a bit wiser. D decided to join me, possibly because his graduate student loans have just entered repayment. We're doing this for 12 weeks. We started Monday, officially.
My personal guidelines:
- No non-essential items - obviously, we will still be purchasing food and toiletries.
- A small amount of used shopping is permissible - I see my thrift store purchases as neutral, because they aren't new items and they're usually things we actually need.
- Exempt purchases - we have a small list of items that will need to be purchased soon, due to our move - we've spent hours looking over our floorplan and arranging our current furniture and figuring out how to purchase the least amount of stuff possible. Currently, we're searching Craigslist for the items but if we can't find them in a month or so we'll have to buy them.
- Business purchases - I'll still be buying supplies for the shop.
- Experiences are fair game - this isn't a spending freeze for us. We'll still go out to eat on occasion, we'll still pay for movies and concerts and things we want to do.
Missed the whole thing last year? Here is my summary of my experience with links to my weekly summaries.
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