There has been a trend lately, of bloggers taking a year (or more) off from unnecessary spending. Some of my personal favorites are:
Consumption Rebellion,
Bye Bye Buy (just finished),
(just beginning) A Year Off
I've thought about doing something like this. But honestly? We never have enough money to do any unnessary spending. We drink soda, which we could give up. And we eat out at McDonald's once a week or so. Maybe once every other month, SuperDad and I are able to order a late night pizza or go to a restaurant. But that's about it.
For the most part, our clothes come from consignment stores or are hand-me-downs from generous friends. We don't, as a rule, get our hair cut professionally (I cut mine every other year or so to donate to Locks of Love). We've been in our house for two and a half years and haven't decorated yet, except to frame photos of our kids. Our cars are old. Our furniture is old. I sell Avon and use the profit to buy our shampoo and lotion and whatnot (of what there is not a lot, since I don't wear makeup and I'm too lazy to do anything except wash myself).
There just isn't a lot of unnecessary spending going on at our house. I'm always debating whether to cut cable ($15 limited basic package) and Netflix ($18.01 three-at-a-time plan), but I think those are both exceedingly worth the money.
I'd love to have a little extra room in the budget, but I'd love to have found that room myself. The joy I get from saving money on something and reallocating it far exceeds any purchase I could make. And that's partially why going gluten free was hard for us. I was used to choosing the .89 bread over the $1.12 bread and feeling great about that. Paying $4.89 for a tiny loaf of bread was... cough... difficult. ;) But we're making it work. And we will make it work, not for a year, but forever.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Living the Life
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2 comments:
You sound a lot like us, here in Pittsburgh. I wish I had the problem of having money to spend in an unnecessary way. And I agree, some things are needed to maintain some level of sanity. For us, it's the basic cable, movie rentals on the weekends, a pizza here and there, etc.
I know what you mean, with a slightly different slant. Budgeting can be tough and it can be frustrating when it's not "for fun" or "to see what we can live without". It's real life. But in looking where to cut back, I won't choose the $.89 bread either -- not because of gluten, but because I don't want high fructose corn syrup or partially hydrogenated oils in my kids' sandwiches. So we cut back elsewhere: only the $6-a-month Netflix plan for us, but pass the natural peanut butter! ;)
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