Have you heard of Judith Levine? She wrote the book Not Buying It. She went a whole year without buying anything that wasn't a necessity i.e. food, gas for her car, etc. I had heard of it, but not much about it. But I am thinking of doing this for a month. So, I looked her up.
There were a great many criticisms of the book and her experiment. One was her categorization of needs. For example, she deems her $55 haircut a necessity. She also, with her partner, have 3 houses and 3 cars. Of course heating and gas are necessities, even for 3 houses. Another was her rather-off topic rantings (politics).
Anyway, I'm not reading the book, I'm just thinking about not shopping for a month. I'd eat, but not fancy foods. I'd keep my house running as it is. I wouldn't cancel my high-speed Internet (like she did). But I'd not buy all those great deals on whatevers (house stuff, crafty stuff, etc).
What do you think? Would you give it a try? Why or why not?
4 comments:
When Mike was in school our first nine years of marriage, that is pretty much what we did. Now being out it is nice to splurge a little, but I think about how much more money we'd be saving if we continued to live like poor college students for the next five years. Makes me wonder why I got out of such a good habit.
I think it all comes down to what is really a need? Are thinking cutting back on shopping or just spending in general.
Hello Brooke!
It's your old neighbor from Paris. I was doing some blog-hopping & found your great site.
As far as an answer to your question, "been there, done that, don't want to do it again." :)
No, I have become a super-frugal-self-sufficient person. I think it's much easier living in the boonies. I go shopping once a week, sometimes twice. When we lived in Phoenix, all we did was shop!
Anyway, good to see you!
Take care!
I think this is a great idea! I'm all for saving money whenever and however I can.
I talked to my husband about it and he said, "Wasn't that what college was? An exercise in frugality?"
He also pointed out that he doesn't work 90+ hours a week so that he can not buy a few things that he wants.
It was hard to argue with that point.
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