There's so much stuff we want. I want books, books, and more books. My way of dealing with the No-Buy clause is to compile a list of all of the ones I'd normally be tempted to buy. Despite the fact that we have enough unread books to last us several years, there's this desire for more. Where does that come from?
For me, it's about not forgetting. I leave things out when I plan to use them in the next day (much to Erin's occasional annoyance). When I stumble across a book I'd like to read, I buy it (usually secondhand, on ABEBooks). That way, I can't forget it -- visually it will be there for me at such future point as my eyes spot it on a bookshelf. The thing is, there are relatively few (perhaps 25%) books that I read that, after reading, I desire to read again or own. Therein lies waste.
Thus the list. We've started a notebook. The first page is a list of the books I'd like to buy. The second page is the other stuff we'd like to buy -- and normally would have, had it not been for this 2013 experiment. Included are new wine glasses, new skis for Erin, and an iron so that I can use the old one for waxing skis.
Other pages detail unavoidable expenses -- which we'll get into in subsequent entries.
A week or so into 2013, one thing that's been fun is all the discussion that we've spawned. Erin says how she craves coffee and needs to plan ahead to avoid buying it in passing (she even carried a glass jar of instant coffee with her so she can make her own from boiling water). I say how much I'd like the game Crokinole. And a new commuter bike. We discuss whether I/we need these things and how to get around it.
It's fun to slowly use up bottles of shampoo, conditioner, soaps, glass cleaners, etc. Something that we've decided to add to the mix is lowering our usage of chemicals. Ahead: the challenge of making many of these items from scratch.
For me, it's about not forgetting. I leave things out when I plan to use them in the next day (much to Erin's occasional annoyance). When I stumble across a book I'd like to read, I buy it (usually secondhand, on ABEBooks). That way, I can't forget it -- visually it will be there for me at such future point as my eyes spot it on a bookshelf. The thing is, there are relatively few (perhaps 25%) books that I read that, after reading, I desire to read again or own. Therein lies waste.
Thus the list. We've started a notebook. The first page is a list of the books I'd like to buy. The second page is the other stuff we'd like to buy -- and normally would have, had it not been for this 2013 experiment. Included are new wine glasses, new skis for Erin, and an iron so that I can use the old one for waxing skis.
Other pages detail unavoidable expenses -- which we'll get into in subsequent entries.
A week or so into 2013, one thing that's been fun is all the discussion that we've spawned. Erin says how she craves coffee and needs to plan ahead to avoid buying it in passing (she even carried a glass jar of instant coffee with her so she can make her own from boiling water). I say how much I'd like the game Crokinole. And a new commuter bike. We discuss whether I/we need these things and how to get around it.
It's fun to slowly use up bottles of shampoo, conditioner, soaps, glass cleaners, etc. Something that we've decided to add to the mix is lowering our usage of chemicals. Ahead: the challenge of making many of these items from scratch.
No comments:
Post a Comment