Who knew earlier when I had the Starbucks slip up, that wouldn’t be the worst of it?
Almost immediately after I hit submit, boom. I nearly got blind-sided by a TOMS clearance sale on Target.com (I mean, afterall, how often can I actually afford name brand shoes for my kids?) & then 88 cent cookie sheets at Walmart. Yep. I nearly slipped AGAIN & for what? Blasted 88 cent cookie sheets… Not to say that my cookie sheets are unusable – they’re just ugly from years of use. But they’re cookie sheets – do they really need to be pretty? Not really.
It got me thinking on what other issues are going to come up here pretty soon… Someone asked what my “parameters” for this little experiment are. And that is a very good question. The original inspiration behind our Buy Nothing Year involved a couple childless roommates. That means there was two incomes (but also two times the debt) but they could easily ride a bike or walk to where they needed to go. They only had to give up shopping & hair cuts for themselves. And food…. Oy the food. In their original experiment, they had planned on hitting a point mid-year where they would be forced to grow everything they would eat. Of course, this is extreme & didn’t even work out for just the two of them; let alone a family of four with two growing children which are more like the dictionary definition of “bottomless pit”. I hadn’t really thought out our parameters in their entirety. I know we spend too much on stuff we shouldn’t including eating out, clothes, impulse buys, junk food, gas spent on extra trips & what I’m realizing is going to be one of the harder areas of this year long challenge: birthdays, gifts & celebrations.
I’m notorious for gifting to everybody. I love the feeling I get from gifting to family & friends, especially ones who expect it the least. I take it as a personal challenge to find a gift that fits the receiver’s personality, so gift cards & cash are rarely given around these parts because I WILL find THE perfect gift EVERY time regardless of the stress it puts on me – or our budget.
But guess what Buy Nothing Year means? I’m buying nothing… which is going to make all these upcoming birthdays, Valentine’s Day, Easter, summer BBQs awkward…
I’m still watching our toilet paper stockpile like a hawk. But I let something else slip: shampoo. I have one stashed underneath the bathroom sink from my former couponing days, but the kids were down to one shampoo left. Whoops. We popped into Walmart because Grandma Leatherface was working, so we were killing time before an appointment today. CLEARANCE! MY ARCHNEMISIS! (or rather best friend, so… clearance is more like a frienemy) I was so fortunately in luck that I had $5 worth of Walmart giftcard available on Jingit. I scored a giant size bottle of Kid’s Aussie for $2 (regularly $5.98), a bottle for myself for $1 (usually $1.98) & even managed to pick up a small something to stash for gifts ($1.50). All total it was $4.91, just enough to be covered by my gift card. Whew!
I know! Didn’t I *JUST* say that I was going to have to cut back on the gifts this year?? Looking back, I’m wondering if it was the brightest of ideas. I mean, $1.50 could definitely cover something else — like a roll or two of toilet paper.. Time will only tell if this decision comes back to bite my in the rump.
Oh! & Girl Scout Cookies!! I wasn’t aware the season was upon us until a friend posted on Facebook her daughter is taking preorders for her first year in the scouts. Ouch. I forgot how buying nothing is going to hit me in the charity until it hurts. Not only will the girl scouts not get any money out of me for their overpriced yet oh so delicious even if not entirely healthful cookies, I’ve had to walk past so many clearance toys lately that would of been fantastic to add to our annual toy drive we’ve done the last two years for Seattle Children’s Hospital that treated Princess Cthulhu.
As Dave would say, live like no one else – so later I can live *AND GIVE* like no one else
The Omlets Buy Nothing 