blue wool
2 fair trade vest tops
Driving theory test book
diary of a wombat
Soooo, I bought some new things this month. The perfume wasn't really necessary, it was an impulse purchase that was a bit naughty - I was shopping with my friendwholikesposhdesignerthings and smelling all the nice perfumes with him and it sort of just happened (at least I only bought a £7 one and not the very delicious smelling £40 bottle - eek!). Vest tops and theory test book were essentials - my vests have shrunk to crop tops and the marks and spencers fair trade ones are very nice replacements (old vests to be used in my up coming rag rug project!!) and the driving test book was hard to find an in date one 2nd hand - I'll make sure to pass mine on though!
Diary of a Wombat is a children's book I bought from the discarded pile at the library for 25p. When I was a baby I had the most enormous cheeks (I still do now!) and my mother used to call me Susie Wombat (she still does now!). So I had to buy this book...
To make room I sent a bag of books from the loft to the national trust for their 2nd hand bookshop and a bag of old clothes and other stuff to the charity shop.
I've been trying to make a graph to show the number of things I've bought each month to see if keeping note has made a difference, but I can't get the graph making thing to work, so here's a list instead...
Nov 2009 - 12
Dec 2009 - 8
Jan 2010 - 9
Feb 2010 - 3
March 2010 - 7
April 2010 - 7
May 2010 - 10
June 2010 - 17
July 2010 - 13
Aug 2010 - 7
Sept 2010 - 8
Oct 2010 - 15
Nov 2010 - 18
Dec 2010 - 8
Jan 2011 - 6
As you can see I've had good months and bad months...to me this still seems like a lot of stuff to be bringing into my life...in fact I'm going to scare myself now and add it all up...148 things...in the last 14 months...eeek! Some of the stuff I've passed on, or used up (like books and soap and stuff) but that's still a lot of stuff coming in!
I already get rid of at least one item for every new item I buy, write down what I'm buying, properly think about what I'm buying and why before I buy it and avoid shopping...I'm a bit at a loss to see what else can I do to stop this naughty spending habit!?
For the next 6 months I'm going to limit myself to only buying 5 things per month. I'm going to discount spending on food and toiletries, because they get used up, and going out and on plants - some of my above numbers came from buying seeds and plants, which I think is unfair because plants make the environment happy, and as I can make up my own rules I'm ruling plants out!
Do you buy too much stuff?? How do you stop yourself?
I don't buy much stuff but when I do it's either from the charity shops or from ebay. Ooh and I am pretty bad for buying plants and garden stuff so I limit my visits to the garden centres.
ReplyDeleteI did go on a splurge at Primark before Christmas and felt bad for about 10 mins but hey ho......
I'm still laughing at Susie Wombat!
:)
Ahh primark! so tempting! I used to work there which usually puts me off setting foot back in!
ReplyDeleteI buy most of my stuff 2nd hand too, but I still seem to have too much even if it was bought more ethically...
My other alter ego as a child was 'Susan Halibut', used only at swimming lessons. My brother was 'Michael the Mackrel' I think I had an unusual upbringing!