What I Bought This Month...

In...

1. dress
2. sports bra
3. pj bottoms
4. 2 charity shop books
5. bra

I was a bit naughty this month and bought a new dress from Asda, I really love it, I was really miserable because I've lost my job and I was with my mum, who is always a bad influence ...well, that's my excuse anyway...I like wearing it but only if I try not to think about the children who were probably paid 1p to make it and the fact it's from an evil supermarket...eek!  From now on I'm going to not slip back into bad old habits of buying something 'to cheer myself up' but to do nice things to fill my time instead, like going to a walk or making something or playing the guitar.  I also bought 2 new bras (very necessary, my old bras weren't working!) and a pair of PJ bottoms, the PJs and the sports bra were only £1 each in Marks and Spencer's sale.  The books were only 15p each, one was Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, which has a reaaaaallly long waiting list at the library so I thought I'd give it a go...I wonder if I'm the only one who thinks it's rubbish?  I'll give both the books to my National Trust place when I've read them.

Out...

This bag has some old t-shirts in, a new duvet set that I've never used, some notebooks, some finding Nemo teddies and a pair of shoes.  The pile is stuff I'm going to sell online, 2 dresses, 2 bags, a top and some jewellery...

What I Bought this Month...

In:
1. owl tshirt
2. bra
3. bird book
4. rug making book
5. purse

The trouble with working in the library is that you see all the books that are being discarded and want to buy them!  The purse was from the charity shop (79p!) but the owl tshirt and bra were from a new-things shop.  I needed the bra sooo much, my old ones were terrible!  The owl tshirt is a naughty thing to have bought though, it was from Primark, it's not fair trade or organic, I shouldn't have bought it :(  No more shopping with mummy for me!

Out:

I got rid of sooo much stuff this month - we cleared out the loft and my wardrobe and freecycled most of the stuff, but sent some to the charity shop, a massive amount of paper work from my teaching days was recycled and some broken bits and bobs had to go in the bin :(

What I bought this month...

1. 2 metres of hessian fabric
2. rag rug tool
3. rag rug rag measuring thingy
4. Sarra Manning book
5. retro glass owl

I feel practically virtuous this month, I have not exceeded my target of only buying 5 things...although nearly everything I bought this month is NEW!  I did try many a time on Ebay for second hand rag rug things but I suspect everyone else has been watching Kristie's Homemade Home/Edwardian Farm and wishes to make a rag rug too, as there was a lot of silly bidding to very high prices going on.  At least I bought the tool and gauge from a specialist online rag rug shop, it pleases me more to keep a small, speciality business going than giving my pennies to a giant corporation.

Sarra Manning books are my guilty pleasure...I religiously bought Just Seventeen magazine just to read her 'Dairy of a Crush' stories and have read everything she's written since.  She rocks!

Mr Mchootington the owl and I took one look at each other and knew it was meant to be...he needed to come home and live with my other retro owls, and so he has.  £1.50 from the charity shop!

In...

Out...(shake it all about!)

I got rid of 1 bin bag of books (to be lugged to national trust second hand book shop), 1 bin bag of clothes and a boogie board (who am I kidding, to the charity shop with you) and a bag of stuff I'm selling on Ebay.

What I Bought This Month...plus a summary...

perfume
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?

What I bought this month..

dr who magazine
blue flowery blouse
blue flowery dress
black tshirt
donkey plant pot
red hair dye
2011 diary
socks

Does anyone know of a cheap place to buy fairtrade/organic/eco socks, in small sizes (my feet are UK size 2.5-3, adult socks are ridiculously big on me but kids socks are usually too short in the ankle bit)?  I'm desperate for new ones, I bought a couple of pairs from primark in the end (I know!  urgh) but I need more and I'd like them to be ethical and affordable.  Otherwise most things i bought were 2nd hand, so not too bad this month.  And I sent yet another bin bag to the charity shop, full of clothes and books to make room for all the lovely new Christmas things I got.  One of my new year's resolutions is to buy less, so hopefully this section will be even smaller in the coming year!

What I bought this month...

bag of lovely vintage fabric scraps
4 books from library booksale
2 vintage craft books
panda hat
some second hand wool bits and bobs
2 crochet hooks
5 side plates
1 gingerbread man biscuit cutter

For Christmas my mum and her friends have a challenge to buy each other only second hand presents that cost under £5, this involves much trawling through charity shops and I have been roped in to help...which is why I've bought so much stuff this month!  My side plates were 15p each and are all flowery and lovely, the fabric scraps, biscuit cutter and craft books also came from these trips.  

I've found another bin bag full of stuff to give to the charity shop to make way for my new goodies!

What I bought this month...

2 stainless steel lunchboxes
3 pairs of socks
2 stainless steel cookie cutters
big issue magazine
3 beautiful japanese napkins from the charity shop
grey fabric dye
2 crochet hooks
loads of cotton yarn off ebay

I'm really cross I had to buy the socks, I have loads - but my feet got soaked in an unexpected downpour and I needed a change of socks so I could cheerfully deal with working a late shift at work!

All the wool, crochet hooks and cookie cutters are for making things for craft fairs, which me and my friend are planning to do this xmas, we're going to make reused/recycled/upcycled/made-from-natural-materials things (the wool is for crochet things and the cookie cutters are for making salt dough christmas tree decorations, the cookie cutters are from Lakeland by the way and came in no plastic packaging! woohoo!)

I've sold lots of my old clothes on Ebay to make room for my new things.

What I bought this month...

Lampshade
2 ceramic rabbits
birkenstocks
bag of clothes from the charity shop (it was a fill a carrier bag for £2 sale, me and mum got 3 pairs of trousers, 3 tshirts and a dress in our bag and shared them - I ended up with 1 tshirt, 1 pair of trousers and the dress - that's 28p per item!!)
cardigan from the charity shop

I also had a birthday this month, lots of my presents were use-up-able, like smellies from Lush (yey!)  and chocolate (yey!) but some were beautiful things to keep (a bedspread and cushion, a camper van mug and a notebook and some little drawers for on my desk), I sent 3 big bin bags of stuff to the charity shop and a carrier bag of books and discs to my national trust place so I think that nicely makes room for all the new birthdayness and other new things too!!

What I bought this month...

Pale blue wool
TV magazine x 2
Birkenstocks
2 chilli plants and a pot of thyme

I bought the wool from the charity shop, I wanted some more for a cushion cover I'm crocheting but I ended up not using it, it's very pale blue so I might use it to crochet snowflakes to decorate with at Christmas.  Mum usually buys the TV magazines, but I did a couple of times this month.  The birkenstocks were 2nd hand off ebay - £5 woohoo!  And the plants were in the sale at the garden centre - the chillies have about 30 ripe chillies on each, and more green ones, they were 99p each which is cheaper than buying that number of chillies from the supermarket/veggie stall, so I got them)  The thyme is huge and organic and was 25p!

I got rid of an old pair of school shoes (my feet have been the same size since I was about 14!) to make way for the birkenstocks.

What I bought this month...

a bird brooch
3 kilner jars
3 candles
wooden spoon and spatula set
terracotta pigs
notebook
red shoes
Dr Who magazine-it had a free tardis that NEEDED to come home with me and live with my other Dr Who things!
Charity shop skirt

We went to the Ikea 75% off sale at the start of the month - I LOVE ikea and they have a pretty impressive eco-policy, but I didn't find anything I liked enough to buy, except some useful things like kilner-style jars (99p each for litre jars, I've been paying £3 a jar in my local shop) some candles (I'm addicted to these red berry scented candles they have there so I stocked up) and some wooden spoons.
The terracotta pigs were inspired by Mangocheeks - I was jealous of hers!  I got some for mum too!
I also got a £20 voucher for Amazon.co.uk for signing up to the lovefilm.co.uk DVD rental system...so I got a new book and 2 CDs (She and Him and Paloma Faith, in case you were wondering.)

I have a new system for managing my stuff...for every new thing I bring into my life I have to get rid of something I already have (I'm going to try to get rid of something similar to the new item, for example if I get a new tshirt I have to get rid of an old tshirt, but if I can't bear to be parted from one of my tshirts then I can get rid of something else).  I've spent the past year Seriously Decluttering and have sent at least 20 bin bags full of stuff to the charity shops and lots of stuff to the recycling and a little bit of stuff to the landfill.  I still do have quite a bit of stuff, but I don't want it to escalate to the level of so-surrounded-by-stuff-I-can't-move again!  So this month I've got rid of 4 CDs, a book (for the Amazon stuff), about 7 pairs of shoes and a skirt I never wore.

What I bought this month...

shampoo bar from lush

solid perfume pot from lush
almond oil

walnut oil
face packs
a back fair trade tshirt

brown scarf
a green dress
a blue flowery dress
2 brown and white vintage bowls
2 white vintage plates with blue spots
a set of green weighing scales
a travel towel
a fairy door
sew hip magazine

Ahhhhhh...yes...we can tell I have a job this month...although I haven't actually had a payday yet I let a few moths out of my purse and had a bit of a spree.  To be fair a lot of my beautifications ran out this month - the lush shampoo and perfume, oils and face packs are all to do with that and are essentials really.  All the clothes are for work and all were from charity shops except the fair trade top, which was from sainsburys (I can never find nice tshirts in charity shops, they're always all stretched and weird and too short).  The kitcheny stuff (plates, bowls and scales) were all from charity shops and are for the growing stash of things for when I move out.  The travel towel is one of those tiny ones that drys the whole of your body even though it's the size of a face cloth - I had one but I lost it in a big gust of wind off the roof of a hostel in Morocco, I needed a replacement and this one was on sale for £1.20.  The magazine and fairy door were just treats, presents to myself because I am an employed person! 

What I bought this month...

a bag of compost
4 balls of wool
a TV guide magazine
a chilli pepper plant
2 books
an aloe vera plant

I feel like I bought a lot this month, but looking at my list it's not actually that much! I think it was the 2 books that did it, one was new (The Edible Garden) and the other was quite expensive (Food for Fee by Richard Mabey - all about foraging for food). I'm not used to buying new or expensive things so I feel like some sort of shopaholic! The wool is another problem, as it's not actually made from sheeps but from acrylic - I dislike buying plastic wool, but I've started crocheting a blanket and it needs finishing with the same kind of wool. Once it's done I'll definitely be looking into more eco friendly crocheting materials!

What I bought this month...

Some nail files for mum
2 packets of face mask
a TV guide magazine
3 books

Not bad this month I don't think - except Argh! More books! I can't be stopped, they put a table outside the charity shop, 4 books for £1, I have to walk past it and I can't help having a look! I know it's not too bad, because they're second hand and the money goes to charity, but I do want to start using the library and I am really really really going to try going once I've read these - because I agree with the borrowing -type-thinking behind libraries and I want to stop owning so many things!
Face mask - I have tried to go without this because it comes in funny metallicy sachets or squidgy plastic tubes which I can't recycle here. I did about 3 months without them and my skin was a state and was making me really sad so I'm going to use them again - does anyone know of a face mask that comes in recyclable packaging (except the Lush one which I can't afford) or a good recipe for a home made/natural face pack that maybe has some sort of mud or other something that will draw impurities out? I can only find moisturising ones online (honey, yogurt, avocado type ones) which is not what I need.

What I bought this month

a book
some black trousers
6 packets of veggie seeds
a guinea pigs calendar for my wall
some wool
some books for my little cousins who I'm going to visit at Easter

The seeds were a treat to myself for getting some temping work (only 4 days in a shop over mothers day, but it's a very welcome something after 8 months of unemployment!! yey!). They were on special offer £1.50 for 3 packs - I got peppers, spring onions, carrots, leeks, broccoli and courgettes - I can barely wait for them to grow so I can eat them! The black trousers were also for my new temping job - £1.50 from the charity shop, they look brand new too! Score! I bought the wool cos I was dying to make a crocheted blanket - it's acrylic though, which means it's made with horrible chemicals and will never biodegrade (possibly - I'm not sure on the science of acrylic wool decomposition, but I figure it's plasticy and therefore will be around for a while) I did look at the cotton yarn, but it was waaaay to expensive, so I'm going to have to have a think about eco knitting/crochet materials!

What I bought this month...

A small pink glass pig
Swirly skirt from the charity shop
Blue goldstone pendant off ebay

3 things??!! I'd say thats a bit better than before! I wouldn't have bought the piglet or the skirt if I hadn't have been taken (dragged!) round the shops when my cousin came to stay last week. Seems if I avoid the shops I avoid buying things! I have no excuse for the ebay purchase - except I wanted it and it's lovely and a bargain! yey!

Oh, I even went into the LIBRARY this month! It didn't have the book I wanted :( But at least I've actually got round to going in it now, so it's more likely I'll go again!

What I bought this Month...

2 books from the charity shop (1 was for my mum though!)
'The Art of Crochet' Magazine
A kit to make and frame casts of babies teeny hands and feets - a Christening present for my friend and her new baby to get messy with.
A new winter coat - £2.99 from the chazza, I've been looking for a new one for ages - I've had my old winter coat since I was 15!
2 gemstones - a bloodstone and a blue agate
Another book
A LAPTOP!!!!!

I felt it was going quite well until the laptop! It had to be done though really as my old one had died of brokenbatterybrokendiscdriveanddeadharddrive-disease! It was a really cheap one too and had been not-working ever since I got it, so I decided not to get it repaired and just get a better quality one this time (but I'll be researching how to recycle old laptops so it can be got rid of the in best way possible) My new one is shiny and beautiful and I love it!
The crochet magazine was wrapped in a LOT of plastic, which didn't have any markings on so it went in the bin, I shouldn't of bought it really, I know logically that there are millions of resources online to teach me to do just about anything I like, but I think seeing it advertised on TV so much and the combination of getting a magazine, DVD, two balls of wool and a hook for 99p overwhelmed me! I won't falling for that again though I hope!
Also, I STILL need to start going to the library!

What I bought this month...

A chocolate advent calendar for my mum
A lush solid shampoo bar
A TV guide magazine
A little green pottery pot - I'd seen it in the charity shop last time I was in and thought it was lovely, it was reduced to 24p this time I went, it seemed rude not to!
A book - also 20p from the charity shop (but I'll take it back to the charity shop so not to worry!)A shopping trolley - like old grannies have, to carry my food shopping home and save my arms and using the car (my old one's handle and wheel broke beyond repair and had a hole it it!)
3 more books - again from the charity shop and to be given back to the charity shop (one of these days I'll get my butt to the library and stop spending money on books!)

So, I think this is definitely better than last month. I obviously need to start going to the library because although getting books from charity shops is better than buying new, I think the whole resource sharing ideology of libraries suits my own ideas about how we should use and share 'stuff' better. Also the purchase of the granny shopping trolley worries me - I did need one, but my thought process went 'I need this, it's lovely, it's £10, I'll have it', then when I got home I started wondering where it was made and what it was made from and if I couldn't have got a more environmentally friendly one from somewhere else. Sigh. At least it will make my trips to the market more happy and arm-ache proof! And the chocolate advent calendar - the outside was recyclable, but I'm pretty sure I spotted the plastic tray in the bin, I need to think of a better alternative for next year!

What I bought this month...

This month I bought...

A beautiful food dehydrator,
A kilner jar to store my beautifully dehydrated apples,
Sew Hip magazine (quite necessary - I'm making my mum a 'stargazing mouse' doorstop for Christmas from a pattern in it)
Another kilner jar for moooore dried apples
Elf on DVD (I never buy DVDs, typical I would buy one now I'm keeping a record! I dooo actually need it though, I can't borrow it of anyone, couldn't find it to buy second hand, we have no DVD rental shop here!! and it's nearly Christmas!!)
4 books from the charity shop (they were 4 for £1 - couldn't resist, but they'll go back to the charity shop so I don't think they really count!)
A patchwork skirt from the charity shop (once I was in the charity shop looking at the books I couldn't resist - I knew there's a reason I avoid shopping!)
Some new face soap - my old one was drying my skin out.
Some bicarbonate of soda, to use for cleaning and maybe try as deodorant (although I'm going to have to research this - I know you can use baking power as deodorant and that they're similar but I'm not sure if they're the same thing!)

I'm actually quite shocked at the amount I bought this month, especially as an unemployedwithnomoney person! I feel like I never buy anything, but heres the proof, 12 things in a month! At least writing it down has made me realise and now I can do something about it and try to buy less next month.

What I bought next month...

I already buy a LOT less than I used to when my favorite weekend activity was shopping (was that really me??! now it's guitar playing and sewing stuff and reading and watching films and gardening and general faffing about), but in order to REALLY think about what I'm buying, if I REALLY need it or will be very, very, very sad without it (please note - I'm not one for making myself (or anyone else) feel guilty about buying things that are necessary or completely beautiful and unliveablewithout) and if it's an ethical choice, I'm going to start posting a list each month of what I've bought so I can keep an eye on myself. I'm not going to include food shopping or spending on food, drinks or general merriment while I'm out on adventures. It's more of a 'things' thing, I have enough things, there is no room in my room for more things, what are these things made of and where are they coming from, where will they end up!!!??!?! I refuse to buy unneccassary things!! Starting from this month, every month at the end of the month (ish) I'll be posting a picture and list of any things I've bought and shaming/analysing myself to see if I could be doing better!