Saturday, January 15, 2011

Resisting Temptation

We are now 15 days into buying nothing new and I can say we are doing fairly well. This project has me thinking about how often I can use shopping as entertainment. I was near a Barnes and Noble the other day and my natural reaction walking by was, "I should stop by and see what books and dvds are new?" I then asked, "Why would I put myself through that?" It really is amazing how simply browsing can tempt you to want to buy more.

That being said, I would like to post some "wants" that I will have a hard time resisting during this project. Maybe by verbalizing it here it will get it out of my system.

New Things that I will not buy in 2011, or in other words gift ideas for Joshua in 2011.

1. A Kindle- I am a sucker for gadgets. I am currently in grad school and have found that so many of my books are now available for purchase on Kindle. However, nothing beats borrowing books from the library. Honestly, I rarely go back and reference any of my school books anyway.

2. New running shoes- This is a tough one. Later this year I will be running a half marathon for Team World Vision. I did this last year, and good running shoes seem essential to successful training and injury prevention. Used running shoes are just not an option. When it comes time to run, I will consider asking my uncle to donate shoes from his store as a donation to Team World Vision.

3. A new cell phone/iPhone- My iPhone is a great tool for my work. I use it for so many things. I currently have an iPhone 3G. I will be due for an upgrade in May. Do I NEED an upgrade?Probably not, however as the phone ages it tends to get more and more sluggish in performance.

4. Geocaching stuff- Geocaching is my main hobby. There are always temptations to buy new geocaching coins, gpsr devices, and cache containers. I must resist! I will.

This is my list so far. What do you have a tough time resisting?



7 comments:

  1. Caffeine....my world exists because of caffeine. That's the only thing I have a tough time resisting ;)

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  2. I warn you, having a Kindle would increase the temptation to buy books. (At least it has for me.)

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  3. I like your list! As you may remember, I have been considering this task (maybe starting Feb 1?). Today I was cleaning some stuff out (felt great!) and came across my hairbrush. I need a new one as my current one is falling apart. I thought to myself, if I was doing 'buy nothing new' I would have to put up with it for a whole year! What do you do about things like that? Razors? Storage containers? Man... I don't think I am ready!

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  4. Razors. Yeah that I would consider a toiletry. Storage containers? What about getting cardboard boxes at grocery store. They are not as pretty but they work. We are learning more about sacerfice through this, than anything. Thanks for your comment!

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  5. Love it! I am resisting the urge to buy new shoes. However, I just dug through a the closet and found a pair that I had forgot about that work great! I am also considering what to do at my upcoming niece's first birthday party... I have bins full of beautiful baby toys my kids no longer use. I was going to go shopping for her in those! However it makes me feel cheap or something, and I feel bad. Perhaps a cash contribution to her education savings? Thoughts? What to do about gifts?

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  6. We have not faced the issue of gifts yet. My wife saw something neat at the thrift store the other day that still had the tag on it. So maybe when you see something like that you buy it and set it aside when it is time to give gifts.

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  7. This weekend we our son have a birthday party were we needed a gift. We gave the boy cash. Maybe he won't buy more stuff and just save it for college. Probably not. :-)

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