Sunday, January 16, 2011

After Holiday Shopping..more like thinking...not shopping

The above title is basically what I did a lot of after Christmas.
While I know most stores at this point are hitting the 90% off sales - I on the other hand am not even remotely interested this year.
In the past yes I had been interested in finding things like LED lights or anything "green" when it comes to holiday decor.
But then I realized that amassing anything that I don't really need is more stupid for me! Trying to gussy it up by saying I'm looking for greener items sort of goes against what I truly believe deep down inside.

So I did a lot of thinking after the holidays were over.
And I came to a few conclusions for myself for 2011:
  1. I need to stop excusing my shopping by saying I'm buying used/green/2nd hand/etc. Its still shopping and I'm still consuming.
  2. How much money would I save avoiding doing what I was doing in #1? That's yet to be seen.
  3. Get back to my roots about green living. Living simply hasn't been an issue for us, but I've gotten pretty lazy. Time to go back to my roots and start - hanging my clothes to dry, using less electricity/water/etc and just being more mindful OF my shopping habits.

When I wrap all these things up they center around one thing and that is that I still want to consume at times.

I try to make myself feel better by looking at those around me consuming to consume things like Nice Jeans/cars/houses/etc etc, but really am I any different?

Sure I spend a lot of my money on things like sponsoring a child or helping fund clean drinking water for other countries, but it still gives me pause when I look at some of the consuming I do do. And its do do a lot of the time.

So I'm going to be more mindful and just wait when I think I need to buy. Do I need this?? <----going to be my mantra for awhile. Which is why as of today we are on a NO spending fast for 2 weeks. (minus tithe - God still gets his goods from us no matter what!) its going to suck and so far its been a little hard, but its going to be good. Time to break ourselves a little bit and try to get back to the basics.

cheers.

No comments: