Not being able to buy anything for myself has really kept me on the straight and narrow when all my favorite stores are bombarding me with seasonal 'deals' and 'time is running out' emails. Not buying clothing means that the cute snowman printed scarf was not thrown into the basket at Fred Meyer the other day, no matter how inexpensive. Today I ordered two plain white t-shirts from Banana Republic (using a credit I'd earned) and I resisted the call of the dark teal long sleeved sweater that was screaming my name... I stuck to only ordering the two t's which are to replace my existing ones that are looking too ratty to wear to work. I'll donate the old ones (or make them into rags) when the new ones arrive.
My husband and I are even looking at ways to shrink the spending of this season even more. We are collecting ideas for non-stuff traditions to implement for future years. The first one is the 'White Envelope' that I'm planning to do this year.
http://www.giving101.org/white-envelope-project/
This year, we also limited stocking-stuff to just 5 items. It is forcing us to be more thoughtful about the things we buy and not just grab junk to fill the thing! In general we don't go crazy with spending at the holidays anyway and we never use credit so that it comes back to haunt us in January, but I think we can do better. Next year, we are thinking about ways to add experience gifts. I'd like to limit the whole holiday to 1 bought gift, 1 made gift and 1 experience gift each. I haven't proposed it to him yet, but I know he stresses himself out about gift-giving so I'm not sure if the 'made' thing will be a good thing or a bad thing in his mind. I know he'll be on board with the experience gift, for sure.
Anyway, I've been remiss about tracking my donations. According to this blog (my only record of this), I last donated on 11/28. I have since also donated the old version of my 'dog walking' shoes now that the new ones arrived. I also thew out a white tank that somehow got a huge black smuge across the front that will not wash out. It's right near the neck too, so I can't even use it for layering. Not happy about that one! That means I am covered through November and I now need to come up with 20 things to donate to be caught up until tomorrow when I will be back to report in!
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