My Commitment To Not Shopping For 100 Days: The Why and How

As stated, the reason for my blog is to help me stop shopping unnecessarily and perhaps change my behaviours in how I shop and when. But I was also inspired to try to be sustainable in my living and even encourage others to do the same.




My history with shopping unnecessarily:
I guess like any behavioural fault in oneself I could blame my purchasing ‘tick’ on my mother. But let’s not go down that road. It’s me. I can’t help it. I go through a series of weeks without spending on any clothing items and then WHAMMO! I’m in a store listening to the “SPEND! SPEND! SPEND!” voice in my head. Fever pitch always hits. And I walk out of a store with that ever-bittersweet taste of bagging a bargain! Vs. I can’t afford to go out for the rest of the month and wear my fabulous clothes AND it is only 10 days into the 30 until I am next paid. What spurted the idea for this blog? Well after many discussions this year with my husband Tim, we decided that I needed to leave my job so that we could see more of each other and I could have a better quality of life. It is 10 days into my month (planned) of unemployment or “in-between jobs” time and I’ve already been shopping both online and in stores impulsively. Something had to give. And it did! Somewhat sadly (debatable) it gave me two new pairs of shoes, a new dress and tights but it also gave me the idea for this challenge and hence this blog! I don’t want you to misconstrue me though. I am not someone that can afford to not have a job. I am someone that lives pay-check to pay-check and I like many people live beyond my means. My priorities are skewed (please refer to the image of my car vs. the image of my Louboutin shoes that I bought as my wedding keep sake) but I am a good person and enjoy being giving, but I cannot always afford to do that and I can especially not always afford to keep up with buying clothes according to fashion trends. But that is also not what this is about because really, we are very lucky in that good fashion is available to everyone for mostly reasonable prices now, but I would really like to set myself and succeed in the challenge of not partaking in desirable spending to 1: see if I can really do this and maybe change the way that I shop, aka no fever pitch involvement and 2: I would really like to do this to live more sustainably and maybe encourage one other person to do the same. My Inspiration:
Actually two separate items, from two individual magazines, inspired me. At the start of each month in a magazine called Peppermint all the contributors announce to the readers how they individually want to change to have more sustainable lifestyles. Things like, swearing to have a veggie garden by next month and committing to only buying vintage or recycled clothing. I wanted to do these too but sadly I rent with my husband and even more sadly I am crap at vintage shopping. I love it. But I’m crap at it; lacking all vision required. The other article from Frankie that inspired me was about how a guy tried to give up being negative for 30 days and kept a day by day journal of the events he went to and through, and how he struggled. After reading this humorous take on how you can change your way of thinking by challenging yourself even ever so slightly, I thought: I could do that. The dooming guilt of my day’s purchase that I truly could not afford in my unemployed social status turned on the light bulb in my mind to say “Hey! What about a challenge where I can’t shop?!”. I had tried this before. The rules would need to be tough. I would need support, maybe even a sponsor-type who I could call in a crisis as I rummaged through my husbands draws to find my credit card to buy something sneakily online (true story). Like an addict, I was bound to find a way. But what if I made my quest public knowledge? What if friends, family and even strangers could shame me publicly if I crumbled? I could do this to change my behaviours in how I shopped AND contribute to the environment without embarrassingly wearing something just plain unwanted from the Vinnies and being laughed at not only by my husband but also by my fashion savvy cat, Brixton. Yes. This is what I would do. A blog. And so it began…