One of the things on my list this year is to go for a month without buying anything. And there is no better time than now to start. I will still be buying food, medicine, petrol and paying all my bills. But there will be no indescriminent spending. I'm sure that for some people, this would be no big accomplishment. But for me, I am pretty nervous and determined to succeed. I have a few strategies to help me.
I have let people know what I am trying to do. It means I have a support system but also gives me a bit more accountability to keep going and not give up when things get hard. The same thing goes for putting this goal here on my blog.
I have done a lot of thinking about why my spending is so out of control, and the main reason is boredom. The more bored I am, the easier it is to simply fill the time by buying things. So I am going to keep busy with a few projects to keep myself occupied.
Whenever the urge strikes, I have a list of things I want more. So all I have to do is ask myself "Would you rather have new boots, or would you rather have no credit card debt?". When you put it like that, there is no choice really.
I have a lot of stuff. So chances are, whatever it is that I think I need, I probably already have something that I can use instead. It might just take a bit more creativity to adapt things to suit the purpose. Which isn't a bad thing either.
So there it is. In black and white.
I'll let you know how I get on.
