About six months ago, I decided to give The Compact a shot. I made some rules for myself and focused on buying less stuff. At first, I had lofty ideas about how much money I'd be saving and how wonderful it would be after my six-month Compact trial to be swimming in all my saved-up spending money. Well, that wasn't quite the way it happened. But it wasn't a failure, either.
At first, I was really good. Such is the case with most things we set our minds to. I didn't spend any money. At first, it was really difficult to see all the things I wanted to have and not be able to buy them. But before long, I realized that for about 98% of the stuff I want, if I wait two weeks or so, I won't even be able to remember what it was that I was so intent on having. It was a good realization.
I had a little heap of spending money saved up after a while, and I heard that my brother's girlfriend was throwing him a surprise 30th birthday party. Could I miss my brother's only surprise 30th birthday party? I think not. So I sent my hard-won cash off to Delta and our little family flew home for a very short trip (thanks, Delta, for cutting it even shorter with your unnecessary flight cancellations). Technically, this trip still followed the rules of the Compact because you are allowed to spend money on travel. I was even good about the usual Airport pitfalls and only spent a few bucks on food when we were trapped at LaGuardia for what felt like days.
For Christmas, we did buy people stuff as I ran out of time and creative juices to completely hand-make gifts. But we were pretty reasonable, I think. More thoughtful about how and where we spent our gift money than we've been in the past.
So it went after Christmas... I stayed pretty true to the Compact. I even had a week-long trip to San Francisco where I bought not one tchotchke and I spent only some money I was gifted for my birthday (on some clothes for Evelyn and an overpriced drugstore umbrella when it suddenly poured on our way to Fisherman's Wharf).
It was only a few weeks ago that I reached the limit with the meager offerings of my closet and Jonathan convinced me that it was okay and we really could go spend a little bit at Old Navy. So away we went. I got some sunglasses (my Dolce and Obama's from the DC tourist stand had a terrible run-in with Jonathan's shoe), a couple cardigans, a dress, a tank top, a shirt, and a skirt and it was something like $100. I felt like I'd been kicked in the stomach when that popped up on the register. But I consoled myself with the fact that most of the clothing in my closet had seen better days as I wore it for probably a few years before, then during, and now almost a year after pregnancy. And it wasn't the highest-quality stuff in the first place.
Anyhow, as I was saying, I haven't really saved money. I've spent my spending money as it came to me every month. But I've spent it on things like airline tickets to go home, concert tickets to give myself a night out with a friend, livingsocial deals so we can eat out at a reasonable price, yarn for crocheting gifts or hats for Evelyn, fabric for gifts or blankets... You get the idea.
Less stuff, more life.
I've also become friends with the library again. And I've found the best places to hunt for deals on second-hand clothes for Evelyn (not a problem at all anymore now though thanks to some incredibly generous family members donating hand-me-downs!). And I met with a friend yesterday who gave me a mini-lesson in couponing and bargain-hunting so I can be more mindful of how we spend our food money. (This is not the Extreme Couponing type of plan - she is a level-headed and smart woman who only uses coupons for quality stuff and food her family eats and not junk they won't or shouldn't really have. I figure, like she said, if I can get Method soap, Aveeno bodywash, toothpaste, and detergent for free and it doesn't take too much of my time - then why not?)
There are still things I'd like. Mostly house stuff like these two Ikea cabinets we've wanted for the living room, this table and bench/chair set we love from World Market, wood floors... And clothes like bras that aren't nursing bras (because that's all I have that fits even though I don't need them anymore), tanks that aren't nursing tanks, snappy clothes appropriate for work and internship next year... A second car to make the internship situation work next year... The list will probably go on forever. But there's much less little stuff on that list.
I'll keep working on mindful spending, consuming less, reusing, recycling, sharing and borrowing.
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