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My Year of Going Without.

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
Before I get started, let me make one thing clear: this is not for everyone. What's more, I certainly wouldn't want you to abstain from buying anything from the many companies that advertise on the site. Please, if you want or need something, by all means, click on their ads! And buy, buy, buy! It helps support TheSkiDiva.

What I want to talk about here is pretty much the antithesis of the Gear Addiction and Jacket Slut threads we've had on the site. Because now that the year is nearly half over, I thought I'd come clean: I made a resolution to not buy anything for myself in 2015.

Why? Well, two reasons: First, I just wanted to see whether or not I could do it. I have a friend who went 12 months without drinking any alcohol, and this seemed like an interesting twist on that. And second, I already have a ton of stuff. And not just ski stuff. My closet is full of shirts/sweaters/pants/shoes/you name it. I mean, how much do I really need?

I did leave myself two outs: necessities, like if I was in desperate need for underwear or socks or something like that. Also, shampoo, toiletries -- that's all okay. Oh, and I left ski boots on the table. I knew I'd need a new pair, which I did (mine were badly packed out and had over 200 days of wear). So I bought them. Believe me, for me that IS a necessity.

Reaction has been funny. My mother is aghast -- though I'm not exactly sure why -- and other people have said it's a good idea but they could never do it themselves. To be honest, I think they'd be surprised by how easy it actually is.

Have I been tempted? A bit, but I'm really not a huge shopper, and living out in the woods makes it pretty easy to not buy things. The hardest part was avoiding all the end of the season sales in the ski shops and on line.

So here we are: nearly six months down, six more to go. Will I make it? Yeah, I think so.

One more thing: By doing this, I'm not passing judgement on anyone's choices to buy whatever they like. This is just something I'm doing for me, because I'm in a place now that makes it possible, both emotionally and materially. Once the year is up, there's no telling what I'll do. :smile:
 
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Skier31

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Good for you!

A few years ago, I unsubscribed to all the auto generated emails for the Clymb, Backcountry etc. I found that when the deals are not put in front of me, I am not tempted to buy things I don't need. If I do need something, I will search for it and buy it. I spend weekdays in Denver and weekends in Snowmass. There are times when I feel I don't need a condo but just need a van with a closet. I have culled my clothing down to the clothes I wear and with the help of a consultant, have many mix and match outfits to wear for work and casual wear. I pay her to go shopping for me twice a year so that I can look professional at work without spending a lot of time in a mall overwhelmed and buying things that I will not wear.

My condo is decorated with pieces of art that I love and most of them have some story behind them. I prefer to allocate my resources towards travel and experiences as opposed to things.

I applaud you. We really don't need as many things as we think we do.
 

Jenny

Angel Diva
I was just wondering how everyone else was doing on their NY resolutions (as I was purchasing a Diet Coke the other day) - good for you doing so well!
 

lynseyf

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
While I've never officially done this, I have had quite a few periods in my life where I've had very little disposable income and then I've found it easier to have an all round blanket ban on buying "stuff" than to have to consider whether I wanted, needed and could afford each item I was tempted by.

I love new shiny things as much as anyone else but I do feel we can get sucked into buying things that we don't really need or even want all that much. I have never, ever got anywhere near as much enjoyment from a "thing" as an activity so I try to keep as much off my cash for doing things as possible.
 

gardenmary

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I'm in a no-buy zone out of necessity - this is a very scary time for me right now financially. But the upshot of it has been an increasing awareness of how much I was spending, and realizing that I couldn't necessarily pinpoint what I was spending it ON. That really hit me. It's actually been a good discipline in terms of being frugal, using what I have, etc.
 

bounceswoosh

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
When I quit my job, I was sure it would be easy to spend less money. I have proven myself wrong. @lynseyf may have a point with the blanket ban. For me, this is a lot like when I was a kid and decided to go vegetarian, and then realized in the afternoon that I'd already had Chef Boyardee meat ravioli for lunch. Spending money seems to hit me the same way ... and being home so much has made certain imperfections in the house more grating. Like, I bought a kitchen table. And we just bought some new silverware. And of course there were those Santa Anas at full MSRP ... yeah. Wendy, when some people say they could never do what you've done - I'm sure that's not literally true, but I'm equally sure that it's still a big deal. You can definitely be proud of yourself.
 

Skier31

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I put all of my financial stuff on mint.com and now have a black and white blow by blow of my spending. It has certainly raised my awareness level.
 

santacruz skier

Angel Diva
Geez, I don't think I go a month without buying SOMETHING….. Gotta hand it to you….. With all the emails and sales, I am always so tempted… Then there's the $25 gift cards from JCrew and Banana Republic….. and you know you can't find anything for $25 at either store. Not to mention the Icebreaker sales, STP sales….
@ski diva I need to abstain for awhile…. Thanks for the post.
 

merrydog

Angel Diva
Great topic.

Several years ago I had a roommate do the same thing. It was anti-consumerism challenge and she signed up to go one year without buying anything new (except for consumables like food and toothpaste, etc.) She found like minded individuals for swapping books and find necessary items at websites such as paperbackswap.com and freecycle.org. It seemed like it was a pretty easy thing for her to do.

As for me, I come from a frugal upbringing and tend to be very conservative with my buying habits anyways. Though I've relaxed a bit of my tightfistedness I still enjoy the window shopping more than the actual buying.

Good on you for doing this.
 

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
I love hearing everyone's responses. Thanks, all, for your support. Truly, I haven't felt deprived at all, and it's been kind of fun to see how far I can take it.

One of the biggest challenges has been books. I love to read, but we have a really bad local library, so in the past I've had to buy whatever I was interested in. As a solution, I've been using the library in my daughter's town. Even though it's 4 hours away, they let you take out books for four weeks, so I'm pretty safe since I usually see her once a month. And even if I don't, I can renew them online.
 
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Jenny

Angel Diva
Doesn't your local library have an inter library loan program? What about ebooks from your library (or your daughter's)? I prefer real books to reading on the Ipad but I'll take that over having nothing while I wait for the real book to come in.
 

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
Doesn't your local library have an inter library loan program? What about ebooks from your library (or your daughter's)? I prefer real books to reading on the Ipad but I'll take that over having nothing while I wait for the real book to come in.

Yes, I've been taking out ebooks, too, but libraries don't always have ebook versions available.
 
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Jenny

Angel Diva
I put all of my financial stuff on mint.com and now have a black and white blow by blow of my spending. It has certainly raised my awareness level.
@Skier31 - Mint is one of the big names I keep seeing, but I haven't ever looked at it. It's probably silly, given how much of my info is already in various institutional databases, but it makes me think twice before putting it all in one place. It links to all of your various banks and credit cards, and such, doesn't it?
 

Jenny

Angel Diva
Yes, I've been taking out ebooks, too, but libraries don't have always have ebook versions available.
Yeah, frustrating isn't it? I tend to use the ebooks when I'm waiting for something, or it's night time and the library isn't open, so I end up reading the first thing that pops up that looks interesting, even though it's not usually something I was looking for.
 

sibhusky

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
The first year after I retired, I was relying on some savings and didn't realize I was overspending. The next year I got a little hobby job, but it was retail, so I was just treading water. A couple years later, I slammed into a tree and went through money like crazy. Couldn't work. Had to rely on Christmas gifts for books and any other little toy I wanted. I was bitching about every DIME. Underwear? Beyond disintegrating, socks getting darned. The next year, broke a knee cap. More bills. Now, really couldn't work other than pick up odd and ends. Suddenly, "thank you" gift certificates were GOLD. Thought I was going to need to start taking Social Security early, which is a huge NO-NO. Owed the "house account" tens of thousands of dollars (complicated his-mine-ours accounting here). So, needless to say, the tiny pension was covering medical bills and car repairs and that was it. (Fortunately, FOOD comes out of "ours", but I owed that big time).

Then I came into some money, but the bad way, an inheritance. Was able to pay back all my debts. But I was so conditioned after ten years of tight finances, that I still look at the price of ebooks and refuse to pay over $8 for one, and have notifications set to catch price reductions (sometimes they last just a few hours) and notify me. I buy used plates off eBay if I replace a broken plate. Etc.

I bought some new underwear, though.
 

Skier31

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
@Skier31 - Mint is one of the big names I keep seeing, but I haven't ever looked at it. It's probably silly, given how much of my info is already in various institutional databases, but it makes me think twice before putting it all in one place. It links to all of your various banks and credit cards, and such, doesn't it?

Yes. You can choose what accounts to put on there. I put most stuff on a 2 different credit cards for rewards and I can make categories that I want so I can really tell how much I spend on skiing, travel etc. It is nice that you get an overview of everything.
 

geargrrl

Angel Diva
Can't you do the same thing with a good set of books? I keep a set of household books in quick books, have for about 15 years I can bring up all sorts of stuff: avg grocery bill per year/month, gas for cars, what we spend on gifts, travel and so on. The key is the discipline to track everything, and then to make use of the numbers. I spend a bit of time entering things off statement s, but it's worth it to track everything.
 

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
I want to add that I'm fortunate enough that this isn't being done out of necessity. I'm not in economic distress and I'm not ill or injured (thanks for the insight, @sibhusky); it's just something I want to do, though cutting back on expenses is definitely a big plus. Still, it's given me a better appreciation of what it's like to not have the instant gratification of buying pretty much whatever suits your fancy. I mean, do we really need five or six ski jackets? Or that fleece we see on the internet? Probably not (though it can certainly be fun!:smile:). For me, it's more of a reaction to consumerism, I think. And a move toward simplification. We could definitely all make do with less.

I love what @Skier31 said:
I prefer to allocate my resources towards travel and experiences as opposed to things.

And @lynseyf:
I do feel we can get sucked into buying things that we don't really need or even want all that much. I have never, ever got anywhere near as much enjoyment from a "thing" as an activity so I try to keep as much off my cash for doing things as possible.

Good points to keep in mind.
 

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