In January, I didn’t buy a thing, with a couple of exceptions. Okay, I guess that should be revised to say I didn’t buy a thing that fell under the wants category instead of the needs category. I bought clothes for the kids for the fall, because there was a great sale at Zara and shopping ahead and stashing the clothes away makes for good savings when you’re clothing kids.
In the first week of February, we hit up Cross Iron Mills on the way home from Canmore and though I wasn’t feeling the shopping, we got a fantastic deal at the Vans store, and I grabbed like six tank tops for under forty bucks. At the Roxy store, I grabbed a pair of pants and a sweater for twenty bucks. I much-needed some casual, wear with jeans to the park kind of clothes, for when the warmer weather arrives.
I’ve made no trips to Homesense to buy pretty (but unnecessary) things for the house, purchased no extras like shoes or handbags (because really, I don’t need them) and got out of the habit of shopping without a specific thing in mind.
Taking a month off of shopping, of browsing, and just spending a month with the fact that we donated/sold/gave to friends, half of what was in our house, has made life easier. With fewer things.
It’s also created a bit of clarity for the more expensive things, the things I’m willing to buy (like this scarf, a splurge, but I wear them daily, and they’re awesome for nursing covers and layering in the future), and maybe spend a bit more money on. Gone are the random ‘decorative’ house things that I’ve frequently changed up in the past, the seasonal stuff for the mantle, the ‘extras’ for the kids - and here are the collections to build on, the high quality cookware, adding more pieces to our Sophie Conran collection.
Getting rid of the ‘stuff and trying to live a more minimalist lifestyle has made me realize that the list of ‘stuff’, that I really use after I purchase it - is quite small.
And it leads to happy days when orders arrive in the mail by way of gift cards that you’ve been saving up for what felt like ages.
