Living with Less, More Money (part 3)

Less stuff equals more time is harder to see than less stuff equals more money.  This should be somewhat obvious.  We aren't spending money replacing things we can't find.  Couldn't find the library book in time?  We had to pay for it.  Couldn't find the remote control?  We had to buy a new universal remote to replace it.  Or if you are like my friend that I mentioned in the more time post, can't find your wallpaper stripper, have to replace it.  While that one is a bit harder to imagine, it is a true story. 

Owning less stuff has made me much more intentional with my purchases.  Two years ago I started tossing 20 things/ week. One day I looked at my purge pile and spied something I had just  purchased two weeks prior... that couldn't be.  I looked again.  Oh yes.  A thrift store purchase for one of my kids.  A few bucks for a toy that they were already bored with.  I took it out of the pile.  I couldn't justify getting rid of something just a few weeks old.  But my kids were already done with it, I didn't want it.  And hanging onto it doesn't get my money back.  It was an unintentional purpose.   Thrift stores only save us money if we buy something we would have bought at full price.  But when we walk out of a store with a purchase that we never intended to make, we have actually spent more, not less.  My husband as a child used to buy soda bottles so that when he turned the bottles in he could get the deposit.  He was going to make a lot of money that way...  What we do as adults in thrift stores makes about that much sense.  Now when I go into a thrift store, it is for a purpose, such as a button up shirt, a backpack, a pair of jeans.  I go directly to that section, buy what I am looking for and walk out. 

Doesn't sound as fun does it?  What is it about we as human beings, women I think more so than men, we think it feels good to go shopping.  That "good feeling" we get from shopping does not last.  With the purchase I made from the thrift store, it didn't even last 2 weeks.  And if one were to take the shopping trip too far, there could be a whole lot of regret when the credit card bill arrives.  Remember that feeling next time you are tempted to make an unintentional purchase.  Call a friend for coffee, go work out, read a book, play a musical instrument, find an activity where you are being productive instead of being a consumer.  Those are the decisions without regrets.  Those are the decisions that prevent our homes from being over run by stuff and our wallets empty.