What things will we stop buying?
Well for starters, BOOKS, I can satisfy my book addiction by using the free downloads from The Gutenburg Project, Google Books, and the once a week freebie from Barnes and Noble. Yes, there is the library in the county but we live quite a few miles away, and I have found the cost of gas and the fines for over due books tend to keep me away.
Next on the hit list is CLOTHING, our closets are jam packed with things we never wear. We plan to shop at home when we think we need a new outfit, because with a little digging we may find that we already have something that will do just nicely.
Next up is TOOLS. We do need quite a few tools around the homestead and often in the middle of a project we find we have to run out to Wintergreen Hardware Store to buy something. Again we plan to shop at home and try to make do with items we already have in the shed or blacksmith shop. I have heard it is a quite neighborly thing to borrow and lend and we plan on doing that more in the coming year.
We spend a lot of money on MUSIC. Not only vinyl albums at garage sales and thrift stores, CD’s and downloads from the internet, but on the acquisition of new instruments and gadgets. Again we plan to do the shop at home technique and hunt though the music cabinet and drawers to find strings and other small items. In order to upgrade my mountain dulcimer or get that better sounding mandolin, I am going to have to use the money I get from selling some lesser used instruments or arrange a barter or swap.
The money we spend on POTTERY and ART, I have justified as an investment in our local art community. I am saddened to not be able to give them that support this year. Perhaps we will be spurred on to create our own works of art and thereby not support a community but join one.
FURNISHINGS will probably be the easiest things not to buy. In fact we may be selling some things as we attempt to simplify and de-clutter. We may not be true minimalists, but we could definitely learn from that life style.
GIFT'S and PRESENTS are already low on our expenditures. We look on gift giving times as a chance to share some of our products from the homestead: mushroom logs, jams, jelly and preserves, potted plants. Any do it yourself project makes the list. Another favorite and well appreciated gift are photo's or CD's made of the recipient at family events.
One large area of our spending involves our PETS. We currently have two large dogs, one cat, two laying hens and a rooster. Under no circumstance will we allow another stray to come inside our fence! I know I have said it before, but I mean it this time! No matter how cute, pitiful or supposedly temporary: I repeat we will take in no new pets!!! (PS, this does not include the creating and hatching of new chicks).
We do have the expense of feeding the pets and except for the chickens we have to take them our vet, Commonwealth Veterinary Clinic for regular check- ups. We can cut back on buying them TOYS, but they really do love their stuffed friends. The dogs love them to death though licking and fleaing and taking them apart to get rid of that nasty squeaker and all that unneeded fluff! So, they need new toys on a once or twice a year basis, but maybe I can use my mom's old sewing machine to make homemade loveys. Chris reminds me that a good source for loveys is the Goodwill Store. Stuffed toys go for about a buck a piece! We could pick up a few when we are dropping off our donations gleaned from all this closet shopping and it's direct consequence - closet cleaning.
We take this step toward a simpler, less consumer driven lifestyle with excitement and enthusiasm, tempered with just a little anxiety, that we have lived with too much for so long that like addicts, we will sabotage ourselves in little ways and resist change. That is why it is necessary that we share this journey with your our readers. A public resolution has much more power than a private one. There is strength in community. Here's to CHANGE!
