I signed up to Cal's pledge bank pledge to not buy anything I don't need for a month. Cal stressed that each person chooses their own definition of what they 'need' is, and what they are not allowed to buy. The pledge bank page is here.
The reasons I am doing it include: wanting to support Cal, you will see I am the first person to sign up to it, and I wanted to encourage others to do so; wanting to save money. I am terrible with money, as I have mentioned previously on this blog it slips through my fingers with alarming alacrity.
I wanted to try and not be such a consumer. I love to buy things, and I frequently don't need to buy the things I buy.
I have chosen to interpret it the following way...I am allowed to buy:
Food. Grocery shopping and lunches. Lunches at cafes with friends and Burger King if I want to. I figure if I try and make myself only eat leftovers, etc as much as I can but I'm allowed to buy lunch too then I won't make myself crazy.
Movie Tickets. Ok, so obviously no one *needs* to see movies, but I love movies, and the film festival starts this month, and there's Harry Potter coming out and yeah. I won't deprive myself of that.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Because I must know.
A bus ride once a week, only if it is raining a lot. The rest of the time I must walk.
I am not allowed to buy:
Any other books.
Clothes. I have enough clothes. I want more, I really do but I do not *need* more. It might be really really cold outside but I can wear the polar fleeces I have instead of buying more from the Ezibuy shop in different colours...and I don't need the cool new vintage tees from Jay Jays. I don't!
DVDs. Obviously this is a challenge for me. More so than clothes? Hard to say.
Toys, craft supplies, bags, magazines, stickers, notebooks. All the little things that I just can't resist. Although we get Empire delivered via subscription and that's the only mag I really read so it's a bit of a cheat really.
It's incredible just how much I am driven to purchase. I just want things a lot, new things. New shiny cool things that will make me happy.
So far, I'm doing fine. I've bought food and that's pretty much it for the month of July. So far.
More reports on this as the month progresses. Most of my laptop writing time is devoted to my novel just now, I am trying to get to 30,000 words in the next couple of days. Wish me luck yeah?
PoF: pajamas
CO: cold feet! it is cold today!
PS: next time I want to procrastinate on writing my novel I shall review the many and varied Graphic Novels I've been reading from Central library.