Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Simplicity vs Frugality

This freebie makes me wish I had a Kindle. But then again, that's more "stuff," right?

Free e-book
http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Rid-Step---step-ebook/dp/B0068EMZ5K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327412621&sr=8-1#_

The idea of having less and enjoying it more keeps bubbling up from deep within me and, for the most part, it's one that I espouse. Yesterday I was kicking around the idea of going "discretionary spending-free" for the month of February.  When I mentioned it to Jer, he said, "But if we do that, what happens when we find a grill on sale?"

Frugality dictates that we buy "on sale" and we have been waiting to get a new grill for several seasons.  (For the last two summers we have been using a grill our neighbor threw away.  It was on its last legs when he discarded it and since then we have coaxed every bit of life out of it that was left.  That grill is seriously ready for the recycling center.)  All our neighbors are on the lookout for us and the big score is liable to hit in February.  Frugality or moratorium?  That is the dilemma!

A grocery store nearby is going out of business and tomorrow everything goes on sale for half-price.  What merchandise they have left will genuinely be bargain priced.  Do we buy enough deodorant to last four years?  An extra broom?  Toothpaste for a decade?  It's a slippery slope.  If I'm going to buy it anyway, should I buy it now?  Would that make me a smart shopper or a hoarder?

Never at a loss for reading material
It's easy to get rid of stuff that doesn't matter to you.  The real trick is culling things that you value.  Since I'm the Imelda Marcos of books, maybe I should focus on our  bookshelves.  Books around here seem to multiply faster than a proud third-grader. 

The baskets full of magazines are another possible target, too.  I have no clue where they come from!  I never buy check-out counter magazines and don't subscribe either yet, somehow, the piles grow at an alarming rate.

Maybe that Kindle isn't such a bad idea after all.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I also collect books and magazines. I don't save all of them, but do have some piles I need to purge.

I have books about organizing...that is because I love to read....not organize. That being said, I read a book, years ago that gave me wonderful, simple tips for organizing. I still follow those ideas, every time I set up a new room or move into a house.

So....a book can be helpful.

Let me go see if I still have that book ;o)

Jennifer

Anonymous said...

Try, "It's All Too Much", by Peter Walsh. I never buy books, but that one I now own. It has helped with our purge.

Let me just tell you about stockpiling for the future. Current tubes of sunscreen on sale two summers ago: 5

Current bottles of shampoo on sale last year: 12

And now we're trying to get rid of most of what we own, and these things are haunting me. Too difficult to get rid of brand-new-never-been-used toiletries, and I wish I had never bought them!

-Mercedes