Totally Be

Day 21 Rearrange a room. I love rearranging rooms. Always have... I'm done with this challenge. I want to buy stuff. Stuff I know I'll buy after these 30 days anyway. It's not been a waste of time. I was more conscientious about not buying ANY things during these past 21 days. Three whole weeks. And I've learned that I already have pretty good habits and practices when it comes to using and loving what I have. But I also make money to be able to enjoy it and don't want to feel restricted from buying a book or some pencils if I feel like it's a worthwhile purchase for me. I have my partner to bounce potential purchases off of. I'm not tooo loosey goosey with my money. I got this. And the daily tasks are getting a bit...not DAILY enough. Coming up: borrow before buying, get good at gifting (barf - I'm always like, here's a homemade card and some cash), travel thoughtfully, socialize sans shopping, etc. From the sounds of it, I think I've got those ...

Tune Up Your Tech. I'm not one to rush out and get the latest gadget when it drops. I pride myself on using electronics for a long time. I think my upbringing really influenced these tendencies. So I don't have much to do within the Tune Up Your Tech theme today. One task that could definitely be done is to wrangle cords, but they mostly aren't mine so I don't feel like i have the right to make decisions about them. About a year ago, I made "tags" out of washi tape and labeld which cord goes with chich charger and now their owners are responsible. (No more fights like when a kid would unplug his brother's tablet to charge his own!) I am going to think about my tech, though, and go through my house, top to bottom, and list the devices I use and how old they are. Because I feel like bragging a little, okay? Cool.      - typewriter - 1 year      - ereader - 2 years (my son commandeers my old ereader and it's still kicking - 11 years)      - smar...

Today's theme: Groom Your Grooming. Another thing that I've done over my years of exploring and practicing minimalism. Also, I don't think I've ever spent $4,000 in a year on beauty and grooming products, like the study Ashlee Piper quotes. But, I guess, maybe? I've never counted. Since I don't have much culling to do, I figured I would list out the beauty and grooming products that I have and use right now. It's a pretty good snapshot of my routines in these areas. Beauty     - 1 brow gel     - 1 mascara     - 1 tinted lip gloss     - 7 lipstick I do use     - 5 lipstick I don't use Grooming     - bar soap     - bar shampoo     - conditioner     - deodorant     - face lotion     - body lotion     - 2 lip balm + Vaseline Gadgets     - 1 makeup brush (for the brow gel)     - razor with refillable blades     - comb     - hairbrush ...

This whole chapter about Shopping Your Stuff seemed ridiculous to me. I won't get into it because:      1) camping      2) I don't want to hate on Ashlee Piper at all      3) other people might find this practice helpful?      4) just because it wasn't for me doesn't mean it's actually ridiculous I wish it went more into the philosophy of how shopping isn't actually a good habit or hobby, how so often we are disappointed in products or how we spent our money. I don't like how it tries to make shopping into sort of a "fun game" instead of simply a task. Personally, I don't usually enjoy shopping; I often find it annoying and just a means to an end. But again, this is only 1 day's exercise (she needed to think of 30 after all) and if people do want to dig deeper, there are lots of books about minimalism and simple living to help them find a peaceful balance with shopping and things.  That's how I got to a point where I could...

I'm camping! I am unable to Care for My Clothes today. I don't think there is anything to be done, though. I do have rips in my Turkish bath towel, but it is so worn out the fabric can't handle a needle or support thread without ripping more. I love it so much though that I'm going to keep using it with the tears until I cannot physically cover or dry myself with it anymore. Same for 2 pairs of jeans I have. I'll usually patch up holes in the knees, but I have a lot of trouble when holes in the crotch develop. I think perhaps it's simply beyond my sewing ability. I'm hesitant to donate them though because I think they'll only get trashed. I've been keeping them around to wear while doing yard work. We'll see how long that lasts. Things I didn't buy today:     - <nothing>....$0 TOTAL....$354 Success!

Today's theme: Polish Your Possessions. We have a rip each in our secondhand couch and loveseat from the previous owners' cats. We've lived with them for years now. Maybe I should actually try to sew them up so they don't get worse. It won't be a beautiful job, I can tell you that, but maybe it will help them from spreading wider. I'm not going to get to it today, though, because I am going camping later. I'll keep it in mind for the rest of the 30 days. (Spoiler alert: my posts for the next few days are also going to be very short.) Things I didn't buy today:     - paperback book....$20     - coloring pencils....$13 subtotal....$33 TOTAL....$354 Success!

I really liked today's theme: Unstuff Your Space. I generally like decluttering. And this chapter was the exact push I needed to get rid of the 2 bags of donations I've had ready to go for a week or more, after piling up for months. Like, yes, why not just go drop it off today? So I went! I dropped off a pile of books at a Little Free Library in my town. I dropped off 2 bags of donations to Goodwill. And, while I was out, I finally went to the store to get the sunscreen, vitamins, and batteries we needed for the house. Things I didn't buy today:     - <nothing>....$0 TOTAL.... $321 Success!

Today's focus is on offloading ethically. That is, getting rid of possessions no longer wanted in a responsible way, to someone who will use or want it, instead of simply throwing it in the trash. In her book, Ashlee Piper goes into some statistical details about what happens to the items donated to "big-box centers", which I can only assume she means places like Goodwill and Salvation Army, and it is bleak. I struggle with this. She makes it sound easy, but I don't know... maybe it's my location? Maybe it's my lack of effort? Because I feel like I've tried to get rid of things responsibly, but I honestly can't feel responsible for what someone else does with the things they accept from me. I personally don't feel like it's easy to research, find, travel to, and package goods to each of the separate and proper places to offload each individual item I no longer want or need. I don't want to sound like (or be!) a packrat, but it makes me a bi...

Ashlee Piper's goal for me today: Slay Secondhand. But I don't really care about flexing my secondhand shopping muscles. My goal in these 30 days is to buy no thing , used or otherwise, only consumables like food and soap. When we first moved out of our parents' homes, my partner and I filled ("filled") our house with secondhand furniture. It was a necessity. But as we've lived here for over 12 years, we've slowly replaced those items with new ones. It happened organically as items wore out or broke or when we decided we needed something to fit our specific needs and tastes a little better. I don't have anything against secondhand. I do, however, think that the affordable prices and environmental benefits received from thrifting may encourage one to either over-buy or over-accumulate. We bought soooo many different types of glasses and dishware simply because they were so cheap to buy that I ended up decluttering later. And now my kids bring home thing...

Today is all about understanding upcycling. I don't have much to report today, honestly. I do have a background of upcycling, I suppose, because I was very much raised in a "make do or do without" family. Perhaps because my grandparents were immigrants on one side and poor on the other, my parents raised me to be frugally minded. I have expanded on that way of thinking as I've grown, I suppose, in that after all my dabbling in making do, I've discovered it's easier and more satisfying for me to simply do without. That's probably the minimalist in me coming out as well. So today is another easy day for me. Things I didn't buy today:     - <nothing>....$0 TOTAL....$303 Success!

Today is all about deleting on-demand drains, such as deliveries and convenience thingies. Another easy day for me. I very, very rarely get any food delivered. If I don't feel like going out to pick it up, I prepare something at home. If we don't have any food to prepare at home (sooooo rare), I got to pick it up. And of course this is life so there are some exceptions:     - when I had little kids that couldn't stay home alone for the 5-10 minutes for me to go get the food, I would SOMETIMES get delivery because not having to deal with the hassle of tagging 3 little boys along and wrangling car seats and all that was worth the extra cost for delivery     - when I'm sick The only apps I've added to my phone are for [more] communication, listening to audiobooks, and learning a language. I do not understand these struggles that are written about it in this section. I'm grateful and moving on. Today I did spend money on takeout pizza for lunch, and also more ice cr...

Today's theme is to Slash Subscriptions. I have noticed that subscriptions can be hard to keep track of. I vaguely tried to keep track of them in my diary once. It didn't work out. So this is a good, welcome exercise. Action 1: make a list 1) SERVICES             EVERY - Disney+               1 month      $10 - Netflix               1 month      $9 - Nintendo Online     1 year        $35 - karate                 1 month      $100 - iCloud             1 month      $1 - NBA League Pass     1 year       $80 - WNBA League Pass    1 year        $35 - MLS League Pass     1 year        $100 2) RESTOCKS ...

Another easy breezy day for me. Action Item 1: remove stored payments from everywhere      I assume she means places where one buys THINGS. I have never stored my payment methods in a place like that - it seemed absurd to me. I do have payments stored elsewhere like:           - automatic bill payments (nice)           - grocery subscriptions (I love my free-trade gourmet coffee, bar soaps, and eco-friendly waterless laundry detergent strips being shipped to my door exactly when my family needs them)           - places that require a saved card (like Roku, but I have this locked with a pin I would have to look up if we wanted to make a digital purchase) Action Item 2: use site blockers against tempting sites      This seems like more of a hassle for me than it'd be worth. At this point, I'm okay "window shopping" online (what a nice double entendre!) because it flexes ...

Today is all about silencing marketing and advertising. Action 1: Unsubscribe I have found and followed this advice before. It felt so good, so purposeful, the first time I went through my email and unsubscribed to marketing emails. And then, oh, another one pop up - forgot about that one. Another would sneak in. How'd that get there? And now, years later, I am just so fed up with how often I have to re-unsubscribe to the same companies. How is that happening? How do they keep "getting my permission" to email me things again? How many times do they change their email policy or frequency that inevitably floods my inbox again? It's annoying. I'm annoyed. As I said, the first few times I've done this felt great. Now it's just another onerous chore I have to deal with every time I check my email. I want a better solution to this. And honestly it doesn't seem like Ashlee Piper has any good answers for me on this. Action Item 2: Delete retailer apps that are...

Today's Action Item is to Gather Gift Cards. I was a bit daunted by this because I did NOT have a clear idea of which gift cards we had where or for how much. I have searched our house and have come up with these gift cards: - local garden store....$10 - Starbucks....$19 - DSW....$3 - Shake Shack....$25 (+ a $5 coupon) - iPlay America....$130 TOTAL....$192 Most of these were Christmas gifts for the kids or thank you gifts for my partner volunteer coaching. I will be putting the Starbucks gift card in my wallet and adding "get a latte" to my Love List. (I hope it's not too late to get an iced lavender cream oatmilk matcha latte!) And I'm pretty sure there are no more gift cards or free money lying anywhere else around the house. I had a lot of temptation today because I had to do the weekly shopping at my favorite grocery store. Yay for me because I didn't buy anything except food! Things I didn't buy today:      - Turkish towel....$11      - headphones.......

Today is all about wrangling returns. I found this to be very simple, but also very timely. I usually don't have items with tags still on or still in the packaging or returns waiting to go back. Usually when I buy something, I unwrap it and start using it immediately. I maybe do ~4 returns in a year, tops, but this week I actually had 2 things sitting around! Thing 1 - a foldable camping cot.      I bought this accordion-style folding cot at Aldi for a few reasons. 1. I thought it was noticeably lighter than my current cot 2. My current cot was temporarily used as a portable bench for a kids' soccer team so in my mind it is forever dirty and smelly despite my cleaning it 3. This certain Aldi product was only available for a limited time      I considered returning it because I didn't actually need it. Although my current cot is almost ridiculously heavy to transport, it is still useful and comfortable. It can be a little tricky to set up, but it is sturdy. ...

Today's Action is to Track Triggers. I have been doing this since the start and I only found 1 new thing I've been tempted by in the last 5 days - the rainbow metal polyhedral dice set - and I think that's pretty good. That low, low number is probably an effect of 10 years of researching and practicing minimalism. I'm not starting from scratch here so I do have some resistance muscles to work with.  But I'm not perfect either. I get in my moods where temptation is tricky. And I've done some tracking before, specifically when I tried the Low Buy Year starting in January. I had created a wish list then. I haven't added to it in a while, but I do have emails from and to myself of items I wanted to remember to buy... someday maybe. I have filled an online shopping cart just to abandon it. And I have bought a few items, after waiting more than 30 days thankyouverymuch. For the purpose of full transparency (and to fill out this blog post a little) I will gather al...

Today is about "Connecting with Community" and honestly, I just don't feel up to that today. It is Father's Day. I've had a headache on and off all day. I'm physically sore from playing tennis yesterday. I don't feel like be social in anyway. The good news is, I don't feel like shopping today either. Maybe I will tell my coworkers when I got in on Monday that I'm doing this 30-day Challenge. But I wanted to pointedly NOT tell my husband and kids. They hardly notice all the stuff I do and buy around here, i wonder if they'd notice if I stopped buying stuff. If I didn't personally buy them a lot of things, I wonder if they would ever buy it for themselves. I suppose I'm thinking of that aspect of the Challenge as a little side experiment with my family. As for joining supportive communities online or in person... I kinda just don't wanna. Maybe it's just my mood today. But I also don't want to, like radically change my social ...

Today's Action Item is to create a Need Note. This is supposed to be a list of things I foresee myself needing to procure within the next 30 days. One of the reasons I decided to jump into this challenge right away was because I didn't foresee myself needing anything I don't already have for the next month. It should be business as usual at work, end of the school year and fun hang out times for the kids, and family time playing owned games or going to parks already paid for in one way or another. We'll do an experience for my younger son's birthday. I'll give cash as any gifts. Anything needed for the house will either be a replacement (i.e. if someone's sneakers fall apart or something) or consumable (food, soap, toilet paper, etc.). This exercise really opens my eyes to how much we already have. We've been in this house for 12 years. We are outfitted and kitted out, good to go. Maybe we won't have enough to thrive in an apocalypse, but I'm fai...

Ashlee Piper's Action Item for today is to make a Love List, a list of fun and pleasurable activities to do instead of shopping. As per her suggestion, I will try to divide mine into 2 subcategories of "Quick Hits" and "Longer & Luxe". Quick Hits - the "Think fast!" equivalent of when shopping comes hurtling at my head when I'm not paying attention - walk around block - tidy a small space - cuddle my cat - dribble my basketball - Chancercise - journal - stretch - dance break! - Duolingo lesson - day of Stardew Valley - stare into space - swing on playset Longer & Luxe - slow down and enjoy being human - have a bath - play a boardgame - read a book - cook something new - listen to a whole album - take a bike ride - pull Tarot cards The only money I/we spent today was on treats at the ice cream parlor in celebration for being part of the 1st place soccer team. Things I didn't buy today:      - <nothing>....$0 TOTAL....$35 Success!

I'm doing it. I am trying my gosh-darn best to not buy any new things for 30 whole days. And I'm not just talking about it either; I've already started. In the beginning of this year I attempted a No Buy Year, but more in the vein of a Low Buy Year. I fell off that bandwagon around March or April. No Buy was too strict. Low Buy had too many rules/exceptions/tiers to keep track off. And a whole year was way too lofty of a goal on my first attempt to drastically reduce spending. Enter Ashlee Piper's book "No New Things: A Radically Simple 30-Day Guide to Saving Money, the Planet, and Your Sanity". My library had an ebook available to borrow. I started reading. I am doing the Challenge. Instead of re-hashing her journey, philosophy, and methods here, I'm only going to be blogging about my own experience. If you want to know more about her and/or her book, search it up yourself. I know you've got the internet because you're already reading this. To hel...

I’m trying a low-buy year for many reasons, but today I’m going to talk about low-buy exercise because at its simplest it really doesn’t take much to get a body moving. A little background of the exercise throughout my life. I was always enrolled in some kind of group exercise as a kid and teenager – dance instruction, sports teams, kickboxing classes, and even gym memberships started as a teen because my mother has always been into fitness. I’ve had a gym membership for the last year solely to go to Zumba classes (so much fun for me!), but I’m starting a new job and the schedules clash. And since I’m trying a low-buy year anyway, I cancelled my membership. I won’t have an exercise structure to attend, but I still need to make sure I’m exercising regularly because I KNOW I feel so much better when I do. It’s time to revisit a system that I created during the pandemic when it was hard to get out and exercise as a group with instruction. I call it CHANCErcise. (I’ll admit that word sound...