Wednesday, August 16, 2017

On Being Thrifty-Five Internal Wins



I’ve got bigger goals right now than Caribou Coffee in the morning. It doesn’t mean I didn't want to pull through the drive through and order a triple shot Americana with two splashes of cream. This morning, having not bothered with coffee because I woke with an odd taste in my mouth and only wanted my tooth brush, 75 minutes later it was an internal fight to not detour to any of the five Caribou’s on my route. I drive through a chilly rain and had soaked feet as dodging puddles was useless. I settled for hot tea at my desk.

Doing a little online browsing last night, still looking at possible options for a TV stand downstairs, I kept getting swayed over to pretty storage units, baskets (I love baskets) and other things to store clutter. I resisted buying anything, knowing I don’t need more things to store clutter-I need to reduce clutter entirely. 

I ruined one of my new to me pairs of work pants and a short sleeve blouse by letting them touch something that had chlorine bleach on it. I am disappointed as these were go to work pieces worn at least weekly. My disappointment is lessened somewhat in that the pants were under $8.00 bought at Goodwill, and the shirt was at least a decade old, only recently worn again with the loss of a few pounds. I might be able to salvage the shirt with a Sharpie marker, at least as an under suit jacket blouse. I’m not going to run out and replace either, as I am still hoping to keep losing a bit of weight, and continue to make my current wardrobe work. I’ve got bigger goals than high fashion. 

I was alone for dinner last night and it would have been tempting to go over to the salad bar at the grocery store and make myself a delicious customized salad. I made due eating up a few bits found in my fridge and freezer, took pup for a walk, and watched a couple YouTube video's. 

Skipping Caribou was only part of my morning internal fight. I almost scrapped packing a lunch, with the idea of ordering the meal delivery, but in the end, left with both a can of chunky soup to throw in my desk drawer,for a future temptation, and one of DH’s frozen bean burritos, an apple, and a cheese stick for lunch today. 

I don’t think of myself as a tightwad. I splurge on plenty of things that bring me joy. I also make bone headed spending decisions on occasion, lured in with a shiny package or misguided thinking that the item will work for me and add to my quality of life, or I just plain succumb to convenience. None of the ways I utilized thrift this week created a hard ship, not so much as even a minor inconvenience. I’ll still have the occasional coffee or lunch out, not on a whim, but with friends and colleagues. I’ll replace my clothes when I truly need to, but not at this time when hopefully will only be useful for a short time. I’ll find the right piece for the TV stand, and am better off spending my time sorting and donating, not sticking away stuff in yet more bins and baskets. I’ve got to continue to remember I have bigger plans for my money; a comfortable, clutter free home; travel with my family; college for my daughter; and a secure retirement.

10 comments:

  1. Hi Sam, this is Chris from Sluggy's blog. I will be interested to see what you end up finding for a TV stand. I am looking for one also. Please be sure to let us know what you find. I am looking for a long one, at least 60 inches.

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    1. I have this silly idea that I might find an old dresser without a mirror, upcycle it into a TV stand. I have someone that can help make my idea work and there is a lot of Pinterest examples. I also has seen one about 9 months ago at an Amish store at a very good price-solid oak. I'll post once I find, but Football season is here, and I want my cozy fireplace back. It's been sitting on the hearth and we haven't used the fireplace for over two years because of it.

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  2. I found an old sideboard piece in pretty bad condition for 10 bucks. Lots of elbow grease and sanding had it in pretty decent shape, but the doors were warped and unusable so I took them off. I stained the outside and painted the interior flat black and decided to use it as a tv stand.Since he piece had pretty feet but it needed to be lower I took the legs off and cut them down to size from the top . Because I needed to store the cable box and blue ray player the doorless front works fine. I put a basket in it to hold dvd's and another to hold remotes and now the whole look appears to be intentional rather than a happy accident.

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    1. Something along that line is what I am hoping for. A friend (the family that has to redo their house because of a fire) made a kitchen island out of an old dresser-completely gorgeous an din line with her 100+ year old home. My friend V also has made upcycling skills-so hoping a weekend of girl time and the right piece, plenty of wine, we'll get it done.

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  3. Goodness, I swear we are twins. I am so much on the same wavelength - even to the point of being a basket "fiend". No we don't really need more baskets do we - we need less stuff! I am finally getting to the stage where I accept that it is ok to buy breakfast or lunch occasionally (say once every 2-3 months). Before I used to be paranoid about bringing it from home, but I have loosened up a lot. And I have to say it is enjoyable on those rare occasions to have lunch with friends isn't it. On other days - heck I have a pantry full of stuff and anyone can spare 10 minutes to throw something together. Anna

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    1. OK-so now I have to travel to your part of France and meet my international twin. I agree that the occasional meal out is more enjoyable in the long run than when it just is normal operations. Going out for lunch, when there is nothing special, is also a time waster, which is equally as precious as money.

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  4. Best de-cluttering strategy I've found is having a grown up child with two children move back in. This is the state of play with me at the moment so a massive wardrobe cull was in order to free up room to accommodate a lot of their stuff lol.

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    1. That's funny, but don't think will work in the short term in my life. I'll need to use good old fashion elbow grease and muscle-and strong resolve to finally get it all out of my house.

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  5. I've been trying to declutter the garage so we can declutter the house. Vicious cycle and it feels like that little tile game, where you slide something out of the way to slide something else back in...

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    1. That is a perfect description. Our garage had seen moderate improvement about 10 years ago, then over time, became cluttered as we moved things rather than purged things. Good luck!

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