Shopping Ban 2019

I finally took the plunge and made the official announcement on my social media pages, specifically Instagram and Facebook…and now here of course.  My belongings have really been weighing on me lately.  It seems like my four bedroom house with a two car garage isn’t big enough for the two people and three dogs living here and I can’t figure out why that is.  I have way too much stuff!

I’ve been thinking about reducing my spending, reducing belongings and clutter, and doing a shopping ban ever since I read Cait Flanders book The Year of Less.  I feel like this lifestyle fits into the fact that I really want to be able to start saving and investing a lot more money than I have been.  I really got a late start on planning for retirement and I feel so far behind.  I know I do not want to work for the rest of my life.

I feel like my thoughts on exactly what the shopping ban means for me are scattered and not as exact as they probably should be, but this is where I’m at right now.

This doesn’t mean I won’t still buy things. Food and other essentials are ok. Anything that breaks and is a necessity is ok.  Anything I find myself needing day after day that I can’t find a different solution for can be purchased.

Along with this I want to get rid of stuff too. My life feels overwhelmed with stuff at the moment.  I want to get rid of clothes.  I wish I could get rid of my work clothes because I don’t really like them, but I don’t like dressing up in anything so just changing the clothing wouldn’t make a difference.  I just don’t feel like me in anything other than jeans, t-shirts, and sweatshirts.  I’m a simple girl.  I think I’m going to try an experiment of putting away a lot of clothes I currently have in my wardrobe (closet and dressers) and if I don’t go for any of those other items in a year then I will get rid of them.  I gained 40 pounds in four years and in 2018 I’ve lost about 20 of those pounds so I have clothing in lots of different sizes.  This alone makes me nervous to get rid of too much right off the bat.  This is also why I have accumulated a lot of crap…because most of it doesn’t fit anymore.

I have been blessed to have been given a body and mind capable of working hard. It is so easy to change up your lifestyle with every pay raise, resulting in really no raise at all.  A raise should mean I have more money leftover at the end of the month, not less.

I’m going to keep splitting my leftover cash each month three ways: 1/3rd to savings, 1/3rd to investments, and 1/3rd towards the principal of my mortgage.  I’ve been doing this for at least a year now and I really like how it works out.  I keep thinking that one my savings account gets to a certain number (I’m not sure what that number should be) that I will again take a lump sum of $10,000 and invest it straight away in one shot.  I did this the first time I opened my Vanguard account and I really like seeing that huge jump in numbers.  It’s super scary, especially because the last time it was my first time every doing something like that.  But almost three years later I still have money (more than I put in) in the account so I must be doing something right.

As far as my crafting, that is still going to be huge in my life. I’m going to finish projects I know I have yarn for. I’m going to use up what I have before I buy more. If I’m out of sweater quantities of yarn and I’m ready to cast on I will purchase only what I need for the intended sweater/garment. I will not mindlessly buy patterns, I will wait until I’m ready to make that item. I’ve bought so many I thought I needed but now know I’ll probably never make.

I have already drafted up what the crafting world calls my Make Nine for 2019.  I have all the yarn I need to make all nine of these projects and they are going to be the main focus of my knitting in 2019.  As you can see, I should come out at the end of the year with a lot more sweaters I can wear!  I’m always cold so this is a big win for me.

The sweaters, in order from left to right and top to bottom are Pavement, Breathing Space, The Weekender, Parisian Dreams, Radiate, Antler Sweater, Exploration Station, Humulus, and The Doodler.

I want to hike and enjoy the outdoors more. I want to be present in my relationship more.

I know there are more goals I have currently, and I’m sure as I go through this process I will discover new ones too.

I’m excited, nervous, scared, confident, and calm.  I have no idea how one idea can make you feel all these things but I can assure you it can.