nothing new: update

I realized that after my initial nothing new post I haven't really offered any updates. It wasn't intentional, I just kept forgetting to! So only two weeks before being done with my initial period, I'm finally checking in.

Honestly the first few days were hard, but overall its been easier then I thought it would be! It was like I needed to give myself some adjustment time to allow for a mindset change. At first I would constantly find myself saying, "oh man, I would so get that..." and feeling deprived by not being "allowed" to. But pretty quickly I realized that even a day or two later, I couldn't remember what it was that I was so sad not to get. There is so much that is tempting in the short term, but my life is no worse without it. In the first few weeks I unsubscribed from every sales pitch, this just in, look what's new for summer email that came my way. It was so nice to not have all that junk in my inbox anyway!

More specifically, here are the rules I set out to keep and how I did with each: 

Food: I will obviously be buying food. But I'm going to stick to grocery store shopping. So no eating out lunches, or stopping for a little bag of snacks. I have some money on my Starbucks card, but once that is gone, its gone and I won't add more. (My one exception: my coworkers and I treat each other for our birthdays.)  I did really well at the beginning, probably through a full month, but have cheated a bit this month. I feel like of all the things to cheat with, this is the "best" because its not bringing anything new permanently into my life... but I really do want to shy away from things that create waste for one time use (so all those individual snacky things). That said, I have done so so so much better about having good food stocked at work so I'm not tempted to head out to grab a lunch. And since I have more things on hand, I'm also less likely to grab snacks on the way home since I'm fuller. So I would call this a pass more then fail, though I want to try to do even better!

Hygiene: Shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, etc. Things that keep me healthy and clean, I will buy as needed. Perfume or special scented lotions, or other nice but not necessary things, I will be skipping.  This one has been fine. During the past two months, I ran out of shampoo, body wash, and face lotion. I bought new shampoo, and eventually bought more face lotion (I tried some other stuff I had on hand, but really didn't like the results, so I did rebuy my lotion. That said, the lotion I use lasts me for almost 2 years, so I'm going to call it an investment!). I haven't replaced the body wash and don't plan to. I'm almost done with my current bottle of lotion, but I have so many other ones in my closet, it will be nice to use them and get them out of there!

Birthdays: I will try to make people gifts if I can, or if not try to treat them to an activity vs. buying them "stuff." But in the end, I will get birthday gifts as needed. May is a huge month for birthdays, so I was a little worried beforehand, but its its gone well! For Mother's Day I gifted my Mom with time helping her in her garden, which is one of her favorite things. (And Trav, for his part, treated my mom and I to pedicures... so no "stuff." Good job Trav!) For my Dad's birthday, he told me all he wanted was videos of Gwen, so we happily played around and made him a few cute ones. For a girlfriends birthday, I treated her to a birthday dinner. For a friend's daughter, tickets to the Please Touch Museum. I had already purchased a few things for Trav's birthday, back in February, so he will be getting those. But one of them is an "one in, one out" situation, which makes me feel better. I did shop off a register for a wedding we are going to this month, but overall I'm calling it a win!

Yoga: I will buy new yoga class cards as needed, but no new yoga gear. Done and done.

I'm really pleased with how this is going so far and how its making me feel. I like being conscientious and completely aware of my consuming, and its effect on our lives, our bank account, and the environment in general. So that said, I'm renewing my commitment for another 2 months. I want to see if I can get through the summer and do even better then I have so far.

Trav and I have also decided to do a yard sale, and get rid of a lot of stuff that has been cluttering our house for too long. I can not wait! So no in, plus stuff out, means we are moving in the right direction!