We Survived the Great January Buying Cleanse (sort of)

Remember that I said in a previous post that Tiffaney and I were going to take our 2011 resolutions one month at a time?  We chose to go on a "buying cleanse" for the entire month of January.

Tiffaney wrote about our month-long adventure below.  I have a guest blogger!  Does that make me official or what??

As it turns out the theory of not buying anything new, that isn’t considered consumable,  had more “gray lines” than I anticipated. It’s strange how you can find way to rationalize that items are “consumable.” Overall I think you’ll see that Magen certainly out performed me in her attempt to curb consumption. But, I think we both realized we often make impulse purchasing decisions with little regard to whether we truly NEED the item. I can remember a few occasions of contemplating purchases to only remember we were on our “January Quest.”  Now I can’t remember most of what I wanted to purchase…guess that proves that you don’t always need what you want. 

January’s Tally

Magen’s Purchases:

• 2 - $3 disposible tablecloths (I think these are considered consumable)
• $70 of Clinique makeup (It was bonus week, therefore a bargain in any woman’s mind!)
• $2.58 for two itunes songs
• Magen edit – Okay okay, Tiffaney, it just occurred to me that I bought Sugarland concert tickets on Jan. 29, but its not till MARCH!  Oops, my bad.

Magen's Resisted Purchases:

• Wall Calendar $15 (turns out she got one free from Economics Arkansas later)
• Norah Jones Duets CD $14
• Bathroom rugs $40
• Living room rug $100
• Birthday gifts $75 (some were improvised, and some are coming, Talyn and Jake!)
• James Dobson’s “Strong Willed Child” book (that’s another post) $8
• Magen edit - Y’all there are countless other things that I thought about buying that I can’t even remember.

Tiffaney’s Purchases:

• $8 – Mascara – We counted this as consumable (one of those gray areas)
• 2 – Birthday gifts – I went as consumable as possible, but sometimes you just have to buy a gift.
• 2 pairs of pants – Now I rationalized this one by ordering them in January, but I will not get them until Febuary…tricky. (You can chalk this one up to forgotten RedStrike chapstick  in a pocket and sent to the dryer…turns neon yellow.)
• Hangers – I completely cheated on this one. I wanted, not needed hangers and may have tricked Magen into saying they were consumable/purpose driven items. What I did not disclose is that I ordered 100 of the slim line ones. I just had it with my closet and have been thinking about it for six months so technically not an impulse purchase, but still cheating. Sorry Magen!  Magen edit – I did not say they were consumable!  I said they were NOT consumable!  :) But I did buy those tickets, so we're even.

Tiffaney's Resisted Purchases:

• BE Lip Gloss set $25
• More lavender slim line hangers J
• A board game I saw that would be good for our upcoming game night
• New Glasses

Hopefully our sacrifices have taught us a little self-control, we’re certainly going to need it for February…

no sugar month!