Busyness

One good thing about being very busy is not having a chance to buy anything...

It also means you don't get a chance to post to a blog very much.  Now that I've caught up a bit, I'm having a chance to post.

It's been a month and a half so far, and I haven't bought anything (according to the rules).  Interestingly enough, it hasn't been that hard.   Occasionally I have had to remind myself that I'm not buying anything, but, other than that, not too bad.  I've actually had thoughts that I could keep this going for quite a while, maybe longer than a year.  It is only a month and half, so, I don't want to speak too soon...

One thing I have noticed:  it actually is just as much (or more) fun buying for someone else than for yourself.  I know it's a trite saying, but I have really gotten just as much out of buying for other people as I have for buying for myself.  I probably wouldn't have noticed this had I not intentionally stopped buying for myself...

Rice and Beans

I have a friend who just had a baby.  She came back from maternity leave and announced that she was now going to work part-time.

This person has a well paying job and her husband does also.  What's interesting, is that I don't know many people who are making the choice that she is making.

I sent her a message saying how nice it would be to spend time with her new baby.  She responded by telling me that she wouldn't have been able to do it had it not been for me and my wife.

What?

A while back, my wife and I did Dave Ramsey.  We're not quite as on top of it lately, but we did everything we could to pay off our debts.  Work extra jobs, stop eating out, stop buying so much, buying a reasonable home, getting rid of credit cards, etc.  My friend asked me about all of this a few years ago and I enthusiastically told her all about it...

So, she and her husband started doing it.  Eating Rice and Beans and Beans and Rice, paying off debt, buying reasonable home, living like no one else today so they can live like no one else tomorrow.

Now, she doesn't have to work full time and can spend time with her newborn baby.  

It brings up the question:  Why are we working?  I know quite a few people who are working a lot of hours for a lot of money to buy a lot of stuff.  I think this might be missing the point.

Will Rogers said: 

“We spend money that we do not have, on things we do not need, to impress people who do not care.” 

Well Said Will...

Things are Amazing...

I've actually been gaining a little bit of perspective lately (crazy, I know), particularly around the things I own.  I'm starting to think that I one of the reasons for buying more things is the low value that I put on material things in the first place.

Now, granted, putting a lot of value in material things seems, well... shallow and material.  But that's not what I'm talking about.  I don't realize (and I don't think many people realize either) the amount of work and amazing advancements that are used to produce the things we buy or consume.

One of my favorite quotes around this subject is from the comedian Louis CK.

In my lifetime, the changes in the world have been incredible.  Now we live in an amazing, amazing, world and it's wasted on the crappiest generation of just spoiled idiots that don't care, because this what people are like now:  they've got their phone and they're like "Uh...  it won't..."  GIVE IT A SECOND!  It's going to space!  Can you give it a second to get back from space!  Is the speed of light too slow for you?!?!?!

Seriously, our cell phones go to space!   It really is amazing...   That's not the only thinig.

Our clothes are made from cotton, which took time to grow, someone to pick it, it had to be processed, then dyed, then sewn, then shipped across the country (or from another part of the world), to a store where other people had to display it and tag it with a price...  a price that is a fraction of a percent of my income.

It's pretty amazing...   Most of my clothes are from the other side of the world!  I eat food from anywhere in the world!  I can have almost any book I want on my doorstep in 24 hours!  I can talk to friends on the other side of the world anytime I want!

It's the ease and speed by which we obtain these things that I think diminishes the amazing-ness of what we actually do have.  And, I think if we recognized more of the amazing-ness of what we already have, the urge to buy and consume things we don't have might decrease.

It's the Little Things

So far, I haven't bought anything...   I know it's only been about a week, and, to be honest, it has been relatively easy.

However, I have noticed something about how I think.

I was pulling on my socks yesterday and one of them started to tear.  Immediately, I thought, 'Oh, I should just go get some new ones'.  Then I realized I wasn't buying anything, and my thoughts changed to 'I should be more careful' and 'What will I do if they do tear and how could I fix them?'.

I also momentarily thought 'Are my feet getting fatter?'.  This could be true considering how many cookies I ate over the Christmas holiday.

I thought it was interesting how my initial reaction to something breaking was immediately to go buy more.  No thoughts of trying to make it last, no thoughts of fixing, no thoughts of really anything else other than buying.  I  came across this quote, which, apparently originated during the Great Depression.

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.”

Honestly, I think that sounds crazy in the culture we live in.  But it wasn't very long ago (our grandparents) that this would have been a completely normal way of thinking.  Maybe this year will teach me to think a little more like that...