I’ve set myself a target this year to buy no more than 10 material possessions.
I’m not sure how easy this will be, but the plan is to make me think more about consuming physical possessions, and hopefully encourage me to repair, re-use or just make do without.
My main aim is to reduce the amount of clothes, gadgets and general ‘things’ that I buy out of impulse or because I think they’re nice.
I’m getting married this year, so it’s going to be tough, and I feel that I might give myself some leniency on the wedding outfit by counting it as 1 item, even though it may be made of more than 1 item. My reasoning is that other people will want me to look a certain way and I’m not sure that a whole kilt outfit can be made in less than 10 items!
I think there have to be some caveats, and ultimately they may change based on circumstance throughout the year, but the ones I can think of so far are:
- Medical
- Necessary transport repairs (new bike tyres if they burst etc)
- Anything strictly for work
My list so far:
- Jeans – bought in January sale before I decided to do this
- Wedding band – bought April 2014
- Kilt outfit for the wedding
I had a bit of a test already this weekend, and I’ve faired well. My motorbike battery was dead and I needed either jump leads or an extension cable to charge it. I had neither, I could easily have bought either cheaply, but made an effort not to. I managed to borrow an extension from my neighbour and this morning got the bike charged up. Hopefully the rest of the year will go in a similar vein.
