stuff...

So, I decided last night that I am going to see how long I can go without buying any new "stuff". This means anything I don't consider a necessity, I will not buy. This leads to a value judgment on everything I purchase, however. As I wrote before, what is a "necessity" and what is not? So, here are my qualifications, which are up for debate:

1. Hygiene products-all hygiene products are OK but personal products (more hair gel for example) are not. Smelling good and not having bacteria all over me is a necessity, having amazingly good looking hair is not.
2. Work related products- Anything I need for work is a necessity (hence the use of the word “need”). This one may cause trouble, however, because some things for work make work easier, but are not (technically) necessities.
3. Household goods- This is the lease necessary of necessities and will be used sparingly to justify a purchase. I am moving out of my apartment soon, so will face another host of purchases. Most of the stuff I “need” has already been purchased though (I even have a mattress now…but a bed frame will have to wait until I am through with my experiment).
4. Food- obviously a necessity, but what about eating out? I am going to try (valiantly) to eat out as little as possible, or frequent the DFAC. Here will be my rule of thumb—if invited out, I can say yes simply to maintain usual social relations, however, I will not raise the idea myself.
5. Clothes- unless something I have run out of (such as matching socks) or uniform items (or, if for some reason I need to attend a function which requires a tuxedo) I will not be buying new clothing anytime soon.

I am contemplating starting a new blog simply to track what it is I purchase (so as to avoid cluttering this one), where you can all pressure me into following what I set out to do. The point of this isn’t so much to save money (which will, obviously, be a nice secondary effect), but more to stop buying crap I don’t need and wasting as much as I do. Anyway, we’ll see how long it lasts, so wish me luck. I give it a week…tops.