I recently posted a Youtube video about starting a low-buy year. And then I very quickly defied every single idea I professed and bought everything you can imagine. So there.
Why did I do it? I don’t know. Maybe partially I got swept up in moving-into-a-new-house mania in which I bought a few very legitimately needed things like a couch, a washing machine, curtains, and a shower curtain rods. But then I just continued in that way and I don’t know why.
Partially maybe it was the back swing after having denied myself a lot of things over the last year. There were some things that I bought that have been on my wishlist for over a year: a pair of Crupon’s sandals (and they are every bit a comfortable and beautiful as I imagined), and a silver turquoise turtle ring from James Avery (why did I want it? I don’t even know).
Then there were other truly random things.
A Wool& dress, a few Walmart shirts (because of a school spirit week), a skirt from Goodwill, some games for my classroom, a set of headphones for my classroom, more James Avery jewelry, some cushions for my kitchen chairs, a year’s supply of Earth Breeze laundry detergent sheets (LOVING THEM actually), a record player and about 10 records, a bigger TV, a DVD player, a stack of CDs, a blender, an egg cup and 3 books.
It’s clearly gotten obsessive and I feel like a lousy hypocrite.
I have to find perspective again. There is truly no need to be buying that many new things and it is a relatively recent development in history for this type of consumption to be considered normal.
But maybe a low-buy is not the way to label a life in which one carefully considers purchases before making them. It should be normal life. I don’t want to feel deprived and talking myself out of buying things that I want, but I also don’t want to be controlled by compulsive spending.
Lord, bring me balance.
