Thirty days of nothing

A while ago I came across an article in which the author was challenged to undergo Thirty Days of Nothing, i.e. a period of thirty days in which absolutely nothing non-essential would be bought in the household. Only non-fancy food for the week (or even the day) ahead was allowed; no splurges, no discretionary spending, no drinks but water. This brought up all sorts of ponderings on simplicity and money management (on the part of the author, I mean, who thought it was a very good idea).

It was an intriguing idea, and I think it can be a good challenge for a family if the goal is experimentation and exploration. However, as a solution to out-of-control spending habits and impulse buying, it strikes me as a bit similar to yo-yo dieting: sure, it works in the short term, but it's not a plan that's realistically sustainable, and without an intrinsic change of heart and lifestyle, the bad habits and their bad effects are going to come right back.

This challenge would never work for me, or perhaps I should say it probably wouldn't be very helpful for our family, and not because I'm inclined to the whole impulse spending on non-essential items habit. Rather, I rely on purchasing non-essential items (by which I mean non-emergency items, in that I don't need them right away, but will certainly require them at some point, as opposed to frivolous junk) when the price is right, not when the need is high. By replenishing my stores of hand soap, dish detergent, tissues, tomato sauce cans, etc., when there's a great deal, I'm able to stockpile even if I didn't need them right away and insulate myself from unpleasant surprises when the common demand outruns the supply. If only I could do that with gasoline!

Perhaps a more helpful exercise for the would-be budget-conscious would be to curtail all superfluous spending for a month, and see where that leaves them. By superfluous I mean the truly non-essential items like CDs, candy, DVD players, and the like. This kind of challenge wouldn't really apply to our family since we hardly buy consumer stuff nowadays anyway. But, it is a big change from my former lifestyle when I was single, in which I bought stuff off of Amazon and E-bay whenever the whim seized me. So perhaps this challenge would have been an interesting venture back then. Nowadays my priorities are so patently different from building up a sound library and jewelry collection that I don't really need a challenge to remind me of it.

On the contrary, I'm getting more and more disenchanted with the Culture of Stuff. We have friends who are planning on leaving for the mission field within the next year, and it has been inspiring to observe how that expectation has changed their viewpoint on ownership. Pretty much everything they currently own will either need to be shipped overseas (and crammed into a far smaller apartment) at considerable expense or sold or given away within the year, so they definitely think twice before purchasing something and are certainly not in the mentality of mindless accumulation. That's such a great perspective, because in a sense we should all be aware of our temporary residency here and not set our hearts on treasures below. Not to say that we necessarily need to sell all that we have and give it to the poor; but it does help me not to get caught up in materialistic greed to view possessions as a burden requiring maintenance, and a short-term proposition, at best. And it is easier to vacuum and clean the house without so much furniture cluttering up the living space.